them and to shepherd them and to point them to Christ. And we have opportunities in children's ministry to do that. So that's my plug for the new year. Turn with me to Micah chapter 7. Micah chapter 7. And if you're able, I'm going to have you stand. I'm just going to have you stand for the first six verses. I'll read those and then as we come to the other sections, I'll read them. So this is the concluding chapter, and it is power-packed with wonderful truth for our consideration. Micah writes this lament in verses one through six. He says this, woe is me, for I am like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers. There is not a cluster of grapes to eat, or a first ripe fig which my soul desires. The Holy One has perished from the land, and there is no upright person among men. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed. Each of them hunts the other with a net. Concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince asks also the judge for a payment. And a great man speaks the craving of his soul. So they weave it together. The best of them is like a briar. The most upright like a thorn hedge. The day when you post your watchman, your punishment will come. At that time, their panic will happen. Do not believe in a neighbor. Do not have confidence in a close companion. From her who lies in your bosom, guard the openings of your mouth. For son treats father as a wicked fool. Daughter rises up against her mother. Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own household. But as for me, I will watch expectantly for Yahweh. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not be glad over me, O my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise. Though I inhabit the darkness, Yahweh is a light for me. Father, we thank you this morning for your word. It is both a sharp instrument that confronts and challenges. It is a sharp instrument that you use as a scalpel to tear away death and decay from your people. And so Lord, we do ask that your word would indeed have its way in conforming us, in shaping us into the image of your son, in taking away the sin that remains and recognizing it for what it is. And Lord, your word is also an ointment to our soul. It is truth that refreshes. It is truth that gives hope in the midst of darkness, that shines a brilliant light, a bright light, a stage light upon your character and your promises. Your character, as we will soon see, that is quick to forgive, that pardons the iniquities of sinners. Oh Lord, may may we this morning as we look to your word experience both of those things. May we experience the scalpel of your word that that cuts away at sin and decay and may we experience the balm of your word which soothes our wounds and heals. Lord, help your people to be challenged by your word and conform to your word. May we be changed as we come to see your word. By the power of your spirit, Lord, give us ears to hear. An eyes to see this morning we pray in Christ's name. Amen, you can be seated. You are likely familiar with the. Concentration camp known as Auschwitz. It's a. Actually, three camps that were operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. You may be aware that these camps were part of the Nazis' final solution to the Jewish problem, as they called it. Today, Auschwitz serves as a memorial to the Jewish genocide that happened during World War II. You can still walk through The buildings, there's a museum there and you get a real sense of the methodical and even demented crimes that were committed there. There are rooms that are full of shoes, luggage, and human hair. Other buildings feature descriptions of the perverse experiments and pictures of men, women, and even children who died there. The worst is the second camp. It's known as Auschwitz II. It's a compound of 425 acres. There are well over 300 buildings. The scale of human depravity is shocking. As you walk through the enormous compound, you can still see brick chimneys, remaining barracks, spread over the green fields. You can walk in the ruins of the gas chamber and near a field of mass graves. It is estimated that over 1.1 million people were exterminated at Auschwitz. The depth of pure evil is almost unimaginable. It's shocking. pure evil. It doesn't even seem like shocking is quite enough of a descriptor for the measure of twisted evil. It is sickening and sobering, and yet these camps currently serve as a memorial. They are a reminder to us all That sin and evil is the real human problem in this world. That the effects of sin left unchecked are devastating. The memorial stands so that we will never forget what humans are capable of. That we would never forget what happened there. and that we would never fail to lament. And beloved, it is right for believers to lament, as Micah demonstrates here. And if you don't believe that, just read Jeremiah's Lamentations. It is one series of laments after another. It is a reminder, as many historical tragedies are, that this world is not as it ought to be. It is crooked, it is bent. And while it is true that not all suffering is connected directly to a specific sin in your life, it would be a mistake to diminish the connection between the fallen state of this world and the pain that is experienced every day We know from Scripture, Romans 6.23, that the result of sinful rebellion against a holy God is death. That is the wages. The effect of our collective treason is a groaning creation. That's what we live on. Romans 8.23 tells us that the earth itself groans for redemption. And all the creatures join in that same chorus. As Christians, we should understand that beneath every pain, every painful aspect of humanity is the reality of sin. The reign of sin, every death, every war, every injustice, every loss, every hurt, even our very tears owe their existence to sin and its impact. It has affected everything. You watch the news, and you hear it, and you see it. The news seems to be one reminder after another of the devastating effect of sin. A little girl abducted from her front yard and murdered by a delivery man. Four college students in Idaho stabbed to death while they sleep. A well-known dancer and entertainer, father of three, ends his own life. We read of it every day. Every day we're bombarded with it. We sang of it, right? Do you feel the world is broken? And what did we say? We do. Do you feel the shadows deepen? We do. Do you wish that you could see it all made new? And that is the believers. response, we do and we lament this reality. We lament this reality. It's okay to do that because Micah does that very thing in this text. We look at the world through tears And that's okay, because perhaps we will see things through those tears that we would not have seen with dry eyes. C.S. Lewis said, God shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. It's true. The Lord often reveals his most precious attributes in the crucible of pain and difficulty and human suffering, even that which is caused by sin. And we see those very attributes in Micah 7. And I would gather it'd be good for the Lord's people to be reminded of these things. We live in an ever failing world and we feel it and we experience it. And Micah was experiencing that very reality. And you might be tempted, as things look dim, even to appear to be growing darker and darker by the minute, you might be tempted to say to yourself, hopeless. It's hopeless. Things are hopeless. You may be saying something of that sort this very moment. need to do what Micah does here, and that is to argue back to yourself. Sure, you may think that things are hopeless. They may appear that way. But if you know Micah's God, then you know things are not hopeless. Because Micah will say, well, that just depends. Things are hopeless depending on who you are placing your hope in. Micah rehearses what he knows to be true about God, that his hope doesn't reside in the failed attempts decade after decade of Israel. His hope resides in Yahweh, the God of Israel. And so this morning, I want us to notice three directives that Micah gives for navigating life in this Hopeless world this sin sick world three directives We see the first in the first six verses that we read and that is this to lament the spiritual devastation that sin brings lament the spiritual devastation that sin brings If you don't know what a lament is, a lament is the song that we sing while living in a world that is under the curse of sin. That is what a lament is. The Psalms are full of laments. Jeremiah laments, Job laments, Solomon laments, the prophets lament, and so does Micah here. Micah is lamenting. He is lamenting the spiritual bankruptcy of Israel because sin isn't neutral. Sin is not inconsequential. Sin doesn't just impact one person. It impacts a society. Sure, there are personal consequences. We've seen those. We've experienced those personal consequences of our own sin. But there are community consequences. There are societal consequences. Sin always harms. It always devastates. It's a lie of the enemy to think that sin only impacts you. It's like a tornado that sweeps in and destroys and levels and just leaves the wreckage behind. And Micah knows that all too well because he's experienced it in his own homeland. We need to know that this lament was likely delivered at a social gathering. Remember, while Isaiah was speaking to the elite and prophesying to the upper echelon of Israel's nation, Micah was speaking to the common person. And so it is likely that he is gathered together with the general population, the congregation of Israel, perhaps even at a festive holiday. Even at the temple at the gate of the city when he delivers this. Realize that historically, as Micah utters this lament, the Assyrian army has already ravaged Israel. He's ravaged the countryside and perhaps even outside the walls. They stand outside the walls currently. And as the people are gathered together and praying, Micah stands up and gives a congregational lament. He laments the total unraveling of the covenant community. Whoa. is me. He is placing a curse, a damnation upon himself, and he is essentially saying, Saints, we've lost it. We have totally lost it. We are Yahweh's vineyard, and we have no fruit, no grapes, no figs. We are a complete moral wasteland. This is a dark lament. It really is. And you might think to yourself, well, I mean, Micah has said a lot of dark things. But I'd argue that this is perhaps the darkest description that Micah gives. Because if you've ever doubted the moral swamp of ancient Judah, he removes those doubts completely. He puts those doubts completely to rest. Micah leaves no doubt concerning the depths of their darkness. They're void of any godliness. That's what he's saying when he's talking about the fruit pickers and the grape gatherers. He's saying, listen, I'm going into this vineyard and there's nothing there. I'm looking for something good to highlight and it's completely barren. It might even be speaking to the injustice because we know that they were supposed to leave the outskirts of their crops for the poor. Perhaps that's why he's saying, man, we have just lost it. There's nothing good. Yahweh planted his people as a vineyard to bless, to have the best of grapes and the best of figs, to bring joy to the world with its wine. We actually read of that in Isaiah 80, or Psalm 80, and Isaiah 5, and Jeremiah 2. And Isaiah actually says, Your grapes are bitter. Your grapes are bitter. There's no righteousness, there's no justice, there's no humility. Verse two, the Holy One is perished from the land, or more literally, you could say the one of loving kindness. Think about that for a moment. This kind of person is missing from the land, a person who is faithful in loyal love, someone who resembles Yahweh in his chesed, right? In his loving kindness. There's no one who is upright, all of them. Notice the language is total and complete. They wait for bloodshed, is what Micah says. You've got a bunch of canes in the land. No one who is practicing loyal love in the land, instead of walking with God, people are hunting each other in an ancient version of the Hunger Games. Each of them hunts the other with a net. It's crazy. These guys are not righteous at all. They're not community focused at all. They're after each other. Notice verse 3 concerning evil. Both hands do it well. They're ambidextrous. Anyone know how hard that is, right? Maybe someone is ambidextrous, but if you're not, it's really hard. If you're right handed to do something with your left and he says not with these guys, they do it well with both. The leaders are all corrupt. All government bureaucrats and judges and people with clout operate with sordid gain for a bribe. And they're all in it together. It's all weaved together in this kind of sinister system. Michael laments. In some ways, it might even sound like 21st century America. You know, we're not shocked anymore by government corruption, politicians getting rich in their supposed service to those who represent us, right? We're not shocked when judges and DAs and attorneys turn a blind eye to justice for kickbacks and bribes, right? It's not new in government entities, right? It was certainly happening in Israel and Judah as well. Notice what he says in verse four, if you want to know how bad is this, how bad is this? The best of them is like a briar. It's a tangled mass of thorny plants. And then he says in the most upright is like a thorn hedge. The idea there is even the finest of these thugs are going to rip you to shreds. There are no protection. They're no help. They obstruct justice. You better avoid them at all costs. The society had plunged to the very depths of depravity. They were fragmented by their appetite and self-interest. And it even gets worse. You notice it's a spiraling effect that's happening in this society. Notice what he says in verse five and six. How bad is the community? How bad is the relationships? It's so bad that you don't trust your neighbor. You don't trust your friend. You don't trust the one who's laying next to you, likely a spouse. You don't trust son, daughter, daughter-in-law, and then notice verse six, a man's enemies are the men of his own household. That is how corrupt they had become. Those people that you would think were your closest allies, they had become enemies. The nuclear family had turned against one another. It wasn't just the government. But sin had eroded every institution that the Lord had established to keep sin at bay. You do realize that's what he does, right? That's why you're born into a family, a mother and a father. That's why we're in a community that has a government. Why? To curb, to be speed bumps for sin. And even here, the covenant community of priests and prophets, we've already read, total bankruptcy, swallowed up in sin. Israel's society had degenerated to the point that no redeeming qualities are left. And sin does that. It erodes societies and families and individuals. You might remember in the story of judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, right? Abraham intercedes for the city, arguing with God not to destroy the city. If there were 10 righteous, what if I found 10? And the Lord said, yeah, I would keep them. I wouldn't bring devastation. It appears in this context, that intercession like that wouldn't have worked in Micah's time. It really is dark. And Micah laments. He cries out. And in his lament, he longs for the day when cities like Jerusalem won't be laid desolate. By the way, we do that as well, don't we? I mean, who cannot read Revelation 21 as it describes the wiping away of every tear and death being no more and mourning being no more and crying being no more? No more lament. All things new. Who doesn't hear that and long for that day? Can I just say that I think lament like nothing else awakens our souls. It's one of the ways that our heart is tuned towards God's perspective. Just like that song that we sang, is all creation groaning? It is! Is a new creation coming? It is! We lament the one and it leads us to consider the other. Is the glory of the Lord to be the light within our midst? It is. Is it good to what? Remind ourselves of this. It is. It is. And Micah does that. Micah laments, yes, things are bad. They are really bad. Sin has permeated every area, every part of society, even your own family members. But don't end there. And he doesn't end there. Lament gives way to an awakening of the soul. Notice what he says in verse 7. But as for me, I will watch expectantly for Yahweh. What is he doing there? This is Micah's but God. But God. Yes, things are bad. Remember Paul in Ephesians 2? You are dead in your sins and trespasses, but what? but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. He gave mercy. Lament like nothing else awakens the soul, and that's what we see here. In verses 7 to 10, we see another directive, not only to lament the spiritual bankruptcy that sin brings, but look to Yahweh's salvation and vindication. That is exactly what we see him doing in 7 through 10. I will. Everyone else is watching it burn, watching the city destroyed. I will watch and wait expectantly for my Lord to act, for him to intervene. This is first person singular. No one else may be doing this, but I will. By the way, Saints, that seems how it is often with believers. We're the only ones. who are clinging to this hope, we're the only ones who are leaning in to trust, to lean on Him, to look to Yahweh. And for Micah, there is a singular dependence upon the Lord, the recognition that there wasn't anyone else to depend on. He just listed in 5 and 6, there's no one else to depend on during this time. So I will trust the Lord. And by the way, isn't that what faith does, right? Faith rises in opposition. It stands against and often stands alone. That despite the ruin, despite the smoldering ashes of a godless society, despite the feelings of isolation, That you look to the Lord. You look to Yahweh. You depend upon Him. And notice this enduring expectation that he has. I will watch expectantly for Yahweh. Your version might even say, I will look eagerly. It's actually the same Hebrew root as watchman in verse 4. I will wait expectantly. It seems like Yahweh's people, the Lord's people, are always those in waiting, aren't they? We're longing for his return. Israel of old was longing for the Messiah to arrive and for the kingdom to be established. This seems to be a constant for us, watching and waiting. The psalmist talk about this. The prophets talk about this. Watching and waiting. with great expectation. I will wait for the God of my salvation. Reminds me of Simeon. After Jesus is born, do you remember? When they take him to the temple to be circumcised on the eighth day and Simeon holds that promised one and he bursts out in praise to God. I've seen God's faithfulness. He had been watching and waiting his whole life. Many in Israel had. These are faith verbs. These are faith verbs to watch expectantly, to wait. And by the way, I mean, let's just be honest with ourselves. We're not very good at waiting, are we? I've seen you guys in the lines, Starbucks. I do it too, man. I confess my sin to my brothers, you know. It annoys me when people leave like this giant gap in the drive-thru lines. There is drive-thru etiquette, people. Get close. I know you're not supposed to do that on the freeway, but get close. But we don't do well at waiting for anything. Lunch. And we're not talking about, We're not talking about waiting a day or two. We're talking about times when days became months, months became years, and years became decades, and decades became millennium. That's a long time to wait. But that's what God's people do. They look and they wait for Yahweh means That one is both desperate and expectant. We know and believe that only Yahweh can help. He's the only one that can. And He will do it in His timing. He will do it in His timing. This is what the people of God do. They depend on Him. They wait. They eagerly expect Him to act and to do and to move in His timing. And we may not see it, but we might. And so we wait. They wait for the Lord to come through. Why? Because they know He always will. He always will. That He is faithful. He always does what He says. It may not be in the way we'd like it to be, or the exact time that we would prefer Him to act, but He always does. He always does. The time often is not immediate. We must wait. It's future. And by the way, that's not a religious cop out. It's. It is that we have come to recognize that it's the Lord alone who's adequate to actually handle these things. Notice the assurance that Micah has end of verse 7. My God, this is personal. My God will hear me. He's confident that his plea will reach the ears of the Lord and he will not They will not be deaf ears either. Micah speaks of Yahweh and the God of my salvation and now my God. To Micah, God is not distant. He's not some token official national deity. He's personal. He's a personal God who comes through and delivers and saves the very kind of God one needs for living in a hostile environment in a nation that is plunging into judgment. Then just a little bit of time will be in exile. There'll be no more. Micah doesn't have a disaster response plan. He doesn't form a political caucus. All his hope, all of it rests on Yahweh and Yahweh alone. And notice what he says, the assurance that transcends these very visible threats. Verse eight, do not be glad over me, O my enemy. Don't celebrate too quickly. Don't gloat. You know, they'll be so brazen, these enemies of God, that in verse 10, you'll notice that they say, where is Yahweh your God? It's the mockers always do that. They always do that. They taunt, they mock, they jeer. It's what they do. After all, it looks like he's given up on them. The nation has been destroyed. They've been forsaken. They've been abandoned. They are washed up. And yet Micah knows Yahweh will come through. Look at his confidence. And this would make a good t-shirt or a good mug, you know, some motivational thing, right? Micah says, though I fall, I will rise. Though I inhabit the darkness. What is that darkness? Disaster, exile, confinement is the idea. And what does he say? Yahweh is a light for me. He may be here speaking of Israel corporately, but he finds his identity within Israel, so he can speak in that first-person singular, but that certainly is the promise of Israel, isn't it? If you know it, I'm not going to cast you off forever. It's going to be a time of judgment, but not forever. I will deliver. I will vindicate. And Micah is aware of this. Verses 10 and 11 is all about vindication. It's all about vindication. Then my enemy will say, and shame will cover her, who said to me, where is Yahweh your God? My eyes will look on her. At that time, she will be trampled down like mire of the streets. It'll be a day for building your walls. On that day, your boundary will be extended. God is going to come through, is the idea. God will vindicate. justice will prevail. What is right at this moment is to deal with the ugliness, the offense of Israel's sin. That's why he can say, I will bear the rage of Yahweh because I have sinned against him. There's something to be said about sitting quietly and humbly in the ashes of our guilt under the clouds of God's disfavor. There is something about that. We call it repentance. We might be lamenting our own sin, confession. There is something to that. For us to realize what sin does, what sin has done in our own lives. And perhaps we're even caught up in sin currently. And we are under the disfavor of God. We're under the discipline of the Lord, Hebrews 12, right? There is something to be said about sitting under that patiently and humbly. And even while Micah does this, he doesn't lose the assurance that Yahweh will deliver. I will bear the rage of Yahweh, but what? Until he pleads my case. Until he pleads my case and does justice for me, he will bring me out to the light and I will see his righteousness. The joy here, in this context, for Micah and for Israel, is that Yahweh's judgment is both just, right? His own confession, I have sinned against him. But it's also temporary. It's also temporary. Now, not all judgments of God are temporary, right? You read of the New Testament as it speaks to hell. That is not a temporary situation. But in this case, This discipline of the Lord was a temporary one until he pleads my case. Even in the ashes of regret, Micah has hope. This is assurance. This is confidence that Yahweh will come through. He looks to him as the nation he loves is crumbling. His life is crumbling. And while still in pain, He turns towards the Lord and his promises. There's a third directive, and we see this in verses 11 through 20. Not only are we to lament the spiritual devastation that sin brings, not only are we to look to Yahweh's salvation and vindication, but third, we're to lean on Yahweh's surpassing character. And that is what Micah does in the verses that remain. Micah looks beyond the ashes. He sees on the other side, right? So that was all current. That's what I see. I will wait expectantly for your deliverance, for you to plead my case, to plead our case. And then what does he do? He leans heavily upon The character of God. Yahweh has made some promises and he will come through. He looks to a time when Israel is not the object of judgment, but a time when Israel is the object of restoration. A time when she's not exiled, but brought near. A time when she's reestablished, where the walls are rebuilt, where the enemy is defeated. She's no longer captive or laid low. This is a time for building walls and extending boundaries, verse 11. Verses 12 and 13, a day when the nations and the enemies that tormented them, they themselves will be met with judgment and justice. You see that in verses 16 and 17 as well. These nations will be ashamed. They'll put their hand over their mouth in silence. they'll lick the dust like a serpent. And more importantly, this is a day when Yahweh himself, through the means of the promised shepherd king in chapter five, the one that we read about, who's born in Bethlehem, look at verse 14, shepherd your people with your scepter. This is a shepherd, it's not just holding a a crook. He's not just holding a shepherd's staff. He's holding a scepter. That's what a king holds. This is the shepherd king. This is the one that's promised in Ezekiel and Isaiah and Jeremiah. This is the one who would shepherd God's people. This is a time of blessing and fruitfulness. This is a regathering of Israel that really is on par with the great deliverance out of Egypt. Look at what he says in verse 15. As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show you wondrous deeds. This is talking about that restoration, that regathering that's going to take place that has not happened yet. Those were not the glory days of Israel. This will be the glory days of Israel. There's unparalleled peace and security and growth and expansion. There'll be a king on the Davidic throne like no other. There'll be national success like no other. Fruitfulness and security like no other. Micah is essentially saying, listen, I know it looks bad. And it is. It's really bad. But it won't always be like this. It will not always be like this. Why? Because Yahweh will be faithful to keep his promises. He will come through. He will deliver. We've seen these promises of a restored Israel, national blessing. Micah has spoken of them throughout the book, so I don't want to spend the bulk of my time here. I want you to note the reason Micah has such confidence in these promises, because here's the reality. Promises are made, but these guys are losers. These guys are failures. They don't keep the law. They don't abide by the law. They trip up every chance they are given. So you've made these promises to a bunch of people who cannot get it together. They can't, and they don't. So how can you have any confidence when you have these promises that are made to these people who just can't seem to get it together? And that is why Micah ends on this note. That is why that Micah says, listen, here's how we can have confidence. Here's how we can lean on the Lord and wait expectantly. Why? Because of his character. Look at verses 18 through 20. Who is a God like you who forgives iniquity and passes over transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? He does not hold fast to his anger forever. Because he delights in loving kindness. He will again have compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities. And you will cast all their sins into the very depths of the sea. And you will give truth to Jacob and loving kindness to Abraham, which you swore to our fathers from the days of old. Micah knows the character of God. There is nothing like him. If these were promises made by a man to other men, that man would give them up. That man would wash his hands of them. That man would say, never mind, deal over, game over. But that's not the character of Yahweh. That's not the character of the one who made these promises. Micah knows the promises that God made to Abraham and David. And he knows the spiritual wasteland and the sinfulness of Israel. But it is this matchless, incomparable character of God that anchors Micah in a time of distress. You know, while the mockers in verse 10 are chiding away, where is your God? Micah is leaning on the Lord saying, who is a God like ours? Who is a God like ours? And so, in what ways does Yahweh excel or surpass or outshine or outdo all others? Why does Micah ask this question? Who is a God like ours? And by the way, it's a rhetorical question. The answer is there is no one. How? How is there no one like him? Well, because of his character, verse 18, who forgives iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance. So here's an area where he excels all others, in forgiveness, in forgiveness. And beloved, if you stand here this morning in Christ, you've experienced that. You've experienced Yahweh in that. If you stand here, there's not a one of us that stands here righteous. There's not a one of us that can stand here and say, well, I'm better than the Israelites were. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God in multiple ways, over multiple intervals of time. And so if you're here this morning and you would say, I am in Christ. I have repented of my sin. I've turned to him. Then you know this. You know this. You've experienced it. Who forgives iniquity and passes over transgression like him? There is no one. He outshines everyone and everything in pardoning grace. Even the president who's able, or a governor, sorry, a governor, well, the president can do it at times too, who's able to exercise a pardon to get someone out of jail, to give a pardon. Those are nothing, those are nothing compared to the pardon that Yahweh gives, the pardon of our iniquity. Notice the terminology that he uses for sin here. It's helpful because the Bible uses multiple words to paint a portrait of what sin really is. Because you might think to yourself, you know what? I'm not that bad. I trip up here and there, curse word here, lie there, and I'm not that bad. The Bible uses various words so that you see the multifaceted dimensions of sin and how ugly it is. It's far more sinister than just messing up or even just missing the target, which is what sin generally means. You miss the mark. You miss the standard, right? And that is true. But notice what he says here. He uses the word iniquity. You know, the root of that word means bent or twisted. It gives the idea of something that's distorted, perverse, a wrong deed that comes from a twisted nature. And he uses the word transgression. Transgression, it carries the idea of rebellion or revolt. that usually implies a willful violation. You may be tempted to think lying like white lies is no big deal. Scripture doesn't paint that picture. It does not paint that picture. This is a willful violation of the command of God. You are transgressing his law. You are an anarchist when it comes to that law. You are a rebel. And it's really helpful that these words help us to see just how odious our sin is. It is a deformity. It is a twisting, a corruption. It is mutiny. One that looks and sees the law posted in black and white and instead says, I'm not doing that. That is rebellion, friends. And it's in all of our hearts in varying degrees. And what should be done to that treasonous lawbreaker, that mutinous rebel? Well, he should be executed. He should be crushed, annihilated. And yet, that is not what we read. This God forgives iniquity. Some versions may even say he pardons. It's the word where we get forgives. It means to lift up or to carry. It's actually the same verb that's used in the Day of Atonement, in that ritual in Leviticus 16, where Aaron, the high priest, is to press his hands, both hands, down on the head of that goat and confess all the iniquities of Israel, all their rebellion. to come over and place his hands, almost like it's being transferred over to that goat. And then the man leads the goat into the wilderness. And the idea there and what's said is that the goat shall carry upon it all their iniquities. He will carry upon it all their iniquities. The burden of guilt is transferred to another. It's the concept of substitution, right? The same idea behind the ones that are sacrificed, a substitute, one who is given on behalf, and the image is that he carries it all away. He carries it all away. In Exodus 34, Yahweh declares that he's a God who carries away iniquity. This isn't new to Micah. That's the very nature of God, to pardon, to lift up the burden of sin, and to carry it away. And beloved, it's no coincidence that the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, who we would conclude is the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Do you remember what it says? Surely our griefs, he himself, what? bore, same root, carried away. He carried them away. The suffering servant carried them. He lifted them. And the New Testament scriptures, of course, bring color and greater detail to the way in which Yahweh would ensure that the sins of his people would indeed be carried away, lifted up by his sinless son. on the cross carrying the weight of debt and punishment that those sins deserved. So if you have this idea in your head that God, that Yahweh is so kind, he just brushes under the rug our sins, that is not the biblical picture. That is not the biblical picture. He crushes his son. He executes His Son. He pours out His judgment and wrath that is due to us upon the Son. And the Son carries it. He bears it and He lifts it away. He lifts it away. So this is why, if you read in Romans, you wonder to yourself, how in the world could God be just just to pass over our sins? Just to brush them? Well, because he doesn't brush them under the rug. He deals with them. He carries them. That pardon was not free. That pardon came at the expense of his son. Why do you think all these church folk are so crazy about Jesus? Because he's everything. He's everything. He's carried my sin away. He has bore the wrath of God in my place. I deserve that, and I'm not receiving it. Why? Because God's very nature is one to pardon iniquity, to carry it upon himself. And if this weren't enough, Micah employs another image. He passes over rebellion. Maybe he might be willing to overlook mishaps, we think, or slight errors, but what about rebellion? It's like saying a government that passes over someone who commits treason. That's incomparable forgiveness. No one does that except one. And so he says Yahweh excels in forgiveness. And let me point out one other very practical part of this passage. Whose iniquity and transgression is carried up and passed over by Yahweh? It isn't just anyone. Notice what he says. Passes over the transgression of what? The remnant of his inheritance. This is restrictive. This is not just a general, hey, you're a Jew, you get this. This is the remnant of Israel. Now who are the remnant? Those who entrusted themselves to the Lord. Those who saw their sin. and entrusted themselves to Yahweh who would pardon their sin, who would come through for them, who would be faithful, who placed their confidence in Him. And so this is intensely practical because here's the question of the hour. Have you done that? He's not passing over your sin or pardoning your iniquity, forgiving your iniquity simply because you exist. He's pardoning your sin. is passing over your rebellion because you've placed your trust like Micah has and like the remnant of Israel who even when they were in exile were singing the songs of deliverance, hoping in the Lord who would come through, believing, like Simeon who trusted the Lord and held Christ in his hands. So the question is, have you done that? Have you come to see the gravity and the guilt of your own sin that you, you yourself, deserve God's judgment? And have you come to see that the Shepherd King, who is born in Bethlehem, the promised Messiah has come, and he has carried your sin in his body, he has bore the penalty for your sin, so that the Father could justly pass over you, pass over your transgression, your rebellion, Have you trusted that? You need to. If you've not done that, I would implore you to do that this very moment. Turn from your sin and place your confidence in the Son who is the provision. He is the means of God pardoning iniquity and passing over rebellion. He outshines. He outshines in forgiveness. Second, he excels He excels in loyal love. He does not hold fast his anger forever. This is loyalty, right? This is loyalty. Why doesn't he hold on to his anger forever with Israel? They certainly deserve it. No, the Lord has made a promise. He has set his love and affection on him. And we have the answer in the very next line. Why does he not hold fast to his anger forever? Why? For or because he delights in loving kindness. You might be tempted to walk away from the book of Micah thinking, wow, God is intense when it comes to judgment. He is more intense when it comes to loving kindness. It is true, he takes sin very seriously and his holiness demands that he justly deal with it. But Micah doesn't leave us there. He says that God delights in loving kindness. Ezekiel tells us that the very character of Yahweh, even in judgment, is not sadistic. It is not cruel or even pleasurable. In Ezekiel 33, 11, Yahweh says, I take no pleasure or delight in the death of the wicked. So if you have this image in God's justice of this angry, fiery, red heat blowing out of his nostrils, because he's hit the roof like you do, right? When you're angry, when the guy cuts you off, or your kid does something, that's not the same wrath. Yours is full of sin. Yours is messed up, even your righteous anger. He's nothing like that. He's not up there sinisterly, just kind of like, ha ha ha, judgment. No, he does not delight in the death of the wicked. He delights that people would turn to him in repentance and faith, that they would know him as the God who pardons iniquity. He finds no pleasure in punishment, no pleasure. He loves his people and he will not fail them. He is the faithful husband who pursues his adulterous wife and delights to show her compassion and forgiveness and pass over her sins that he himself has carried and lifted up. Think of that for a moment. If you've ever read Hosea, you know this to be true. This is the very image that's given to Israel. The Lord looks at Israel and says, I can't give you up. How could I give you up? That's loyal love. And we even see it in verse 20, right? You will give truth to Jacob and loving kindness to Abraham. You promised it of old, you won't fail, which you swore to our fathers from the days of old. Yahweh is essentially saying this, I made a vow. I made a vow to have and to hold from this day forward for better or for worse, and it's really bad, really bad. But Yahweh says, I will keep it. I will keep it. I have given my word, and I will not fail to keep my word. And the majesty, really, truly, the reason this excels, right, the majesty of this vow is that unlike earthly marriage that ends when the partner dies, this vow doesn't, it doesn't even depart at death. Yahweh, once Yahweh promises to be your God, he can never cease being so. And so no condition, not even death itself, can sever that loving kindness that he has towards his people. That's what Chesed is. That is loving kindness, his loyalty, his vow. Only a God could love. to such a degree, to such a measure. I mean, have you ever seen or experienced anything like him? Micah wants to leave us staggered at the majesty of Yahweh's character. Third, he excels in compassion. Look at 19, he will again have compassion on us. Again, if your vision of the Lord is one where He is always angry, kicking stuff around and fuming out of His ears or nose, listen, that's not the image that Scripture gives. God pities the rebel. You know, that term is actually quite feminine. It's often used in reference to a mother who loves her child, and even when that child has brought her to the edge of madness, her instinct is still To care for that child, she still yearns to nurture that child and love that child, even though that little child is a viper. There is a tenderness, a cherishing, a soothing desire to care for that child. I mean, do you have that image of God in your mind? He's a gentle parent who loves his children. And last but not least, and perhaps the greatest of all, Verse 19, he excels in conquering sin. What great hope for us. What great hope for Israel who could not get the job done. Here it is, black and white, obey it. And what did they do? They failed at every corner. Sure, they got it right a couple of times, but they failed at every corner. Beloved, you should marvel at this phrase in 19. He will subdue our iniquities. He will subdue our iniquities in one fellow swoop. You have this gentle, soothing image in his compassion, soothing, gentle, and then you see his mighty power. He will subdue our sin. He will bring it to subjection. He conquers it. He masters it. What a picture. There's not only a pardon to our sin, but a punch in that pardon that sets us free. It's like that old hymn, he breaks the power of canceled sin. Micah is really edging us towards Romans 6. Sin is no longer master over us. We've been crucified with Christ and therefore we've been crucified. Our old man has been crucified. It's dead and we've been raised with Christ. So we are new. Sin is subdued. Sin loses its mastery over us. This is the New Testament hope here, even in the Old Testament. He will subdue our sin. He will subdue our iniquities. Bless the needed antidote to that Christian despair which thinks there's no hope of changing some habit or ceasing from some practice of sin, reversing some pattern of response. That's not true. That's not true for those who are in Christ. That's not true of those who are the Lord's. Yahweh will subdue our iniquity. And of course, we know that in an ultimate sense, that in the state of being in glory, sin will be done away with, and that's great joy for that. But even now, friends, even now, we are new if we are in Christ. He has subdued sin, its impact in our life. He has broken its pattern, it's broken its power, walk in freedom. We're no longer slaves to sin, that's what Paul says. In other words, there is a little taste of what will be complete in heaven. We have that now. This very moment, sin is subdued. Sin is in check. Sin is subjected. Yahweh has conquered it, like Yahweh conquers all of his enemies and foes. And then notice this striking image. You know it, I'm sure. And you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. There's some people here, I'm sure, who need to be reminded of that. All of it, friends, not some of it, not most of it, not a few of them, all, all of it, the whole tonnage, and I'm sure there's several tons, just in our own lives, all those repeated offenses, all those sins in massive number, Yahweh will heave into the depths of the sea. He will give your sins the Egyptian treatment, right? Micah's language actually conjures up what we read in Exodus 15, that once those Egyptians went down under, when the water came back, right? They were never seen again. They were wiped out. If Yahweh does that with his people's sins, then your sin, if you are in Christ, you need to make sure that your guilt doesn't haunt you. Not forever. Again, it's fine to lament for a season, but not stay there. Lean heavily upon Yahweh's surpassing character. He heaves your sins into the depths of the sea. And I've seen a meme about this, and he posts a no fishing sign. Leave it alone. He's taking care of it. Don't go fishing in the ocean of God's forgiveness. Just don't do it. They're no more. What a sweeping picture of forgiveness. Who is like Yahweh? No one. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the great hope that we find in Your character, wow, there really is none like you. Lord, we give you thanks. We give you thanks for your pardoning, your forgiving of our iniquity, your passing over of our rebellion, your compassion that you've displayed, your conquering of our sin, and your casting it into the depths of the sea. Oh, may your people walk in light of that. And Lord, if there would be someone here even this morning who does not know your compassion, does not know. Your. Pardoning grace, your loving kindness, Lord, may they experience that even this morning. May they know it. May they turn away from. The judgment and the wrath that is due them and turn to Christ, the one who bore and carried away their sin. May they do that even this moment, we pray, in Christ's name.