Embark on a journey through Micah’s world as Dr. McGee guides us through the daunting realities of sin and judgment while offering hope and redemption through God’s grace. We delve deeper into the historical context, highlighting the relevance of moral leadership and integrity, drawing parallels between biblical times and today’s complex societal landscapes. Let’s reflect on the call for personal and communal revival as we navigate this thought-provoking segment of our spiritual journey.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
Is there a sign that will tell us if we’re living in the end of the age? Well, that’s the question our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, answers for us in this study on Through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host on this five-year journey through God’s entire Word. And I’m so glad that you’re here as we near the end of our time in the short but powerful book of Micah. Why don’t you grab your Bible and open it to Micah chapter 6, and we’re going to start in verse 16. And while you do, let’s read a few letters from the Bible bus. The first one comes to us from Winter Garden, Florida. And we were pressed for time. I used to fast forward the podcast through the letters and Steve’s introduction to save time. But about a year ago, I realized just how impactful those letters really are. Each letter is an example of the fruit of this ministry and the power of the gospel. As we listen to them, we’ve been so touched by the power of God to change people’s lives all over the world. And without those letters, how would we know? So thank you for faithfully reading them. Now I share the program with others and tell them to make sure that they listen to the letters and testimonials from around the globe. We continue to pray for the wonderful work you all are doing for the kingdom of God. Well, thanks, Christine. Thanks so much. Each letter that we read is a praise, a celebration. It’s a testimony of how God’s working in our lives. And we really do believe that we give God glory when we share what he’s doing in our lives as we study his word together. And by the way, if you’re praying for this ministry, then you’re part of this work that God’s doing. Now let’s give him glory for what he’s doing in Dave’s life. He writes this, I’m just a young man from Kentucky, and I’ve not always been the most devout. I’ve strayed many times and gone into some dark places. However, I’ve never truly turned my back on God. When my wife and I celebrated the birth of our son, I wanted to turn myself around, and I began to study the word like I was starving for it. My search led me to find your app and listen to my first sermon by Dr. McGee. I was moved by his teachings, and I’ve been a strong listener ever since. My wife and I now take the time to study the Word, listen through the Bible, and discuss what we have learned. I want to thank you for everything and for helping put more of God’s Word into my life. next we hear from john who shared this in 1986 god moved me from the deep south to work in the state of maine for four years where i found you on the radio once i started listening i was hooked the spirit of god began speaking to me through the word and i began seeing truth i had never seen before even though i had been raised in a church my whole life now i can’t stop listening every year that i go through the bible god shows me more from his wonderful word He has used Dr. McGee’s teaching to deliver me from mere religion and law keeping to develop a real relationship with the resurrected Christ. Well, we certainly have a lot to thank him for. Let’s quiet our hearts and pray together now. Heavenly Father, we celebrate your power to change our lives and thank you for your word. We ask that it would change us and challenge us as we study it together. And Lord, help us to become more like Jesus day by day. It’s in his name we pray. Amen. Now turn to Micah 6 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, friends, we’re going to finish up this sixth chapter of Micah. Today we’ve come down to the last verse, and I think now we’ll be able to finish it since we’ve got to the last verse. But this has been such a wonderful chapter. You remember now that he started out by, as we saw last time, the questions that an honest, sincere soul who wants to come to God, how would he come? And on what basis would he come? And there are four different questions that are asked. And he reveals the fact that all of these are externalities, for they had to do with that. The first question, of course, is with what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? In other words, what should I have in my hand? What should these hands be doing? In other words, the works. of man’s hand. And then there was the ritual God gave them of bringing sacrifice. And he wanted to know about them and whether one would be enough. Shouldn’t it be a multitude? And then, actually, he saw the heathen around about him offering their own children. And he wondered if maybe he ought to go that far. God made it very clear to his people they were not to follow the heathen around them in offering human sacrifice. But he also emphasizes here that it’s not really the externalities of religion that are important. They are certainly not essential to the worship of God. Although I believe in a ritual, I believe in a ritual in a church, but I believe that it is for believers. and just not something to go through, not something that has any merit in and of itself, that it’s the internality. It’s what is on the inside. It’s whether something has happened there. And then God makes it abundantly clear that man cannot meet his requirements in his own power and his own strength. And God therefore shows what man does naturally. And after these tremendous requirements that only can be met when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, it’s only in the power of the Spirit that these can be attained, that actually all of these are the fruits of the Spirit, and that if we are to walk only with God, It doesn’t mean that we’re going to rush into his presence with our character, our little good works, and say, Lord, look at me, how good I am. In fact, I can meet your requirements, so move over and let me sit down by the side of you. May I say, man can’t do that. And God shows that these people had merited because after he gave that, what a contrast you have. God is going to judge this nation because of their sins. Instead of walking like this, they were going through the externalities of religion. But internally, they were far from God. And there was dishonesty. in their business dealings. There was impurity in their lives. There was violence and there was lying. There was deceit. There was every kind of a flagrant sin that was committed. And God cannot bless a people. or a nation that engages in these things. And we attempted to make an application to our own nation where we have come and how far this nation is from God today. Now, in verse 16 of this last chapter, chapter 6, I’m reading, For the statues of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels. that I should make thee a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing. Therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people. Now, the question would naturally be asked of a new reader of this, well, who in the world is Omri? And who in the world is Ahab? Never heard of them before. And why is he saying what he’s saying about them? Now, this highlights the thing that I have mentioned several times. But in my ministry, I’ve never got around to it. And at this late date, I do not expect to get to it. But I pass it on to some younger man today as being a tremendous… change in the study of the Bible that would be a great help in studying it. And I’ve suggested this several times before. Let me suggest it again, that along with the historical books, the prophetic books that fit in during the reign of a certain king should be studied. And that would mean that Micah should be studied along during the reign of Hezekiah in the southern kingdom and of Ahab and Jezebel in the northern kingdom. That if the historical books were considered and then the prophetic, one would compensate the other and they would present a whole. In other words, they would give you the complete picture. And I had hoped to be able to do that. When I was head of the English Bible Department at the Bible Institute, there was a question at that time whether I would continue teaching or continuous pastor the church. of the open door, but I made the decision to stick with the church. So I never got around to making the change that I wanted to make. And I found out that the head of the English Bible Department at Moody Bible Institute was thinking the same way. So when I was back there for a Founders Day program that they had, why I talked with Dr. Max Coder at that time about that and told him what I had in mind. And he said, well, he’d been thinking along the same line. And I don’t believe that he and his busy schedule was able to make any progress in that direction. So we’ve left this for some young man to take the historical books and the historical portions and fit them right in with the prophetic books are, as it were, thread in the prophetic books where they belong in the historical record. And here is a place where we need a little light. So I’m having to take the liberty today to go back to the historical book of 1 Kings, And I go to the 16th chapter, and I can’t read too much there. But we find out that this man Omri that is mentioned here, he was one of the kings in the northern kingdom and one of the meanest. In fact, he and Zimri both reigned, and they were rival kings. Then Tibni, he didn’t make it. He died. And then Omri, who prevailed… He ruled over the entire northern kingdom. Now, Omri did something, and I’m going to just drop in at chapter 16 of 1 Kings. Read verse 24. And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemar for two talents of silver and built on the hill and called the name of the city which he built after the name of Shemar, owner of the hill Samaria. And it was Samaria. Call that, it’s called that to this day. And the ruins of the city that Amri built up there is still there, by the way. But he’s not really the one who developed it. Because after the death of Amri, there came to the throne Ahab. And he was the son of Amri. Now, Ahab, if the name Jezebel had been mentioned here, then we’d understand who we’re talking about because Ahab married Jezebel. And if you want to know who she is, we’ll find out here. And I’m going to drop down now into this chapter, verse 28. So Amri slept with his fathers, was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son reigned in his stead. Now, verse 30, Ahab, the son of Amri, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. Now, that was going some, let me tell you. One of the reasons that he had a great little helper on the part of his wife Jezebel. Verse 31, it came to pass that “…as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ephbaal king of the Sidonians.” And that’s the city of Sidon, the Phoenician city. “…and they worshipped Baal. And he went and served Baal and worshipped him.” And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. This is the man that we’re dealing with. Now, it’s this one that Micah is talking about. He says the trouble actually began with the leadership, for the statues of Amri are kept. That is, they follow him and all the works of the house of Ahab. And you can see that that plunged the entire nation into idolatry. And ye walk in their councils, that I should make thee a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing. Therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people. Now, you see, Ahab and Amri had reigned a long time before Micah came along. They had preceded him somewhat. And so we’ve come to a period now where you see the effect and the influence of evil in the kingdom. And we have that same thing today. The leadership of any nation, if that nation is to prosper under God, should be godly. I think one of the things that could be said about Queen Victoria was they liked to criticize that Victorian era and all that sort of thing. Even the English today like to ridicule it. But that happened to be the greatest period in their history. That is when they had an empire. And Victoria, she was Empress of India. She was really a ruler. And Great Britain is really cut down to size today. And the leadership has not been in the past as it should have been. And that’s one reason that when this little Princess Anne married, I rejoiced in watching the ceremony. My wife and I looked at that, and as we did, tears came into our eyes. We were over at Phoenix at the time in the motel, and we looked at the replay of it, and there was a restoration of the sacredness of marriage. And I’m sure because it came from those at the top that it will have an influence. And this country has not had a very good example set from Washington, either by the White House or the Congress in a long, long time. In fact, in my entire lifetime, and I pretty much span this century, may I say to you, the example there hasn’t been good emanating from Washington. And as a result, gross immorality has spread throughout this nation today. And I do believe because of this verse here that God would say that I would hold responsible the leaders of the nation down through this century that plunge the country into gross immorality. For the example was set there. You see, this is a philosophy of governance. It’s God’s philosophy of government. Now, they don’t teach this today in any of our universities. That’s part of our problem also. We’re not really getting the facts today. And as a result, our nation continues to decay and deteriorate and will continue to do so unless a great revival should come to our land. And there’s certainly no evidence of it at the present moment. Now, I’d like to move into chapter 7, and we’ve come now to the last chapter of this very remarkable little book. And we’ll have one more study in Micah, and then we go to the New Testament, the second John. But the subject that we’ve given chapter 7 is, who is a God like unto thee in pardoning all iniquity because of who God is and what he does? You see, the pardon for sin that comes from God originates with him and not with man at all. Now, we have here in the first nine verses, the prophet confesses that God is accurate in his complaint against Israel. And he’s going to deal with specifics again. And we hope to get down through this particular section. And we’ll just hit high points as we go along now. He begins in a very personal way. He says, woe is me. And here is the prophet again, and I must call your attention to it, that he is very personal. And not only very personal, he is affected a great deal by his message, just as Jeremiah was. And he’s overwhelmed by it. He’s grieved by it. He found no delight in saying these things. And there’s no fun today in me saying things that are rather pessimistic. And a great many people are going to disagree with me about our own nation today. I’ll get several letters of rebuke that I’m not being patriotic, that I’m not showing a love for my country and all that sort of thing. And that’s what they said against these false prophets. But friends, I love my country, I think, as much as the normal American loves his country. And I find no joy in saying this. I wish that I could make an announcement and say, friends, a great revival is breaking out across this land. And that would be good news. And that would be wonderful. And you just have to say, along with Michael, woe is me. And now I’m reading chapter 7, verse 1. For I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits. as the great gleanings of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first ripe fruit. Now, he looked about at the nation, and you must remember that the vine is the picture of this nation, and the contemporary of Micah, who was Isaiah, is the one who enlarged upon that. He set that forth, and he said very clearly that Israel is the vine, and the vine is Israel. Now, this prophet said, I’ve looked for some good cluster grapes, and there are none on the vine. And I desired the first ripe fruit, and there was none. The vine’s not producing fruit. Now, he’s going to deal with the specifics. Verse 2, The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother with a net. Not safe to walk on the streets of our country. Today lawlessness abounds. And it does seem that the good man has perished. And yet there are a lot of wonderful people left in this nation of ours today. And I’m sure there were many godly people left. But he’s speaking now generally of the good man. He’s not today the ideal. He’s not the one in the majority today. The good man is perished out of the earth. Verse 3, that they may do evil with both hands earnestly. They’re not satisfied to do evil just in a minor way with one hand. They’re going at it with both hands. The prince asketh and the judge asketh for a reward. Crookedness and government, you see. The place where there should be justice, it’s nothing but injustice. You ought to expect the prince and the judge to rule justly and righteously. But no, that’s not the picture. And the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire. Our literature, the clever writers today, And I look at television very candidly to keep up with what’s going on in this world. When I was pastor, I was totally out of touch with what was happening because I didn’t have time for it. Now I take a little time and I’m finding out that the writers, everything that is presented today has a little hook in it. It’s that little hook of liberalism. It’s that little hook of immorality that’s in it. That little hook that’s ridiculing the things that we’ve considered sacred in this country. And it’s all done in the name of the sacred cow of the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech. very little freedom of religion unless it’s weird and way out in left field somewhere and not that which is Bible-centered and Bible-anchored. We need today a bibliocentric thrust in this nation of ours. Now, will you notice he goes on to say here, verse 4, the best of them is like a briar. You wouldn’t want to pick a briar, would you? Get a sticker in your hand. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. They’re clever today. Sure, they’re clever and sophisticated, but we have no geniuses writing today. Just clever boy. They write clever plays. They say clever things. They write clever articles, but no genius. nothing of depth, nothing actually that’s worthwhile. I actually believe that this contemporary culture that we have, that God will do what he did for Israel in that day. He did it later on for the Greek culture and the Roman. He just wiped it off the face of the earth. Why preserve it? What’s being done today that’s eternal, that has eternal value? Oh, my friend, what a parallel there is here. How accurately Micah is. And then listen to him here. He says, the day of thy watchman and thy judgment cometh, now shall be their perplexity. You remember the Lord Jesus said the thing that would characterize the end of the age would be perplexity of nations. confusion of nations. The biggest sign that we’re near the end of the ages is not found in Israel. I don’t know why so many of our Bible teachers today think if they can find something over there that that’s the sign. Israel’s not a sign. We’re living in the church age today. But it’s not that we’re looking for a day. We need to look at a weather report. And that weather report is the sea and the waves roaring and the storm is breaking on the earth today. The nation seething as they are. That is the picture that God’s word presents. And he says, trust not in a friend. Put not confidence in a God. Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. Don’t even trust you. Why? A great many men can’t do that either, by the way. What a picture. They say, don’t trust a friend. Have you never been betrayed by a friend? What a picture of today. We’re going to begin right there tomorrow. And we trust we’ll finish this wonderful little book. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 01 :
Even though Dr. McGee recorded these words decades ago, they’re more timely than ever. To share God’s Word with friends or family or just people you meet, point them to our app or ttb.org where all of our messages on this five-year journey through God’s Word are available anytime. You can also call us, 1-800-65-BIBLES, the number, or write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. And request a pack of our Bible bus passes to hand out while you do. And if you feel like you’re sitting in darkness, well, why don’t you join us for our next study when Dr. McGee is going to talk about how the Lord is a light in this dark world. Sounds like a message that we could all use, doesn’t it? I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll save a seat on the Bible bus just for you.
SPEAKER 02 :
All to him I owe. Sin hath left the prince unsaved. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 01 :
Our story on the Bible Bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride, and you’ll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God’s great redemption story. Is this your story too?
