Well, now let's turn to God's Word.
You know, I found these concepts stripped straight from the headlines from the last
couple of years.
Pastor found embezzling money from large church.
Church leaders exposed for cover-up of sexual abuse charges against pastors.
Pastors who are having affairs claiming, look at this church, God is blessing this church
with new buildings, growth in numbers, and we are reaching more than ever.
God is on my side.
The common thread in all of these headlines is that these leaders used their position
for selfish gain at the expense of those that they lead.
They've gained power.
They've gained money.
They've gained fame.
They've gained illicit pleasure because of the roles that they have.
How do we think about this?
How do we think?
How are we to think when we find church leadership abusing its position and power to serve itself,
not the Lord, nor the congregation, nor the community that it is in?
Friends, this is what our passage this morning in the book of Micah will look like.
If you want to turn there, we're going to look at Micah 3.
We're starting in…that's page 729 in your pew Bible.
And as you're turning there, just remember, Micah was a prophet at the end of the northern
kingdom of Israel and the ongoing existence of the southern kingdom of Israel.
He prophesied most likely over the Assyrian invasion of the northern kingdom and the Assyrian
threat to Jerusalem itself.
Micah prophesied to a nation and to God's people as they were struggling to come to grips
with what was going on in their nation and in their church.
And the book is likely a compilation of prophecies.
And we don't always know the specific historical context of each chapter or each oracle that
we see.
But it's not difficult to see his overall theme.
The overall theme of Micah is that God's judgment is coming because of the sin of Israel,
its leaders, and its people.
Yet he will not forsake his covenant people, but promises to be to them a God like no other.
This is the big picture of what the book of Micah is telling us.
And in our passage today, he sets his sights specifically on the leadership.
And he pronounces oracles of judgment on them while offering a whisper of hope.
So let's read Micah 3 together.
Again, that's page 729 in your pew Bible.
Let's read it and then look at it for a few minutes this morning.
And I said,
Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel.
Is it not for you to know justice?
You who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people and their flesh from off their bones,
who eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from off them
and break their bones into pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron.
Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time
because they have made their deeds evil.
Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who cry peace when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.
Therefore, it shall be night to you without vision
and darkness to you without divination.
The sun shall go down on the prophets
and the day shall be black over them.
The seers shall be disgraced and the diviners put to shame.
They shall all cover their lips,
for there is no answer from God.
But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
and to Israel his sin.
Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight,
who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Its heads give judgment for a bribe,
its priests teach for a price,
its prophets practice divination for money.
Yet they lean on the Lord and say,
is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.
Therefore, because of you,
Zion shall be plowed as a field,
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house of a...
and the mountain of the house of wood of...
let me try that one more time.
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.
Let's pray and ask God for his help as we read his word.
Lord Jesus, we come to you this morning,
and Lord, we hear the tone of this passage.
Lord, I pray this morning that you would have,
Lord, for us a word.
Lord, we pray that you would humble us before your word.
We pray, Lord, that you would,
Lord, open our hearts to receive your word,
and our minds to understand your word.
And I pray for your help,
that I may proclaim it faithfully.
Lord, that we would together sit under your word this morning.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So sometimes when we preach,
we preach through the passage sequentially,
and then the first point is about the first couple of verses,
and then we go on.
The prophets aren't always like that.
Prophets often have cycles.
And so that's how we're going to preach through this today.
We're actually going to preach through the cycles of judgment,
because there are three of them in this passage.
Then we'll figure out,
think through how to apply them.
And then finally,
we're going to look to Micah's and our ultimate hope
in light of this passage.
So if you're taking notes,
that's our outline this morning.
First, we see what are the cycles of judgment?
What are the charges that Micah brings
against the spiritual leaders,
the covenant leaders of God's people?
We see them, there are three of them.
Verses 1 through 4 is the first one.
Verses 5 through 7 is the second one.
And verses 9 through 12 is the third.
We're going to ask a few questions about that.
First of all, who are they?
Who are the leaders that he is targeting?
Well, you see the phrases,
heads and rulers in verse 1,
and then again in 9-11.
This likely referred to the kings,
or those in more political power.
We see the prophets mentioned in verse 5 and 11,
and we see the priests in verse 11.
What we need to recognize and remember
is that in the Old Testament covenant community of people,
the religious leadership and the political leadership
and the social leadership were all overlapping.
They didn't have distinct branches of government.
These roles were often intersecting with one another, right?
And so we need to recognize that as God is bringing this word
to the Old Testament covenant community,
it has this overlap.
And we'll think a little bit further on about how we apply that today.
But for now, we need to see he's talking to this range of people,
prophet, priest, and king, if we want to put it that way,
who were meant to be leading God's people,
and yet were failing in doing it rightly.
What were the charges?
What were the particular ways?
Well, in verses 2 through 4,
we see that they are perverting justice
by calling good evil and evil good.
It doesn't explain exactly what this is.
If you were here last week,
Tyler explained in a lot more specifics
of what chapter 2 explained
about the way that there was economic injustice
and taking of lands and things like that.
But here, what Micah does is simply say,
you are calling something that is right wrong
and something that is wrong right
in the way that you are leading.
And then he says,
what you are doing,
it's like you're a bunch of cannibals.
You are stripping the people of everything they have
down to their very lives.
You are devouring them
by your selfish and self-serving ways.
We see a hint in verse 10-11
that even the civic building projects of the city
were done so at the expense
of the very life of the citizenry
that that was meant to serve.
So that's the charge we see in verses 2 through 4.
In 5 through 7, we see a charge against the prophets.
What is it that they're doing?
It seems what they're doing
is they are changing or adjusting their prophecies
based on what they're getting back for it.
Look with me at verse 5.
It says,
who cry peace when they have something to eat
but declare war against him
who puts nothing in their mouths.
Wrestling with that,
what does it seem to be saying?
He seems to be saying the prophets,
if you come to the prophets and give an offering,
give them food,
give them money,
give them whatever it is that they're looking for,
if you're filling their mouths
with the things that they want,
then they will bring you blessing.
Oh, the Lord is with you
and the Lord will do well.
But if you don't have anything to bring to them,
it is war against you.
Woe be to you.
Their spiritual leadership
is dependent on what they're getting
from those that they're called to serve.
And they've lost their ability to speak for God
because they're speaking to fill their own bellies.
Their words are no longer trustworthy,
are true.
And they bring silence and darkness
upon the people
because they can no longer speak for God.
Then we go on
and we look at the oracle in 9 through 12.
We see those who are making judgments
are taking bribes.
In fact, in verse 11,
it seems everybody is taking bribes.
Prophets, priests, and kings,
they're all saying,
hey, if you give me something,
I'll give you something back.
They're making straight things crooked
by the way that they're warping
all of their leadership
to serve themselves.
And what should be centered about God's glory,
about God's justice,
about leading people
and even the world to worship God,
instead becomes about the leaders,
their glory, their comfort.
And it's destroying the people.
And finally, in the second half of verse 11,
you see their hypocrisy.
Because while they're leading
in all of these evil ways,
those who have been entrusted by God
to lead well,
instead, they are saying,
God is blessing my evil leadership.
God is blessing what I am doing.
They violated the covenant requirements
for leaders.
They lean on the presence of the temple
and the fact that Jerusalem has not fallen.
Look with me at verse 11,
the end of it again.
They lean on the Lord and say,
is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.
The presumption,
the spiritual arrogance,
and the pride of these leaders
is shocking.
They serve themselves
and claim that God is blessing them.
This is a word of judgment
that God brings.
He is exposing their sin
and He is warning them.
And while this passage may have
secondary application
to political leaders,
to institutional leaders,
to leaders of households,
certainly there are resonances
of character and quality and focus,
like what are you doing
as you're providing leadership
in lots of different areas?
I want to argue this morning
that the primary application
of this passage
is to the church.
Because the Old Testament community
was this overlapping
civic religious community,
but in the transition
into the New Covenant community,
post-Jesus resurrection,
the New Covenant community
was a transnational,
not civil or state body,
body,
but the church
and the leadership
of the church
is called
to account
in this passage.
And it brings me no joy
to say that we see
some of these leadership failings
in the church today.
With humility
and with tears,
we recognize
that these things happened.
As your pastor,
I know some of you
have been wounded
scarred
by the leadership failures
of the church.
And look, it's easy.
We could sit back
and look at those
outside our circles.
We could look at
the Catholic Church
and sexual abuse
by priests.
We could look at
the prosperity gospel
and their stealing money
from widows,
promising financial blessing
in its false promises.
We could go after
the false healers
that have worked out
a system
in order to make it
look like.
They're providing
these miracles
when they're not.
We could look at cults
that take over
bank accounts
that separate
those disciples
from their families
that abuse women.
We could look at
all of them
and feel pretty comfortable,
couldn't we,
if we wanted to do that?
And look,
we need to recognize
all of these things
are terrible.
They are perversions.
And for those
who suffer
under these leadership,
it produces destruction
in their lives.
But friends,
that's not how we apply
the Bible,
by thinking,
well,
who are the people
out there,
not about me,
that we need to look at?
We need to look at ourselves.
We need to look
at our own tribes,
our own circles,
our own church.
those in our circle
of Christianity.
We have held up
celebrity pastors
like Mark Driscoll.
And yes,
I'm going to call him out
because he failed
in his leadership
because he made it
about himself.
Ravi Zacharias,
he failed in his leadership
because his personal life
had nothing to do
with his public ministry
and he claimed
to speak the truth of God
while hiding his sin.
Friends,
we're on Southern Baptist Church.
And last year,
the Southern Baptist Church
released a report
that said
the leaders
of our denomination
failed
over and over again
to respond
to allegations
of sexual abuse
by pastors
in the church.
The leadership
failures
on multiple levels
in that.
So let us not
throw stones
at others,
but let us look
at our own house
and see
that we too
may fall into this,
have fallen into it
in some places.
Leaders who lead
for their own benefit,
gaining money,
fame,
and pleasure.
Leaders who make
false assurances
about spiritual health
while hiding sin.
Leaders who are not
ultimately serving God
and people,
but who use
God and people
for themselves.
God and people
in the church
and people
in the church
and the church
says God will hide
his face
from his people.
In verse 7
it said God will be
silent
to his teachers,
his prophets.
And in verse 12
there is this picture
that I couldn't read
this morning,
but you understand
a picture of total
devastation.
Jerusalem,
Zion,
which is the Old Testament
word specifically
about the spiritual value
of Jerusalem
being the center
of God's kingdom
on the earth
and a picture
of the heavenly kingdom
that's going to come.
He says Zion
will be plowed
like a field
and Jerusalem
will be
like a pile
of rubble,
a wilderness
where the trees
are growing
in the middle
of the plazas.
God warned them.
And you know
what's remarkable?
We read in Jeremiah 26,
18 that Hezekiah,
the king,
actually heard this.
Verse 12
is quoted
in Jeremiah
that Hezekiah
heard this warning,
responded to it,
repented,
turned to the Lord
and for a time
God relented
on this judgment
that He had prophesied
because of that faith.
And yet we also know
that a hundred years later
because they persisted
in their sin,
the leaders,
the kings of Israel
persisted in it.
So in 586
when Babylon
finally came
they raised Jerusalem,
they sowed salt
in the fields,
they tore down
the temple,
the walls of the city
were broken,
and the people
were taken
into exile.
God did not let
these ungodly leaders
stand forever.
He brought judgment
upon them.
And it might have been
if you were
in Israel
in say
690 B.C.
and you're watching
all this terrible
leadership happening,
you think,
where is God?
What is He doing?
Well,
He finally did show up.
And we do know
that though the wrong
seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
Reading through the book
of 2 Peter,
He reminds us that
there will be leaders
like this in the church.
They will come
and they will preach
false things
and they will use people
and they will take
advantage of people.
But in the end,
God will judge them.
In the end,
God will bring them.
He will have
His day of justice
and He will build
His church
and the gates of hell
will not stand against it.
He will not let
these selfish
and destructive leaders
escape His justice
forever.
So how do we apply
these things?
I've suggested
that we too
are in a similar situation.
What do we do
with a passage
like this?
How do we make it
come home for us?
First of all,
as a leader
of this church,
I am reminded,
there but for the grace
of God go I.
And I ask you to pray.
Pray that the leaders
of this church
will not fall
into these sins.
I can stand before you today
and say,
as far as I know,
we do not live
in these patterns
of selfish leadership.
but I also want to say
that I need to keep
asking myself
as a leader,
am I in any way
like this?
Has my heart
become hardened
so that I'm
justifying sin?
Has my motivation
become warped
so that I'm ministering
for selfish reasons?
Am I doing this
because it's about me
and what I get?
Or it's about God
and His glory
and the good
of His people.
Not only do I ask you
to pray for us
as leaders,
but I ask you
to talk with us
that we might
examine ourselves.
If you have concerns,
bring them to us.
Don't be afraid
of raising them
with us
because we want
this word
to never be true
about the leadership
at Trinity Baptist Church.
We may need your help.
It also causes us
to think through
how do we engage
with a broader church?
How do we engage
with our circles
and our tribes,
our denominational failures?
How do we bring
clarifying truth
and justice
and righteousness?
How do we bring
the truth of God's word
to bear on these things?
And here's where
I'm going to say something.
I don't know if you guys
are going to agree
with me or not,
but here we go.
I think we have
a temptation to say
we must be like Micah.
We love to step
into the role
of the true prophet.
We want to be the ones
speaking truth to power
and be the savior
of the church.
And I'm wary
of that approach
because I think Micah
points us elsewhere.
First, we see
that in Micah 6, 8
at the heart
of this book.
He has told you,
oh man, what is good
and what does the Lord
require of you
but to do justice
and to love kindness
and to walk humbly
with your God.
And our engagement
with our spiritual leaders
should be shaped
by these words.
Let me speak plainly.
Cancel culture
is an unhealthy spirit
of judgment
and condemnation.
It has a lust
for winning
and a pleasure
for toppling leaders.
We love to sit
in the seat of judgment
on others
and it fills our hearts
with an ugly
self-righteousness
and we lose sight
of Micah's call.
We are called
to do justice,
not always
to enforce justice.
We are called
to love mercy,
not judgment.
We are to walk humbly
because there
but for the grace
of God go I.
And it does not mean
we are silent
but it means
that the way
that we speak
must be different.
It must be rooted
in God's word
and it must be
spoken humbly
and ultimately
it must be spoken
in faith.
Faith in something
that is bigger
than us
because what we'll see
in Micah,
what we'll see
in the next couple
of chapters in Micah
is that though
he brings these
oracles of judgment
and warning,
he says,
I will come.
I am not blind.
I am not helpless
to this state
of my people.
I will come
and be the ultimate judge
and the redeemer
and the ruler
and the king.
I will come
to do these things
for you.
And I think
that's the appropriate
application
of verse 8
as well.
So as we close,
let's look at verse 8
for a second
because this is where
in the middle
of these oracles
of judgment
the prophet
interjects himself
and he says this,
as for me
I am filled
with power
with the spirit
of the Lord
with justice
and might
to declare
to Jacob
his transgression
and to Israel
his sin.
Micah says
there's a true prophet
sent by the Lord
who will bring
these things.
This prophet
will come
knowing what
the leaders
the sinful
selfish leaders
don't know
because they don't
know God's word
but this one
does know
God's word
and he will come
to lay bare
the transgressions
and the sin
of the people
so that he might
redeem them.
this word
verse 8
reminds us
that though
God's leaders
have failed
their people
God has not
failed his people
and though
they have
abandoned
the people
God has not
abandoned them
and in the fullness
of time
God sent
this one
the fulfillment
of verse 8
Hebrews 1
says in the last
days God
spoke to us
spoke to the
fathers
through the
prophets
but now
in these
last days
he has spoken
to us
by his
son
Jesus
comes
as the
prophet
and the
priest
and the
king
he comes
as the
righteous
judge
who will
judge
all things
fairly
and equitably
he will
come as
the true
prophet
the word
of God
the very
word of
God
given
to us
he comes
as our
high priest
the one
who intercedes
for us
by offering
himself up
and then
interceding
for us
with all
of his
authority
as the
great leader
of God's
people
he comes
as a
son of
God
for our
redemption
and how
does he
do it
he heads
to the
cross
just as
Jerusalem
was raised
and ravaged
so Jesus
was stripped
just as
Jerusalem
was made
a desert
so Jesus
was sent
out on
a hill
to die
just as
Jerusalem
was abandoned
my God
because of
its sin
so Jesus
bearing our
sin on the
cross
cried out
my God
why have
you forsaken
me
this is the
leader
that God
has sent
for his
church
this is the
only hope
that this
church has
that Christ
would be
our head
and he
exerts
his greatest
authority
not by
putting us
under his
thumb
but by
laying down
his life
for us
to redeem
us out of
our selfishness
out of our
pride
out of our
rejection
of God
to redeem
leaders
out of
arrogant
self-centered
self-serving
leaders
and to redeem
a church
of people
who will
truly be
to his
glory
that one
day a
new
Jerusalem
will come
down from
heaven
and it
will not
be a
plowed
field
and it
will not
be a
wilderness
but it
will be
a glory
of life
with God
and this
is what
Jesus brings
to us
and this
is our
hope
in the
midst of
this
oracle
of judgment
so friends
let us
recognize
how prone
we are
to be
the ones
who need
our sin
to be
exposed
and let
us look
to the
one
who has
not only
exposed
our sin
but who
has taken
it away
by bearing
it on the
cross
for us
let's pray
together
oh lord
have mercy
on your
church
lord we
pray that
by your
spirit
you would
refine
your
church
that you
would lay
bare the
sin of
leaders
lord we
ask that
you would
rescue us
lord rescue
us from
our own
sinful
hearts
and rescue
our church
from the
destruction
that comes
from sinful
leaders
oh lord
jesus we
pray
lord that
we would
instead turn
to you
and see
you to
be our
true head
our true
great shepherd
one who
has come
and loved
us and
laid down
his life
for us
that we
might be
his
forever
oh lord
we ask
that you
would turn
our hearts
to worship
you
in spirit
and truth
lord that
through your
mercy we
might be
saved from
this judgment
and that we
might be
your people
for your
glory
pray this
in jesus name
amen
turn
see you
م
go