Luke chapter 1, and you might find the book of Micah, because we're going to go from Luke to the book of Micah. And let's have a word of prayer. Father, bless this morning as we look further at Your Word, as we look at what the true Christmas season is all about. There are surprises here, Father, that we have not thought about. We ask you to please bless us as we study this morning. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. Luke chapter 1. In Luke chapter 1, verses 67 through 80, we have the prayer of Zacharias, who was the father of John the Baptist. And he was told that his son, to be born, his son would be the herald of Christ. John the Baptist would be the way pointer. He would be the herald of the coming of Christ. And God touches Zacharias. Remember for a period he was mute, couldn't speak. But then when he began to speak, he spoke by the Holy Spirit and prophesied. And I want to pick up at verse 67 of chapter one of Luke and take a look at what he says, because it's applicable to our looking at Christmas. And his father, John the Baptist's father, Zacharias, was filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit and prophesied. Notice how he prophesied. OK, by the by the work of the spirit, the spirit inspired Zacharias to make a prophecy, an inerrant prophecy, saying, verse 68, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. For he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people." That would be the birth of Christ and of course his son will play a role as the herald. Now notice redemption for his people. In this prayer, now look up here a second, you're going to have both comings mentioned. Coming to redeem and to save and coming to save from Israel's enemies which Christ did not do at his first coming, that was postponed. He will do that at his second coming. Now keep reading. So both comings are going to be in this prayer. Verse 69, he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David, his servant. Christ will be born of the house of David. By the way, a horn, now some of you guys who are cowboys, you know what the horn of the bull can do. There's a tragic documentary of a guy who rode bulls who was gored to death by the horn of the bull. The horn pictured power. Pictured, whoa, don't mess with the bull, the horn. And so you see horn, you're picturing power. The horn is mentioned, it is power. He will raise up to us a horn of salvation, verse 70. As he spoke by the mouth, this is Zechariah speaking, as God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. You see all these markers we have about inspiration of scripture? God spoke to the prophets, plural, Of all, that's the Old Testament. The Old Testament is inspired of God as the New Testament is inspired. By the way, these prophets are called holy. Does this mean that they walked perfectly, the prophets of the Old Testament? No. But it means that God zapped them and saw them as holy as He was working with them and inspiring the message that came out of these men. Verse 71, Zacharias is still speaking. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us that has not happened Israel remained under the heel of the enemy the Romans This will happen at the second coming He Israel did not receive him as king Israel rejected him But pious Jews, including Zacharias, knew from the Old Testament he had two tasks. One, to be a savior. One, to save us from our personal sins. He's going to say that in a minute in these verses. But then to save Israel from her enemies, which he did not do the first coming. He will do the second coming. Keep going. To show mercy toward our fathers. And to remember His holy covenant. You know what that verse does? It goes back to the Abrahamic covenant. The covenant with Abraham. And the promises to the fathers. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Old Testament. God is going to keep His promises to the fathers. Okay? The oath, verse 73, which He swore to Abraham, our father. That's the Abrahamic covenant. Now folks, if you don't know anything of the Old Testament, please know the Abrahamic Covenant. It's given in chapters 12 through about 15 in the book of Genesis. The Abrahamic Covenant. In some ways, it's the most important covenant of Scripture. You have the Noahic Covenant, the covenant made with humanity after the flood. But you have the Abrahamic Covenant. You have the Mosaic Covenant, the Law, which was specifically for Israel. But you and I get salvation by being blessed through the Abrahamic Covenant. This is very important to Jews and to Gentiles. And here, Zacharias mentions this. Now remember, Zacharias is being led as he speaks by the Holy Spirit. Does he fully grasp everything he's prophesying? I don't think so. But I think there were things that he did know. I think some of these things he knew. I think they weren't stupid. I confess, I've been almost 50 years of Bible teaching, probably the first 30 or 40 years, I thought these people were stupid. They weren't stupid. They had studied their Old Testament. They knew the promises. They had gripped the promises. They knew them better than we did. They were looking for the fulfillment of the promises. And I always just kind of wrote them off, well, you know. No, they knew the promises. And Zacharias, while he's being guided by the Holy Spirit and what he's prophesying, I believe that he wasn't brain dead at that moment. He knew of the Abrahamic covenant. He knew of the promises to the fathers through Abraham that God was going to bless Israel. He had an understanding of that. The oath which he swore to Abraham our father. That's the Abrahamic covenant. Chapters 12-15 of Genesis. To grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies. There it comes again. That is political redemption. That is bringing in the kingdom of the Messiah to reign over Israel in the land. Now look, one of the things that's bothering me about us Christians, and I think it began to impact me with the war in Israel in the summer. I've always taught this, always believed this, but now it impacts it. It's grabbing my gizzard. It's really hitting me emotionally, okay? is that you and I as believers also should have a vested interest. We should have an excitement about the fact that God is restoring his work with Israel. God is working. You and I are living in a period of prophecy. I've always believed that, known that, but I just haven't taught it. The Jews coming back to the land in unbelief, and I'm going to have a complete study on that. We're going to get into that big time. God is bringing them back. He says, I'm going to bring you back and scourge you in the land. We'll go through the passage of Ezekiel. I'm going to bring you back and scourge you. And you're going to come back in unbelief. When, after Jesus has stopped the war, the tribulation, those who come back, when he's established his reign, the Jews coming back will come back in belief. Right now they're going back in unbelief. Alright, keep reading. We will be delivered from the hands of our enemies. Now look, Zacharias did not know when this would happen. He didn't know when this would happen. You and I keep wanting to blame God for some of these things. God says, look, I don't have to tell you my timetable. It's going to happen. Zechariah, I want you to speak about it. But I don't have to tell you when. Do you think that the Jews living in Palestine at this time understood this worldwide scope? You think that they understood that beyond India was these huge nations of China and even people living in Indonesia or the Indians in America? Do you think they understood that? No. They had no idea what this world was like. There were hints that the world was round. Speaks of the circle of the earth. In one of the Psalms, they had that, but they had no idea the size and scope of the world, the length of world history. They had no concept. And you and I can sit up here this morning and be kind of smart because we can look back. Hindsight is 20-20. So he is giving a truth inspired by the Holy Spirit. You and I can now go, we can wake up, we can go, whoa. The Jews are back in the land. The Jews are back in the land. They returned. And by the way, about the time, I was talking this morning earlier about Alexander II, the czar of Russia. At that period, it was guesstimated there was 100,000, late 19th century, 100,000 Jews who were already back in the land. God began progressively that return. He accelerated it after World War I. He accelerated it. And then it exploded after World War II. And the Jews are back in the land. And they're going back in unbelief. I doubt if there's one Jew who steps off the airplane and lands in Israel who believes in Yeshua, believes in Jesus. In fact, if they said so, and put them back on the plane and send them out. You can't be a citizen of Israel if you're a Christian. They still don't understand that a Jew believing in their Messiah is really a true Jew. They don't understand that. They're blinded. The Jews in Israel are blinded. But God's bringing them back in unbelief. As we speak, we are in a period of prophecy being fulfilled. All right, keep reading. Look at verse 75. He will deliver us from the hands of our enemies, verse 74, 75, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. A day is coming when God does this, when He delivers us from our enemies. then the people will be living in holiness and righteousness before God. That's not happening right now. The Jews are not living in holiness and righteousness. This is yet to happen. Verse 76, and you child, speaking about his son John, you child will be called the prophet of the most high. You'll go on before the Lord to prepare his ways. And there he quotes, he's quoting the book of Isaiah. The fact that John the Baptist would be a forerunner of the Messiah. To give to his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. There is the first coming to give forgiveness of sins. The second coming to give deliverance from their enemies. Now, you know, this is exciting. You and I are living in between. We've seen the first coming. We're anticipating the second coming. We're living in between. But both comings are mentioned in Zacharias' prophecy, but he didn't know the timetable. He didn't know the timetable. You know, I find that so interesting. You know, I said, God, tell me when. Lord, tell me when. God says, Couch, shut up. This is my business. I keep wanting to know all of his business. And he says, Couch, just live today. What would happen if I really knew on the calendar? You know, May 2015, that's when the Lord comes back. Can you imagine, because I'll probably die before then, and I would say, goodness gracious, I want to be around. Lord, you're mean to me. I'm getting bitter. He doesn't have to tell me his business. He says, you have a responsibility for right now. You are light and salt now. You have a task now. I'll take care of tomorrow. It's my plan. It's my calendar. And I'll take care of it tomorrow. Now you know what that dust should do to us? I call it the doctor of the hunker down. We should have to hunker down like a dog. The dog gets spanked and the head goes down. You and I have to hunker down. Alright Lord, okay, okay. It's your business. You know what you're doing. And I have to trust you, and I have to wait for you, is what he's telling us. Look at verse 78. He's quoting another passage, Isaiah chapter 9, and I think that what Zacharias is doing is telling us the state of the Jewish people at that time. To shine on those who sit in darkness and under the shadow of death. The nation of Israel was in darkness at the time. That's why when John came and he began to baptize the Jordan, it exploded. Repentance exploded. Not the whole nation. A lot of folks. A lot of folks. Hundreds, if not thousands, but not the whole nation. Because there was a dearth of spirituality in the nation of Israel. There was a dearth. And so the coming of Christ, the message of John the Baptist to herald Christ was perfectly timed to shine upon those who sit in darkness, the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Verse 80, in the child, John continued to grow and to become strong in spirit. He lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel. John was an ascetic. He liked to eat grasshoppers. And kind of a little strange live down the desert and God made him an ascetic God made him different In order so he would stand up before Israel. So I don't care what they think and John began to proclaim The Messiah has come. All right now go to the book of Micah The two things are gonna go together. You can't believe it, but we're tying what I just read with Micah in chapter 5 Now I want to show you something on the board that I have on the board up here. The prophets, including Micah, they saw actually four things. I only put three things on the board. Sometimes the prophets could look back. That's one. I didn't put it on the board. They could look back. They looked at near events coming upon them, the prophets. And then they had near prophecy, things that would happen within a couple of decades of when they prophesied. And then far prophecy. Now, as they wrote, I always used to say, well, they weren't really sure sometimes which is which. They really did know which is which. That's why we have so much quoting of the prophecy in the New Testament. They were able to ferret out, this belongs to now, this belongs to then, and so forth. They were far smarter than you and I when we read the prophets. And they mixed some of these things up. Sometimes Micah will be talking about near events. Then suddenly he'll leap to far events. Then he'll come back and judge the Jewish people for their past sins. Then he'll bounce forward. And they understood when to go from paragraph to paragraph, that there was a shift in these paragraphs. They understood that. I want to start with Micah, chapter 5. And then we're going to jump back to 4. And I'll show you what I'm going to be doing here. Verse 1 of chapter 5. Now muster yourselves in troops, daughters of troops. By the way, this was written just before the Assyrian invasion. Look up your little hand motion. The Assyrians swept down in 722 and took the northern kingdom to captivity. The Babylonians swept down in 586 and took the southern king Judah to captivity. This was written probably before either one of those captivities, but it was coming. the Assyrians were coming, the Babylonians would be coming, okay? And verse 1, most scholars believe that this has to do with Israel about to suffer under the Assyrian invasion. Muster yourselves in troops, daughters of troops. They have, probably would better be, they will lay siege against us with a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek. When the Assyrians come, they're going to be ruthless. The Assyrians will be ruthless. They will lay siege against us. When it says they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek, I'm not sure what that means. It could mean they will take away and kill all of the judges of Israel. Some have said the judge here is God himself. They'll be spitting in the face of God. They'll be slapping God in the face when they come against the northern kingdom. Now, in verse 2, now watch, watch what happens. Look, what he just did, Micah, he went to something that was coming soon. Now, in verse 2, watch, he's going to leap forward. He's gonna leap forward to far future prophecy, verse two. But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephratah. Bethlehem, Ephratah. Bethlehem means house of bread. This is where David was raised. This is David's territory. Bethlehem, house of bread. Ephratah, Ephratah seems to be the region around Bethlehem. This region, and especially Bethlehem, Bethlehem is too little to be among the clans of Judah. It's not even on the map. In other words, it's a little bitty village. From that little bitty village, from you, Bethlehem, will go forth for me to be ruling, will one go forth for me to be ruling in Israel. Now notice, the one going forth will go forth from Bethlehem and will go forth from God. God is going to send one. He's going to be born in the capital city of David, if you will. David, who's the king. All right? Beit means house. Lechem is bread. House of bread. And by the way, if you stand on the ramparts of Jerusalem today at night, if you look real hard, you can see 14 miles away, you can see the lights of Bethlehem. So it's very near the city of Jerusalem. Now look, he will be ruler in Israel. By the way, the word ruler is what's called a participle. Remember the old grammar? Participle is an I-N-G word. He will be the one who will be continually ruling in Israel. Now wait a minute. Israel had kings. Why suddenly we're down to one king, a king, a specific king? The kings of Israel will be sloughed off. Those who come to the house of David will suddenly disappear. They won't have any more kings from the house of David until the Lord Jesus comes. And what's the key? He'll be born in Bethlehem. Now look at the last part of verse 2. And this is what gives the Jewish rabbis today heartburn. They have to go get their Alka-Seltzer when they read the rest of verse 2. His goings, the one born in Bethlehem, His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. That's plural. The days. Which day? It doesn't matter. The Hebrew expression is may me Olam, may me, the days of eternity. You want to go back into eternity? Which day do you want to pick? It doesn't matter. His goings forth, his continuing existence is from the days of eternity. And this verse really gives the Jewish rabbis heartburn. What are we going to do with that? This is the Messiah. Now, by the way, I told you I have the Jewish commentaries at home, the rabbinical commentaries. They come to this verse and they said, well, goodness gracious, it must mean that the Messiah, they know this is a messianic passage. was in the mind of God from eternity. So what it says, his goings forth, his traveling, his comings have been from the days plural of eternity. Well, the Messiah must have been in the minds of God from eternity. And then they say, because there was another Bethlehem a little to the north, well, This was probably another Bethlehem. Now, why do they say that? Because they know who was born in Bethlehem of Judah. They know who was born in Bethlehem of Judah. Well, it probably wasn't that Bethlehem. On one hand, I love what the Jewish rabbis teach. Some of their words are so spiritual and their thoughts are so spiritual, but they can be so intellectually dishonest to get rid of Jesus. Just to do anything to get rid of Jesus. They are determined not to believe in Jesus. You can torture them, and they have been tortured to confess Jesus. They will not confess Jesus. They refuse to believe that he is the one. And you know, we have guests coming here, Steve Gerr and Jeff Gutterman. Those men are walking miracles. Now Steve Gerr's family has a long line of a Christian heritage. Jeff Gutterman does not. His father said, well, you've got to watch those Christians. Who are the Christians, Dad? Well, those Gentiles. Well, those Gentiles you've got to watch. Well, those Christians. They see Gentiles and Christians as the same. That's not true. A Gentile is someone who's Gentile, but not necessarily a Christian. A Christian is one who's trusted Jesus as Savior. And the Jews don't understand that. And then and Jeff Gutterman came in he was raised in utter outer darkness And Steve Gers family was extra blessed. He's his son's the fifth generation of believing Jews His goings-forth will be from everlasting from the days of eternity now keep going verse 3 therefore He, this is probably God, in verse 3, will give them up, will give the Jewish people up until the time When she, looking at the nation of Israel, who is in labor, has born a child, then the remainder of his brothers will return to the sons of Israel. And he, this is still this Messiah, this is one born in Bethlehem, he will arise and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, And they will be a remnant, they'll remain, because at that time He, this one born in Bethlehem, will be great to the ends of the earth. And this one will be peace. How many of your Bibles in verse 5, the first part of verse 5, has our in italics? Our, our peace. Okay, almost every. It's not in the text. Our has been supplied. You know what it really says? This one will be, watch, look at my hand mode, this one will be peace. You have to supply our. If you want to supply it, fine, but just, he's just peace. He's just peace. Now notice what God's going to do between his birth in Bethlehem and his reign. What's God gonna do? He's going to give them up. He's going to give the Jews up. He's going to set them aside. I've been reading the story of Churchill. I'm now reading the story of Alexander II, the czar of Russia before the last czar. And the hatred against the Jews, of Christians, the hatred, The story of the Germans. There's a book over there on the bookshelf. It's worth about $100 to me. We paid about $20 for it. That tells of the hatred of the Jews, of the Germans against the Jews. And that 95% of World War II was for the Germans to get rid of the Jews. They said every problem in the world is the Jews. Every problem Europe has, Hitler said, is the Jews. And every time Goebbels went on the radio, or Goering went on the radio, or Hitler spoke, every time he mentioned the Jews. Goebbels was on the radio every day in Germany before the war, and even during the war. And every time he spoke, He mentioned the Jews. We've got to get rid of the Jews. And he said, Churchill's in the hands of the Jews and Roosevelt's in the hands of the Jews. We've got to get rid of the Jews. And the Jews are causing the problem to all of Europe. And Europe, we're coming to rescue you from the oppression of the Jews. There's a picture in one of those books of a train heading for Russia with German soldiers. And in German on the side of the train, we're going, pardon me, to Poland, going to Poland. And on the side of the train, they scrawled in paint, we're going to Poland to trounce the Jews. We're going to Poland to trounce the Jews. This is God's people. This is God's word about his people. You and I are sitting here this morning blessed as God worked through this people. Then they're facing all this hatred. And they're not perfect. Don't get me wrong. The Jews are sinners. They have bought Western culture in Israel today just as the West has bought it. They are so sinful. When I first went in 1970, no one knew how to spell the word homosexual. And now they have homosexual parades in Israel. And God's looking down and says, what are you doing to my city? My city of Jerusalem, what are you doing? And by the way, it says in the prophets, we're gonna teach this, I'm gonna bring you back in unbelief and I'm going to scourge you in the land in unbelief. The Jews are getting a whipping right now because of unbelief. because they have rejected the one born in Bethlehem. Now go back to chapter four of Micah, chapter four. We're backing the tape up now. Chapter four. And here's what happens when the Messiah comes. And what I've done is show you that these prophecies can be switched around and mixed up, and one minute could talk about the past, now the future, now far future, and so forth. Chapter four of Micah. It'll come about in the last days. What days? The last days. That the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief, the head of the mountains. The mountain of the Lord is Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the temple mount, is on Mount Moriah. That's Jerusalem. 1,200 feet above sea level. That's what this is talking about. When will Jerusalem, the mount of the Lord, the mount of the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord would be the temple. The mount is where the temple will be placed. The future temple will be placed. When will it be established, look, as number one mountain? In the last days. In the last days. I passed around that little Baptist certificate of my mom. When she was growing up, not one person, one pastor of the Southern Baptist Convention would teach you what you're getting here. Not one. Not one. God's through with the Jews. He's finished with Israel. And my mother just kept circling. She kept finding, I want a church that teaches the Bible. And she didn't know this. My mother, and here she's taking these courses. She went on to Bible school during the Depression. Had to leave the Bible school in Springfield, Missouri, because she didn't have money. I have a letter from the president of the Bible school. Dear Lorraine Barney, I'm so sorry you have to leave because of lack of money. The Depression came and mother had to leave the Bible school. She was spiritual. She was searching. But she never saw these prophecies until she ended up in Schofield Memorial Church, where she, and I'm sitting there like a little idiot, four years old, sucking on my thumb. Yes, at four, I was probably still sucking on my thumb. You know, going to church with her at four, and I was raised to hear these great truths of the coming of the Lord. The coming of the Lord. And I was seven. No, I was 10. I was 10 when the Nation of Israel was established. And I can see the great Bible teachers coming. Ironside and others teaching about the Jews are back in the land. They've got the land. They've become a nation. And they put these big charts across the church. By the way, I'm going to have some charts made for us that we can hang up here when I'm talking about some of this stuff. I'm going to go back to my childhood and have charts that we can follow some of this stuff. Because that's what I was, you know, some little kid watching these charts of the return of the Jews to the land. Now look, keep reading. The mountain of the house of the Lord, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, will be established as the chief of mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and the nations of peoples will stream to it. people who have been redeemed in the tribulation. We are yet to see the greatest period of revival ever. It will happen in the tribulation. Many people will die like flies in martyrdom during the tribulation. They will die as martyrs. but it'll be the greatest period of revival. And I think that many, many thousands, if not millions, who survived that seven-year period, Jew and Gentile will stream, that's what this passage says, they will stream back to the Mount of the Lord. Right now, what does the world as a whole think of Israel? They hate Israel, or at least are neutral toward Israel. Are neutral toward Israel. The French, what's the deal about Israel? Many of the British have some sense of prophecy. Germans, I was surprised. I've talked to Arnold Fruchtenbaum, who was here a few weeks ago. There's a big movement among German churches to accept premillennialism, that Jesus is coming back to reign. I said, Arnold, how can that be? The Jews for 150 years, or the Germans for 150 years, never hated the Jews because of the words of Martin Luther. I can't even quote to you what Luther said about the Jews. He hated them so bad. He cursed. Can't stand the Jews because they don't accept Jesus. And he hated them. And he passed that seed of hatred on to other generations. I said, Arnold, how can, he says, there's hundreds of Germans who are coming to the Lord, I'm going to go bald here in a second, and believe in the second coming of Christ. I said, how can that be? And we talked about it a minute. The only answer I can come to is that they really were humbled by World War II. And now they look again at God's plan. And by the way, the Germans are really contrite, many of them. Not all of them, of course, but I think the majority are really contrite. You realize that they've given to Israel, they paid for them, given to Israel by three submarines. They built them in Bremen shipyard here in Israel, have a submarine on us, and have given to the Jews submarines. Keep going. Many nations will come and say, they'll come to Jerusalem and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. Look at that. Gentiles. Right now the hatred is great. And when the world sees that God is blessing the Jews, and that the Lord Jesus has returned to Israel, they'll say, hey, let's pack our bags. Let's take a tour. Let's go to Israel. And they'll go up to the house of the God of Jacob. They'll go up to the house of the God of Jacob. Jacob's the father of the 12 tribes. that He may teach us about His ways, that we may walk in His paths. For from Zion will go forth the law, from even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples. He'll render decisions for mighty..." Look at that. Mighty, distant nations. The nations that are in Indonesia. The nations of Australia, India. And yes, our brother from even New Zealand. He will judge these distant nations. Then they will hammer their sword into plowshares then and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they train for war. You know what was going on in the churches just before World War I? It was called post-millennialism. Almost all the churches, you know what they believed? The Christian nations, quote, unquote, ha, ha, ha, Germany and England, America, they said, you know what? We are really spreading the kingdom. Why? We've got all this medical technology. We've got electricity. Well, we've got an airplane with two wings that flies. We've got trains. You know what? We're bringing in world peace. We're going to spread civilization worldwide. That's the kingdom. Now when we get it all established, then Jesus will come back. That's what they were teaching in the Southern Baptist churches and all the churches. It's called post-millennialism. When the kingdom is established by the churches, when the churches establish the kingdom, then Jesus will come back. Never mind the Jews. Forget the Jews. This was post-millennialism. We're getting better and better. Now guess who was leading the better? Germany, everybody admired the technology of Germany even before World War I. The Germans are so smart. They are so intellectual. The Germans are so organized. They're leading this coming kingdom that the nations will establish and then what? Look what they're going to do. They're going to beat the swords into plowshares. That was the verse. That was the motto. before World War I. We're going to stop all wars. We're going to take all this technology that we're getting in the world, and we're just going to bring in the kingdom. And then, bang, the worst war in history. In fact, in some ways, even worse than World War II, in certain ways. I mean, they took soldiers and just dumped them into the trenches and just ground them to hamburger. Died by the thousands. How many of you have been to England? Let's see your hands up. Alright, there's four of us that have been to England. Every village, square in England, what's standing in the middle of the square? Church, but something else standing in the square? A memorial to the soldiers of World War I. That memorial just have a long list of the men in that village who died in World War I. They died like flies. World War one and and God used this between the two wars to bring the Jews start the Jews return back to the land back to these verses now look at verse six give me four minutes I'm through in that day In that day, verse 6, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame, gather the outcasts, even those whom I have afflicted. I'll make the lame a remnant and the outcasts a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion. In Mount Zion from now and forever. When that happens, from that point and forever. Folks, this Christmas season, I want you to put in your mind, He is Savior, He is to be King. He is the King, but He's not reigning, okay? That is in history. He's not reigning in history. He's Savior, and He is King. And you and I are on the threshold. We're at the threshold. of all of these things and of these promises Micah gave us centuries ago to be fulfilled. He spoke of the first coming, the birth in Bethlehem, and the results of that coming, second coming, is in here in chapter four of the book of Micah. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, may we not be just limited, short-sighted, in our understanding of who our Savior is and what the Bible even is all about, where history is going. May we not be spiritually short-sighted. May these great truths grip our hearts and our minds. May we speak of both. The coming King is the Savior of the world. No salvation, no spiritual redemption apart from Him. And when he comes, he will have the last say in world history. We look forward to that great day of peace. For now, we maintain. For now, we share the truth. You told us where it's going. You told us how it'll happen. And may we grab hold of these things realistically and honestly and still have our eyes lifted up, not be discouraged. We know what's going to happen. Bless us at this season and may those with family today and tomorrow have looked for some opportunity, some moment to share the gospel of why he came. Thank you for our guests this morning. Thank you for loving us. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.