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Micah 7:1-20
The Micah Mandate
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February 16, 2014 am
Preaching
“THE HOPE OF REVIVAL"
INTRODUCTION: We come, this morning, to the last oracle in the prophecy of Micah…
1. …his 7th and last message: the Hope of Revival
2. I said, seven weeks ago when we began this series, that I was not looking forward to preaching through
Micah, but I honestly have thoroughly enjoyed it. And I hope you have.
a. Our Assistant Pastors were right in choosing both Micah and Ruth as beginning sermon series for
this year.
b. 2014: “The More Excellent Way”
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians
13:13)
c. Loving others through Mercy Ministry
i. Get Off Our Donkey curriculum
ii. The Micah Mandate
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
iii. The Story of Ruth: God’s gracious Providence
iv. Our 2014 World Missions Conference: Missions and Mercy Ministry
v. When Helping Hurts Seminar (March 1st)
d. A great two-months of focusing on pure and undefiled religion.
i. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and
widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27)
ii. He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
3. I received an email from an old friend two weeks ago. He is 73 years old and has been called out of
retirement to pastor a church which tried to fire him back in 1985! Here was, in part, what he wrote to me
on February 3, 2014:
I turned 73 in December and hope the Lord continues to enable me to serve Him during these crucial days
of our nation's history, which brings me to the real reason for my e-mail. Mike, I'm convinced that unless
the Lord intervenes with a genuine revival of His people, America as we have known it will no longer be a
land of liberty, but a nation ruled by a tyrannical government. So for the remainder of this year, I want to
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preach sermons that will prepare the people for better understanding the need of and hope for revival.
Mike, my heart has been since we prayed together in the 80s, and continues to be, crying for genuine
revival. I treasure our 1987 "A Manifesto for Revival and Reformation" and have just recently re-read
Lloyd-Jones' "Joy Unspeakable" for the ?? time. It's dog-eared and filled with my notes and comments in
the margins.
4. My friend reflects the sentiments of millions and millions of Americans who are concerned about the
moral, spiritual, political, and social life of America. They sense that something is wrong that only God
can fix. And they are correct!
5. Back in 1995, our friend George Grant wrote a book titled The Micah Mandate.
a. A book about responding to the Mandate (challenge or calling) of the prophet, Micah.
b. He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
c. Here’s what Dr. Grant wrote in the last chapter of his book –
As I travel around the country and speak to different groups, I am often asked what I think is the
greatest threat to the integrity and security of American life and culture. I suppose that those who
ask the question expect me to name one of many humanistic juggernauts that seem to be forever
laying siege to justice, mercy, and humble faith. Perhaps they expect me to name the American
Civil Liberties Union. And for good reason. There can be little doubt that the ACLU has
subverted justice in this land to an extraordinary degree. With more than six thousand cases in the
courts each year and with a blatantly political agenda, the vast reach of the organization has
tragically affected virtually every community and every family in America. But I don’t think that it
actually poses the gravest threat to our culture today. Perhaps they expect me to name Planned
Parenthood. And for good reason. There can be little doubt that the organization has subverted
mercy in this land to an extraordinary degree. With nearly two hundred affiliates and more than
eight hundred clinics nationwide, the multi-billion-dollar abortion and sex education
conglomerate has defiled the individuals of children, exploited the predicaments of the needy, and
appropriated the resources of tax payers in horrifyingly unprecendented ways. But I don’t think
that it actually poses the gravest threat to our culture today. Perhaps they expect me to name the
National Education Association. Again, for good reason. There can be little doubt that the NEA
has subverted humble faith in this land to an extraordinary degree. Now controlling more than 90
percent of the government schools in America, the organization and its army of lobbyists,
bureaucrats, and activists are largely responsible for the profound failure of public education
today—its ideological extremism, its lack of academic achievement, its brutal administrative
centralization, and its insensitivity to the unique integrity of families, schools, or communities. But
I don’t think that it actually poses the gravest threat to our culture today. Perhaps they expect me
to name some homosexual activist group like Act-Up, an environmentalist group like Greenpeace,
a globalist group like the United Nations, or a New Age group like Tikkun. And certainly each of
these organizations ought to raise our alarms and cause us great concern. But I don’t think that
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any of them actually poses the gravest threat to our culture today. In fact, all of these groups
taken together still do not seriously threaten justice, mercy, and humble faith. They are merely
symptoms of a deeper problem. Even with their access to billions of corporate philanthropy
dollars and tax revenues, their huge professional staffs, their monolithic control over the major
media outlets, and their stranglehold on the apparatus of cultural power, they do not have the
wherewithal to wreak havoc on the essential fabric of our society. Only one earthly institution has
that kind of power: the church. It is only when the church fails to fulfill its calling in this poor
fallen world that we have to really worry. It is only when the church fails to uphold the standards
of justice, mercy, and humble faith that the onslaughts of the enemies of truth can possibly have
their intended ill-effects. It is only when the church creates a vacuum by its own inactivity and
impiety that the minions of this world have the opportunity to exploit the innocent, the foolish, or
the inattentive. The only reason these groups have been able to make headway with their vile
plans is that the church has not been all that God has called us to be or done all that God has
called us to do. And the cure is simply the church adhering to its essential calling. It is found
when the elect of God yield to their divine mandate in every aspect and in every detail of their
lives.
6. In the course of history, the social ills of a nation have always been a reflection of that nations’ spiritual
woes.
7. Even unbelievers of sober mind acknowledge this truth.
8. When Octavius Augustus Caesar became Emperor of Rome, he became concerned about the moral
failures of his empire despite the “golden age” of her prosperity and power.
a. So in 18 BC, he brought forth a body of laws designed to return Rome to real soundness.
b. Anthony Everitt: Augustus; pp. 238, 240.
For some years during the twenties B.C. he mediated on social legislation, designed to purify
morals and encourage the family. Among respectable opinion, there was a consensus about the
failings of Rome’s ruling class: divorce was easy; young people were reluctant to marry; the
birthrate appeared to be falling; sexual license was widespread; some rich men avoided a public
career.
Over the years the legislation was repeatedly reviewed and amended, which rather suggest that
those against whom it was aimed found their way around its prohibitions.
c. The Julian Laws attacked widespread immorality and weakened families
i. Adultery became a public crime
ii. Tax penalties for bachelors and childless couples
iii. Tax incentives and civil benefits to having children
iv. Stricter laws concerning divorce
d. Augustus was also concerned that Rome was becoming too “secular” and irreligious –
e. Anthony Everitt: Augustus; p. 242.
Augustus recognized the importance of encouraging the state religion. In addition to the Temple
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of Apollo interconnecting with his house on the Palatine, and that of Jupiter Tonans on the
Capitol, Augustus built or refurnished many temples, all of them associated with him, his family,
and the regime.
However, something more than marble buildings was required to bring about a religious
renaissance. Some great event was called for, a sacred ceremony that would bring citizens
together to celebrate the dawning of a new age.
f. He commissioned a poet named Horatius Flaccus to write a hymn for the Summer Centennial
Games of 17 BC.
Goddess (Diana), make strong our youth and bless the Senate’s
Decrees rewarding parenthood and marriage,
That from the new laws Rome may reap a lavish
Harvest of boys and girls.
New Faith and Peace and Honour and old-fashioned
Conscience and unremembered Virtue venture
To talk again, and with them blessed Plenty
Pouring her brimming horn.
9. Of course, sadly, none of this worked to revive Roman society, reform Roman morals, or restore the
Roman family. The Roman Empire quickly skidded in vileness, viciousness, and vice beyond
imagination!
10. I too share the concerns of Caesar Augustus, Randy Riddle, George Grant, and millions of Americans –
especially Christians.
a. Our society is more and more like Rome everyday: fornication and adultery are rampant, abortion
is widespread, fewer and fewer children are being born, same-sex marriages have won general
approval, homosexuality is promoted throughout society, men are delaying marriage, and many
forego marriage altogether, pornography is epidemic, divorce is too easy and too common, and
fewer and fewer people are interested in Biblical Christianity and the church.
b. Evangelicals have tried all the wrong answers to these spiritual and social ills –
i. Tea-Party and Republican Politics
ii. The Moral Majority Lobby
iii. Shrill conservative Talk Shows
iv. Culture Wars, boycotts, protests, petitions
v. Promise Keepers, Passion Concerts, Coalitions, etc.
c. But we have avoided the one, true solution: The Revival and Reformation of the American
Church…us!
11. Here’s why we have avoided this obvious solution: It is easier to blame those liberal organizations “out
there” for the spiritual problems “in here.” And it’s easier to protest than to pray. We’d rather vote for a
man than wait upon God…and here’s the main problem: We’d rather condemn others in our pride
than humble ourselves before God!
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a. He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
b. The Key: “to walk humbly with your God.”
c. But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the
humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw
near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your
hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
(James 4:6-10)
12. We need genuine revival. And The Hope of Revival is what Micah speaks about in Micah 7:1-20.
a. Four paragraphs…
b. Once more Micah speaks from Four Time Perspectives of Time
c. 7:1-6…The Remorse of God’s People
d. 7:7-8…The Repentance of God’s People
e. 7:9-13…The Restoration of God’s People
f. 7:14-20…The Revival of God’s People
I. THE REMORSE OF GOD’S PEOPLE (Micah 7:1-6)
Woe is me! For I have become
as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
The godly has perished from the earth,
and there is no one upright among mankind;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and each hunts the other with a net.
Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together.
The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.
Put no trust in a neighbor;
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have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
(Micah 7:1-6)
1. Micah begins his 7th and last oracle as a lament: “Woe is me!” (literally: “What misery is mine!”)
2. Micah’s lament is constructed in two parts:
a. Complaint: What is wrong (1-6)
i. Accusations (1-4a)
ii. Affliction (4b-6)
b. Confidence: What we must do (v. 7)
c. Micah’s lament is a marvelous piece of poetry.
3. Micah’s complaint before the Lord: He lives in a society barren of virtuous, godly fruit.
a. Woe is me! For I have become
as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
(Micah 7:1)
i. i.e., He feels like a vinedresser who goes looking for the grape harvest at the end of
summer only to find that the vines are barren, apparently stripped by others.
ii. Bruce Waltke: Micah: TOTC; p. 200.
In an allegory the prophet, who represents the Lord, compares himself to a vinedresser
who after patient and assiduous labour on his vines and trees comes to his vineyard in
June, looking for the first ripe clusters of sweet grapes and early figs that grow with the
vine but to his dismay finds a stripped vineyard and bare trees, for vandals have
stripped it clean. Every gardener longs for the first fruit of his patient effort and woe to
the person who picks it before him, especially the vandal who picks it clean! The
vineyard is Israel and the fruit is righteous magistrates.
iii. God gave the same allegory to Isaiah, Micah’s colleague:
Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
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and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry! (Isaiah 5:1-7)
iv. Asaph had written the same things, a century or two before.
You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
It sent out its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the River.
Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
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Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
the stock that your right hand planted,
and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
Then we shall not turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call upon your name!
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved! (Psalm 80:8-19)
v. Jeremiah used the same verbal imagery in his vision of two baskets of ripe figs
(Jeremiah 24), and in his lament over Judah going into exile in Babylon.
My joy is gone; grief is upon me;
my heart is sick within me.
Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and with their foreign idols?”
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. (Jeremiah 8:18-21)
b. What kind of fruit was left for the Lord in His vineyard of Israel? The rotten fruit of
unrighteousness…
i. Godly people seemed to have vanished.
The godly has perished from the earth,
and there is no one upright among mankind;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and each hunts the other with a net. (Micah 7:2)
ii. Violence, evil, bribery, injustice, treachery, distrust, contempt, broken families, a
loveless society…
iii. They all lie in wait for blood,
and each hunts the other with a net.
Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
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thus they weave it together.
The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.
Put no trust in a neighbor;
have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
a man's enemies are the men of his own house. (Micah 7:2b-6)
iv. Much like Jesus foretold in our days!
1. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to
bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a
daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. (Matthew 10:3436)
2. Jesus is quoting Micah 7:6.
3. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and
children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be
hated by all for my name's sake.
(Mark 13:12-13)
4. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will
be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and
betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise
and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of
many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
(Matthew 24:9-13)
c. What God is always looking for is the Fruit of the Spirit in His people and in society as His
Church acts as the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the leaven of the Gospel –
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
d. But when the church is worldly and the saints are fleshly, what God finds is the Fruit of the
Flesh –
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,
sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy,
drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who
do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
4. Micah returns again to his critique of the corrupt leaders of Jerusalem and Judah –
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a. Princes, judges, “great men” and watchmen
b. The “watchmen” were heard his fellow prophets
c. …but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast. (Isaiah 61:6)
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I
bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and
make him their watchman, and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the
trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take
warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He
heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But
if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword
coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes
and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require
at the watchman's hand.
“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a
word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked
one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that
wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you
warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die
in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. (Eze. 33:1-9)
I set watchmen over you, saying,
‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’ (Jeremiah 6:17)
d. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together.
The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand. (Micah 7:3-4)
5. You can’t even trust your friend, your neighbor, or your own family anymore.
Put no trust in a neighbor;
have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
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the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
(Micah 7:5-6)
6. Martin Luther: Works: Micah; vol. 18; pp. 271-272.
I take this passage to mean that the prophet is describing in general terms the faithlessness of the
people; if we do not understand it in this way, everything will hang together poorly. As we say in
German Es ist nein treuer Mensch auf Erden, (“There is no faithful man on earth”), so the prophet
speaks here. It is as if he were saying: “The people trust neither their princes nor their priests nor
their prophets, because they teach false doctrines,” as he mentioned earlier. He is saying this, then, to
humble the people, to take away their vain smugness, and to draw them away from the empty promises
of the false prophets with which they were promising peace and tranquility, as he said earlier, when
there was no peace, as Jeremiah says. I believe that this entire passage is proverbial, as if he were
saying, “Do not be deceived by false promises with which the false prophets are enticing you, because
otherwise, too, there is no faith in men. Have faith in God alone, for He cannot lie and deceive.”
7. Luther is right. And his comments help us segway to Micah’s next point…
a. From complaint to confidence
b. His confidence in God alone…
c. But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7)
d. Micah is pointing to the #1 reason the church needs revival, in age after age: They lost their
confidence in God and began to trust in men!
e. David learned this truth…
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with the saving might of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright. (Psalm 20:6-8)
f. So did Asaph…
He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
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and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
(Psalm 78:5-8)
8. Tell me…honestly…please: To whom do you look to solve the deeply-rooted spiritual and social ills of
our society? To Washington, D.C. or the University? Or to heaven and God?
9. Micah’s greatest woe (lament) is not about corrupt society but over the people of God who’ve lost
their love and confidence in God.
II. THE REPENTANCE OF GOD’S PEOPLE (Micah 7:8-9)
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the Lord
because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication. (Micah 7:8-9)
1. In this tiny paragraph of two verses, Micah moves from remorse over society’s corruption, to a return
to God in confidence and then repentance over our own sins.
2. He acknowledges, without complaint or excuse, that Israel deserved the judgment of God: The
Babylonian Captivity.
I will bear the indignation of the Lord
because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication. (Micah 7:9)
3. He tells his enemies – Assyria, Babylon, Moab, Ammon, Edom – to get the laughs over Israel’s
demise quickly, because it won’t be long before God restores His people by His grace.
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me. (Micah 7:8)
4. Here is the true measure of Biblical repentance –
a. First: You stop making excuses and admit that you have sinned against God –
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i. I will bear the indignation of the Lord
because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
(Micah 7:9a)
ii. For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment. (Psalm 51:3-4)
b. Second: You keep things in perspective. Your sin is not the last word; God’s grace is. God
will restore the repentant.
i. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.
(Micah 7:8)
ii. Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:12-17)
c. Third: You remember the goodness of God and focus on His holiness and love, but not your
sins.
i. He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication. (Micah 7:9b)
ii. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if
anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is
the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole
world. (1 John 2:1-2)
iii. Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
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Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin! Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar. (Psalm 51:1-2, 18-19)
5. Do you see Micah’s logic and God’s way in these verses? Once we stop blaming other people for
what’s wrong with our world, and stop trusting in men to fix things, then we are ready to face our own
sins, repent of them without excuse, and look forward, in joy, to a restoration from the Gracious God
in whom we trust!
6. And Micah saw that restoration from afar…
III. THE RESTORATION OF GOD’S PEOPLE (Micah 7:10-13)
Then my enemy will see,
and shame will cover her who said to me,
“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will look upon her;
now she will be trampled down
like the mire of the streets.
A day for the building of your walls!
In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
In that day they will come to you,
from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to the River,
from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
But the earth will be desolate
because of its inhabitants,
for the fruit of their deeds. (Micah 7:10-13)
1. Follow his timeframe:
a. Woe to me! Now. In Israel’s present sinful condition (v. 1)
b. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy, when I fall…The Exile in 605 BC (v.8)
c. Then my enemy will see…The restoration in 538 BC (v. 10)
2. Micah looks down the corridor of time and visualizes the Restoration of Israel in 538 BC – almost 200
years in the future!
3. Israel’s enemies will be ashamed that they taunted the Jews when they went into exile: “Where is the
Lord your God?”
a. Then my enemy will see,
and shame will cover her who said to me,
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“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will look upon her;
now she will be trampled down
like the mire of the streets. (Micah 7:10)
b. Answer: Distant from us in our sin because we have grieved Him and quenched the Spirit…
c. But also near to us to revive and restore us in due season, in His Providence.
4. Things will change? Israel would return to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, rebuild their walls and
their temples, and see the Jews of the diaspora come back to Jerusalem…
a. …from Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, East, West, North and South…sea to sea, mountain to
mountain…
b. A day for the building of your walls!
In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
In that day they will come to you,
from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to the River,
from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. (Micah 7:11-12)
5. Key words: “In that day…” (v. 12) – the future day of restoration from Babylonian Exile.
6. “That day…” is a fluid reference, in the prophetic literature, to the age that spans from the Restoration
of Israel to the Return of Christ –
a. The Restoration of Israel and Second Temple Judaism (538 BC – Christ)
b. The Glory of Israel when Christ was in Jerusalem
c. The Pentecost Revival of Acts 2: “Glory in the Land”
d. The Spread of the Gospel, worldwide, in the age of the Church.
e. i.e., in the age in which we live
f. A day for the building of your walls!
In that day the boundary shall be far extended. (Micah 7:11)
g. A prophetic/poetic reference to the spread of the New Testament church and the Kingdom of
God: “In that day the boundary shall be far extended.”
h. How far? To the ends of the earth and the end of the age!
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)
7. But not everything will be well: Outside of the church the world remains “desolate” because of
unrepentant sin.
But the earth will be desolate
because of its inhabitants,
for the fruit of their deeds. (Micah 7:13)
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8. David Prior: Micah: BST; p. 195.
a. As the Lord gathers all his redeemed people into the fold, his judgment will fall on those who
have rejected his rule. This judgment will be worldwide, and the earth will be desolate
because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their doings (13). This desolation, which is parallel
to the imminent desolation of Judah and Jerusalem (5:13, 16) at the hand of invaders, will be
in stark contrast with the prosperity and fertility of the New Jerusalem, whose citizens will
‘dwell apart’ (NIV) in a forest in the midst of a garden land (14). While the rest of the earth is
laid waste, the land of the renewed Israel will be teeming with good things – like Bashan and
Gilead as in the days of old.
b. Once again: The prophet uses images of his world to illustrate spiritual realities.
c. Speaking in hyperbolic terms to enforce the wonder of what God will do
9. Because God will revive His people, the church, and take them to glory with Him in the New Heaven
and Earth…
IV. THE REVIVAL OF GOD’S PEOPLE (Micah 7:14-20)
Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land;
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show them marvelous things.
The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
their ears shall be deaf;
they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
like the crawling things of the earth;
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
and they shall be in fear of you.
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
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You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old. (Micah 7:14-20)
1. God will again shepherd His Church and show them marvelous things – as He did in the Exodus, the
Promised Land, the kingdom of David, the time of Christ, the age of the apostles, the history of the
church –
Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land;
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show them marvelous things. (Micah 7:14-15)
2. The world will be both astonished at God’s work and ashamed of their unbelief and mistreatment of
the church –
a. The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
their ears shall be deaf;
they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
like the crawling things of the earth;
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
and they shall be in fear of you.
(Micah 7:16-17)
b. It will lead them to repentance from sin
c. To the fear of the Lord
d. And, finally, to faith in Christ and membership in His Church
3. Whenever God sends revival there comes a great, divine reversal. The Church, once held in low
esteem gains great favor with men. Preachers once ridiculed and rejected are asked to preach the
Word. Church attendance swells. Many are converted. Morals are revived. Lives are reformed.
Marriages renewed. Society is restored. God visits “the Lord” and godliness returns in abundance.
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
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Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
Yes, the Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way. (Psalm 85:6-13)
4. Most of you cannot imagine that. It is foreign to all you’ve ever known.
5. But I have had a taste of it, back in the late 1970’s, when the Jesus Movement (1965-1980) reached
its zenith and millions of my generation came to know the Lord. You could almost feel the presence
of Jesus Christ in the streets, and factories, and churches of Memphis, Tennessee and throughout
America!
6. This is always the way it is when revival comes!
7. In 1858, during America’s Third Great Awakening (the NY Prayer Revival), the newspaper in
Appleton, Washington, The Appleton Post-Crescent: April 10, 1858, carried this post:
a. The “Grand Revival” is becoming a universal thing throughout the Union. All our exchanges
from those ponderous city dailies down to the smallest of country weeklies, fill their columns to
overflowing with accounts of “revivals,” “business men’s meetings,” “protracted meetings,”
&c., which feature we are glad to behold in all of them. The excitement has spread from city to
city, and from village to village; and we hope it may continue to spread from place to place,
and from country to country, until the whole world is following in “the narrow path.” Let the
work go on.
b. Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge: A God-sized Vision; p. 87.
8. Revival is nothing less than a visitation of Jesus Christ, to His worldly, slumbering, dead church,
which reverberates around the land –
a. Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old. (Micah 7:18-20)
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b. The God who forgives and refreshes
c. The God who remembers His Covenant Promises
d. The God whose steadfast love is greater than all sin
e. The God who is faithful even to His unfaithful church
f. The God who keeps His promise to a thousand generations: “I will be a God to you and to your
children after you to a thousand generations, and you will be My people.”
g. In Jesus Christ, all this comes true!
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter
our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:20)
9. Jesus Christ coming in revival!!!
CONCLUSION: I will tell you something you must never forget…
1. Christ will revive His church and take back this world for God!
2. Because Jesus promised to do just that!
a. “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this
purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I
have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it
had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come
for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast
out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:27-32)
b. Lifted up on the Cross
c. Lifted up in Gospel witness
d. Lifted up in prophetic preaching
e. Lifted up in spiritual worship
f. Lifted up in earnest prayer
g. Lifted up in penitent hearts and homes
h. Lifted up in the reviving of the Holy Spirit
3. Jonathan Edwards: The History of Redemption: Works: vol. 1; p. 539.
When the Spirit of God begins a work on men’s hearts, it immediately sets them to calling on the name of
the Lord. So it has been in all remarkable effusions of the Spirit of God recorded in Scripture; and so it is
foretold it will be in the latter days. It is foretold, that the Holy Spirit will be poured out as a spirit of
grace and supplication. It may here be observed, that from the fall of man, to our day, the work of
redemption in its effect has mainly been carried on by remarkable communications of the Spirit of God.
Though there be a more constant influence of God’s Spirit always in some degree attending his
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ordinances; yet the way in which the greatest things have been done towards carrying on this work,
always have been by remarkable effusions, at special seasons of mercy.
4. God made a promise to us about Jesus Christ –
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:1-9)
a. Did you hear that?
b. They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)
5. How shall this come to pass? Answer: Revivals!
a. God will push His Gospel mission forward through the nations of the earth.
b. Revivals in those lands will build the church and fill them with converted souls.
c. As we’re seeing in South America, China, Africa, and Asia today
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d. But as the Gospel advances eastward, the church is dying in the West: Europe, Canada, America.
e. But – local revivals will come to renew these old, dying churches, until…
f. Someday in the future – “on that day” as the prophets say – the Holy Spirit will be poured out in
one last, great, awesome revival –
g. “And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of
the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said,
and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. (Joel 2:28-32)
h. “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
(Acts 2:17-21)
6. And then, everywhere there has ever been a true church of Christ – Israel, Ethiopia, Coptic Egypt,
Byzantine Church of Asia Minor, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, liberal Protestants, worldly
evangelicals, fleshly charismatics, apostate church – all of them will experience a mighty work of the
Spirit –
a. Repentance, faith, conversion, holiness
b. And, in a brief period of time, the Sons of God will cover the earth with praise to God…
c. …and witness to Christ!
d. And the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea!
7. Impossible? Not so. With God all things are possible!
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The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the
middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very
many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can
these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these
bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones:
Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause
flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall
know that I am the Lord.”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and
the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh
had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me,
“Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he
commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly
great army.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones
are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says
the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will
bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and
raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will
place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it,
declares the Lord.”
(Ezekiel 37:1-14)
8. God will do it! The only question is what you will do…
a. Repent of your sins, return to God, rejoice in your Savior
b. Or sit there with sour spirits and hardened hearts
c. Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation. (Psalm 85:6-7)
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