Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel. for he shall gather them as the sheaves unto the floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, thou make thine horn iron, thou make thy hoofs brass, and thou shalt beat in pieces many people, thou consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops, he hath laid siege against us, They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. But thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of these shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall abide. For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. Amen. We'll read the reading there. Let's ask the Lord's blessing upon us as we seek to consider his word this evening. Lord, we give thanks for thy word. and for its many truths and applications in our lives. We pray, O Lord, this evening that as we come to it that you would give us a spirit of understanding. Lord, that we might have a listening ear. Lord, that you would grant that the words that I speak are the words that thou wouldst have heard. So, Lord, we pray. Bless us to that end for the glory of thy great name. Amen. There are many examples in scripture of a little resulting in a lot. We heard the children singing last Sunday about the gift of Jesus Christ and of God coming in the flesh to save our sinful souls from death and from destruction. And that there was a very visual display of the greatest of truths coming from the smallest mouths. As the scripture says, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength. The little thing is a big theme in the word of God. Remember Elijah who stood upon the mount and the Lord said, go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord and behold, the Lord passed by. The great and strong wind rent the mountains and breaking pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice. As Joshua came to old age and would soon die, he reminded Israel, for the Lord had driven out from before you great nations and strong But as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you as he hath promised. Here's another interesting one. Remember Samson? Whether or not he himself was large or small doesn't change the fact that with the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I sling a thousand men. Such a little thing, the jawbone of an ass, yet a thousand of the Lord's enemies met their end by it, heaps upon heaps. Elijah, again, remember the cruise of oil and the barrel of meal, and how he was sustained by the smallest measure of oil and of meal, enough to make three cakes for him and the mother and child who hosted him in Zarephath? That's that small amount, and yet the Lord sustained him on that little thing. David versus Goliath is an obvious example as well. How that little shepherd boy standing with a sling and stones against a man of war, clad in armor, standing with a spear as thick as a weaver's beam, and out of littleness came the destruction again of the enemies of God and his people. But then also consider how that by the means of just 12 apostles, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was spread throughout the world and that Christianity was established and founded as far away as Europe and India so that we today have the completed canon of the word of God in our very hands. I mentioned earlier about the children singing and it used to be not so very long ago that we had two Sunday schools here. We had one based in Cranford, which is where the Cranford Banks is, and another based here at Feltham. And every year, they would hold a special service for the anniversary of each Sunday school. There would be different times of the year. And the children would come and give a presentation, some theme or other. And I and my siblings, obviously, attended the Cranford Sunday School. We were always here for the Feltham one. I distinctly remember that the Feltham Sunday School anniversary, no matter what the theme was, it would always have one song every time. I think some of you will know the words. I don't know if my wife does, but she was attendee of that Sunday School. Little is much when God is in it. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown, and you can win it if you go in Jesus' name. Little is much. Well, I'd say that my subject this evening is littleness, or more specifically, greatness out of littleness and greatness into littleness. A lesson in humility. Despise not the day of the little. And you immediately guessed probably a while ago what verse I want to consider this evening. I may even be on screen. Thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. So in considering this subject then this evening, I want to consider first of all the littleness of beginnings. Here we're considering the wider context of the prophecy very briefly so that we have an understanding or an overview of the prophecy as a whole. Micah was a prophet who was a contemporary of Isaiah. The difference between them was that Micah's words were directed at the northern kingdom. You remember the kingdom split, the ten tribes of Israel went away from the southern kingdom, whereas Isaiah's words were directed at the southern kingdom of Judah. But there are many similarities between the two books in terms of their overall message. Isaiah is much longer than Micah, of course, but the message, the pattern of the message is very similar. There's a prophecy of coming destruction due to their sin, followed then by comfort in the form of the prophecies of the coming Messiah. And if you turn to Micah chapter two, verses one to three, you will see these words. Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds when the morning is light. They practice it because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away, so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold, against this family do I devise an evil or a calamity from which ye shall not remove your necks. Neither shall ye go haughtily, for this time is evil. Neither shall ye go haughtily. Here is this pronouncement then of judgment upon them, a judgment from which they would not be able to remove their necks. It was coming because of their haughty demeanor and their sinfulness. Then turn to Micah chapter three and look at verses nine to 12. There we read these words. Hear this, I pray you, the heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel that abhor judgment and pervert all iniquity. They build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. Because of their sin, Zion will become as a ploughed field, and the mountain of the house, which refers to the temple mount, will become overgrown and neglected as a wild forest. Because again of their pride, and their presumption that even in the midst of their sin they thought the Lord was still among them and that no evil could come upon them. But then turn to chapter 4. We've already read these words but let's do so again from verse 11 because here the tone changes somewhat. Now also many nations are gathered against thee. Let's say let her be defiled and let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel or plan. He shall gather them as sheaves unto the floor, the floor referring to the threshing floor. And verse 13, arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoof brass, and thou shalt beat in pieces many people. and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth." So the nations round about said, let her be defiled and let us look upon her in her defilement. The idea being that they take pleasure in the downfall of Israel. They would gaze with contentment, with a cheery gratification at what had become of her. The verse 12 says, But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel, that he shall gather them, that is the nations, as the sheaves unto the floor. Then arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, I will make thine horn iron. We heard this morning that the horn refers sometimes and does in this case to strength. Thy hoofs brass, thou shalt beat in pieces many people. the Lord would cause the nations, as it were, to be scattered upon the floor of the threshing, that Israel themselves might come and thresh and beat in pieces with the hooves, as it were, their enemies. And the tide changes as we move into chapter five. Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops, he had laid siege against us. They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. to be smitten upon the cheek, of course, is a sign of disrespect and of dishonor, that in this way Israel had been brought low. And then comes the but. But thou, Bethlehem Mephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth, then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed, or shepherd, or pastor, in the strength of the Lord. In the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall abide, shall remain, be preserved. For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. So we see here the juxtaposition of littleness with greatness. Here is the condition of Israel as a proud field brought low, belittled by their neighbors, disrespected and denigrated, smitten on the cheek as it were. Here in the midst of Israel, even in one of its smallest parts, a tiny village, will come forth one who will be great. This event, or the coming of this one, is localized to the smallest of villages, Bethlehem Eshrata. It is thought that Eshrata was perhaps a part of Bethlehem, referring to the house of Jesse, who you may recall in Samuel is called an Ephrathite. Or perhaps it was just another name for Bethlehem. But yet in this tiny place comes forth he who is to rule. He was going to be of the line of David, might be another reason why Shrata is mentioned. The line of David, the son of Jesse the Ephrathite. But from this specific locality, tiny though it be, when it comes to considering the great ends of the earth, tiny, small village, shall come forth this great one. Verse four says that he will stand and feed. And I mentioned that means to shepherd or to pastor. in the strength of the Lord, and in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. Due to this they shall abide, that is, his people, they shall be preserved, and they shall remain. For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. Though he was to be ruler in Israel, he is not limited to that. He is going to be great unto the ends of the earth. And so thus, out of littleness, comes greatness. Out of a depleted and humbled nation, a nation that had been brought low, and out of that nation a humble village, and out of that humble village shall come forth the greatest. So indeed little is much when God is in it. We see secondly here the littleness of the greatest. As much as we see greatness come out of littleness. We also see in the same action the same event the greatest become little. In this event of the nativity of this great one who is to be great to the ends of the earth whom we know as our Lord Jesus Christ the son of the Virgin is the God of all being taking into Union with his divine nature. the nature of man, so that he is both God and man. In short, God becomes man. He becomes an infant, a baby. The Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ, by whom the worlds were framed, clothed in the mantle of human infancy, when she that travaileth hath brought forth, as the verse Three says, then there in her arms would be the all-glorious and all-mighty God. Our family recently welcomed a new baby boy into our homes and our hearts, Ezra, two months old. So at many moments when I've looked at his little hands with perfect little fingernails and his little feet and little toes and his little nose, I've held him and kissed him on the head. a helpless and defenceless little life. That is what the Lord of Glory became. That Mary might kiss the head of the Lord of the Universe is a wondrous thing. But we see in this the humility of Christ. He set aside his divine glory, a majesty that we cannot conceive of, that the most ambitious, powerful, and richest man that has ever lived has not even begun to imagine in all of its greatness and immensity. And yet he humbled himself and laid aside that majesty. There is no greater display of humility than this, and there can never be. The Reformed faith terms this the humiliation of Christ. Have you ever considered the humbleness of God? We read earlier from Isaiah 66. And who there was it that the Lord said that he would look to? He that was poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word. Why does God look for that in man? Why is it that he prizes that particular quality of humility in men? It is because there's a quality that God himself possesses and we are to be like him. I began the service this evening with the words of Christ. Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon thee and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly of heart. You shall find rest to your souls. We read also from Matthew chapter 18 where he teaches that he that becomes a little child is going to be the one who becomes the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So again we have littleness resulting in greatness. Indeed it was out of Christ's humility that his own exaltation came. Philippians 2, notice the first words, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. an exhortation for us to be like-minded with Christ, who, being in the form of God, thought it not a robbery or a thing to be grasped at, to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, note this word, Because of this, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, for things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So we have the greatest God, the Son himself, making himself little that he might be made great again. So we have examples here then for us. This insuperable example, it cannot be beaten as an example. He who was highest became low. What excuse then do we have that we cannot do the same. So in our application this evening, we must consider that we must become little in our own sight. In this instruction, I rhetorically ask three questions as we close. Why, when, and how? Why should we become little in our own sight? Why so to speak, should we become humble and pursue humility. First of all, because that we should not engage in that which is satanic. It was for the sin of pride that Satan was cast out. The root of the fall of man was pride. Godhood was offered to our first parents in the Garden of Eden. knowledge and therefore power. Humility would have led Eve to submit to Adam's judgment and humility would have led Adam to submit to God. But instead both of them took and ate the fruit thinking themselves above the command of God that they should not eat of it. It was out of the pride of their hearts. The demons use our pride against us. The world uses it against us. There is no kind of pride that is not sinful. Pride is satanic by definition. Seven things, says the Proverbs, does the Lord hate. What is the first one? A proud look. That's when we engage in pride, we engage in that which is satanic. When we engage in pride, we indulge the flesh. thinking ourselves worthy of whatever pleasure might be on offer. When we engage in pride, we put ourselves before others and we fail to love others, which leads to our mistreating of them. We fail to love others and we put ourselves first. We then react with anger to any slight against ourselves. We cannot bring ourselves to consider our own sinfulness or in what way we might be in the wrong. When we engage in pride, we are brought also to indulge in a covetous spirit, for why we reason to ourselves, should I not have that thing which I covet? In vain glory, we think ourselves more worthy of the coveted thing than perhaps he that has it. When we engage in pride, we look with lust for our own gratification. It becomes the be-all and the end-all of our lives. In all ways then, pride leads to destruction. Hell itself was created to the devil and his angels. Pride has led to their destruction. Now in their pride still, they seek to drag humanity with them to a place that was not created for humanity. The demons in the world will use our own pride to drag us down with them. We must resist pride. God resisted the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. And then secondly, why? Why should we see ourselves as little? So that we should not make involuntary humbling necessary, since as we have considered, pride is the sin of Satan, and is therefore satanic by definition. If we are Christ, then we must be purged of it. Pride cannot be allowed to reign in us, in which case for our sanctification, and for our salvation, it must be purged. We must, via the means that God has provided for us, humble ourselves and purge ourselves of pride and take steps to do so. Humility is a necessity. If you cannot humble yourself, then you must undergo humbling unwillingly. In sanctification, which is the more painful, but the alternative, that pride be allowed to reign in our bodies. and our minds is much worse. And so the Lord sometimes must chasten us. A son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, Hebrews 12 says, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? without chastisement to whereof all our partakers then are ye bastards and not sons. The Lord will sanctify us in this world that he may see his image in us. One aspect of that image that we should be conformed to is humility. So as you consider Christ and his humble coming, consider your own heart and pray for humility. Then the question also must be asked, when? When, in what circumstance, should we seek to see ourselves as little? In our worship and our church attendance, Jesus' parable of the publican and the Pharisee, the men that went up to pray, but only one was justified, The intention of both was to go up to pray, to rise up, as it were, above the world and have communion with God. But in the case of the publican, seeing his own sin and worthlessness, he cries out for God's mercy. Thus he is justified by God's grace, and in that way he does ascend to the heights, as it were, of communion with God, because he saw himself for what he was. Meanwhile, the Pharisee brings his own virtue to the fore and speaks of all of his good works. And so he brings down that worshipful act of prayer to a carnal level. And so his pride therefore rendered him actually to be unable to pray, unable to have communion with God, unable to worship. And so it goes that he leaves unjustified. Although he had the intention to pray and to worship, his pride got in the way of his being able to do so. Likewise, just as we go to church and the intention on some level to ascend above the world and leave behind our earthly concerns for a while as we come into the place of worship, if we come into the place of worship with pride in our hearts, Every one of us is capable of instead pulling down the church to our earthly carnal level. We must repent and leave those things behind as we come into the place of worship that our hearts might rise to God in prayer. Both men went up to pray in that parable. But Jesus said only one was justified. Let it be that each one of us as we come to pray are justified in the sight of God because we have resisted pride. We cannot truly worship God unless we shun pride and humble ourselves. We should make practical efforts to ensure that when we come to church we have true motives to seek the Lord in humility and in quietness and a reverent spirit. requires us to ensure that we are at church as much as is possible. There are many today who make the conscious decision not to attend church. I can worship God on my own at home. I don't need to go to a church to be a Christian. Yes, you can. You can stay at home alone and love yourself. That is pride. I don't need the body of Christ. I don't respect the body of Christ. Consciously deciding to isolate yourself permanently from the body of Christ. If you have no love for the body of Christ, how can you have love for Christ? Do any of you have this opinion that I don't need to go to church to be a Christian? You're wrong. You must love the body of Christ. It is self-love, therefore, to shun attendance at church, or to neglect the importance of gathering together in communion with brothers and sisters in Christ, if indeed you are in Christ. We are alienated naturally from God, and in God's salvation we are brought out of our alienation from him. But we also must strive to come out of our alienation from one another. In the word of God, it was a distinctive mark of the church of Christ that they had all things common. And so let us strive to cultivate such a spirit within ourselves and among us also. Then also we must seek to see ourselves as little in our endurance or affliction. I heard it once said that we face God and we face God's final judgment. One of the questions Christ will put to us is what did you endure for me? Imagine that moment of this that is to come when we face Christ and our whole life is there in a single glance. And he says, what did you endure for me? Perhaps in our weakness we'll point to some time we spent fasting and praying and a little bit of self-denial that we attempted, but in our weakness we'll admit that we did very little, anything at all. We gave ourselves a comfortable time as far as we could. We attempted to, as much as we could, ride to heaven on flowery beds of ease, as the hymn writer puts it. As far as it was possible, we made our lives as easy for ourselves as possible. We gave in to the body so often for the comforts and pleasures of the world. And then in his mercy and in his love, Christ will say, well then, did you at least accept the involuntary afflictions that I gave to you? You're unable in your weakness to voluntarily deny yourself, well then what about that which was involuntary? That which I gave you, that which I sent to you, how did you endure those things? Did you rejoice? Did you count it all joy, as James says? We fall in to die with temptations. Did you rejoice and give thanks in your sickness? In your grief? In your poverty? In your trouble? You can continue to give thanks to God. Were you patient? Were you faithful to me during the trials of this life and the circumstances of this world that came upon you? How many of us will look at him and say, yes, always. I was faithful. I endured for you. And not know that there were times of bitterness in our hearts. And Christ will show us the wounds in his hands and his side and his feet. And he'll say, look, well, I endured for you. How do I love for you? Look what I endured for you, in patience, without complaint. I was a lamb, dumb as before Shearer's. Show us those wounds that he accepted in humility for our sake, all that he endured, and will we not then be ashamed? If we show bitterness and resentment in our affliction, then we are displaying pride and not humility. So let's therefore endure affliction with humility, counting it all joy and with thankfulness in our hearts. Then lastly we ask how? How? How is it that we can cause ourselves to be little in our own eyes? We're very good as human beings at hiding from ourselves. And so self-examination is necessary. We're very quick to observe faults in others, but when it comes to ourself, it is not so easy to see for some reason. I recently heard of an exercise to do in this regard. Get a sheet of paper and list the names of people that you know that you hate, if there are any. Then also list the names of those who you don't hate but you do not have much time for, you have a prejudice against them. And then list all those people in another column that you can think of who you think will probably go to hell. And then for each name, give a reason for your feeling towards them. A good reason for why it is that you hate the one you hate, or you are prejudiced against the one you are prejudiced against, or why the people that you think will probably go to hell are going to go to hell. Then, after those reasons have been give and take, those reasons and cross-examine yourself to see if any of those reasons are present also in yourself. It's been commonly said that as much as we despise others, we despise because we know that such things also dwell within our hearts also. Self-examination and humility. And also confessing of our faults one to another, This is a biblical mandate, the word of God tells us, confess your faults one to another. We don't like to think we have faults, but if we obey the command of God to confess our faults one to another, then it is assumed that we have them by the scriptures. And we do have them. We don't like to think about them. We definitely do not like to talk about them. And that is probably why the commandment is given, confess your faults one to another because they are then brought into stark contrast and visibility before your eyes as it were. Then also prayer, specifically repentance on a continual and regular basis. We go to the Lord and we consider ourselves And like the publican did, we cry, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Or like the blind man who stood by the way as Jesus walked by and could cry only one thing, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. We must go to the Lord in specific, special repentance to confess our sins, not only to one another, that confess our sin before God. Then, lastly, really, consideration, as we have done tonight, of Christ and his example. How that Christ humbled himself and became an infant child, though he was the Lord of all glory, he became that child to be carried in the arms of a human woman. What humility is that? That he lived upon this earth and had nothing to his name. No goods, no credit, one robe, and not a place to lay his head. That he then went through suffering and pain. That he went to the cross and that he died and shed his blood. He was the very epitome of humility. And as we consider him, We can consider others also. In closing, consider John the Baptist. In St. John's Gospel in chapter 3, if you turn there, John chapter 3, at the end of that chapter you will read the words of John. John who was a great man. John who was lifted up even by Christ himself as an example. And there arose a question in verse 25 between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptiseth, and all men come to him. Here is the appeal of pride from the world. This man is getting all the attention, John. What do you think about this? John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth in the ear of him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. Here then is the attitude that we must have In the face of pride, we consider the humility of Christ. Of the littleness that became great. Of the greatness that became little. We must beat down pride. We must be little. We must endure the sufferings of this current time, this current life. We must be little in order to make much of Christ. We must, with John, say, He must increase, and I must decrease. Yet the sufferings of this present time are not worthy, remember, to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. And so, in the end, though we were little, yet the Lord will exalt us in the end. Let us consider these things tonight. And may the Lord give us grace to do so in our continued walk with the Lord. Amen.