[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:14] Well, take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to the book of Micah, chapter 1 and verse 1. You know, Micah is not a very popular guy. In fact, as he will be told to quit preaching before this day is over, they don't want to hear him.
[0:28] And his message only angers the majority of people. They don't like him. They don't like what he's got to say. And that makes me wonder, as you and I approach the Word of God, how do we approach the Word of God?
[0:40] How do we listen to the Bible? So I'm going to take a little extra time today and talk to you just a little bit about that before we work our way through this. But read with me, if you would, Micah, chapter 1 and verse 1. The Bible says, the Word of the Lord, the Word of the Lord.
[0:54] You don't underline that. See, Micah's saying, this isn't my opinion, this isn't what I think. God told me. The Word of the Lord that came to Micah, the more is shy than the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
[1:06] Someone recently made a comment that went very viral on the internet about how the New Testament writers were exact and they were clear about things that the Old Testament weren't.
[1:16] But old Micah sure was. He said, I'll tell you who I am, tell you when I lived, tell you what I was doing. And he said, I'll tell you who I'm talking about, Samaria and Jerusalem. We believe the Bible is the Word of God.
[1:26] If you believe that, say amen. He claims that these are the words of God and not His words. Micah calls on all to hear the Word of God. It's God's Word and then it's important and we should listen and obey.
[1:40] I title this message every time I try to figure out what's the thing you ought to go home with. And here's what I think it is. Hear, believe, and act on what God says. Hear, believe, and act on what God says.
[1:54] In Micah chapter 1, He called on all people to listen. Look at Micah 1, 1. Hear, all ye people, hearken, O earth and all that is therein, and the Lord be witness against you.
[2:07] In Micah chapter 3 and verse 1, He again says, Hear, I pray, O heads of Jacob, all you government leaders, all you princes, y'all listen. I'm telling you what God's got to say.
[2:18] In Micah chapter 6, He said, Hear what the Lord says. Hear what the Lord says. So Micah really thought he was bringing God's Word.
[2:30] He wasn't preaching his opinion. He was preaching God's Word. In Revelation chapter 2 and verse 7, the Lord basically says the same thing to us. He says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
[2:43] Hear what the Spirit saith. And so we believe that God talks to us. We believe that God communicates with us. And so I just want to walk you through just a little bit.
[2:54] I'm going to fly through this. So you've got an ink pen. You might want to write down these verses and look them up just a little bit later. You do know how we got God's Word, right? This verse I need you to really look up. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 20.
[3:06] How did Micah get God's Word? According to the book of Peter, according to the apostle Peter, how did it happen? He said, Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.
[3:22] Now listen to this before we read the next verse. Are you looking here and listening? That means you can't come up with what you think it means. That means you can't read it and say, well, this means to me. And somebody else, it means, no, it's no private interpretation.
[3:33] God said something. Listen to it. Don't try to come up with your own way of looking at it. God said something. What did he say? Well, if you're at the teachers and workers meeting today, you'll understand how we interpret Scripture.
[3:44] I hope you'll come for that. Verse 21. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man. So when Micah wrote, he did not write what he wanted to write. But holy men of God, Micah, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
[4:01] We believe that we can completely trust the Word of God as perfectly inspired, absolutely truthful, completely trustworthy. We believe that the Bible is the infallible or incapable of being wrong, inerrant or free from error of any kind Word of God.
[4:22] That's what we believe at Vision Baptist Church. We believe that the Bible is historically, chronologically, and even scientifically without error. We believe that because Titus chapter 1 and verse 2 said God cannot lie.
[4:36] It said God cannot lie. In Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 18, it said there's some things that never change, immutable things, and that is impossible for God to lie.
[4:47] It's impossible for God to lie. And that's what gives us strong comfort, strong consolation, because guess what? Since God can't lie and what he said is true, we can depend on it.
[4:58] Jesus said that God's Word was true. In John 17, 17, he said, Thy Word is truth. The Bible is the Word of God. It is true and it endures forever.
[5:11] In Psalm 119, 160, the Bible says, Thy Word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endures forever.
[5:22] The Word of God is infallible and it's inerrant. And that's words you ought to know. The Scripture cannot be broken. John chapter 10 and verse 35. So how many of you understand and believe we have an infallible, inerrant Word of God?
[5:37] Say amen. We have the Word of God. Second thing I want you to know is it has absolute authority over me. I must bow to its authority. It's interesting how the Bible says some things.
[5:50] We ought to tremble at His Word. In Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 2, he says, Even to him that is poor and of a contrary spirit and trembles at my Word.
[6:00] If God's speaking, I ought to be like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This ain't the president. This ain't the pastor. This isn't the man. This is God speaking. I'm going to hush, be quiet, and listen because God is speaking.
[6:13] It says that again in Ezra chapter 9 and verse 4. Then are assembled unto me everyone that trembles at the words of the God of Israel. They know it's God speaking. The answer is the answer Eli gave to Samuel when Samuel was a little boy.
[6:28] Eli, Samuel comes running and he says, I heard God speaking. I heard somebody speaking. Somebody's calling my name. Was that you calling my name? He said, Oh, it's the Lord speaking. He said, Here's the answer. When God speaks, here's what you say.
[6:39] I'm listening. He says in 1 Samuel 3, 9, If he calls thee that thou shalt speak, speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.
[6:50] Verse 10, Speak for thy servant hears. So when we come to church, you might wonder, why in the world are we in the book of Micah? Has it ever dawned on you to think, ain't nobody ever preached to me out of the book of Micah in my life?
[7:03] What are we doing in the book of Micah? Because it's the word of God. And since it's the word of God, it means something. And since it's the word of God, it has something to say to me. And we don't doubt it.
[7:14] That's what the devil did in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1. He said, Yea, hath God said. We don't contradict it. You shall not surely die. That's what the devil said.
[7:24] We don't take away from it. We don't add to it in Revelation chapter 22. We believe that all of it is the word of God. The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
[7:47] That the man of God may be perfect, mature. In other words, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. If you have your Bible open, which I wish you would in verse 16, you should put a circle around the word all. We believe that all is the word of God.
[7:59] We believe it is all inspired. And we believe it's all profitable. That's what it says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. Here's a big word we use sometimes. Plenary inspiration.
[8:11] That means that we believe it is fully and completely inspired. That includes all parts of it. From Genesis chapter 1 to the end of the book of Revelation, all of it is the word of God. That's why we actually believe the creation story.
[8:25] We believe the creation story because if it's all inspired, it must be true. We believe Genesis 1 through 11, which is doubted by almost every liberal around the planet. And even some of the new guys don't believe Genesis 1 through 11.
[8:39] But it's all inspired, the word of God said. It's all inspired. It's all profitable. We believe in what's called verbal inspiration, which means God gave the very words he wanted us to have.
[8:52] And that's what it says in Psalm 12, 6. The words of the Lord are pure words. Pure words. We believe that he took care of even the smallest things like jots and tittles, which are like little accent marks and little hooks and crooks on words.
[9:08] In the Hebrew and in the Greek, he took care of all of that because the Bible says in 518, Matthew 518, Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, pass one jotter, one till it shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.
[9:22] I believe God still gave me the word. He's still taking care of it. It might be 2,000 years old, but I still got a copy of the word of God. I ought to get a bigger amen than that. If I don't, I have no authority here this morning and you are no reason to be listening to me.
[9:34] Because I am a nobody, but I'm preaching out of the book of a somebody. In Luke chapter 16 and verse 17, it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.
[9:46] One little mark to fail. In the word of God, God is so clear that it's the word of God that even Paul makes an argument in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 16 about one letter in a word.
[10:03] So when he read it, he thought it was exact enough that he said, Now to Abraham and to his seed where the promise is made. And he said, Not to seeds. He said, Not and to seeds as many, but as one.
[10:16] So he read that word and he said, That's got an S on it. That's a different word. In other words, God knows he gave me his word. Down to S's on the ends of words.
[10:27] How about that one? He said it's a word. He knows about the verb tenses. In Matthew chapter 22 and verse 32, Jesus has the audacity to look at the Pharisees and the Sadducees and to say, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
[10:46] God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. He said, I am. Not I was, but I am. He's going back and quoting another verse out of Exodus chapter 3 and verse 6 where he said, I am the God of Abraham.
[10:58] Abraham. They knew that God's name was I am. Even the tense of a verb was important. So before I move into the book of Micah with you, we're going through the Bible every week and we've gone through Old Testament books that maybe don't seem like to have much to do.
[11:13] And it takes a lot of work for me sometimes to help you understand, help me understand. I'm not to be able to communicate with you some truth. But I need you to understand we're here this morning because we believe we have the word of God.
[11:23] We're here this morning because we believe that we can open this book and study this book and God still speaks to us because we study his book. That's why we don't have a whole lot of stories here.
[11:37] I can tell you all kinds of stories from the book, from the life of Austin Gardner down in Arequipa, Peru. I can talk to you about the things that happened in Querétaro, Mexico. I can talk to you about it.
[11:47] But you know what? That stuff is worthless. That's just my stories. I should get me a TV show if I want to do that. But in a place like this, we come, we lay a sacred book on a sacred desk, and we talk about what God said.
[11:58] It's the word of God. What's your attitude towards the word of God? Before I get into the message today, you see, Micah said, this is the word of God. That's a big deal.
[12:10] Micah's like, all right, y'all, I'm fixing to start saying some things, so let's clarify something right up front. This ain't Micah talking. This is God. Let me just clarify some things this morning. I have no prophet nor the son of a prophet.
[12:23] In fact, it is I'm nobody. But I'm going to read a book to you, and you've got a copy in your lap, and you ought to always bring your Bible because you're going to check and see. Is that what God said?
[12:33] Because you don't trust me, but you do trust the book. And you're going to bring the Bible with you. Do you believe it enough to tremble in respect? Do you really look at the Bible and say, man, that's the word of God?
[12:44] Do you come to hear and obey? Do you come to say, hey, I didn't come this morning just to be at church and just to fulfill my cultural duty as a Southeastern American.
[12:56] You know, Southeastern Christians were all culturally saved and going to hell because we don't know God through Jesus Christ. Do you spend time in God's word to know his will?
[13:08] If this is God's word, then it should dominate our lives. If you actually had a copy of God talking, you probably ought to let it dominate your life. You take advantage of all your church offers to grow you in the word of God.
[13:21] From discipleship lessons to every service that you can, does the word of God rule and reign in your life? Do you really believe and accept the word of God as exactly that, the word of God?
[13:35] I'm going to move on now, and we're going to look into the story of the book of Micah. But I just want you to really be clear of something. Sometimes I feel very foolish, just to be honest. It's been ten and a half years.
[13:47] I've stood in front of you behind this very pulpit, and I have preached to you from the Bible. And week after week, I just don't have enough good stories to tell you. I could spend all week long reading illustration books and coming up with illustrations for you.
[13:59] I just don't have enough of them. But the truth is, we do have a Bible. And if we come reverently before our God and open his book and say, I'm here to hear it. And I'm here to believe it.
[14:12] And I'm here to act on it. We'll be a very different group of people. If you believe that, say amen. Now go with me, if you would, to Micah chapter 1 and verse 3. See, Micah is bringing a word of judgment.
[14:25] And it's a word that they should hear because it comes from the Lord. And in Micah chapter 1, I mean, you know, when God's way off up in heaven, it's one thing to think about God.
[14:36] But when Micah says, he's fixing to come down here and start walking on the ground, buddy. He's going to come down here and be in the very middle of us. And this is going to be a scary thing.
[14:47] Micah chapter 1 and verse 3. Behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place. He will come down. And he will tread upon the high places of the earth.
[15:00] Would you understand the word high places? We're going to look at that in just a second. God is stepping out of heaven. He's coming near. And he's bringing judgment.
[15:10] God's stepping out of heaven. He's coming near. And he's bringing judgment according to what Micah is being told by God. And Samaria and Jerusalem will be destroyed.
[15:24] Samaria and Jerusalem will be destroyed. Micah chapter 1 and verse 1 underlined. He said, I'm speaking concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. It's their high places that so anger God.
[15:39] It's their high places. If you ever travel around the world, you'll find something very interesting. You see, in the Old Testament, whenever they wanted to worship demons, they always found a high place.
[15:54] They put up their altars and their groves and all the other things, and they worshiped him on the high places. And if I took you to the city of Adikipa, I'd point to all the high places. I'd say, look, there's an idol.
[16:04] There's an idol. If I took you to any of the other cities around South America, which I've visited many of them, there's an idol. And there's an idol. And God doesn't like this because God wants to be the only one worshipped, and he's coming down, and he's going to walk on their high places.
[16:20] Their sin was idolatry. Rebelling against God. Setting up somebody else to be God other than God.
[16:30] You see, the Samaritans had developed their own religious system in the northern kingdom in competition with Moses' worship style that was set up, the Mosaic worship that had been put into place.
[16:43] What they had done is they had their altar, and they did their Jewish stuff, but then they set up their Canaanite worship, and they did them both together. That way, you could all be happy when you come to church.
[16:54] That way, everybody could feel good. Hey, you like to see the Jewish things done? We're doing it. Hey, you like to see the world stuff done? We're doing it. They worshiped the false gods of Canaan.
[17:05] They were not true to God. They were not in love with God. You know, I think they might have even been in love with religion. They might have even been in love with worship.
[17:18] But they weren't in love with God, and God wants to be the one you worship. It's not about all the fancy junk you're doing. It's about do you love God? Do you hear Him?
[17:29] Do you believe Him? Do you act on what He says? They claimed to worship God. They were secretly worshiping idols and offering sacrifices. They were mixing the world with their worship.
[17:42] And that was considered to be adultery, spiritual adultery. Read Micah 1.7 with me. Micah 1.7. And all the graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate, for she gathered it of the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot.
[18:09] A harlot, prostitute, hire, pay that the prostitute gets. And there actually was often in false worship, sex junk going on.
[18:21] The world's fascinated with that stuff, and there was a bunch of that kind of junk going on. They had their idols. And for God, when you don't love God, and you're not faithful to God, that's adultery.
[18:34] When you want to go do what the world does, the world is not nature, and it's not Mount Everest, and it's not the wind and the trees. It's a religious system that raises itself up against God and presents all sorts of other ways to get to God.
[18:51] That's a graven image. He will beat them down. He will destroy the hire of the harlot. In the New Testament, we're given the same instruction. This is Jewish people. These Jewish people, they're doing the worship they're supposed to do, and then they're bringing in a bunch of garbage because they love God and they love the world.
[19:09] They love God and they love the world. But biblically, you can't love both. I've been married 43 years. Amazingly, Betty thinks she should be the only woman I love.
[19:21] Amen? Amazingly, Betty's not okay with me bringing another lady to the house. I told her sometime, I read the Bible, some of them guys had more than one wife. She said, you won't have one long, I'll kill you.
[19:32] Huh? Basically, you know what God said? God said, I don't want you worshiping another God. Look with me, if you would, in James chapter 4 and verse 4. James chapter 4 and verse 4.
[19:45] So I want you to know this is a New Testament problem. James 4 says, You adulterers and adulteresses, Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity, hatred with God?
[20:03] Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. See, God's kind of stuck on this. He was saying it in Micah, and now James is saying it in the New Testament.
[20:16] It's the same message. Micah's like, God said he's God, and ain't nobody else God. He don't like you worshiping other gods. He wants you to do it his way, at his place, and the way he likes it. He's God. He thinks he's got a right to say that.
[20:28] We get the New Testament, and James is like, Hey, God said, if you guys keep messing with the world, you're adulterers and adulteresses. Were they kinfolk or what? Or the Holy Spirit wrote both books. Amen. Now, the world here is a system that hates God.
[20:41] You do know that all around us is the world. And when I say world, I'm not talking about interstates. And I'm not talking about cars and trucks and airplanes. And I'm not talking about mountains and sea breezes.
[20:53] I'm not talking about the beach. You're not supposed to go out and say, I just hate everything around here. That's not what it is. It's a system that says, We don't believe in you, God. But we like to mix with that. We've accepted evolution.
[21:06] God help us on how you did that. We've accepted evolution. We've accepted sexual mores that the world offered. We've said to ourselves, We want to do what the, We don't like being the weirdos here.
[21:17] We don't like sticking around like we love God or something. That's adultery. Spiritual adultery. It speaks of those who reject the word of God.
[21:28] That book right there is hated. That book's hated. It's made fun of. If you like one of them, you're made fun of.
[21:39] If you like the Bible, read the Bible, think about the Bible, you're made fun of. You're an idiot. That's what they say. And so you say, Well, I don't want them to think I'm an idiot. Some of us are 007 Christians all week long.
[21:51] We don't let anybody know we're saved. We wouldn't give out a gospel track. We wouldn't invite anybody to church because we need to fit in with the world. They hate God, so I'll act like I do while I'm at work. But I come on Sundays, huh?
[22:03] I come on Sundays. It speaks of those who reject God. It speaks of wanting to work with, believe, and act like a world that hates God, hates his word, and crucified Jesus.
[22:17] And we're acting like they're our friend and they're our ally. It's just wrong. You can say, oh me.
[22:28] You see, God is really peculiar and particular. He's like, I have to be the one. On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said this in Matthew 6, 24.
[22:42] No man can serve two masters. For either he'll love the one, he'll hate the one and love the other, or he'll hold the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon there is money and material goods, which is the God of the United States.
[22:56] Can we just be honest? The altar every one of us worship at most of the time has an almighty dollar sitting on top of it. Our lives revolve around what is the money thing here.
[23:08] Our lives revolve around cars and houses and things. Nothing wrong with having those, but that's not supposed to rule our heart. That's why you learn to be a giver.
[23:19] Because when you're a giver, you're selling the money. You'll do what I say, and you'll go do some of God's work. It's not all about me. Some of you have not even started tithing, which is a saying, I like my money too much.
[23:30] And the more money you make, in this church we make a little more money than most people, that means less of us tithe. That ought not be true. That ought not be true. Look at the verse, if you would. It says you have to hate one and love the other.
[23:42] That's not really very nice. I don't understand why he has to be like that. Let's be honest. Why couldn't God just say, okay, you've got to love me and kind of like money?
[23:53] I don't know what he said. He said you've got to love me, hate the other, hold the one, despise the other. And you can just take that word mammon and draw a blank there, and you can put your family there.
[24:06] Some of us make gods out of our family. Some of us make gods out of money and material goods. Some of us make politics that could go in that blank. Anything.
[24:17] Pride, popularity, power, possessions, all of those. But God says, no, I'm number one. And don't get upset with God like he ought not think like that.
[24:28] Your wife thinks like that, buddy. Your husband thinks like that. Say amen. So what's the big deal that our God who created us, who saved us, who bought us out of hell, who paid our sin debt and owns us, would like us to love him?
[24:46] I don't see where it's a big deal. How many high places are in your life? The high place where the idols are placed and false worship takes place. How many of us have two masters at once?
[24:59] Are we attempting to walk in the world while we're at the same time attempting to honor and serve God? Are we worshiping like the Bible says while we try to serve other idols? Are we looking for religion that might meet our needs?
[25:12] Or do we have the purpose of loving God and serving him? The first thing, Micah's like, God wants to be first. That's not a new message.
[25:26] It ought to be an accepted message among us. Can I get an amen right there? And Micah says, my heart's breaking having to tell you all this. See, I think most people are kind of like they were in this book, and that is that they were in love with God.
[25:41] They were in love with God. And as they started serving God, more and more money, because this book's going to be about money. You're not going to like this book.
[25:52] It's about coveting and wanting more land and more stuff. And it starts creeping and it starts owning us. And so Micah's broken hearted. Look at verse 8. I'll wail and howl.
[26:02] I'll cry. I'll go strip naked. I will make a wailing like the dragons. Boy, my heart's broken. This is killing me.
[26:15] I love you, my country. I love you, Judah. I love you, Israel. I'm a preacher sent from God. My heart's breaking. Because your wound is incurable.
[26:29] You've gone too far to turn back. Look at Micah 1.9. For her wound is incurable. For it is coming to Judah, under the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
[26:39] He proceeds to warn every city that judgment's coming and it'll be horrible. By the way, we should be broken hearted as we warn our lost ones, loved ones, and lost world of a coming judgment.
[26:51] We should be clear to them. Their wound is incurable, by the way. Everybody you know is on their way to hell unless God saves them through Jesus Christ, what he did on the cross. And you and I need to realize we are responsible to carry the gospel message to them.
[27:04] They must turn to Christ and be saved. No one can worship God like they want to. You can't. So I think we need to make some changes in how we do this. Let's put the Bible to the side for a while.
[27:16] The other day, a preacher texted me and said I was almost through the Bible. And he made the comment. He said, I'm looking to do something different. And I wrote back, what? Start preaching the Koran now? And he went, ha ha, it's funny.
[27:28] But the point is, it really does get old. 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, just the same old book every week. Let's open it to a new chapter, new verse. Let's keep going. There's a harshness to our message that we don't like.
[27:40] I don't like it. Because we tell them it's either Jesus Christ or else. We cannot and will not be tolerant. In a world that cries for tolerancy, we can't be tolerant because there's only salvation in Jesus Christ.
[27:57] You don't get to heaven in Muslim ways and Buddha ways and Hindu ways. You don't get to heaven in all kinds of ways. You get to heaven through Jesus. No man comes to the Father but by me.
[28:08] We preach the word of God and leave the rest to God. Are we going about weeping and telling others about the Lord Jesus and the salvation that he offers? Go with me to Micah chapter 2 and verse 1.
[28:19] In Micah chapter 2 and verse 1, he says, Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil on their beds. And when the morning is light, they practice it because they are able to.
[28:31] It's in the power of their hand. So these guys are going to bed at night and they're just laying there thinking, man, I wonder what I can do tomorrow to steal some more money, mistreat another person, take advantage of people. That's what the chapter's going to be about. He said, And they wake up.
[28:41] So God gets aggravated about it. In Micah chapter 2 and verse 2, they're coveting fields and taking them by violence and oppressing people. That crime wasn't only against man, it was against God.
[28:53] God wanted the land to stay in a family. So the Jewish people were taught, you pass down the land. So just so you could get this part of the book and it not be so complicated. You remember the story of Naboth?
[29:05] How many of you remember the story of Naboth? Hold your hand up if you do. Old Naboth owned some land. And his land was right next to King Ahab's palace. And King Ahab thought it would be a really nice place to have him an herb garden.
[29:16] So King Ahab walked over to Naboth and said, I'd like to buy your land if I could. And Naboth said, You know I'm not allowed to sell my land because God don't want to sell their land.
[29:27] We're supposed to keep it in the family. Can't sell it to you. And Ahab said, Hey look, I'll pay you good money for it. Pay you more than what it's worth. I'll buy you another piece. Probably it's better. But this one's real close to the castle. When I need some herbs, I just run out.
[29:38] I'll send one servant, run it right outside, pick it up, bring it back in the house. It'll work good for me. You need to have it. And Naboth said, No, no, no, no. That's not happening. So it's like Micah chapter 2. These men practice stuff.
[29:49] So that night, Oh Ahab, or sometime he's talking to his wife Jezebel. We don't name our kids that, by the way, because she was a Jezebel. And so he's telling Jezebel. And Jezebel said, Well, Naboth, he says, Ahab, what are you so upset about, buddy?
[30:01] I can get that land for you. I'll lay awake tonight and practice some evil in my head. And tomorrow morning, we'll wake up and do it. And so she goes and gets some wicked people to say that old Naboth had blasphemed God and they convict him by lying testimony and they kill him and they kill his whole family.
[30:17] And there's nobody left to take Naboth's land and Ahab owns the land. And then the prophet Elijah comes walking in and he says, Hey, the same place where you let the blood drip out of that man's body, dogs will lick your blood.
[30:32] I would have taken you all through that story, but there it is real quick. The whole point was these men are coveting land and it's not that they couldn't have had land.
[30:43] It's not that they couldn't have improved themselves, but they were stealing this land and abusing people and violating God's word. And Jewish people were held to a whole different standard because they were Israelites.
[30:56] The book of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi and the books of the law, the books of Moses, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, they knew better than to do what they were doing and Ahab didn't care and neither did these people.
[31:11] And then there's false religion in Micah chapter 2. In verse 6, he said, prophesy, they said to him, prophesy you not. False prophets are attacking God's men and telling them to stop preaching.
[31:26] You see, those false prophets were preaching. It's not that there's less preaching going on. In America today, there's as much preaching as there's ever been. There are churches on every corner and they're filled with hundreds if not thousands of people.
[31:40] One guy out west can fill up a stadium full of people. It's not like preaching is not happening just like it was in Micah. But they had nothing to do with sin and repentance. Their message was positive that God would bless his people, that's all.
[31:55] False prophets forgot that real worship is not just a ritual, but it's something that really affects your life. The preaching wasn't wrong that Micah did.
[32:06] It was the hearers that were wrong and the hearers were mad. True preachers preach against the lies that justify sinful lifestyles. Have we lifted covetousness up, which is idolatry?
[32:24] Have we lifted up to like it's acceptable? There's a whole gospel called a prosperity gospel that's just about covet more feels. Get it any way you can get it. God's helping you get it.
[32:35] Have we done that? What sort of religion are we seeking? Do we want real Bible preaching or something more pleasurable? Do we hunger to know what God says or just need enough to satisfy our ego?
[32:47] Did you come today to hear and respond or just put in your time in church? Last thing in Micah chapter 2 that I want to show you today real quickly.
[32:58] There's a remnant. I need you to learn that word here. In Micah chapter 2 and verse 12, this is like, this book is mean. One of the young men walked by the other day and he said, hey, what's the message about that?
[33:10] I said, mean. He said, oh, same old, same old. I said, yeah. Same old, same old. We're in the prophets, man. These guys weren't out there preaching a Joel Osteen message. I promise you, Joel could teach them a lot.
[33:22] I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. Would you underline the remnant? My time is up, but I want you to underline it.
[33:35] I want you to realize this. Number one, God's man has exposed sin and announced judgment, but even when he does that, there's always hope and grace. There's a remnant.
[33:47] The nation rebels against God as a nation, as a whole, but there's always a faithful remnant, a faithful few, some people. The message that angered the false prophets, but it didn't change the people.
[34:04] But there was a group of people in Israel who would always stay true to God. You live in a day and time. Now listen to me. Just get real mad before you go home. Where Christianity only has a remnant.
[34:19] Because what's called Christianity today goes under the name of anything you want. But true Christianity is going to say, I believe the Bible.
[34:30] I'll hear it. I'll believe it. And I'll act on it. I'm not here for me. I'm here to honor God. We want to believe in a religion that brings prosperity, pampers our pride, and makes it easy to sin.
[34:46] But God has a different message. The last thing I'll say to you about Israel is this. He's not through with them. That's what he's telling them in Micah chapter 2.
[34:57] I'm not through with you. Believe me, I'm going to do some more stuff with you. We're getting close to the book of Malachi, 400 years of silence. The church will be on the scene in just a bit. But God's not through with Israel.
[35:07] And God's not through with the true church. You may think these are dark days and true Bible preaching churches are smaller and fewer and not as much stuff is happening. But you can mark this one down.
[35:18] Until he takes us out, we have the victory in Jesus Christ. We preach a message of love and grace and hope and we know God changes lives. And you came here today and here's what you want to do.
[35:31] You want to say, I tremble at the word of God. It's God talking. Not Austin. Not the Baptist. You looked at the Bible. You read the verses. You can go home and study them.
[35:41] There were people reading the book of Micah before they came today because they knew that's where we'd be. That's what you ought to do. But let's hear what he's got to say. Hear. Hear. Hear.
[35:52] That's what he said. But it's not just hear. It's hearken. It's not just hear. It's believe it's the word of God. Act like it's the word of God. And if what I've shown you today is true and it's in the Bible, then it should affect your life this week.
[36:09] Not because you got a pumped up feeling of, whew, God is so good to me. I'm going to get rich this week. That's not what it's about. It's about I love God and I want to honor him.
[36:21] Are you here today and you're not even saved? Maybe you're a cultural Christian. Maybe you've gone to church all your life and you've been baptized and you've done all the stuff you're supposed to do so you can go to heaven when you die.
[36:33] But the truth of the matter is none of this makes any sense to you except that it says inside of you I'm not sure I'm really one of those people. I'm not sure I love God like he's talking about. And maybe the Holy Spirit of God is convicting you right now and saying to you you're not saved.
[36:47] You're not going to heaven. All of this is foreign talk to you. But the Holy Ghost is dealing with your heart. He's dealing with you and he's showing you your sin and you could be saved today.
[36:59] He would save you. Would you trust him today? If you're here and you realize you have sinned against the Holy God and you know your sin demands a payment the wages of sin is death.
[37:10] If you know that you can trust God. He loves you and he'll save you. He stands ready. God commended his love toward us and while we were yet sinners God proved his love God showed his love even while we were already still sinning Christ died for us.
[37:26] He loves you you can be saved today. And Christian where is your relationship with him through his book? You respond.
[37:42] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. For more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings.