I'm going to read a section from Micah, Micah 6, verses 6 through 8, that focuses on our responsibilities on the law, but we're going to be seeing as I preach through this, it is smack dab in the heart of the gospel. Micah 6, 6 through 8. With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? Amen. Father, we thank You for Your Word. Every verse, every word of Your Scripture was given by inspiration for our edification. And I pray that we would indeed be encouraged, built up, and press even deeper into that upward calling that we have in Christ Jesus. We bless You. We continue to worship You during this time of preaching. In Jesus' name, amen. When Kevin Peacock was in high school, his physics teacher gave him a fake final exam, gave it to the whole class. And when they opened it up, the one had one question on it, describe the universe and give two examples. And he must have been somewhat amused by the bewildered looks on his students. They were just dumbfounded. How in the world are we going to describe the universe and give two examples of that universe? Either side of that question seemed impossible. And then after a little couple of minutes, he gave them the real exam. But in Micah, we have an equally difficult question that God poses, but it's actually a legitimate question, a very realistic question. It's in chapter 7, verse 8. The question is, who is a God like you? God can't be compared to anyone else or to anything else. He is incomparable. And that is why this book chastises the citizens of Israel and Judah for the many different ways in which they compared God to man and to man's puny, measly aspirations. Rather than standing in awe of God's infinite attributes, They had turned God into a small G God who would serve as their mascot and as their servant. Oh yes, they bowed before God. But the reality was God was there to serve their needs, their whims, their purposes. Over and over, Micah presses home the fact that there is no substitute for the sovereign God of the Bible. And even Micah's name declares that fact. Micah is the shortened form of Micaiah. which means who is like Yehovah. My is who, Ka is like, Yah is the shortened form of Yehovah. And throughout this book, Micah presents God as a God who is matchless and incomparable, and when you are confronted face-to-face with God, you are left almost dead. He is a God who leaves you breathless, standing in awe of His sovereign majesty, and He gains glory when we acknowledge His greatness, and He gains glory when we acknowledge our weakness. We have a tendency to do the exact opposite, to think, oh, people won't accept us if I acknowledge my weakness. No, God gains glory when we acknowledge our weakness. He gains glory when He brought a universe out of nothing. Okay? He brings victory out of defeat. He brings strength out of weakness. He is a God that does not allow the creation to take credit for His acts. But if God is sovereign, and that is a central theme of Micah, then that logically means that humans are responsible to serve him and to have their lives count for him. And he does not leave it just as an abstract thought. He gives all kinds of detailed ways in which their relationships with other humans violated this principle. Throughout this book, you see justice and mercy are constant themes that come forward. I read a central passage about that. I'm actually not going to preach on that. I've put the cover of a book on the back page of your outline, I think, by George Grant, that does this masterfully well. So well, I feel justified in leaving that aside. But it is an important theme. His book is The Micah Mandate. Now, if God is sovereign, then that means that nothing in life is meaningless, and all of history has a purpose. Part of this book is describing how every moment of history is irresistibly heading toward the final day when everything wraps together and we begin to see there was nothing, absolutely nothing that happens in history outside of God's purpose. And you can see that even in the outline of the book, which is in the form of a chiasm. I think you guys are beginning to realize chiastic literature is pretty common in the Hebrew Bible. And just to remind you, a chiasm is a literary format where you look at your themes as an A, B, C, D, C, B, A kind of a structure, and there's parallels between those A's and those B's. Now the heart of the book, if you look at that outline, is chapters 4 through 5, and those chapters are a genius description of God's purpose for planet Earth being to govern history in such a way where God alone gets the glory. He gets glory through judgment, He gets glory through salvation of nations, so it's no big deal to God during times when there is darkness and apostasy. He gets glory through their judgment. And it's just a matter of timing. And the apostasy and the worldwide darkness of Micah's day was simply a prelude to God establishing Christ in order to bring beauty out of ashes. bringing victory out of defeat, strength out of weakness, bringing the light of Christianity out of the darkness of paganism, bringing the fullness of nations out of the remnant of the nations. And this way, he alone gets the glory. And even the king of this kingdom is presented two times as coming into this world as an unrecognized person, a king born in obscurity in the little town of Bethlehem, rather than being a recognized king born into royalty in Jerusalem. It's just the way God works. And because Micah is writing to encourage the remnant of believers in his day that all was not lost, even though to them it seemed like all was lost, he uses the heart of the heart of the book. That's the center of that central chiasm there. to take their eyes off of their weakness and to put it on to the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by looking to Jesus that we can begin to believe God for great things and begin to attempt great things for God. So if you look, take a look at the first chart of the book as a whole. I want to give you a bird's eye view of how Micah develops this very encouraging theme. First of all, before Micah can give the good news. He has to give the bad news of sin and judgment. You know, this is the Ray Comfort method. He must have talked to Ray Comfort or something. This is the way that the prophets always did it. People think, why don't you give good news right away? No. Until people recognize that they've got a need, There's no point in giving them the solution, right? And so he paints a very dark picture in the first couple chapters of the incredible need that was in both the northern kingdom of Israel as well as the southern kingdom. And God says, you guys think things are pretty bad. No, you don't have a clue. Things are way worse than you can even imagine. So in verse 2, this is chapter 1 verse 2, Micah says, When I get a letter from the IRS, my pulse quickens because I'm thinking, oh boy, they want more money or something was not filled out right. When you get a summons to court, you probably get exactly the same kind of a feeling. But Micah said that this is not simply a summons to a court appearance. They have already been judged as guilty, and the dark storm clouds of judgment are right now looming over their heads. Verse 3. For behold, the Lord is coming out of his palace. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel." What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? That's the capital of the northern kingdom. And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? That was the capital of the southern kingdom. Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, places for planting a vineyard. I will pour down her stones into the valley and I will uncover her foundations." And he goes on to document the basis for this imminent judgment by Assyria against the northern kingdom and by Babylon against the southern kingdom. Anyway, that's the bad news. And since the book is constructed like a chiasm, you will see either synonymous parallelism or contrasting parallelism between the first and the second halves of the book. A lot of people read these prophets and they're just mystified. It's because they're not reading it through the lens of the right order. It all fits just tightly and beautifully together. And I hope you see that by the end of this. by the end of this sermon. Anyway, in this case, point A, most of these are going to be synonymous parallelisms, but the first one is contrasting. First A section gives the basis for the future judgments by Assyria and Babylon. The second A section gives the basis for reversing the judgment after the exile. And I love the note of hope in the midst of judgment at the end of second section A, where God says in chapter 7, this is 7, 18 through 20, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from days of old. So if you're discouraged over your sanctification, I would encourage you to meditate on Micah 7, 18 through 20. That is a scripture that has brought a great deal of comfort to me because it describes God as a God of patience and love and mercy, compassion, forgiveness, covenant faithfulness to His promises. He doesn't just grudgingly give mercy. He delights in giving mercy. He casts our sins into the depths of the ocean where they will never again be found. You know, you drop a penny into the ocean, it's not going to be found, right? That's the image that he gives. And he not only promises to forgive our sins, but he says that he will subdue our iniquities. In other words, he can give us victory over our besetting sins. So both of those judgment sections also give hope to the nations of Israel and Judah. Now, that's the A sections. The two B sections each describe the corruption of the nations of Israel and Judah. And by the time you've read each of those sections, yeah, you're convinced they deserve to be toasted. All covenant lawsuits document the evil that is being judged. And yet, what I find interesting is that even those two sections also end with messages of hope. It's just really cool the way he constructs this the hope is God is going to judge the nations that he's using to judge Israel and Judah and God is going to preserve a remnant as they're scattered through these nations and turn them into a faithful remnant and I especially like the way Chapter 7 8 through 13 is worded. This is the second B section chapter 7 8 through 13 what he's doing here is blending together hope and and restoration with admissions, they got what they deserved. Do not rejoice over me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light. I will see His righteousness. Then she who is my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, Where is the Lord your God? My eyes will see her. Now she will be trampled down like mud in the streets. In the day when your walls are to be built, in that day the decree shall go far and wide. In that day they shall come to you from Assyria and the fortified cities, from the fortress to the river, from sea to sea and mountain to mountain, yet the land shall be desolate because of those who dwell in it and for the fruit of their deeds. Now you may wonder how I know where each section ends. It's actually pretty easy in the Hebrew. The end of paragraphs and the end of, well, they have two special signs. One's a major break, another is a minor break. And then beyond those obvious clues, there are also textual clues and clear thematic clues. I wish all translations would just follow the punctuation of the Hebrew. I think we'd be much better off if they would do that. Now, you might think that the B sections and the C sections in your outline are identical. They are not, not at all. The B sections deal with the nation as a whole. and there will be national restoration. So there's hope for the nation. There's no hope in the C-sections. C-sections deal with the corrupt leaders who led those nations astray, and there is no mercy for them whatsoever. The false rulers, priests, and prophets are absolutely blasted. In chapter 3, verse 12, he tells them, therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed like a field. Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the temple like the bare hills of the forest. Leaders always have worse judgment than non-leaders. Why? Because they're more accountable to God. This is one of the reasons why James tells us, let not many of you become teachers, my brethren. for we shall receive a stricter judgment." Okay, so there's this tendency in modern anarchism to think everybody could be a teacher, you know, it's not a big deal. No, James is quite clear. There is going to be much stricter judgment upon teachers because the things that come out of our lips, if they are false, we're going to be held accountable to God by them. Well, the same is true here. These leaders are held accountable. Now, what I want to do, so I gave you the kind of basic outline of the book. I want to focus the rest of my time looking at the heart of this chiasm, which is chapters 4 through 5. You can see from the outline that these two chapters are also constructed like a chiasm within a chiasm. You could actually push it all the way out into one gigantic chiasm, but the first A section shows the total shalom that will occur under Messiah, and the second A section shows that no enemy will be left. It's just a marvelous, marvelous statement that all enemies are going to be put under the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you ever want an encouragement of where this world is headed toward, read that first A section. It's chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it." Now this is talking about peoples, various nations coming into the church. Verse 2, many nations shall come and say, come. Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." I want you to notice, it's not just grace that comes out of the church. The law of God comes out of the church, and the church is not living according to its God-ordained purpose if it does not preach the law of God, okay? Very, very important section here. So there is coming a time, according to verse 2, when nations as nations will learn God's laws and will walk in God's paths. This is the goal of the Great Commission, making Christian nations to obey everything that the Bible says. God guarantees in these verses that the Great Commission will be a success. Now, it doesn't happen all at once. Everybody wants all at once-ness, you know, a lot of people's theology. No, repeated judgments of nations must occur, verse 3. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off. And that they is referring to the very nations being rebuked. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. So obviously the rebukes that Christ brings to the nations will work. They listen, they turn away from their war. And I want you to notice the absolute statement anymore. It says, neither shall they learn war anymore. That means that there will be no final apostasy on planet Earth as the amillennialists and the premillennialists and many postmillennialists nowadays holds to. In my series on Revelation, I showed how Revelation 20 does not describe a new Gog and Magog that is coming together. It's exactly the same Gog and Magog that were completely 100% annihilated and sent to hell in the time of the minor prophets and Esther. And so Revelation 20 is describing those very nations that were in hell being resurrected onto the earth and in their resurrection bodies they will make a last hurrah but unsuccessful attempt to start a war. But God will not let it happen. He will destroy them before that can happen. But these verses speak of a literal, worldwide, non-stop peace that the gospel will eventually usher all nations into. It's an absolute statement. Neither shall they learn war anymore. That's the very nations that were rebuked by Christ. This whole section, I think, needs to inform our eschatology. Verse 4, but everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree and no one shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. Okay, these are symbols of wealth and shalom. There is outward shalom, and there is inward shalom. This is not a fake victory of Christ's kingdom. Christ's kingdom will reign in such a way that it will pervade everything outside of us, everything inside of us. And it's not mere wishful thinking, but is instead the guarantee of a God who cannot lie, and you can see that from the last statement for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. If God speaks, it is as good as done. There will be peace on earth and the victory of the gospel." Now the last verse in this section, verse 5, is in the present tense and says what the attitudes of Micah's generation should be. Micah says, for all people walk each in the name of his God, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. So Micah and the remnant with him are basically saying, given the glories that God guarantees in the future, we will be faithful to the Lord no matter what any other nations do. Now, when every generation has that kind of commitment, eventually the gods of this earth will be replaced with the one true God. And the second A section that parallels this one says that all gods, all idols, all enemies will be completely conquered by the Lord Jesus. That's the goal of the new covenant kingdom. The A sections, in other words, the beginning of chapter four, the end of chapter five, promise total victory and the worldwide conquest of the gospel. But the B sections deny that this kingdom will come into power all at once. This is what Amos have to say, is at the end of history, he will win by, boom, establishing his eternal kingdom. Premillennialists have it all of a sudden. But no, this is gradual. It's a gradual process that actually looks impossible on the surface. Look at what the kingdom starts like in chapter 4, verses 6 through 7. This is the first B section. Chapter 4 verses 6 through 7, and that day says the Lord, I will assemble the lame. I will gather the outcast and those whom I have afflicted. I will make the lame a remnant and the outcast a strong nation. So the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on even forever. Now that's not very impressive. I mean, Christ starts his kingdom with the equivalent of lame people, outcast people, persecuted people. They're basically the off-scouring of the earth, the despised ones, the rejected ones. And yes, they will eventually be a strong nation, but they start off as an outcast people. And he makes it crystal clear that at the beginning of Christ's kingdom, even these lame outcast people aren't going to be a majority. They're going to be a tiny remnant. But as Romans 11 points out, and as Micah points out, remnant theology in history will give way to fullness theology. In other words, the remnant of the nations being saved, the remnant of Israel, and the remnant of the Gentiles will give way to all Israel, all nations being saved. Now, why does God start things off so pathetically small in the first century AD? Micah tells us, so that God alone will get the glory. It becomes clear that His kingdom alone and His grace alone, His power alone has achieved these victories. The second B section gives the same message. It uses Assyria as a symbol of the enemies in the future that will be conquered by a tiny remnant. Think about it. It ends with these words, your hand shall be lifted against your adversaries and all your enemies shall be cut off. I love that. All your enemies shall be cut off. So his kingdom grows out of weakness and eventually completely takes over the world. Weakness can't take over the world unless there is God's grace enabling it to happen. And you know what? What's true of nations as a whole is true of us as individuals. In our Christian life, it is out of weakness that His power is made perfect. Don't be discouraged that you are unknown, defeated, and weak. God delights in showing mercy to such, because those are the kind of people who are not going to take credit to themselves. They're going to say, Lord, if it wasn't for you, I would not have gotten out of this mess. Thank you, Lord. They give the glory to God. They praise God. They cling to God. They affirm, without Christ, I can do nothing. Those are the kind of people that glorify God. They are not prideful people. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. I do want you to notice that it's not just the kingdom that starts small, obscure, and weak. The C sections of this centric chiasm show that the king of this kingdom, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the king of this kingdom will, in the future to Micah, start off small, obscure, and weak. And you'll see the same exact themes between the two C sections of rulership, Bethlehem, labor pangs, and weakness associated with Jesus. Now chapter 4 verse 8's reference to the tower of the flock in the Hebrew is Migdal It's actually a name, the Tower of the Flock, Migdal Eder, and it's right outside Bethlehem, right at the place where the temple lambs were raised in the pastures to be sacrificed in the temple. So here's the question. Why would God have Jesus be born in a manger, in a stall, you know, of an unknown inn, to an obscure and unknown women. Why would he have the very first visitors to visit this king be poor shepherds from Migdal Eber, Eder? Well, it's how God's kingdom works. You see, to start in Jerusalem in a king's crib would have been to give glory and credit for the kingdom's success to man. But God starts with the lowly and the weak and the impossible so that he alone receives the glory. So you begin to get a sense, this is a theme that you see pervasively throughout this book. And the birth pangs, Verses 9-10 of the 1st C section have been taken by commentators as either the birth pangs of Mary or more likely the birth pangs of the entire people of God, just like Revelation 12 has this woman in birth pangs, giving birth to Christ, but who is that woman? It's the Old Testament church, right? The people of God. But either way you take it, as literal Mary or as the Old Testament church, they parallel the birth pangs in the second Bethlehem section. Now, I hope by now you're beginning to get a feel there is a perfectly framed parallelism in these chiasms. These are not made up. They jump out of the text. If you look at chapter 5, verses 2 through 5, you'll see the second C section which is a clear reference to the birth of Jesus, and this too is in Bethlehem, and if you don't think it's a birth of Jesus, read Matthew. Matthew, the inspired prophet, said it was. Says, but you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. Therefore he shall give them up until the time that she who is in labor has given birth, Then the remnant of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel, and he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord and the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall abide. For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and this one shall be peace." And that ends this section. What a marvelous statement of the king of the kingdom. He too starts as an obscure, weak baby, and yet verse 4 says that He shall stand in the strength of Yehovah. Everything Jesus did, every miracle Jesus did, He did by the power of the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, we have the same Holy Spirit to do miracles. He didn't just use His divine power He stood in the strength of the Lord, and because this Jesus that he refers to feeds his flock, his flock will abide forever as well, and they're going to spread the kingdom to the ends of the earth. Out of weakness, this king shows himself to be strong, and it affirms that though he starts as a baby, it says, quote, this one shall be peace, unquote. He is Shalom. He's the source of all Shalom. He is the Prince of Peace. And without Jesus, this world will never know the peace of the first A section. This is the problem with the liberal views, you know, that through their efforts, their social activities, they can produce a paradise on earth. No, apart from Christ's grace and the application of His law, it cannot be achieved. So even the king of the small kingdom starts small as a baby born in obscurity. Well, that brings us to the heart of the heart of the book, and we're going to end with this. You'll notice that the central section is not about the glories of the kingdom. Now, if I was writing this book, I would have been tempted to put the glories of the kingdom as the centerpiece of this whole book. But no, he's pastorally ministering to a persecuted remnant, and what does that persecuted remnant need to hear? They needed to hear that just as the future Messiah does not despise the day of small beginnings, you as a remnant, Micah is saying, should not despise the day of small beginnings. He is, in effect, encouraging them with a theology that says, hey, your labors in the Lord are not in vain. even when you are an Old Testament persecuted minority. Every labor you engage in will contribute in some way to advance the ultimate goal that God has for history of extending His knowledge and His glory throughout the earth so pervasively that He says it will be like the waters covering the ocean beds. That's pretty deep. That's how pervasive the knowledge of the Lord is going to be and the glory of the Lord will be in planet Earth. And brothers and sisters, if every effort of the remnant in Micah's day was meaningful to God's overall plan to subdue planet Earth, how much more so is this true of you? Your labors in the Lord are not in vain. You might not think, you know, that preparing the food tables over here or cleaning up afterwards is contributing to the glorious end result of this kingdom, but it is. Now, we don't know how God does all of those things, but he guarantees that our labors in the Lord are not in vain. Even the giving of a cup of cold water is significant. So, let's read chapter 4, verse 11, through chapter 5, verse 1, because these words to the tiny remnant to be valiant are words I think we can relate to. These words are the very heart of the heart of the book. So chapter 4 verse 11 starts with the words, now also. This is not a throwaway now, that's just a transition. Sometimes the Hebrew word wow or vav, however you want to pronounce it, is translated with a throwaway now. It's not really a throwaway, it's kind of a transitional word. But this is the Hebrew word ata, which means now in this present time, as opposed to the last days that we've just been talking about. So he's transitioning, he's saying now I want to make an application. We've been talking about the glories of the future kingdom, now I want to make an application to you. And so he also shows that just as the remnant in the latter days would be able to experience God's power despite the whole world ganging up on it, so too the people in Micah's day could claim God's power in faith. He calls for a faith to believe God for great things despite the odds. and to attempt great things for God despite the odds. And so the now indicates we've switched times from the future. He's now going to make an application of this theology to the audience, his audience. The also indicates that the application will be good for both eras. Now beginning to read at verse 11. Now also many nations have gathered against you who say, let her be defiled and let our eye look upon Zion. But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, nor do they understand his counsel. For he will gather them like sheaves to the threshing floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion." Now, when he calls the remnant of his day to thresh the nations, he is, in effect, saying, you can take over Assyria with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can take over Babylon with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is exactly what happened under Jonah. This is exactly what happened under Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They saw emperors converted. They saw God's law brought to the Gentiles. This is what happened under Nehemiah and Mordecai and Esther. He is calling people in his own day to quit looking at the dark side of life and coming to the false conclusion that it's hopeless, it's impossible, And to begin seeing with spiritual eyes that nothing is impossible for God. He wanted them to see the obstacles, and they were massive obstacles, as opportunities. Now the remnant might have thought, there is no way we can thresh these nations and produce a harvest. We're a tiny remnant. But Micah calls the remnant to quit thinking negatively about their weakness and to begin to think with faith about God's promised power. And you know what? He does this all through the scripture. God loves to slay his thousands with a donkey's jawbone in Samson's hand. Why? Because that donkey's jawbone can't take any credit for that victory, right? He loves to convert a Naaman through a little slave girl who's not even named. Why? because he alone receives the glory. He loves to use the widow of Zarephath. In fact, you know, when Jesus used those as examples in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus said, you know, God bypassed all of the lepers that were in Israel. There were tons of lepers he could have healed, and he chose to heal the leper, a pagan leper, Name him and he bypassed all of the widows in Israel and he went to the widow of Zarephath and you know what happens They are so angry that they want to push him off a hill. They want to kill Jesus. Why? Because God's ways hurt our pride They hurt our pride. God is, in effect, saying, look, I don't need you. I am sovereign. You don't deserve salvation. You have no claim upon salvation. I offer it. You refuse it. You are justly sent to hell. In other words, God's sovereignty irritates people, and they don't want to submit to his sovereignty. Indeed, it is rare that God chooses the wise and the mighty. Let me read you 1 Corinthians 1. 26 through 31 because I think it beautifully summarizes the message of Micah 1st Corinthians 1 beginning at verse 26 For you see your calling brethren that not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption That as it is written he who glories let him glory in the Lord That's kind of a long rabbit trail, but back to the text in Micah. I He says, Arise and thrash, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hooves bronze. You shall beat in pieces many peoples. I will consecrate their grain to the Lord. Why does he consecrate their grain to the Lord? Yes, because the Lord did that victory through the people and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth. Now, did God do exactly what he promised to do in that verse? Yes, he did. The book of Esther tells us that in the face of apparent extermination, God turned things around, and many Gentiles became Jews. They became believers. There is nothing too hard for the Lord, and the Lord loves it when His people have the faith to do impossible things. He goes on in chapter 5, verse 1. Now gather yourselves in troops, O daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek. He's saying, we're going to be attacked. I'm just warning you. You need to be prepared for spiritual warfare. You will be opposed just like Jesus will be opposed in the future. But I can turn you into a spiritual shock troops. And many commentators point out that this judge of Israel who would be struck on the cheek with the rod is the Lord Jesus. If he was willing to suffer for God's glory, so too should we. If he had faith that out of persecution he would win the battle, then so should we. God delights in giving strength to the weak and victory to the overwhelmed. And if you're feeling overwhelmed this morning, you are a great candidate for God's grace. He loves to use people like you. He loves to use people like you. Faith always looks to Christ's resources, not to ourselves. So it's irrelevant if you're weak. You're not supposed to be looking to yourself. It's looking to Christ's resources. And of course, the very next verse is what? It's the birth of Jesus. And it shows that God himself had the same humility that he calls us to have. So, though he was divine and his goings forth were from everlasting, he was willing to be born as a babe in the stable in Bethlehem. So here's the application. If you want to be like God, be humble, be expendable, be faith-filled, be hopeful, don't give up, don't be discouraged. If God's plans for planet Earth that Micah talks about are true, then Paul gives the application in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. You see, that incarnation of Jesus is the symbol of God's methods for victory. The Jews of the first century would have loved it if God had sent a Messiah with billions of angels in fiery armor, you know, completely conquering Rome and instantly putting the Jews into power. They would have loved that, but that's not the way that God works. God says, we don't need the government. We have Jesus. We don't need the media. We have Jesus. It's supernatural means that God uses to advance his kingdom. And if God is for you, who can be against you? Who is a God like YHWH? He is incomparable, and nothing can withstand His purposes for planet Earth. Now, obviously, there's a lot more going on in the book of Micah than what I've given, but that is really, in a nutshell, the substance of this glorious book. Let's pray. Father God, we thank You for the encouragement that You give, that You love to use us in our weakness. Out of our failures, many times You have shown Your grace and given us marvelous, marvelous tastes of who You are. And I pray that You would draw our hearts ever closer to You. It's so easy for us, Father, to focus upon ourselves and to give up. Help us to focus upon You and the resources we have in Christ and to never give up. And I pray this for each one of these, your beloved people, in Jesus' name, amen.