(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

We're there in Micah chapter one, and we are continuing our study through the prophets. So we are in the minor prophets right now, and we just got done with Jonah going into Micah. So Micah is seven chapters long, and it's a great book. I love the book of Micah. And let's start off here in verse one to see who we're dealing with as far as where in the timeline Micah stands. And verse one here, it says, the word of the Lord that came to Micah, the Merashite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. So actually in this first verse you see, okay, where is he at in the timeline? So we're not dealing with in the captivity or even right before the captivity, we're dealing with really up to Hezekiah's day. So we really have a contemporary, if you will, with Isaiah. So Isaiah is in that same line, and you'll see that as we went from Hosea all the way down to here, we're in that timeline. So all these minor prophets are around that time of Isaiah, then Jeremiah, you know, that's later on. Okay? And what's interesting is that when you go to Jeremiah chapter 26, Jeremiah actually brings up Micah, okay? And so, and that's why you can see the clear delineation between the major prophets and the minor prophets. So from Isaiah down to Daniel, there's this clear chronological order of events, right, as far as what kings you're dealing with, all the way to Daniel where Daniel's coming out of the captivity and dealing with, you know, the Persians and coming out of that and all that. So, and then you go back to Hosea where you're back in Isaiah's day, okay? So these are called the minor prophets. And so from Hosea up to Micah, you are in this time of like Isaiah, okay? And Jeremiah brings them up from the past, okay? And I love this story here because Micah's going to be brought up and it's not Jeremiah that's saying, this is actually people that are saying this is why they shouldn't put Jeremiah to death, okay? So you have Judah, you know, Jeremiah's preaching against them saying, you're going to go into captivity, all this is going to go down. And they're basically wanting to put Jeremiah to death and he brings up Micah, okay? And notice the story here in verse 16. So Jeremiah 26 and verse 16, then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets, this man is not worthy to die for he hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God. So he's talking about Jeremiah. He's basically saying he's not worthy to die, he's just speaking the word of the Lord. Verse 17, then rose up certain of the elders of the land and spake to all the assembly of the people saying, Micah the Merashthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. So he's bringing up Micah, who we're reading, obviously it's the prophet Micah, and there's certain people that rose up of the elders of the land that said, hey, you know, he's not worthy to put to death and I'm going to bring up why. Because Micah, the Merashthite, in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and it says and spake to all the people of Judah saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be plowed like a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. So he's basically quoting, and I'm going to show you where he's quoting from, he's quoting the last part of Micah 3, and they're basically saying, you know, Micah said this, that Zion is going to be plowed like a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps. And notice what it says here, so these certain elders are basically bringing up this point. Verse 19, did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? Did he not fear the Lord and besought the Lord and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls. So bringing up Micah, and you know what's interesting is it shows you, first of all, when you read through Micah you understand that he's a hard preacher. He's preaching hard things to Judah, Jerusalem, and specifically in the very first verse of Micah you see the fact that he's basically preaching the word Lord concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. So Samaria is the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel and Jerusalem is the capital city of the southern kingdom of Judah. And he's basically preaching against them and in Jeremiah they're bringing up the fact that Micah preached against Jerusalem and Hezekiah didn't put him to death, so they're bringing up that point but it also shows you what kind of preacher Micah was. He was like Jeremiah but you have Micah but then they bring up Urijah. So be a Micah not a Urijah and here's the point, both these are good prophets. Micah is obviously a good prophet, Urijah I believe is a good prophet too. So Urijah was a prophet, a minor prophet if you will, that was preaching during Jeremiah's day so in verse 23, so here's Jeremiah 26 and verse 23, I'm sorry I skipped down too far, go to Jeremiah verse 20 there. It says, And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjethjirim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. So they're basically saying, hey there was this prophet that was preaching the same thing Jeremiah's preaching, okay, and notice what it says in verse 21, and when Jehoiakim the king, so obviously what time you're dealing with, you're dealing with Jeremiah's day when Jehoiakim was king and obviously that's who Jeremiah is dealing with, it says, And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely Elnathan the son of Akbor, and certain men with him into Egypt, and they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king who slew him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. Nevertheless, the hand of Ahicham the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. So he gives two different people here and the one Micah, you know what that means, he stood his ground, he stuck to his guns, and too many times we have preachers that will preach the word of God and then they have to apologize because there's pressure from the media, there's pressure from this wicked world, but you know what, you need to be a Micah, you need to be a Jeremiah, and God will take care of you. If you're a Urijah preaching the right things but then you go flee into Egypt, well guess what? What happened to Urijah? They went and fetched him out of there and put him to death. So you just got to stick to your guns, you got to preach the word of God unapologetically. You know when it comes to the word of God and what it says, you know we shouldn't be like, well I'm sorry it says that. I'm not sorry, I actually like it on top of that. You know it's not like, you know people are just like, well you know, do you believe that? I not only believe it, I love it. Now go to Micah chapter 3 because I want you to see where these certain men, these elders of Judah were quoting, right, they're basically saying, hey there was Micah, the Merashthite that was in the day of Hezekiah and this is what he preached, well this is what they bring up in verse 12 there at the end of the chapter. So Micah chapter 3 and verse 12 it says, Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps in the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. So that's what they quote off in saying, obviously that wasn't, they weren't giving them good news, right? That's not a good message to tell and be like, hey by the way your city's going to be plowed like a field and it's going to be like heaps, you know, and basically it's going to be destroyed. And this is talking about Babylon, I guess not the funny part, the coincidental part about this and how all this fits is that what Micah is saying to Jerusalem is concerning Babylon, okay. So remember Isaiah talks about Babylon a lot, we're going through the book of Isaiah and it'll bring up Babylon, how Babylon is going to be destroyed but also how Jerusalem and Judah was going to be taken captive by Babylon even though Hezekiah is hundreds of years away from that, okay. Or 150, it's a lot of years away from it, I can't remember exactly how many years it is from Hezekiah to the Babylonian captivity but you're dealing with over 100, I know that, maybe 200. We go to Micah chapter 4 and verse 10 and you'll see that he's talking about the fact that they're going to be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps, why? Because of Babylon. Now it brings up Assyria in the book of Micah because Assyria took out the northern kingdom, took out Samaria but because of Hezekiah and because he obviously listened to Micah, because remember in Jeremiah it says that the Lord repented to the evil that he said he'd do unto him because they, you know, listened to that preaching and they would have done the same if they would have listened to Jeremiah, right. God would have not destroyed them if they would have turned to him, okay. But obviously we know the end of the story, they don't and Jerusalem gets taken by Babylon. But in Micah chapter 4 and verse 10 it says, be in pain and labor bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail for thou shalt, I'm sorry, now shalt thou go forth out of the city and thou shalt dwell in the field and thou shalt go even to Babylon. There shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. So Micah is hitting on the fact that hey, you're going to be taken out but you're also going to be redeemed from that because 70 years later we know the story, you read Ezra, you read Nehemiah, they come back into the land, they rebuild the temple, they rebuild the wall, they rebuild the city and obviously that temple is the temple that Jesus Christ stood in and so we know that they come back into the land and we see that to be true. But go back to Micah chapter 3 and I just want you to see that those men in Jeremiah are bringing up Micah and they read that last portion of Micah 3 but let's read that whole chapter and see what kind of preaching Micah had to say. In Micah 3 and verse 1 it says, and I said, here I pray you, O heads of Jacob and you princes of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know judgment? Now who's he talking to? Talking to the layman on the street or is he talking to the authorities? He's talking to the heads, right? He's talking to the government and he's saying, is it not for you to know judgment? It says, who hate the good and love the evil and pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from off them and they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron. Sounds like a hard preacher to me. And by the way, did they put him to death? We know the answer to that in Jeremiah chapter 26. They didn't put him to death. Why? Because he preached the word of the Lord and he put the fear of God in them. Now if you know the story of Hezekiah, Hezekiah basically brought a revival to Judah. Ahaz, his father, was a very wicked king and Hezekiah had to restore, you know, he fixed the house of the Lord, he repaired the breaches, he cleansed it, they had a Passover that hadn't been done for a long time like that and remember that he preached, he read to them the Bible and then they went back into their own towns and then they basically tore down all of their graven images. So because of Hezekiah and the word of the Lord and all that stuff, all that stuff happened but you know we see that Micah was preaching during those days and it wasn't just during Hezekiah's days, right? When did Micah preach? During Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, okay? And he preached this during Hezekiah's days, right, it talks about? So obviously he's warning them about Babylon and notice what it says in verse 4 here. Who is he dealing with when he's dealing with a lot of these leaders, right, talking about the heads of Jacob and you princes of the house of Israel? Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them. He will even hide His face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. So they're going to cry unto them, he's not going to hear it. In verse 5 it says, Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make My people air, that bite with their teeth, and cry peace. He that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. I love this verse because this verse is basically stating that they bite with their teeth, right? You think about what they did with Stephen, it says they gnashed on him with their teeth. And it uses that terminology in other places in the Bible, basically they were just biting at him, you know, basically with their words and what they're saying, but then they said and cry peace. I just want peace. Isn't that what we deal with today? You know, a bunch of people are like, we just want to have peace and harmony, we just want tolerance. But they're not tolerant of what the Bible says, are they? See, they want their peace. And as long as you fall in line with their peace and what they want for peace, then we're all good. But as long as, if you disagree with them, they'll bite and devour you, they'll gnash on you with their teeth. And that's what we see today in Christianity, is we see the fact that there's preachers that won't stand up to that, because they're too afraid of thinking, of the world thinking that they're not for peace, right? Everybody wants to have peace and harmony. Jesus said, I came not to send peace, but the sword. I came not to send peace, but the vision. That's what Jesus said. Jesus didn't come down to sing Kumbaya with everybody in all the religions, no. We'll have peace when everybody's on that, on this page right here. And there will be peace eventually. You know, Jesus is going to reign for a thousand years, and actually Micah covers this in chapter five, I'm sorry, chapter four. And so, you know, he will, we will have peace. We'll have a time of no war, but it's not yet, okay? It's a time to be a soldier for the cause of Christ. It's a time to speak truth. And listen, those that speak the truth, truth is hate to those that hate the truth. And that is true as the day is long. People don't want to hear the truth, and they just want to shut their ears to it. But you know what? Nuts to them, I'm going to speak the truth. You know, he does unjust, let him be unjust still. He does this filthy, let him be filthy still. He does righteous, let him be righteous still. You know, the idea here is that if someone doesn't want to hear what the Bible says, then nuts to them. I want to find the person that wants to hear it. And you know, Micah was a horror preacher. Keep reading there, Micah chapter 3 and verse 6 there. Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision. And it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine. And the sun shall go down over the prophets, and all the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer of God. And the seers are talking about prophets. Remember, seers was an old way of saying prophets. And he's basically saying, God's not going to speak to you anymore. God's done talking to you. He's done speaking to you. There's going to be no answer from God. You know, that's what the Bible talks about in the fact that, you know, I sought them and then they didn't want to hear it. And then they're going to seek me and I'm not going to be found. And he hides himself from them. But notice what it says in verse 8 here, and there's our memory verse for the week. It says in verse 8, But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. Hear this, I pray ye, heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. 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. See, they're saying they're doing all this wickedness and doing it for bribery, doing it for reward, and then they're saying, We're leaning upon the Lord, oh, you know, there's no evil going to come upon us. But notice what it says here, and I'm so tired of people saying, You shouldn't be judging this. You shouldn't be judging that. I'll judge all day long. I'll judge righteous judgment, as Jesus told me to do. Because I'm going to judge according to what the Bible says. And what does Micah say here? He says, But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment. You know what? He's full of power, and of judgment, and of might by the Spirit of the Lord. You know the same place where it says, To love thy neighbor as thyself? It says, To judge thy neighbor righteously. You know when it says, Judge not? It's talking about not judging hypocritically, saying, Don't judge somebody if you have a beam in your own eye. But listen, I can judge somebody for being an adulterer, a wicked adulterer, because I'm not committing adultery. I can judge someone for being a murderer, because I'm not a murderer. But here's the thing. I don't even need to be the one that judges them, because I have the book of the judge himself. And all I'm saying is, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not murder. But this idea that we shouldn't judge, that's just not biblical. The Bible says, He has not given the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. And this is saying that, I'm full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment and of might. Why? Why is he filled with that? To declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. And people today, they just want to shut the mouths of preachers when it comes to sin, don't they? They want the preachers to basically just, don't talk about it, don't talk about sodomy, don't talk about pedophilia, don't talk about all the wickedness that's going on in the world when it comes to fornication, adultery, murder, all this, alcoholism, drugs, whatever it is, don't talk about that, don't tell me about my sins, stop judging, judge not that you be not judged. Listen, I'm not an adulterer murderer in drinking and smoking and doing all this stuff, so listen, I can preach that all day long and you can't stop me. But also, the Bible gives us the authority to do it. Now obviously, when we go out and we go soul winning, I'm not just ripping someone's face off about it. They're out there drinking or whatever, they have a beer or something like that, and I'd be like, listen, you need to stop this wicked drinking right now, and just start coming down. No, I'm going to preach that in the gospel. When it comes behind the pulpit though, I'm going to rip face on all sin. And listen, we're all sinners, so I'm going to rip face on things that I struggle with. When it comes to procrastination or just different things that you struggle with, prayer life, do you pray enough? Do you pray without ceasing? And you could hit on things that maybe you struggle with, or even sins that you may struggle with. Now obviously, if there's sins that I'm preaching on that I struggle with and they're major sins that would disqualify me as being a pastor, then that's a different story, okay? And I shouldn't be a pastor if I struggle with adultery or murdering people, you know, obviously you'd be like, you need to step down and go to prison. But the idea though is that people are just quick to say you shouldn't judge anything. Well, Micah was a man of God, Micah was a great prophet, and it says that I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgment. You know what? People wouldn't like Micah. And people like to say, oh, I love Jeremiah, he's the weeping prophet. Have you read Jeremiah? There's things that Jeremiah says, and I know I've probably preached them here before, there's things that he has said where I'm like, I don't know if I can say that. Now I would say it because it's the word of God, obviously, but just to say something like that, where he's basically talking about their children being fatherless and like basically vagabonds upon the earth and just basically cursing like a whole generation. And obviously I believe he was right to do it, okay, but what I'm saying is that there's some really harsh things that are said by prophets that are, you know, men of God. And there's really harsh things that God says. But you know what, you need to get, you need to know who God is by the Bible and not by your own thinking, okay? I'm tired of people and you know, you review people online and then they're just like, oh, is that what Jesus would do? You know, Jesus, he sat and ate with all these wicked reprobates. It's like the Bible says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of God, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. I'm tired of these people saying, oh, they're going to sit with all these wicked reprobates that hate God, okay? There's a difference between sitting with the sinners and publicans that are just like normal people that are sinners, okay? Then sitting with like Jeffrey Dahmer, you know, I mean, would you sit down with Jeffrey Dahmer and be like, let's break bread together. Would you sit down with someone that's a known pedophile and just be like, let's break bread together. Let's talk about this. No. No, those people should be put to death. I'm not going to break bread with them and show me chapter and verse where Jesus sat with a sodomite. I want to know that, okay? And people are just like, oh, he sat with those people. Stop adding to the word of God because he didn't. It does not say that he sat with any type of pedophile. And obviously we're dealing with people that are reprobate. People that would molest a child, people that would rape and do that type of stuff, that unnatural stuff that a normal human being would vomit thinking about. Those people have been given over to a reprobate mind. They are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Those people cannot believe, the Bible says. So why would he sit with them? Especially when he brings up in Matthew chapter 21 and the fact that he's rebuking the Pharisees saying that, you know, that you did not believe. The public is sinners. They repented when they heard and they believed, okay? So do you remember Jesus sitting with Herod and talking and eating with him? Actually, I remember when he wouldn't speak a word to Herod. He literally would not answer a question that Herod had to say. So you got to get who Jesus is from the Bible, okay? So go to, well, I was going to go to Isaiah 58, but I kind of already hit on that point. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions in the house of Jacob, their sins. So you can definitely see that correlation with Isaiah and the fact that Isaiah is saying the same thing, cry aloud, filled with power and of judgment to basically declare unto the nation their sins. Go to Micah 1 because another point is too, and I love seeing this when you're going through the prophets, is that it's not like God didn't care about anyone else. Actually, the whole book of Jonah is preaching to another nation, okay? Preaching to Nineveh, which is the capital city of Assyria, which is their mortal anthem here, right? So the idea that in the Old Testament, he just cared about Israel, just cared about Judah and said nuts to everybody else, notice what it says in Micah 1 and verse 2. It says, Hear all ye people, hearken, O earth, and all that therein is. So who's he trying to talk to? I think it's pretty clear, everybody, okay? You know, the earth and all that therein is. And let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. And then he goes on to talk about Samaria and Judah, and obviously that's the focus, right? Judah and Samaria is why he's like writing all this stuff about him. But he's basically saying, O earth, hear me, okay, because you can have this narrow-minded view that's like, well, Micah, that was just written to, you know, the Jews, right? Which wouldn't make sense anyway because he's talking about Samaria. And those of the northern kingdom were not called Jews because they're not of Judah. But you can say, well, he's just talking to Israel and to the Jews, right? But what does it say? It starts off basically saying, Give ear, all ye people, hearken, O earth, and all that therein is. So we see this over and over again. I know I'm kind of belaboring and beating that horse because Jeremiah was called a prophet to the nations. That's like, you open up the book of Jeremiah and he's ordained them to be a prophet to the nations. And then you see all these chapters just dedicated to other nations. Same thing with Isaiah, you know, just throughout, you just see, okay, this is for this nation. This is for this nation. This is for this nation. So God cared about everyone and wanted them to get saved. It's not like that's just New Testament. Okay, that's what I'm trying to get across there. Now go to Micah chapter 4, because like I said, we're talking about the millennial reign of Christ. There will be a day when there's going to be no more war, there's going to be peace. And Micah chapter 4 and verse 1 here, we see the millennial reign talked about. Now, like I said, you can see that Micah and Isaiah are contemporaries in the fact of their timeline. Well, Isaiah has this same passage, you know, to a certain extent. There's a little bit of differences and a little more information in some. But Isaiah has the same type of passage in it as well. But in verse 1 here, it says, But in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it. For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. So it's giving you this prophecy of something that hasn't happened yet, but when Jesus comes back, obviously there's going to be the wrath that's being poured out, but then he's going to set up his millennial reign, okay? And us as believers, we're going to rule and reign with him for this thousand years, okay? We'll be in glorified bodies, you know, all that, but there are going to be still people that are living and dying, okay? People are going to be going into this thousand year reign that are mortal and have not received, you know, whether they're saved or lost, you know, but there's going to be saved and lost people going throughout this thousand year reign. But notice that it's going to be a time of judgment of the Lord and his law is going to go forth. You know that perfect law of liberty that everybody hates to hear, okay, when you bring up that dreaded Leviticus, you know, that dreaded exodus. Now obviously customary things like the Sabbath day and, you know, not eating shellfish and all this other stuff, those are all a picture for a time then present. They were just picturing of things that were fulfilled later on. We're talking about moral law, okay? Moral law doesn't change. Listen, it was wrong to murder somebody before Moses wrote the Ten Commandments or God wrote the Ten Commandments to Moses, right? Because in Genesis Chapter 9 it says, whosoever shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. By the way, that was wrong when Cain killed Abel, okay? But the death penalty came in before Moses' law, okay? And you know, all these other things are true as far as adultery was wrong, stealing was wrong. It's not like when Moses came along, oh, okay, you know, all these things are wrong now. But when Jesus came in, he just, he came to destroy the law, right? Is that what you read when he had the Sermon on the Mount? In Matthew Chapter 5 he says, I came to destroy the law. Or did he say, I came not to destroy but to fulfill. So there was a lot of customary laws, but they were fulfilled in Christ. But all the moral law, you don't fulfill moral law. You don't fulfill, thou shalt not kill. You don't fulfill, thou shalt not commit adultery. Those are just, those are the commandments of God. Those are right. Nothing's going to ever change that and so that's going to go forward. You're going to have a time of great justice. You want to know what a good government's going to look like? It's going to be that one. It's going to be a benevolent, I can't even say it, I'm trying to say benevolent, a benevolent dictatorship. That's what I'm trying to say. So it's going to be a benevolent dictatorship, so Jesus is going to be the king. But notice that he even talks about the fact that you're going to sit under your own vine and your own fig tree. You know what that means is that you have your own property, okay? You have a benevolent dictator who has the righteous, perfect law of liberty that's going forth and listen, he's going to rule with a rod of iron, but it's going to be a time of peace, okay? But you can't have peace without law. See, people want to say, I want liberty with no laws. We're not anarchists, okay? Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And you have to have the law of God there because even Paul said, you know, he went unto those that are without law, without law, yet not without law of the Christ, okay? So you don't take it that far, you know, if someone has like certain customary things and then someone doesn't have certain customary things, you're like, well, with them, I'm not going to do these customary things because they don't do them. That doesn't mean like, well, over here murdering is okay, so I'm going to go ahead and do that too, okay? Obviously, he's saying no, not without law of the Christ because there's moral law that still applies. So go back to, or go to Micah Chapter 5, Micah Chapter 5. So I'm kind of just going through some different things in Micah. Micah is five, or seven chapters long, and it's not a super long book, so you can sit down and read it in one sitting very easily. So if you haven't read it this week, I challenge you just to go read it from cover to cover and just see all the other stuff that I'm not hitting today. So this isn't a verse by verse expository through the book of Micah. I'm really just trying to show you what kind of preacher he was, what kind of prophet he was, and just some things in the book of Micah that just stick out to me. So the things that stick out to me is the fact that he was, you know, it says that he was full of the power of God by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgment of might, and he was a hard preacher. And in Micah Chapter 5, verse 1, we see a prophecy of Jesus, okay? This is a very important verse here, verse 2 specifically, but verse 1 there, it says, 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 thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Now this is where it's very important that you have a King James Bible. Now obviously if you read Hebrew and you had the Hebrew Bible, it would say the same thing it says here, but the other versions mess this up, okay? Instead of saying from everlasting, it'll say from like origins of old. I can't remember off the top of my head. Does anyone have their NIV with them today? I'll pull it out and we can read it off. I don't have, I usually have like the New King James or something in here and see how they mess it up. But basically it doesn't say from everlasting, and it's giving, you know, whoever this is talking about, it's giving them an origin. Do you see, okay, before we go to where this is quoted at in the New Testament, can you see very clearly that whoever we're talking about here doesn't have a beginning? That's pretty clear, right? That his goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting, okay, so that means he's from everlasting. And we know that God is from everlasting to everlasting. But in Matthew chapter, Matthew chapter 2, go to Matthew chapter 2, now, as you're turning there, I also think that verse 1 could very well apply to Jesus. We know verse 2 does, okay, unequivocally verse 2 definitely applies to Jesus, but verse 1 where it says, they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek, I think this applies to Jesus because in Matthew 27 and verse 29 it says, and when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail King of the Jews, and they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. So they smote him with the reed, okay, on the head, and so very well that first one could be referring to that, you know, as far as how they were going to physically hit him in the face, they spit upon him, they hit him with the palms of his hands, and all that stuff that he did, but Matthew chapter 2 and verse 4, we definitely know that this is talking about the birth of Christ and where he's going to be born, okay. So this verse is showing you that Jesus was going to be born in Bethlehem, okay. In verse 4 there, so Matthew 2 and verse 4 it says, and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born, and they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet. So they knew that Christ should be born in Bethlehem, and they're about to quote off the verse of why they believe that's where he's going to be born, okay, and this is the verse they bring up in verse 6 here, so Matthew 2 and verse 6, and now Bethlehem and the land of Judah are not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Now they leave off that last portion there, whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting, because they obviously didn't even understand that, okay. That's why Jesus, when he was talking to the elders and the Pharisees and all that, he'd say, why is the Christ called David's son, you know, and then he brought up the verse that says, the Lord said unto my Lord, you know, sit on my right hand until I make that an enemy's footstool, and he's saying, how, if he's David's son, is David calling him Lord? So he's given them this paradox, right, and the fact that the Christ is going to be the son of David, but David's calling the Christ his Lord, okay, and you know why? Because he's the root and offspring of David, because he is God who created David, but he's also being born in the lineage of David, okay, and he kind of stumps them with that, you know, why is he called the son of David if David's calling him Lord, but they weren't grasping that, hey, the Christ is God in the flesh, okay. The Christ is not just a man, and they saw that later on because even verses in Psalms it talks about the fact that of the fruit of David's body shall I sit upon the throne. God's speaking and stating that he's going to sit upon the throne of David, that God is, and that he's going to sit upon the throne of David through the loins of David, okay, so it explains it in that verse, but they weren't getting that, they weren't grasping that, okay, and so it's no marvel that the people that are talking to Herod leave that part off, you know, but they were also just asking where he was going to be born, so it could be that, maybe they're just like bringing up the point it says in Bethlehem, okay, so that's the point they're trying to get across. So very important passage, again, this is why the King James Bible is so important because all the other versions mess this up. Now I don't know for sure about the new King James, I can't remember off the top of my head if that one messes it up, they mess up other verses, but I'm not sure what they do to this one, but that's very important because that's stating that Jesus is from everlasting, because he is, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and with the help of his glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So we know that the Word was from the beginning, and he's the one that created everything. By the Word of God, the world's refrained. And so Jesus is the one that created everything, it says that all things consist in him, he was before all things, and by him all things consist, all that's true, why? Because he's from everlasting. Now I go to Micah chapter 6, Micah chapter 6, again I'm kind of pointing out some different things in Micah that I see that pop out to me, you know, as far as just different verses that I like, you know, that you kind of think of the New Testament and what Jesus brings up and stuff like that. And this is one of those things that Jesus more so brings up from Hosea, but you see the same type of language in this, okay? So in Micah chapter 6, verse 6, it says, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good. And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Now Jesus brings up this, which Hosea chapter 6, verse 6 says, For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Remember, he said it to the Pharisees, he says, Learn what this meaneth, right? He says, Learn what this meaneth, that I have mercy and not sacrifice. And that's what he's stating, even in Micah, is that what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly before thy God? More than ten thousands, it says ten thousands of rivers of oil, okay? So all the sacrifices in the world, he wants you to have mercy, faith, and judgment, okay? But they are omitting those weightier matters of law and cared more about tithing on mint and common and anise, and, you know, it's like all about the sacrifice, it's all about the tithing, it's all about all that, but they're just omitting what's the most important. And, you know, all those sacrifices are nothing, really, because the sacrifice of Jesus is the only thing that matters, okay? Those are all just a picture anyway. I'm not saying they shouldn't have been doing them, obviously, because that's the testament that he had set up for them to get right with God on a physical level. So obviously they should have been doing that in the Old Testament. If we were in the Old Testament, guess what? We should be doing sacrifices to get right with God. Not to go to heaven, not to be saved from hell, but to get on good fellowship with God. So thank God, in the New Testament, we come boldly into the throne of grace to obtain mercy to find grace to help in time of need. That we can, you know, confess our sins to him and he's righteous, or, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We don't have to bring a goat or a bull or the ashes of a heifer and take it to a high priest. No, we have the high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the New Testament is great in that aspect that, hey, you know, we can, we go straight past all this physical stuff and go straight to the throne of grace itself, past the veil, all that. Now, I'll go to Micah chapter 7, Micah chapter 7. So if anybody's watching the clock, we are in the last chapter here. I am going in chronological. I'd be like, I'm going to, I'm going to, be like, you thought it was done. I'm going back to chapter 3. No. I am going in chronological here through the book. Micah chapter 7, verse 1, and this is an interesting passage, and I think this is a very important passage to understand because there's a verse, verse 6 is being brought up in the New Testament, and I think it gives us some understanding to understand what that passage, when Jesus brings us up, when this is brought up, what is he talking about specifically, okay, or who exactly is he talking about? But look at verse 1 here, and let's see some context before we get to verse 6. It says, woe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits as the great gleanings of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat, and my soul desireth the first ripe fruit. So he's basically saying, you know, when they gather all this stuff, but there's nothing to eat, there's nothing there, right? The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie and wait for blood. They hunt every man, his brother, with a net. They that they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward, and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire, so they wrap it up. He's basically saying just no one, just everybody's out to just be malicious is what he's getting at here. The best of them is as a briar. The most upright is sharper than a thorn edge. The day of thy watchman and thy visitation cometh, now shall be their perplexity. So he's basically saying, this is like what's going on today, there's just no good man, there's no one that's doing judgment, everybody is just doing it for reward, just no judgment goeth forth, no righteous judgment goeth forth. So get the picture there, but he's saying, the day of thy watchman and thy visitation cometh. He's basically saying, hey, bud, this is coming, and their perplexity shall come, right? Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide, keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom, for the son dishonoreth the father, and the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies are the men of his own house. So that's the part that's brought up in the New Testament is that last, that verse 6 there. Really you can count on verse 5 because it's basically saying that you're going to have like family members, essentially family members are going to try to kill you, they're going to try to put you to death, and he's basically stating that a man's enemies are the men of his own house. He's basically saying even family members are going to come against you and try to rise up against you. Now who are we talking about when you're talking about, are you just talking about any family member? Any family member? It says in verse 4, the best of them is as a briar, and the most upright is sharper than a thorn edge. See that? So he's likened them unto thorns and briars. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 8, but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. I don't have this in my notes, but in 2 Samuel chapter 23, it talks about thorns and briars. So obviously when it's saying thorns and briars, it's not talking about physical thorns and briars. But you can understand that thorns and briars are the curse that was put upon the land. Every time I do brush hogging or I'm like trying to clear a trail, I'm like cursing like these briars because they're worthless and all they do is just rip you apart when you're trying to do work out there. And anyway, so basically it's a curse. I don't think I know anybody that likes thorns and briars. Everybody hates thorns and briars and they should. But in 2 Samuel chapter 23, look at verse 6 there, it says, but the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands. But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron in the staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place. So Hebrew chapter 6 is talking about those that cannot be renewed again unto repentance and it's talking about these thorns and briars. And you're dealing with people that have been rejected. And so when you're dealing with these, you say, well who are these enemies that are in your own house? I believe you're dealing with people that are in your house that are rejected, they're a reprobate, right? They've been getting rid of a reprobate mind and those are the people that are going to come after you specifically in the end times, okay? I'm not saying that this is just for the end times, okay, because obviously this could happen today, you know what I mean? You have some reprobate family member that hates you and wants you to die or something like that. But what you're dealing with is in the end times, in the Great Tribulation, we're going to have the Antichrist that's going to try to kill all Christians, right? He's making war with the saints and if you don't bow down to this image, then you're going to be put to death and basically there's going to be family members that are going to rat you out, right? And that's what this is dealing with. Now go to Matthew chapter 10 and I'm going to show you this. And I think this helps understand a passage in the Bible, okay? So I'm really kind of getting to a point here, you're like, I got it, okay? There's family members that aren't going to like me, you know, in the end times, they're going to try to rat me out, you know, there's wicked people that, and everybody's got, you know, some wicked family member somewhere in that line, right, okay? You know, and I thank God, you know, my family, you know, as far as my immediate family, definitely, they're all saved, you know, now and so I'm not worried about that with my immediate family. But there are people in my extended family that, you know, maybe reprobate or could eventually be reprobate or something like that, that could end up trying to like, you know, be enemies, okay? But there are people, and I know there may even be people that are in the church right now that have family members that are reprobate, that are closer than that, that are close family members, okay? And the foes are in your own house, you know, and you think of people that are married, to people that are reprobate, you think of Abigail, right? Abigail was married to Nabal, and Nabal, she even called him a son of Belial, right? So he said, he's such a son of Belial, you can't talk to him, right? So there's obviously people that are good, saved people that end up getting married, they're married to people that end up becoming children of the devil. But look at Matthew chapter 10 and verse 34. This is where this is going to be brought up. It says, think not that I am come to send peace on the earth, on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword, for I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. So he's pulling that from Micah, right? But in Micah, when you go back to Micah, you can understand when that's being talked about. You're not just talking about, you know, just a disgruntled family member that, you know, was upset with you over like, I don't know, whatever. You're dealing with people that are briars and thorns. You're dealing with people that have been given over to this reprobate mind and that are coming after you. I mean, we were talking about people being put up to death. You know, it talks about this in Matthew 24, Mark 13, that they're going to deliver their own parents, children are going to deliver their parents to be put to death. And you've got to think to yourself, how in the world could that happen, right? Could you just even fathom, like, you know, saying, you know, and giving up your parents to be put to death? Could you even fathom doing that as a natural thinking person that you would ever let that happen or ever be involved in that? Or your children, parents putting their children to death because of the cause of Christ, okay? And that's why you're dealing with people that have a defiled conscience, okay? Dealing with people that have been seared with a hot iron, their consciences have been seared with a hot iron, that they're onto every good work reprobate, onto the pure old things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, unto every good work reprobate, every good work reprobate. Now, so we see that he's talking about the fact that, hey, you know, there's going to be these conflicts with family members, and a man's foe shall be they of his own household. Verse 37, it says, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And then it talks about picking up your cross daily. You don't pick up your cross, you're not worthy to be his disciple. And really it comes down to this, we're talking about being a disciple, we're not talking about being saved, okay? So it's not saying, like, you choose to love your family over God, that you're not saved. It's just saying you're not his disciple, right? So there's a difference between being a child of God and being a disciple, okay? Now go to Luke chapter 14, okay? So do you see it very clearly that when it's talking about this idea of following and being a disciple of Christ, in Matthew 10, it's talking about loving father and mother more than God, okay? So for all us saved people here, we need to love God more than our family. That doesn't mean we don't love our family, okay? It doesn't mean that, like, you have this really low love for your family, okay? It just means that here's the hierarchy of things, God, family, you know, and then go down the line, okay? Shooting, you know, no. So obviously that's the way it should go, right? In my life, it should be God, my wife, my children, the rest of my family, right, and church family, you know, that goes down this line of things like that. And I've talked about this before, and you all would agree with this, right? If this church is on building, who are you going to save first? Your own family, okay? If this, and I love you all, okay, I'm not saying I don't love you. It's not like, oh, you're saying you don't love us because you love your family more? No, I'm just a human being, you know, I'm just, that's just the way things work, okay? I love, yes, I love my wife more than your wife, okay, and you should be glad about that. I love my children more than your children, but it doesn't mean I don't love your children, okay? And I love God more than my wife, but that doesn't mean I don't love my wife. Actually, that's going to cause me to love my wife more, okay? And I love my wife more than my children, but that doesn't mean I don't love my children, okay? And that's the way things should work, okay? And he's stating here that with most people, okay, with most family members, whether saved or unsaved, you need to love God more than them. Does that make sense? Is it very clear? This is like for across the board, most cases, just bar none, you just need to love God more than them. It doesn't mean you don't love them. It just means you love God more, okay? Now I'll go to Luke chapter 14, Luke chapter 14, because people are always like, you know, we should never hate anybody. Well, why does David say in Psalm 139, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am I not grieved with them that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred, okay? And there's other places in the Bible where it talks about I abhor, you know, such and such, I detest this, I hate this, right? And we should hate, love the good, hate the evil, but even when it comes to certain people, God hates certain people because He's given up on them and He will love them. It says there I hated them and will love them no more, it says in Hosea chapter 9. But this verse right here, they say, well, that's Old Testament, you know, in the New Testament we're supposed to just love everybody. Well, look at Luke 14 verse 25, Luke 14 verse 25, it says, and there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto them, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also he cannot be my disciple. That's a little different, isn't it? So when someone tells me you should never hate anybody, they're like, well, the Bible says that if I don't, then I can't be his disciple. Now, context matters because when this is brought up in Matthew chapter 10, what's brought up about that? What's brought up about that you have foes within your own household and specifically who are those foes? Those that are thorns and briars, those that are reprobate, okay? Those that are haters of God, because do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee? And what I believe this is dealing with, Matthew 10 is like most all the case, okay? It's just like when you go out soul winning, when you go out to talk to anybody, what's the general rule? Love them. Love them, you know, say God bless you, you know, basically be loving, compassionate. But I don't care if they hate your ever living guts, okay? If they're their enemy and they don't like your face, they don't like what you stand for, but they're not haters of God, right? They're just, they just don't like you, right? And they're persecuting and all that stuff. Listen, it says to bless and curse not, okay? So most all the cases, we need to be loving people. But there is a small group of people that God has given over to a reprobate mind that are sons of Belial, that are children of the devil, and what if they were a family member, okay? Like Abigail, right? What if you had a family member that was a hater of the Lord? What do you do? Now when it's stating this, it's not saying that if you don't hate them, you're not saved. Let's get that out of the way, okay? Because salvation is by faith alone, okay? But what it's stating, though, is that to follow Jesus and to be a disciple, to be the friend of God, you cannot love the world. First of all, you can't love the world because the love of this world is enmity with God who serve as a friend of the world is the enemy of God. That's for believers. You can be an enemy of God as a believer because you're loving the world, you're a friend of the world, and it's basically stating here that if you love those that hate the Lord, as it says in 2 Chronicles chapter 19, it says, shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them and hate the Lord, therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. And if that's true, then can you really say that I'm following Christ, you know, because that's what you're talking about, being like a student of Christ, right? A disciple is basically a learner, right? A student, someone that's studying, right, following, whatever, like an apprentice, if you will, that if the Bible says that and that we should hate those that hate the Lord and you're saying, no, I'm not doing it, can you say, yeah, I'm following what he's saying? And you know, this passage here shows us, hey, in the New Testament, it hasn't changed. In the New Testament, it's still the same, okay? That if there is a family member that's a thorn and briar in God's eyes, you know, that they've been given over to a cursing, you know, they've been given over to the wrath of God in this life, you know, then we're not to love them, okay? And that's a hard saying, okay? You know why? Because that's family. That's a hard saying, because people will say, well, what if one of your family members became a sodomite? What if one of your family members became a pedophile or something like that? And I'm going to have nothing to do with them, do you understand me? Nothing to do with them. Now, you say, well, what if your child becomes one of those, listen, this whole idea of them being born that way is a farce, okay? That's a lie to the devil. You know what? If you train up a child in a way that he should go, when he is old, he will not depart from it. And if my child, if any of my children become reprobate, that's my failure, and I should step down as pastor. I guarantee it. If my children grow up and they become like vile beasts, you know, then what does that say about my leadership, okay? So I don't, you know, I don't worry about that. You know what? Clara, I believe she just got saved or she's been saved and she's wanting to get baptized and I'm going to confirm that and everything, but you know what, children, it's not hard to get them saved and this idea of like, well, what if they don't want to end up choosing it? Salvation is simple, and unless you're pumping them full of like garbage and lies like the school system does and like the television does and Hollywood does, unless they're being pumped full of all that stuff, they're going to believe the gospel, okay? And you have parents that love them and that are, you know, raising them and nursing admonition the Lord, I'm not worried about that, okay? Now, when I say I'm not worried about it, it doesn't mean that I'm not going to be diligent about it. There's a difference between not being worried and paranoid about it and not being like diligent and making sure, hey, my priority with my children is that they get saved, I raise them right, and that they become children of God at the earliest age possible, okay? But you know what? If God forbid it ever happened, I'm going to have nothing to do with them, okay? And if I do, then I can't be a disciple of Christ if I'm not willing to separate from that, okay? And you know what? This is a hard saying. It's a hard passage, but I think when you go back to Micah and you look at, okay, when it's talking about foes in your own household, are you just dealing with just say people that don't like you, you know, like you're not our stripe and we're at odds with each other? And I don't think that's what it's dealing with. In the end times, I don't think you're having Christians giving up Christians to death, okay? Does that make sense? Like you're not, that's not what's going on. You're dealing with people that are in your family that are becoming children of the devil or already are children of the devil, and they are, you know, basically giving their relatives up to be put to death, and Jesus is warning about that and saying that there's going to be this device, there's going to be this division that's going on there. Now to end it here, go to Micah chapter 7, and we're going to end on a high note. I know that was kind of a, that was kind of a, oh, we're going to end it here? We're talking about reprobates and, you know, our family members putting us up to death, you know, and betraying us. I don't worry about that stuff, you know, because here's the thing. If you're living for the Lord, you're going to separate from all that stuff anyway, and listen, I'll say this. A reprobate's aside, when you're living for the Lord, you don't have to worry about bedding your friends. Your friends will do it for you, okay? When I got saved, and I was in college, I actually went up to WVU myself too, and I had Christian friends, and I had friends, and I had friends that were, I had Christian friends that wanted to know a lot about the Bible, wanted to study the Bible, I had Christian friends that just didn't care to get into it at all, and then I had friends that weren't Christians, okay? And when you start living for the Lord, and you start doing things for the Lord, you know what those friends that aren't Christian do? They don't want to hang out with you anymore, because you're not wanting to go drink, they're not wanting to go do this or that, and same thing with the Christians. The ones that are saved, you're just not doing what they want to do, so they end up just basically bedding themselves from you, and then you're left with the people that want to do what you're doing, okay? So that being said, it's not like you've got to call up your friends and be like, listen man, we can't hang out anymore. What you do is you just say, hey, I'm going to go to church, you want to come with me? Hey, I'm going to go do this, you want to come with me? Not that everything has to be about church, you know what I mean? But you could be doing other things that are not wrong things to do, and eventually they're going to be like, nah, I'm going to go to this party over here, nah, I'm going to go hang out with these guys over here, and it'll just happen that way. And you know what? Yeah, it stinks, you know, to lose friends, especially friends that maybe you had growing up and all that stuff, but in the end, you're going to have better friends in the house of the Lord. You're going to have friends that are going to stick closer than a brother, you're going to have better relationships, and listen, it's always good to be on the side of the Lord when it comes to your life, okay? Because the Lord will bless those that, you know, it says all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. And notice that it's not just being called according to His purpose, that's being saved, but it's those that love God. And Jesus said, if you love Me, keep My commandments. So you know, those that keep His commandments, listen, all things work together for good, just keep going on, keep doing what He's telling you to do, and you'll be blessed. Go to Micah chapter 7 verse 18, and the last thing I want to show you here is this passage here. It says in verse 18, who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities, thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. And so I love this passage because he's basically talking about our sins and he's saying that he's casting it into the sea, into the depths of the sea, and there's many ways that God mentions this, you know, as far as what he does with our sins, because we know that when we get saved, we're, you know, we're completely made righteous, right? Spiritually speaking, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for a seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. So spiritually speaking, we don't have any sin anymore, we still have it in the flesh, but I love how God uses these different ways of explaining it. So in this passage, he's stating that he's casting it into the depths of the sea. In Psalm 103, so go on a journey with me here, I'm going to show you, this is the last thing I'm going to show you here, but I'm going to show you some other passages where it talks about what God does with our sins, or how he regards our sins, and I think it's just a blessing to see this, you know, and the fact that when God forgives us of our sins, he forgives us of our sins, okay? And he's showing, he's trying to show you different ways in which, how he's dealing with your sins. He's just casting them into the depths of the sea, okay? In Psalm 103 and verse 12, Psalm 103 and verse 12, it says, As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. So as far as the east is from the west, he's going for, you know, forever, you know, he's going east to the west, and then you go to Hebrews chapter 8, Hebrews chapter 8, which is obviously also quoted in, Hebrews 8 is quoting Jeremiah 31. But Hebrews 8, 12, Hebrews 8, 12, it says in Hebrews 8, 12, For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. So not only does he remove them from us as far as the east is from the west, and he casts them to the depths of the sea, but it says he will remember them no more. So he's not just going to be bringing them up. That's why it's a false doctrine to say, like, when we get to heaven, he's going to bring up all our sins. He's going to watch it and take account for all of our sins. Now what makes sense when it says that he will remember them no more, okay? Go to Isaiah 38, Isaiah 38, Isaiah 38 and verse 17, Isaiah 38 and verse 17, it says, Behold, for peace I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. So he casts them to the depths of the sea, as far as the east is from the west, he will remember them no more, he casts them behind his back. Isaiah 44 and verse 22, Isaiah 44 and verse 22, Isaiah 44 and verse 22, it says, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. So he's blotting them out, right? And then in Revelation, the last one I'll show you here, Revelation chapter 1, Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5, and this is, you know, just something to, I love reading these verses because we know that we're saved forever, right? We know that once we believe on Christ, you're saved, you can never lose your salvation, it's done, right? And these verses are just like, it's just like when you think of like, what are the verses that say that it's eternal, right? And you just think of all these different verses in different ways that God says, it says you'll never die, it says you'll live forever, it says you have everlasting life, it says you will not go into a combination, it says you'll never perish, like, I will know why he's casting you out, no man is able to pluck thee out of my hand, like, it's just all these other verses that are just like, yeah, okay, we got it, you know? And it's just over and over and over again in different manners, the same way when it says what he does with our sins, okay? In Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5, it says, and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. So to get this, the Bible says in Micah that he casts all our sins into the depths of the sea. In Psalm it says that our sins is as far as the east is from the west. In Hebrews it says their sins and their iniquities will remember no more, also that's in Jeremiah. Isaiah 38 says that for thou has cast all my sins behind thy back. Isaiah 44 says I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins and in Revelation says that he's washed us from our sins in his own blood. So how many different ways can you talk about what he did to take away our sins? And so I just love seeing that when you put it all together, it really puts it in perspective and notice that it's him that did it, not us. We don't cast our sins into the depths of the sea. We don't put our sins as far as the east is from the west. We don't cast our sins behind his back, right? We're not like, hey, get those behind you, you know, and throw them behind his back. We don't blot out our sins like a cloud and we don't wash our sins in our own blood or even in his blood. No, he washed us from our sins in his own blood and it just shows you, hey, he's the one that's taking care of it. He's the one that took care of it and all you have to do is believe on him. And so the book of Micah, there's a lot of great stuff in there and again, I challenge you just to read the book. It's not that long of a book but there's just a lot in there and obviously I can't hit on everything in one sermon. But the book of Micah and we're continuing our study through the prophets so next week, Lord willing, we'll be doing Nahum and I know I've already done a chapter by chapter study through Nahum but it's been a little while and so I'm going to go through Nahum next week as well and so some of you may be like, well, we've already gone through that whole book verse by verse. Well, it's always good to have a refresher on it anyway and then we'll be going through the rest of the Minor Prophets there. So as someone who wrote a prayer to Heavenly Father, we thank you for today and thank you for your word. Thank you for the book of Micah and just so much great stuff in there that we can see and learn and use for our admonition and Lord, just pray that you'll be with us throughout this week. Thank you for the souls that were saved today and throughout the last part of this week and just pray that you'd be with us. I pray that you'd heal all those that aren't feeling well in our church and just help us to be healthy and Lord, we just pray also that you'd be with us for our jobs as we go back to work this week and just pray that you'd bless our families and Lord, we love you and pray also in Jesus Christ's name, Amen.