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

The book of Micah has all these just little quality verses found throughout the Bible. I love, I love Micah six verses, verse eight. He have showed the old man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee. The title for the sermon tonight is what the Lord requires of you, what the Lord requires of you. It continues there. It's quite straightforward. It was, what does God require from me? It says, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. There it is, right? When we're trying to figure out life's big questions, you know, which direction does, is God leading me? And yes, some things are more complicated than others, but when you boil it down to the simple principles, it's those three things to do justly to love mercy, to walk humbly with thy God. The title for the sermon, as I said, is what the Lord requires of you there in Micah six. Let's get the context starting there in verse number one, which says, Hear ye now what the Lord saith, arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. And so God is instructing Micah here to lift up his voice to the nation. And look, if the people aren't listening, he's saying to Micah, the mountains and the hills, they're listening. Okay. So, you know, when we go and we preach God's word, it's never in vain. All right. At least the creation of God is hearing the words of God. And so God is instructing Micah, get out there and preach against. And I believe this is talking about the southern kingdom here of Judah. Verse number two, hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy. The Lord's controversy. Man, you know, what the Bible's telling me here is when the Lord's word is being preached, it's controversial. Like if God's word is not controversial, it's not God's word. Okay. It's the Lord's controversy. It says, and ye strong foundations of the earth. For the Lord have made a controversy with his people and he will plead with Israel. Now, if you don't know what the word controversy is, I'll just give you a dictionary definition. It's when there is a cause of disagreement. You know, when you speak of something, it causes disagreement, but it's not just disagreement because I'm sure we all tend to disagree from time to time, but we wouldn't necessarily call it a controversy. But when it comes down to disagreeing with public opinion, that's when we start to deem something to be controversial. When we preach the Old Testament laws of God, we say, well, the Lord God put in his word that certain sins and by extension, certain crimes in the Bible are worthy of the death penalty. People say, oh, you can't preach that. Why can't we preach it? God's word says so. The reason we can't preach it is because society or the public says that is unacceptable. We disagree with God's standard. But if we're going to be preaching the truth of God's word, sometimes it's going to be controversial. And we just have to tell the truth of what God's word says. You know, this is what preaching is. It's got to be controversial to the world standards. You know, controversy also leads to debates and contentions, arguments, fightings. Oh, you hurt my feelings. It's okay as long as it's God's word being preached. Look, if I hurt your feelings because I just acted stupidly, all right, I've just been foolish or whatever it is. All right, I apologize for that. But I can never apologize for God's word. If God's word offends, causes controversies, debates, you know, disputes. Oh, that Pastor Kevin's a hate preacher. Oh, that New Life Baptist Church. They don't have the love of God because what they preach is controversial. I'm telling you, it is God's love. God's word is his love to us, to direct us, to guide us. And sometimes, and we're going to see in this chapter, even the things that Micah is preaching is controversial to the people of Israel. Look at verse number three. God now speaks to the people directly. Oh, my people. So this is a little sermon, okay? Oh, my people, what have I done unto thee? And wherein have I wearied thee? That's the fight against me. God is telling the people of Israel, what have I done against you? You know, have I made you weary? Have I made your life difficult? In other words, God is saying, I've never even, you know, all I've ever tried to do is to be a blessing to you. All I've ever tried is to encourage you, to motivate you, to save your souls, to give you a blessed nation, you know, to be a shining light of the light of Christ amongst all nations, different from the rest of the world. God says, have I really wearied you? Brethren, is coming to church really that wearisome? Can't make it midweek. So like, yeah, okay. You're far away. I understand, right? And you know, people are sick, you know, some of my family members can't make it because they're not feeling that well. But you know what? Like really coming to church and being amongst God's people for an hour, an hour and a half, praying together, singing songs together, hearing God's word together. Is that really wearisome? Like it shouldn't be, right? I mean, God does not ask so much from us. You know, Jesus Christ says that his yoke is easy. His burden is light. God doesn't ask that much. It's really that hard to tell someone that Jesus died for their sins and they can simply be saved by accepting him as their savior. Is that really wearisome to us? You know, God's asking the people, look, what have I done against you? Why have you turned against me? He says, look, testify against me. If you have something to say, if I've done something wrong, tell me, speak up. And of course, they're not going to be able to find anything that God's done against them besides being controversial. Right? Besides being controversial. But even the controversy of God's word is for their best. So direct them in righteousness. And then God begins to make his case against them. Or I guess a case of defense about himself in many ways. Verse number four, he says, I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. I mean, that's pretty good, right? They were in slavery in Egypt. Big burdens. They were weary in Egypt. God says, I took you out of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the house of servants. And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam. Look, God says, not only did I deliver you out, but I've given you, you know, gentle, humble, caring, self-sacrificing leaders. Look, when we read about Moses and Aaron and Miriam, you know, they're great leaders that God used for the people of that nation. The Bible tells us that Moses was the most humble man on the earth during that time. You know, he's not some, you know, aggressive dictator, Moses. He had a love for the people of Israel. He knew that he was chosen by God to do a great work. And he had a great love for the people. Even so much so when they've rebelled against God and God decides to wipe them out. And to start all over again with Moses, Moses pleads to God. He says, God, it doesn't look good if you just destroy us out here in the wilderness. What are people going to say about you? And even the Lord listens to a man like Moses. He says, man, look what I've done. I've delivered you from the world. I've delivered from you from servitude. I've given you gentle, self-sacrificing leaders. Verse number five, it says, oh my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord. You recall that Balak and Balaam wanted to curse the Israelites, put a curse upon them and God stopped that from happening. You know, I want to show you something quite interesting. You know, Balaam, this is kind of unrelated to this chapter, but as I was just kind of studying and reading passages, something came to me that I've never really paid attention to before. So keep your finger there and come with me to Joshua 13, please. Come with me to Joshua 13, Balaam, the prophet Balaam. Something that I've always wondered most of my life, I get asked this question even so by church members. You know, was Balaam a true prophet of God? Because many times we read about the Bible, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him and speaks to him and directs him as to what he is to speak. But then there's also the argument that, well, there's a false prophet because and, you know, not only is he taking a bribe and he preaches, you know, whoever pays the best is what he's going to preach, you know, in favor of. And then we also have his number amongst the false prophets in the New Testament. And I can see that as well. I can see the arguments of whether he was a true prophet of God or whether he was just a damnable false prophet kind of person. And, you know, in my life I've kind of gone back and forth. You know, people have asked me, what do you think past? I've always said, well, I kind of lean toward him being a false prophet, like just a complete false prophet. But I guess I can see both sides of the argument. But I was thinking about this passage here in Micah 6 verse 5 where Balak and Balaam are mentioned. And when I was just reading through different passages about Balaam, I came across this and obviously I've read it before, but sometimes things don't jump out at you until a certain time, right? And so in Joshua 13 verse number 22, it shows us the death or the end of Balaam. It says here, Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that was slain by them. So Balaam's end comes by the sword, by the children of Israel. You know, as they've gone into attack and to take over, Balaam died during one of those skirmishes, okay? But notice in Joshua 13, 22, it mentions Balaam, the soothsayer, not Balaam the prophet, Balaam the soothsayer. And if you do your own time, you know, if you look up the word soothsayer in the Bible, that is often associated with the occult, amongst witches, wizards, you know, soothsayer is kind of like a fortune teller. So that's what he is. He's like a fortune teller, you know, involved in the occult. And for me that kind of ended. Okay, well for him to die and at his death, he's been referred to as a soothsayer, he was not a true prophet of God. Like there was this verse that kind of made me go, well, no, actually this is confirming the fact that no, he was definitely a false prophet, you know, not one that was used by God for any righteous means. But anyway, just something for you to think about, not really related to Micah 6. But come back with me to Micah 6 and verse number 6, please. Micah 6 and verse number 6. So God is telling them, Look, I took you out of Egypt, gave you great leaders, protected you from the cursing of Balak and Balaam. And so now the people of Israel or the people of Judah, I should say they respond and say, well, okay, we've done wrong, you know, God's been a good God, you know, we shouldn't have turned against him. So now they're wondering, all right, what do we do to fix things in our relationship with God? What do we do to fix it? And this is the response in verse number 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord? So they're kind of like, well, how do we come now to God then? That's a good question. So they think about it and these are the answers they give. And bow myself before the high God. Shall I come before him with burnt offerings? With calves of a year old? Thinking, what do we do? Maybe we've got to do the burnt offerings, right? Start offering the animal sacrifices. A calf of a year old will offer the best to God. Maybe that will make us right with him. Now that, you know, for a lot of people, they think that is what makes, like some people believe that, you know, under the Old Testament, what made you right with God, what saved your soul, if you want to put it that way, was you offering these animal sacrifices. And they're saying that, they're kind of coming up to that conclusion. All right, what's going to fix us with God? Maybe offer the sacrifices. And then he continues over at verse number 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? So saying, well, you know, is God going to be pleased if we like literally got a thousands, thousands of rams and offered them all up to sacrifice? Will that please God? Now I'll show you how bad they are spiritually right now. I mean, that sounds like a pretty good answer, right? Because God's instructed them to offer sacrifices. Sounds like a good answer. But look what they continue to say. Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? The context is sacrifice. Do we sacrifice our firstborn child to God? Why do you think they're asking that question? You don't need to turn there. I'll read to you from Jeremiah 32-35. It says, and they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of hidden to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire onto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. These people are used to sacrificing their children to the false God Molech. Have gone so far from God, worshiping false gods and murdering, killing their own children. So they're like, okay, will thousands of rams satisfy him? Maybe we've got to offer up our kids as well. Maybe that will appease God. Maybe if we allow our son to be killed, that's going to take our sins away from us. How wicked their hearts are. Like, how do you justify the murdering of your children? How do you justify putting children in fires, burning them up for some false God? Like it's so wicked, but in like the way they look at it is, shall I give my first one for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? They think of it as a positive. Positive. If we can just get rid of our sins, let's kill our children. And so I'm thinking about how negative, how wicked an abomination according to God's word. They think this is going to get us right with God. Because that's what gets them right with Molech. That's what gets them right with the devil. The devil wants the murder of children. And I think about our country, Australia, still mothers killing babies in the womb, abortions. And you know why they do it? They try to justify themselves. Oh, what's the point of bringing up a child, you know, in a loveless marriage or a loveless relationship? Oh, they're a burden to my life. I want to study and I want to go on holidays and they're just going to, they're going to ruin my life. And so it's just better if we kill children. How wicked is the nation of Australia? Hundreds of babies being killed in mother's wombs. I got to speak about it when we talk about this idea. It's like the nation is so deceived. Instead of understanding you're committing murder. You're murdering the innocent. You're murdering the fruit of your loins. Oh, but it's all for the best. The world's overpopulated anyway. We're doing our part for the world to stop overpopulation. Always trying to put a positive spin on it. Surely it's what God wants. I just want to show you how bad these guys are, like how wicked they are. What's going to fix us before God? Killing our kids? Offering a thousand rams? You know what the Bible says? I'll quickly read to you from Psalm 51 16. Psalm 51 16 says, For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. Those are the words I've gone through Psalm 51 on Sunday. These are the words of King David when he's confessing his sin before the Lord for his sin of Bathsheba, the adultery and the murder of her husband. He says, well, you don't desire sacrifice, else I would give it. Because if I can just fix things by just burning some animal up, he goes, but that's not what you really want. That's not what you want, Lord. Verse 17, we saw this on Sunday. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, thou will not despise. You see, the burnt offerings, they can't take away sins. It's not about removing your sins. The burnt offerings were an object lesson of the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ. His blood is the one that takes away our sins, that cleanses us from all our sins and wickedness and unrighteousness. Burning an animal, killing an animal, sprinkling animal's blood, that's not the point of the sacrifice. You know, that's the outward, it's supposed to be the outward showing of a broken and contrite heart. Say, God, forgive me a sinner. Knowing full well these animal sacrifices are of a greater prophecy to come, a greater picture, a promise of God for his salvation, for the cleansing of our sins. So then we get to verse number eight. And it's so much more simple than killing your children for God. It's so much more simple than offering thousands of rams as sacrifice to make be made right with God in our walk. The answer is here. He have showed thee, O man, what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee? This is it, brethren. What does the Lord require of you? But to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. But to do justly. That's the idea of just making the right decisions. You know, I've shared with you sometimes in life we have to make big decisions in life. It's hard. It's hard to know sometimes. What is the best way? What does the future hold? What direction is my life headed in? What do I do, Lord? You know, sometimes those answers may not come immediately, but one thing you can definitely know for sure. Just do justly. Just in your normal everyday life, just make the right decisions. Be just, right? Know what is right. Know what is wrong. Do that which is right in life. That's what God requires from you. That's what builds a great walk and fellowship with God. Say, God, your Bible says to do this. I'll just do that then, Lord. Passing the right judgment. That's what it means to do justly. Passing the right judgment. Making the right decisions in life. It says, and to love mercy. Now, obviously this is saying we should be merciful, but not just be merciful. The Bible said us to love it. I'll give you an example of this. Have you ever shown mercy to somebody? You know, maybe as a parent, you've shown mercy to your children. They've done wrong. You probably should take out that rod of correction. And, but you've seen their broken and contrite heart. You say, well, you know what? I'll show mercy here. And so you won't judge them as severely as you may have originally, but they don't appreciate it. Sometimes you show mercy and the people you show mercy to just don't appreciate it. So then you kind of get offended. It's like, well, I could have gone harder on you, but I've gone soft. I've shown some love and mercy, tenderness. And it's been thrown in my face. And you're like, I'm not going to show mercy anymore. Now, but you know what's wonderful about loving mercy is that even if it's not received, even if you show mercy and they don't appreciate the mercy that you're showing them, whoever that is in your life, you can just love the fact that you did show the mercy because you love mercy. You know, it's not loving their response to your mercy necessarily, which ideally would be good if they can appreciate the mercy, but just loving to be merciful. Because we realise that people will always fail. People always do wrong. People will always offend you and upset you. But sometimes just letting it go easy. I forgive you brother. I'll put it behind me. I'm not going to let it bother me. Showing some mercy and loving the mercy. It's a good way to go. I love mercy in return. I love the other way because God shows me a lot of mercy. I love his mercy. I love it. Otherwise, boy, I'd be judged by God. I'd be coming down. That hand of chastisement constantly will never stop if not for his love and mercy toward me. I love it. I love the mercy this way. But I need to love mercy this way as well. Me showing mercy toward other people. Love mercy. That's going to help you to be merciful to others because you just love the attribute of mercy as a general rule. And of course, to walk humbly with thy God. To walk, there's a walk, the fellowship. To go before the Lord in humility and just desire him. Desire his word. Desire his presence. You know, spend time with the Lord. Speak to him. Open the word. Sing him praises. Not just at church but in your one-on-one time at home. Maybe with your family. Get the family together. Read the Bible together. Or just in your own time. Read the Bible, guys. Love his word. Be humble and say, God, you're right and I'm wrong. Lord, your Bible is true. Your wisdom is just and pure and holy and need more of your justice. Help me to show mercy by you showing me mercy. Give me wisdom to make the right decisions and help me, Lord, to take down the pride and the ego that so easily creeps up in my flesh. Help me to walk humbly. And so it's so like, it's kind of straightforward though, isn't it? Oh, surely the sacrifice is thousands of rams. Sacrifice our kids. No, all wrong. All wrong. Remember God says, have I wearied you? Is it really weary to do the right decision? Make the right decision. It's really hard. Like God, like we didn't have to make decision. We just opened God's word. Okay, God said so. I'll do that. To show mercy. Is it really that hard? I'll just forgive you. I'm not going to, you know, just render evil for evil or whatever it is. Seek vengeance. And I'll just be humble before you, God. Cause I mean, how is someone going to walk with you? I know you hate pride. You're always right, God. I'll just be humble before you. Is that really so hard? That's what, you know, the people, you know, God's asking the people here of the land. Is it really that hard? This is what I require from you. This is good. You have showed the old man what is good. This is a good way to live your life. You guys know what the Lord requires from you. It's not that complicated. Let's continue then. Verse number nine, verse number nine. The Lord's voice crieth unto the city. Now the Lord's voice crying there is actually Micah crying, but he's crying the words of God. He's, he's yelling, he's preaching with a big voice upon the city. That city would be Jerusalem. And it says this, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name. Hear ye the rod and who have appointed it? This is quite interesting. It says the man of wisdom will understand the preaching. The man of wisdom will see the name of the Lord attached with the preaching. They'll be able to recognize this is the word of the Lord. But obviously the foolish man will look at Micah and just say, well, this is just garbage. What is this guy going on about? Look, if you're absorbing the sermon tonight, if you're able to follow along in this chapter, then there's wisdom in your hearts. There's wisdom in your minds. But you know, an average person that just walks by unsaved will hear this preacher and say, that's just, that's foolishness. What's the point? What a waste of time preaching through Micah. What's Micah in the Bible? Old Testament? What's that? Right? I mean, that, that is the foolishness of man. You know, verse number nine reminds me, if you want, come with me to 1 Corinthians 2. Come with me to 1 Corinthians 2, 1 Corinthians 2. Not only does a wise man see the name of the Lord, they hear, they hear ye the rod, the rod there, the rod of chastisement that's about to fall upon Judah. That chastisement, I believe in context of this would be Assyria, the Assyrian empire, the Syrian army, once again, being used by God to chastise the people of the southern kingdom. So the wives of the city are here in Micah and they go, man, our nation's corrupt. Our nation's doing things contrary to God. God is angry at our nation. His rod of chastisement is coming hard upon us. That's what the wives of the land are saying, the wives of the city. And again, brethren, I both love Australia and I hate Australia. Like I love the blessings, the opportunities. I love the Sunshine Coast. It's so beautiful. Australia is such a beautiful land. It's such a blessed land, full of resources, full of riches, such a small population, being able to appreciate such a rich land. Like I see God's blessings and I love that part of Australia. Easygoing people, generally speaking, generally speaking. Easygoing, friendly people. But I mentioned the abortions. Mothers can just kill their babies. Fathers don't care. We know there's drunkenness going on tonight. We know there's adultery, fornication, all manner of wickedness going on. Probably murders tonight. Thoughts of murder at least. It's a wicked nation, right? It's a wicked nation. It needs the Lord. And the wise will have to say, yeah, as beautiful as this land is, as merciful as God has been upon us, man, His rod of chastisement can't be far away. That's what the wise would say. The foolish will be saying, she'll be right, mate. She'll be right. No, it's not going to be right. Australians are dying and going to hell every single day. Going to hell every single day. And that's it for them. Eternal life, eternal death, I should say, in hell fire forever and ever, tormented day and night forever and ever. That's what our fellow Australians are experiencing every single day. It's a wicked nation. But I'm reminded of 1 Corinthians 2, 9. It says, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God had prepared for them that love Him. But God had revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. God reveals everything to us by His Holy Spirit. It's amazing, right? Like I was wondering about Balaam even, right? I said, oh, Balaam there in Joshua 13, 22. Took me a while, but eventually the Holy Spirit revealed it to me. It's just a damnable false prophet, Balaam was. You know, God's Holy Spirit would lead us and guide us, direct us, show us His word, show us the wickedness of Australia, you know, us with a tear in our eye and a heart for lost souls. We want to bring some righteousness to this land. And the righteousness does not come by governments. Righteousness does not come by man's laws. It comes by the righteousness of Christ, His salvation, winning souls to the Lord. That's what's going to bring righteousness back to Australia. Churches like New Life Baptist Church and Blessed Hope Baptist Church and other God fearing churches preaching controversial sermons. Our nation needs to hear it. The controversy of the Lord needs to be accepted, needs to be heard. But how can they hear unless they have the Holy Spirit of God living within them? Drop down to verse number 14, 1 Corinthians 2.14. It says, but the natural man. Now pause there for a moment. That natural man is not just the unsaved man. It's also our flesh. We also have the natural man with us, right? The battle between the flesh and the spirit. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. We can only discern the Word of God by the Holy Spirit of God. The natural man, as I said, the average unbelieving man, the unsaved man without the Holy Spirit of God would hear this preaching foolishness. Australia will always be wealthy. Australia will always be blessed. That's what people often say about that. It's not, it's getting difficult in Australia. It's becoming more wicked. God's Word is more controversial than it's ever been in this land. There was a time we could preach against the homosexuals and it was purely acceptable in Australia. Easily acceptable. You could preach against abortion. And yet, of course, everyone will just accept that preaching. The more wicked our nation becomes, the more controversial God's Word becomes. But brethren, don't allow your natural man, which you have, to think of God's Word as foolish. You know, we have the Spirit of God teaching us, telling us these great truths that we see in his scriptures. Back to Micah 6, Micah 6, verse number 10. So God continues, he says, Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? And the scant measure that is abominable? You read verse number 10. What are the treasures of wickedness? In the house of the wicked. What is that? Well, God explains in verse number 11. Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances and with a bag of deceitful weights? He says, boy, in your houses, the businessmen of Jerusalem, you've got wicked balances. You've got deceitful weights. You're ripping off your fellow man. Instead of paying, you know, whatever money for a bag of flour, they might only be buying half a bag of flour because the weights are wrong. The system is messed up. It's unbalanced. God says it's abominable to rip off your fellow man with wicked business practices. And I've shared this with so many of you guys. The financial system we live in and operate in is unbalanced. It's broken. It's deceitful. You know, the 100 bucks you earn today is not worth 100 bucks tomorrow. Five years down the track, the 100 bucks will only buy 50 bucks worth of groceries or whatever it is that you need. Man, like you can't escape it. As long as you work and get paid in currency and you go out and you buy your goods and services in currency, brethren, we operate in a wicked debt based system. Your hard earned is not really, it's been stripped away by, you know, from you. You say by who? Well, God tells us. The house of the wicked. It's the rich man. You know, like again, in the day of Jerusalem, he was a businessman. Today, it's just a global banking system. Those in charge. The Jews. These wicked families that oversee these banks, that lend out with usury, great billions of dollars to powerful nations, leading people to war, destroying infrastructure, destroying the financial systems and the prosperity of nations. It's crazy. You know, Australians earn more than they've ever earned before, but they feel poorer than they've ever felt before. You earn more, but you buy less. You earn more, but the idea of ever buying a house or something nice seems to be getting further and further and further away. And we don't, we don't know why. Because 100 bucks is still 100 bucks in my wallet, but no, it's not really. It's been stripped away with abomination, deceitful weights, wicked balances, fractional reserve banking, and all the other little games that these people play. It's so wicked. God says it's abominable. God says, I'm going to send you that rod of chastisement that the Assyrian army, they're going to come down and they're going to wipe out. And they do. They do wipe out lands and properties of the wealthy, of the rich, of the wicked. And guess what? Australia is still part, like this is, I'm reading Australia. Like this is Australia. This is the world. It's wicked. Who is to blame? God tells us verse number 12, for the rich men thereof are full of violence. Violence. They violate other people. They take advantage of other people. They rip people off. I was listening to their podcasts and the middle class has been decimated. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. And I was listening to this podcast and this person was like, you know, he's figured out the game and he's benefiting from the game. But he's like, even though I'm benefiting and I should be happy because I just feel so sad for society because I feel so sad for my children. What are they ever going to afford? The future has been stripped away by these rich men that are full of violence and inhabitants thereof have spoken lies and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Man, when I read this, I go, wow, nothing's changed. There's nothing new under the sun. It's like, I think about how hard it is to be on a single income, raising a big family, trying to be a hard worker, trying to provide the best you can. And you've got these wicked rich men trying to destroy even your hard efforts, your labour. God says it's abomination. We need to wake up to these things. Like God sent us in this chapter, like, guys, be aware. You're being taken for granted. You're being ripped off. Now I don't have all the solutions, brethren, but I can tell you something we can do to do justly, to love mercy and to walk calmly with our God. And that's something we can do. At least we can do that. That's what the Lord requires from us. Verse number 13. He says, therefore, also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins. Again, I believe that smiting comes from the Syrian empire. That's a reference to that. Even though it's not clearly mentioned, I believe again from the context, the historical context, I believe that's what he's referring to. Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied. And thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee, and thou shalt take hold, but shall not deliver. And that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword. I'll just continue reading. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap. Thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil, and sweet wine, and shall not drink wine. Again, I believe this is specifically about the rich, those that have done violence to other people, right? They've taken their lands. They've got their big lands. They've got their possessions. They've harvested, they've sold on the land. They're expecting a huge harvest to come. God says it's not coming. Again, I believe it's the Assyrians just coming through, just trampling, destroying, making a mess of things. Verse number 16, God says, for the statutes of Omri are kept. Omri was a king of Israel. So that's why I think this is talking about the southern kingdom here. Pretty confident it is. For the statutes of Omri are kept and all the works of the house of Ahab. That's king Ahab, the son of king Omri. He says, and you walk in their councils. It's not like you've learned the ways of the northern kingdom. God's already wiped them out and you're learning their ways. That I should make thee a desolation and the inhabitants thereof and hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people. So it seems like again, just looking at the prophecy here. Again, even though it's not very clearly laid out for us in their historical writings, like kings and chronicles, it seems like here that as the Assyrians came through, causing havoc and I don't think the Assyrians really know. They're just going about trying to do as much damage as they can. That God is directing these people to just destroy the prosperity of the rich, prosperity of the wicked, specifically as they come out. They're not going to be able to eat and be filled anymore. They're not going to be able to do what they've been doing over the years, destroying the lives of their fellow man. But brethren, in conclusion, the child for the servant was what the Lord requires of you. And as I looked at this chapter, I just said, this is Australia. Wicked, unbalanced system. The financial system's unbalanced. The middle class is being destroyed. The families are sacrificing their children for prosperity, for happiness, to fix this overpopulation, whatever ideas they have in their head. You know, and you know, God's word is controversial. No surprise. We shouldn't be surprised. You know, I've been told, I don't think I'm even that, like, that hard of a preacher. But I've been told, Pastor Kevin, turn it down sometimes. It's like, man, I can think of preachers that are much more controversial. I'm not even trying to be controversial. I'm just trying to preach God's word. I'm just trying to show the parallels with what we see in the scriptures, with what we see in the world today. And if it's controversial, it's not my controversy. That's why it said it's the Lord's controversy. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy. If you don't like it, it's not the preacher that's a problem. You're the problem. Because you've agreed with society. You've agreed with the world. And God's word now seems just too hard, too difficult. No, we need to preach God's word truly. And the wise will hear it. The wise will understand. But the foolish will just laugh and mock at it and not understand the richness of God's truth. But brethren, even though our nation's wicked, we can't, what do we do, Pastor Kevin? What do we do? Well, we know what to do. To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Let's pray.