All right, our sermon text, as Pastor Roddy just mentioned, is Micah 5, verses 1 through 6. Sorry. All right, Micah 5, verses 1 through 6. This is the word of the Lord. Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops. Siege is laid against us. With a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel, and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. and he shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men. They shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod at its entrances. And he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border. Thus ends the reading of God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible word. And may God bless the reading of his word. At this time, let us pray and ask for the Lord to illumine this text to our understanding. O Lord God, you have clearly informed us in your word apart from which we would be ignorant, and apart from the help of your Spirit we would be ignorant, that we are in ourselves darkness, that we have no light in us, that we are utterly dependent upon you, not simply because we're creatures, but because we're fallen, because we're lost in sin apart from your grace, apart from the person of Christ, and the powerful application of it to us by your Spirit. And so we pray that even now as we come to approach your word, you would be here with your spirit, and that you would apply Christ to us. Enable us to hear, open our eyes, ears, and hearts. Open them wide so that we might receive your word. And we ask this in Christ's name, amen. Whenever, as here, we come upon a text of scripture that contains a prophecy of the future, it's good to keep certain things in mind. This text, like our text in the morning, is a prophecy. And I could have just as well prefaced that sermon with some of these comments that I'm about to make. But I think they have special application here. One of the first things that prophecy presupposes, it reminds us of, and so it's good to get out there right up front, is it assumes God's sovereign, all-comprehensive decree. God speaks with respect to the future precisely because he has decreed it. He's not looking through a crystal ball, he's not looking down the corridor of time. He is consulting his own eternal counsel, his own plan with respect to history. And so prophecy is a reminder to us of that, that our God is a sovereign, decreeing, foreordaining, predestinating God. A second thing that prophecy reminds us of is God's works of creation and providence by which God executes his decree. And the point here is very similar. The reason God can speak with respect to the future and tell us what's going to happen is not only because he planned it, but because he's going to bring it to pass. He's going to execute it. These two points, and I'm going to make a couple more, but these two points already tell us something. Maybe you haven't heard this and you're better off if you haven't. I'm going to spoil things for you in any case, but there are people out there in the world who profess to be Christians who will tell you that God doesn't know the future. And they'll even refer to themselves as open theists. That's the popular theological term for them. But essentially what they're saying is the future's open. There's all these possibilities even for God. Isn't that glorious? And they really do think that it is glorious. God is struggling along with us, but prophecy is a rebuke to all of that. The Lord's not guessing at the future. It's not open. He's not just, you know, playing a game of chess and He's really good at it because He knows, you know, He's played the game so often. That's not the picture of God in Scripture. In fact, Scripture makes it very clear that things aren't open but fixed in many ways, certainly with respect to God's decree. Think, for example, of Acts 17, one of my favorite texts, Acts 17, verse 31. In that text, Paul tells the philosophers in Athens, which included Stoics and Epicureans, but he told them that God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has appointed, and has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. Paul says God has fixed the day. It's not open. There's no guesswork. That day is fixed. It's marked down in the Lord's calendar. That day is certain. Well, a third thing that prophecy always reminds us of is that the Lord is the true God. Perhaps you'll remember in Isaiah 40 through 45 or thereabouts, there's this section which is often called the trial of the gods. And what that section is, is God rebuking the people of Israel for chasing after these other gods that can do nothing. And he'll say things to the gods, taunting them, really taunting their followers since those gods didn't exist. But taunting them, say, do something, whether good or bad, do anything. We'll be pleased with that. Just declare it to us and do it. And the point is that you can't declare it. You don't know what's going to happen. And if one of these, for example, if there was a, if you will, if the devil behind these people and their false worship had decided to do something, the Lord would simply thwart it. That's the picture that's being presented there. And so Isaiah makes statements like the true God, Yahweh, is the only one who can declare the end from the beginning. And again, he can declare the end from the beginning because he has decreed and providentially brings to pass everything from beginning to end. And so, simply put, if I can just roll that all up into one nice little sentence. Prophecy, all prophecy, not just this text that we're going to look at, but all prophecy is a reminder to us that we serve the true God who plans, executes His plan, and this is a fourth point that I wanted to make and didn't, but He reveals His plan to us in Holy Scripture. And when we see a prophecy in scripture, it reminds us that this is the Word of God. Simply because only the true God can predict the future. Only the true God can tell us what's going to happen. And so, we come upon a text like this, it's good to keep those things in mind. But it's especially relevant to keep these things in mind, I think, as we turn to look at this prophecy in particular. A prophecy as astounding as this one, that speaks of our Lord's humble birth in the little, insignificant town of Bethlehem. And then concludes by telling us that he will be great to the ends of the earth and that he will be our peace. A text like this cries out for us to be reminded of these things. The fact is that many people, as they look at the world around us, they don't see a world like that. You don't see a world full of peace. You don't see a world in which our Lord is acknowledged, His greatness is recognized by people all across the earth. You certainly find people in different places across the earth, in all nations I believe, but you don't see Him being universally acknowledged. And so many people, when they look at this, they assume that the trajectory of history is otherwise than what you read in God's Word. They assume that this is the picture of where things are going. That things are going, in fact, some Christians even will tell you that everything is going to hell in a handbasket. And maybe you've heard the statement, why bother going out there into the world and trying to, some will even say evangelize, even though God's word is clear on this, whatever you think is going to happen about the future, he's clearly commanded that Christians are to go out into the world. But some are so convinced that that's going to be fruitless, worthless, it's not going to go anywhere, that they'll say it's like polishing brass on a sinking ship. You guys heard that? When the Titanic was going down, were people over there scrubbing the decks and polishing up the brass? No, it was worthless. There was no good reason to that. But this is very mistaken. And there's a number of reasons why it's mistaken. But one thing is that essentially what people are doing is they're interpreting the world around them in light of, they're interpreting scripture in light of the daily newspaper. And so what they'll do is they come upon a passage like this in scripture which speaks of our Lord's greatness, His being great to the ends of the earth, and they'll try and tone it down or reinterpret it and somehow try to bring it into alignment with what they think is being played out in history. Now perhaps you've been tempted to think this way. And if you have been, this passage should be an encouragement to you to lift up your thoughts because the future is grand. The future will see the world acknowledging the Lord Jesus. I mentioned those principles earlier because prophecy by its very nature is a rebuke to this kind of mindset. Prophecy by its very nature reminds us that all such thinking as this tacitly assumes something other than the God of Scripture, the God whose purpose cannot be thwarted, The God who planned everything and who will execute everything and bring everything about exactly as He has spoken in His Word. And so, in other words, simply, we're not to interpret the world around us in light of what we think is the trajectory of history, but what God tells us is the trajectory. And just to give you an illustration of what I'm talking about here, I know this is a long intro, but think of the example of Abraham. Abraham was given many promises from God. He was given the promise of a land that he would be a blessing to all nations on earth. He was promised that he would be given a seed. But if you looked at Abraham's circumstances, if you looked at the daily newspaper, here's what you would have read. Daily newspaper, newsflash, Abraham quarrels with people over wells that he had dug. He's quarreling. Often you see in Scripture these people are trying to get the wells that he had dug. God promised him a great land and here he is quarreling over wells. Newsflash, Abraham is buying a plot of ground to bury his wife in the very land God had promised him. Certainly this doesn't look like a man who's everything's working out the way God has said. Or, Newsflash, Abraham promised that his descendants would be so great, so numerous, that they would be greater than the sands on the seashore. However, his wife is barren, no son. Or newsflash, the very son that God said would be the son of the covenant, the son of promise, the son through whom the seed would come ultimately, who would be the source of blessing to the world. God has ordered Abraham to go sacrifice his son. Over and over again, the circumstance outward to Abraham suggested just the sort of thing that I'm talking about. It suggested that everything's going to hell in a handbasket. But Abraham, what are we told? He hoped against hope. He believed the Word of God in spite of what his circumstances were suggesting to him. And because of that, we're told God confirmed His covenant with Abraham. Well, another thing that I want to mention as we get into this passage that is important to keep in mind about prophecy in general, and this prophecy in particular, is that it's more often than not the case that what we're told in a particular passage is piecemeal and so needs to be read in conjunction with other things mentioned in Scripture. God doesn't put everything that He wants to say about something in one place, and so we often need to gather up these things. And failure to keep this mind can be very detrimental. Think here, for example, of unbelieving Jews and Muslims. One of the things that I often hear from Jews and Muslims, and especially Jews, is that Jesus is not the Messiah precisely for this reason. He is not universally acknowledged. He's not great to the ends of the earth. The world is not characterized by peace. But isn't that what scripture says would be the case when Messiah comes? Messiah was supposed to establish peace, but we don't see that. We don't see universal peace. Well, what they're missing here is that the scriptures that speak of the peace that will flow from Messiah don't speak of it as something that's instantaneous or that will come overnight in some cataclysmic way through some apocalyptic series of events. Rather, the scriptures tell us that this is going to take place progressively and ultimately it tells us it's going to take place through the work of the church. which makes it, therefore, of practical relevance to us. But think, for example, of the prophet Isaiah. And you'll know this prophecy. The prophet Isaiah, Micah's older contemporary, writing in the same vein as Micah. In fact, you should hear some echoes or resonances here. Certainly, they're very similar in content, if not in vocabulary. This is what Isaiah said about the same child that Micah was speaking of in Isaiah 9-6. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." But then Isaiah immediately adds the following words, there will be no end to the increase of his government and of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forever. The operative term there is the term increase. Again, it's progressive. It's something that's going to take place over time. And you should recognize this as of a piece with our Lord's kingdom parables. Remember in the kingdom parables, Jesus gave several parables in which he spoke of the kingdom of God growing. It's like a mustard seed which is planted, it's very small, but then it becomes so large that all the birds come and nest in its branches. And then of course you can think of numerous other Old Testament prophecies like Daniel, where Daniel talks about a rock being cut out of a mountain without hand and smiting the other kingdoms on earth and then growing so large that it fills the whole earth and becomes a great mountain. Well, essentially, that's what Micah's referring to, although he hasn't given us all the details of it. And so, as we keep those things in mind, and you'll see these have more relevance than I've brought out so far, but I want to turn to Micah then with these thoughts in mind. The oracle begins in verse 1, Micah 1, with Micah referring to otherwise proud Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion. Elsewhere in the book he refers to Jerusalem as the daughter of Zion. The prophets often do that. But he refers to otherwise proud Jerusalem as the daughter of troops. He refers to her in this way and tells her inhabitants to muster themselves together in truce. And he does this because on account of their sin and rebellion against the Lord, Sin and rebellion fully laid out in the preceding context in chapters 1 through 4. Because of this, they're going to be besieged. You see that there in verse 1, along with them being referred to as the daughter of troops. In fact, not only will siege be laid against them, but the idea is that they're going to be completely overtaken. That's contained in the idea that the judge of Israel is going to smite him on the cheek. In order for them to seize the king or the ruler of Israel, then it means that Israel has been completely overtaken. The last person they'd be able to take is the king, unless things have been utterly decided in favor of their enemies. And so the picture that Micah is painting here is a bleak one. Israel, because of her sins, has fallen under God's judgment. And God, through the prophet Micah, is telling them, get ready, muster yourselves together. I am stirring up war against you. Remember we read earlier this morning in Deuteronomy 18 how the Lord said if you rebel against me the same sorts of things are going to happen to you that happen to those nations. But of course the Lord has made covenant with them so if they repent the Lord will relent and the judgment will be averted. Well what's interesting here is that we actually see some proof of that. We see an indication of that historically if we pay attention to what happened. Micah is prophesying at the time of a number of kings, but the king that this initially starts under is King Hezekiah. During the time of Hezekiah, the Assyrians had come in in 701 B.C. and they began to lay waste to the cities of Israel. So the Assyrians have come in and they've trampled on cities. And now we're told in 701 B.C. the Assyrians have surrounded Jerusalem, the city of the king. They've surrounded Jerusalem, the city where God's temple is. The place where Israel thought that nothing could happen, even though the Lord had told them, if you sin against me, then something will happen. This house will not protect you. It's faithfulness to God's covenant that's all decisive. But they had sinned against the Lord, and so here's Sennacherib and the Assyrian army surrounding Jerusalem. But then a remarkable thing happens. A remarkable thing happens. We're told in the prophets, that when Hezekiah heard about this, he tore his clothes and threw dust and ashes on his head. He repented, in other words. He recognized his sin, and with grief and hatred of it, and an apprehension of God's covenant mercies, he turned from them to God. And this is where the remarkable thing is that happens. In fact, before I mention that, what's interesting is, we're told in Jeremiah 26, so Jeremiah's writing later, Jeremiah 26 tells us why Hezekiah repented. Hezekiah repented because of the preaching of Micah. That's what the prophet later tells us. Hezekiah repents because of the preaching of Micah. And then here's the remarkable thing. What happens? Jerusalem's surrounded. Her doom has been predicted. So what's going to happen? Will the Lord keep His word or break His word? Is it breaking His word if He doesn't do it? Well, what happens is that the Lord, the angel of the Lord, have you read this passage? If you read Isaiah 36, 37, 38, there's the passage where it speaks of the angel of the Lord going forth and routing 185,000 of the Assyrian army. In a single blow. In fact, interestingly enough, if you've read the historian Herodotus, Herodotus actually records this for us. This isn't just something in the scriptures. Of course, Herodotus is ignorant of the higher causes of this. He doesn't know that it's the angel of the Lord who's ultimately back of these things directing it. But Herodotus tells us that a plague struck the Assyrian army that had surrounded Jerusalem. In fact, he also tells us that rats had gone in, mice, field mice had gone in, and they gnawed away at the bow strings and the shield straps and so forth. So the Assyrians are not only being struck down, but whatever soldiers are remaining don't have useless tools to fight with. And so, essentially, what we have here is, if you read later in Micah, Hezekiah recognizes, and the Lord proves true to it, he recognizes what Micah tells us in 7.18. In fact, we heard it this morning in the Word of Pardon. Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious acts or act of the remnant of his possession? That's essentially what's happened here. But that shouldn't be mistaken for saying that this word isn't going to come to pass. All this was was a foreshadowing. The people repented and the Lord didn't carry out against them at that time the disaster that he had prophesied. But eventually Israel's kings, later kings, rebelled against the Lord once again. The people returned to their sin. And so we're told that the Lord executes judgment against them once again, but only this time under the Babylonians. Maybe you noticed it, maybe you didn't, but towards the end of the passage, did you notice how when it talks about the glorious consequences that will result from Messiah's coming? Is that Assyria and the land of Nimrod will no longer be a threat? The land of Nimrod refers to Babylon, right? Nimrod was the founder of Babylon. And so, essentially, what the prophet's later saying is, once the Messiah comes and establishes His reign and accomplishes His peace, these two great nations will no longer be a threat to Israel. But, at this point, they are. And the prophet tells us that they're going to be utterly given over. In fact, verse 3 tells us that they're going to be given over until the time when the child is born. When she who is in labor gives birth. And this brings us these observations. I didn't mention that the Babylonians did in fact come in. The Babylonians came in first in 597 BC and they took captive King Jehoiachin, the king at that time, and they also took everything, all the treasures, out of the house of the Lord. They took all the accouterments for worship, the Ark of the Covenant, among other things, the objects overlaid with gold. They took all of that, they took the mighty men of Judah, they took them all back captive to Babylon. But they left the temple standing. However, the next king, Nebuchadnezzar sets up another king in place of Zedekiah, or in place of Jehoiakim, which is Zedekiah. And that king eventually, 11 years later, rebels against the king of Babylon. And so the Babylonians come in and wipe out Israel once for all. In fact, they utterly destroy everything. They plow up Israel. If you would have gone there after the Babylonians had come through and tore up the entire area, you wouldn't have thought anybody lived there. This brings us then to verse 2. This is the dire circumstances. This is what God has said. And what you have to keep in mind here is that with the fall of Jerusalem and the capture of the kings, you have essentially the collapse of the Davidic dynasty. And this is all important. Don't miss this point. If you've phased out for a moment, don't miss this point. At this point, the Davidic dynasty has fallen and all appears lost. And you must understand, this is not simply the hope of Israel that has now fallen to the ground. This is the hope of everyone. This is our hope. This is your hope. Everything hinges upon the king that comes from David, the royal son. The promise that God originally made to Eve, that she would be given a seed, and that seed would ultimately defeat the tempter. That promise that was renewed with Abraham, that he would be given a seed through whom everyone would be blessed, that promise is continued down the line and eventually made to David. David is ultimately said to be the ascendant of that one who is to come. It would be one of his children who comes from his loins who would ultimately be the savior of the world. So the world's salvation hinges on this. And so what does the prophet say? Having spoken of the fall of the Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem, Micah then interjects this promise in verse 2. And here we have another one of those great buts in the Bible. You know those great buts. Ephesians 2 is the classic text where it says that you were dead in your trespasses and sins, incapable of doing anything to save yourself, but God who is rich in mercy made you alive together with Christ. Well, here you have one of those great buts. The Davidic dynasty is in shambles. Crowd and haughty Jerusalem, the city of the Davidic ruler, has been conquered or will be in the prophecy. But all is not lost. But, as for you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you, one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. While the Davidic dynasty will be cut off in Jerusalem, Micah, like Isaiah, effectively tells us that a shoot will spring from the stump of Jesse. David's father, remember in Isaiah 11.1, what Isaiah is describing in 11.1 is essentially the Davidic dynasty being cut off, but somehow suddenly a shoot springs from the stump of Jesse. And that's what Micah is telling us. Just like Isaiah, that a branch is going to spring from his roots and bear fruit. And then it says, the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him. And like David, this one will be born in Bethlehem. That's where David was born. A city too insignificant, too small to muster up enough men to be considered a clan of Judah. And we're told he will go forth for the Lord. Now, what's most breathtaking of all concerning this one, the one who would go forth from Bethlehem, born of a woman, is that he would not be going forth for the first time. Now, I like the ESV, especially in its Old Testament, when it translates the Old Testament, but here I have to disagree with the text. I don't think it's especially helpful at this point. When the ESV says that his origin is from his old... the word is actually plural. It's His goings forth that are from of old. And it's actually a contrast with what was said in the prior line. It says that He's going to go forth for me, and it's referring to His birth. But then it says His goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity. In fact, in Hebrew, this is the strongest way to indicate eternal time. So the prophet is speaking of one who's going to go forth at Bethlehem, but this isn't the first time this one has gone forth. This one has gone forth before. This one has gone forth from eternity, in fact. Now, some commentators, especially modern ones, think that this language, this is another part where they try and tone down the language, but they think that it only refers to the fact that the promise of Messiah's coming goes back a long time. That it's not Messiah himself. who's of ancient times, but it's the promise of his coming. But I disagree with that for a number of reasons and some of those will be apparent to you as we move through this. I think rather that it's referring to his goings forth at the creation of the world and in successive acts of providence and in his exploits as the angel of the Lord. When I referred to the angel of the Lord going forth to slay the Assyrian army, ultimately my point is that that was a pre-incarnate appearance and activity of the Lord Jesus. Now I want you to see that in a number of ways, but first of all, just think of the text that I quoted earlier. I mentioned Isaiah 9.6 earlier, and I mentioned it not only for the reasons previously given, but because the prophecy given by Micah and the prophecy given by Isaiah are clearly parallel. Now consider some of the parallels. It's parallel because just like Micah speaks of one to be born as a ruler, so Isaiah 9.6 tells us that the child to be born would have the government upon his shoulders. And just like Micah speaks of this one's goings forth, being from long ago, even from eternity, to be strictly accurate to the language, so Isaiah speaks of him as the father of eternity. In other words, he's eternal. It's a Hebrew idiom. And just like Micah says that this one will be our peace, so Isaiah refers to him as the Prince of Peace. You notice the parallel. One-to-one correspondence in all of these things. But there's something even further to be observed here. Recall that one of the names that Isaiah gives to this future child is Wonderful Counselor. Some people would say those are two different titles. But whatever the case, the term wonderful is used for him. And that's wonderful. It's wonderful for a number of reasons. One reason it's wonderful, and the reason that I want to bring up, is because that term is used exclusively for God in the Old Testament. It's never used for a creature. Sometimes it's used for something God does. For example, in Exodus 15, Moses said, Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders? Now, here's why this is significant. I said that it's only used for God in the Old Testament. And perhaps you're familiar with this, but there's another person that this word is used for, and it's used as a proper name in Hebrew. In the story of Samson, do you guys remember the story of Samson? In the story of Samson, remember the angel of the Lord appears to his parents before Samson's born. He appears to Manoah, Samson's father. And Manoah doesn't know who this figure is. He doesn't know that it's the angel of the Lord. He doesn't know that it's a divine theophany, God himself coming in the form of a created being. He's appearing as if a human being. And so Manoah asks him his name, and how does the angel of the Lord reply? The angel of the Lord replies by saying, why don't you ask my name? My name is wonderful. That's how the angel of the Lord replied. And we could go further down the road with this, but here's the point. By Isaiah referring to the future Messiah as wonderful, he uses what is clearly a divine predicate, a way of referring to God, exclusively to God. And the only other person in the Old Testament that this is used as a proper name for is the Angel of the Lord. And what I'm suggesting to you here is not very loose and tenuous and just something that I've come up with. This is something that was recognized by pre-Christian Jews. In fact, listen to how pre-Christian Jews understood this text before the coming of the Lord Jesus. We actually have some indication of what they believed about this text. If you look at the Greek translation of this Old Testament Hebrew prophecy, the Jews paraphrased it. And here's how they paraphrased it. For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder, and his name is called the angel of great counsel. The angel. The Jews recognized that the term wonderful is used exclusively for God or for a theophany of God, such as the angel of the Lord, and so they referred to the coming child as the angel of great counsel. This language, by the way, was picked up and used in Reformation creed, so this is also a solid reformed idea. In the Scots Confession of 1560, for example, a precursor to the Westminster Confession, we're told this in chapter 6. When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, His eternal wisdom. Note, by the way, the obvious resonance there with, or echo of Micah in Galatians 4.4. When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, His eternal wisdom, the substance of His own glory, into this world, who took the nature of humanity from the substance of a woman, a virgin by means of the Holy Ghost. And so was born the just seed of David, the angel of the great counsel of God, the very Messiah promised, whom we confess and acknowledge to be Immanuel, true God and true man, two perfect natures united and joined in one person." The just seed of David and the angel of the great counsel of God, that essentially sums up what Micah tells us about this child. This is the one that Micah says is our peace. And this, by the way, is why he is our peace. This is why he will be great to the ends of the earth. Because he is both God and man. Our Lord Jesus was not only the just seed of David, but a divine person come in the flesh. I mentioned earlier the tendency to toned down the high demands of a passage like this. And one of the things that I think is the most disturbing about it, perhaps, is that it detracts from our Lord's own glory, the glory of His person. We seem, you know, our Lord came into the world having experienced the glory of the Father from all eternity, that face-to-face relationship that He enjoyed. And He deserves to be universally acknowledged and universally praised, and we've detracted from that, detracted from what He deserves by saying that everything's going to hell in a handbasket. But maybe we're not adequately reflecting on those passages where it says that the very reward of His labors is the nations. The nations are going to be given to the Son. That's His reward. That's His glory. And when we detract from that, we're detracting from His glory, from what He deserves. Well, one of the things that... I thought about as I was looking at this text that I think is especially relevant to you is I think it's probably very easy to think as a small congregation that your service in the Church of Christ is not significant. Maybe, you know, you think of yourselves as too little. Certainly, I'm sure the world thinks of you as insignificant, as too little to be numbered or regarded just like little Bethlehem. But, the glorious thing is the Lord Jesus Christ is in your midst. the one who will be great to the ends of the earth. So you may be small in the eyes of the world, just like Bethlehem was, but our confidence is that the same Lord Jesus, who dwelt in eternal glory, who became flesh for us, and who's extending His rule, He dwells in our midst. And we're part of that overall work of spreading His name and fame into the world. As the Apostle Paul said, that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. And it's not in vain precisely for that reason. It was, I don't know if you've, well, in Matthew 2, there's something very interesting that Matthew does when he quotes this passage. You know that Matthew quotes it when he says that our Lord will be born in Bethlehem. In the prophecy in Micah, he says you're too little to be numbered among the clans of Judah. In other words, you're so insignificant that they don't even count you. You're not relevant to this battle that's about to take place. We don't need you. But, when Matthew quotes this passage, he changes things. He says, if you look at Matthew 2, if you turn there, at least I'll turn there. It says, you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. Now Matthew's not playing fast and loose with the text here by inspiration. What Matthew's doing is he's looking not at what Jerusalem was in itself, but what Jerusalem would be as a result of Messiah coming from her. Notice the connection, by the way. It says, you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for From you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." In other words, Bethlehem in itself was insignificant. However, because Messiah was going to come from her, she would be great. And ultimately, that's what I'm pointing out to you. The Lord Jesus Christ dwells in your midst. And so, as small as you are, or as small as the church is in the world as a whole, we're certainly not... We don't make up the bulk of the world, but the Bible speaks clearly to the fact that we will ultimately triumph in the name of the Lord. There's a glorious passage in Zechariah 12 that I think helps put some of this in perspective. In Zechariah 12 it says, In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the church of God, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, The one who is feeble among them will be like mighty King David. And the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them." The Church of God will be like the angel of the Lord before them. Though we are weak in ourselves, we are strong in Him. That's what the prophet is saying. We are strong in Him. And since the hymn there is the Lord Jesus, that means that we are strong in the Lord Jesus. That's why Paul repeatedly in the New Testament tells us, this should be second nature to us, this language. And Paul speaks repeatedly of putting something off and putting something on. What is he talking about? He's talking about putting off the old man, putting on the new man. And what is the new man? He's telling us to put on Christ. Put on Christ, in Christ, by virtue of faith in Him, we are united to Him and to all His benefits. And so Paul tells us, in light of that, this is what you are to do. You're to put on Christ. Put off all of these things. Put on Christ. He is our strength. Our strength to war against sin. Our strength to withstand the onslaught of the enemies. The enemies of Christ's church. We are weak in ourselves, but strong in Him. Over and over again, this is what Scripture tells us, right? It tells us that, cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you. And even though we are weak, He is strong. This is the constant word of encouragement to us in Christ throughout Scripture. Well, just to make a few comments about the rest of the context, it goes on to say that a number of things in the context that will result from Messiah's reign. And I think these tie in with what I mentioned earlier about the increase of his government. How is that piece going to extend into the world? Well, if you look in Micah 5, you'll notice that in, right here, Then notice that it says in verse 4, "...he will arise and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord his God." And then it says, "...and they will remain, because at that time he will be great to the ends of the earth." This one will be our piece, "...when the Assyrian invades our land, when he tramples on our citadels, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight leaders of men." Essentially, this is an idiom for gospel ministers. It's not talking about physical warfare. That's not the means of Christ conquering the world. Remember what Paul says? He does use military terminology like sword battles and so forth. But Paul in 2 Corinthians 10 says that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the tearing down of strongholds. He uses the same language of conquest from the Old Testament. Joshua and his battles against Jericho and so forth. But, he's telling us they're not carnal. They're precisely not those weapons that they were using. They're mighty through God. And so, this is an idiom here. When he speaks of God raising up shepherds, he's talking about gospel ministers. But that's not all. The text goes on and... It goes on to talk about how the people of the Lord will be great in all the nations of the earth. It says they'll be like lions that trample on those who would seek to oppose them. And the idea is that ultimately, as a result of the coming of the Lord, His name and fame is going to spread throughout the earth, His people will be strong in Him, and they're ultimately going to triumph over their enemies. Again, not in some militaristic sense. We're not Muslims. We're not going to cut people's heads off. But the idea is that in Christ we will ultimately bring him the glory and fame that he deserves. And what is this really in a sense? It's the very mandate that the church was given in Matthew 28. And this is my prime exhortation to you, which is, namely, don't assume that because you're small that the Lord has not called you to that same great commission. Don't assume because you're small that your efforts are fruitless. Don't assume that because you're small you can't go out in this community and see to it that the gospel is proclaimed and expect confidently that God will bring people into your midst, into your fellowship. The church itself didn't start with more than this, more than the people in this room. At one point the church consisted of 12 people, and then one of them was lost, Judas. And then at one point it was 120, and then at one point 3,000 were added. And then on and on until the church now numbers over a billion people, at least professing faith in Christ. The Lord's peace has been increasing in the earth. And if you want to look at the Daily Newspaper, well, not the Daily Newspaper, you should take a broader look at history. You know, the church has grown from 12 people to over a billion people. It has been increasing, as the Lord has promised. And so, again, the concluding exhortation is simply to observe that the Lord Jesus Christ is in your midst, And in His strength, He's clothed in the strength of the Lord, we're told, and we're to be clothed in Him. And in His strength, we can go forth, you can go forth, and you can see to it that people are brought to faith in Christ. With the help of the Spirit, obviously, and God's sovereignty, and the Lord decides who will believe. But the Lord Jesus Christ is great and he certainly deserves our effort toward those ends. The Lord Jesus Christ is great and deserves our all. He deserves everything from us. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for this word from Micah, which in itself is encouraging to us. We thank you for what it tells us about the Lord Jesus, that he's both God and man and so is able to rule and defend us. There's nothing that we need to fear, nothing can happen to us apart from his will. And we pray that we would take that confidence out into the world and live it out in our lives. and also implement it. Help us not to cower or fear in the face of people who don't believe or who hate or are hostile to what you say. We pray even for the woman that came in after the service earlier who expressed some hostility to the cross. We pray that she would ultimately bow the knee, that you would go forth and you would subdue her to yourself and subdue countless others. And we pray that you would even use us, as feeble as we are, to that end. And we ask and pray this in your name. Amen. At this time, let us sing hymn number 580, Leon O King Eternal.