But the Amateur claims a certain expertise, even if only within the well-defined limits of amateurism as defined in the header of this blog.
God be praised for the work of the gentlemen at the White Horse Inn and Modern Reformation! I can't say I have grasped all that I have learnt from them, but I listen with care and know I agree. That's unsurprising, as I am a British evangelical: in the tradition of Stott, Packer and Lucas, three Englishmen well received on their programme.
Essentially, I think preaching is about three things:
Glorifying Christ
Applying redemption to sinners
Pointing to the Lord's Table.
That spells GAP, which proves what a preacher I must be, because I did that by accident!
I recently had the great joy of preaching on Micah 4. It was a communion Sunday, and I think you'll see how I worked towards my three aims: it's at the end of this post.
So where's the Christian life in all that?
Friends: isn't the law written by nature on all our hearts? Isn't that conscience? Come on, we all know non-Christians more godly in their behaviour than ourselves. Being a Christian isn't about being superior in our behaviour; being a Christian is about realising that for all our apparent show of goodness, we are sinners in need of a Saviour. All week long, our consciences, which, as Christians, are being remade, preach the law at us, and doesn't Satan megaphone it at us, to condemn us? I want the Gospel, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. I want the Sacrament of Christ's Passion, receiving the blessings of His death and resurrection Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. I want to know just how glorious a Saviour He is Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. That's what'll energise me to keep going during the week and to bring my life into line with Scripture.
Here's Micah 4:
Advent 1: All Nations Will Come
Introduction
What do you want for Christmas? Even as adults, we have wishes. I'd quite like some time to go running and to read. But there are bigger things. The angels sing, “peace on earth”, and we want it. Because in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Congo, Pakistan, Burma there is no peace. Or perhaps we are less ambitious. We just want peace in our neighbourhood. Perhaps we just want the family back together. In Bible language, what we want is the Ten Commandments lived out. We want an end to the killing and the stealing. We want marriage upheld and parents honoured. We want the ideal world established that would exist if all obeyed God's commands. That's what our passage is all about. It's about peace and the renewal of the world according to God's commands. To see how,we need to understand a big Bible theme. It's about:
Two Mountains
Two passages in the New Testament explore the theme of two mountains. We had Hebrews 12 verses 18-25 read. The other is Galatians 4:21-31. Both speak of two mountains: Sinai and Zion. Both Hebrews and Galatians contrast these two mountains. I've summarised the contrast on the OHT. Sinai is on the left. We meet Sinai in the book of Exodus. After rescuing His people from slavery in Egypt, God brings them to Sinai. It's at Sinai that God declares the Ten Commandments. It is the mountain of God's Law. At Sinai, staying God's people depends on conditions. On the right is Zion. Zion is quite different. Three stories help us understand Zion. One is Genesis 22, the story of the sacrifice of Isaac. God tests Abraham's faith and tells him to offer Isaac, his only son, in sacrifice. It's a doubly strange request. Firstly, God is against human sacrifice. But secondly, God had promised that through Isaac Abraham would have a great family. Now God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. How can dead Isaac have a family? Once on the mountain, God stops Abraham. He points out a ram and Abraham offers the ram in Isaac's place. So Genesis 22 verse 14 says:
So Abraham called that place YHWH will provide. And to this day it is said, “on the mountain of YHWH it will be provided.”
On His Mount Zion, God will provide a sacrifice to save the children of Abraham. The second story is in 2 Samuel 5. There David conquers Zion and makes it his royal city: the City of David. So Mount Zion is also the mountain of the King. It's the place where God's chosen One rules, who delivers God's people from their enemies. The last story is 1 Kings 8. In 1 Kings 8 the temple is built on Mount Zion, the temple that stands for God's willingness to dwell among His people. When he inaugurates the temple, Solomon asks God to hear prayer to Him in Zion and forgive anyone who prays to Him there. So Mount Zion is the place of God's presence and His willingness to forgive. So Zion is quite different to Sinai. Sinai is a place of God's Law, of His demands on His people. Zion is a place of deliverance and grace. It is a place of God saving His people by sacrifice and by the rule of a King. It is where God is willing to dwell in the midst of His people.
The big question in the Old Testament is: which one is superior. If Sinai is superior, then if God's Law is broken He'll judge them and send them packing into exile out of the land. But if Zion is superior, then what God does for His people is unconditional: even though they sin, He'll save them. So what does Micah have to say about this? At the end of Micah 3 it's looking pretty bad. It looks like Sinai is superior. Micah says of himself in Micah 3 verse 8:
I am filled with power, with the Spirit of YHWH, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin.
And he does. He proclaims their sin to them and speaks of coming judgement. He applies the standards of Sinai and warns of the coming wrath of God. So what will become of the promises, of grace, of Zion and all that it means? Micah 3 verse 12.
Because of you, Zion will be ploughed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
In Micah 3, Sinai trumps Zion. So God's grace, God's deliverance, God's King, God's presence, are gone. Judgement wipes out God's people and every vestige of hope. That's why it's absolutely vital to understand our reading, Micah 4:1-8.
The triumph of Zion over Sinai, of Grace over Law
Micah chapter 3 ends with Zion wiped out. Israel is judged by the standards of God's Law and is found wanting. So even the City of the King, the Presence of God with His people and the guarantee of the preservation of Abraham's children is laid low in Micah 3:12. But in Micah 4 verse 1 we find hope.
In the last days the mountain of YHWH's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised up above the hills, and many peoples will stream to it.
Here we see the restoration of God's dwelling with His people. Zion is no longer a ploughed field, as in chapter 3 verse 12. Zion is the mountain of YHWH's temple, and even more glorious than ever before, as the nations recognise the supremacy of YHWH. This restoration happens in the last days. That's the way the prophets talk about the final period in history, in which God mightily and finally saves His people.
Micah was simply saying this. In that moment in Israel's history, Sinai trumped Zion and judgement came over God's people. But ultimately God's promises and grace cannot be destroyed. Zion triumphs over Sinai. Grace triumphs over Law. The New Testament says that what Micah saw as a distant future is our present. We live in the last days. So what happens when Zion trumps Sinai, when grace triumphs over law, when God acts without taking account of our law-breaking?
Four wonderful points:
God is present with His people
Micah 4:1 again:
In the last days the mountain of YHWH's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised up above the hills, and many peoples will stream to it.
And Micah 4:7, second half.
YHWH will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and for ever.
God is with His people, dwelling in their midst. He is their Ruler and will be so for ever. Those last six words of verse 7 are crucial. From that day and for ever. How can He say that? Won't they sin again, forcing Him to judge them again? Well they might sin. But Zion has trumped Sinai. This age is the age of Grace. God doesn't take account of sin any more. So He can say He will be with His people from that day and for ever. Their sin will not bring God's judgement on God's people.
God's King reigns
Micah 4 verse 8:
As for you, O watchtower of the flock, O stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to the daughter of Jerusalem.
Dominion belonged to the house of David. Kingship in Jerusalem was David's kingship. That means this verse is addressed to the line of David. It tells us that once again there will be a king in the line of David. Note how the line of David is described. It is the watchtower of the flock. The king is appointed to watch over the people and guard them. When danger comes, the king is to see it far off and ride out to meet it. Secondly, the line of David is the stronghold of the Daughter of Zion. The king is the safe place. If you want to be safe, run to the king. God's king in the line of David is Jesus. And the Bible teaches that He did see our danger and ride out to meet it. He saw that our biggest danger is from Sinai and its law. The law can only condemn us and bring judgement upon us. But Jesus came and bore our punishment for us on the cross. The Bible also teaches that Jesus is a safe place. When the day of judgement comes, those who are found with Jesus will be safe. He will declare that He has already taken their punishment and they will be safe from the wrath of God against sin. That's how great a King Jesus is. Remember what we heard in our Gospel reading.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Moses brought the law of Sinai. Jesus is greater, for He has brought us the blessings of Zion, of grace and of the full truth about how great and how good our God is. That's all great news. But we mustn't stop there. Micah has more.
God's people are transformed
Some people will say, “why do you always preach about the Cross? “Why is God's grace always at the heart of your messages? “Christians are to obey, you know.”
True. But obedience itself flows not from the mountain of law but from the mountain of grace. Look at the end of verse 2.
The law will go out from Zion, the word of YHWH from Jerusalem.
Once the law went out from Sinai. It came with darkness, gloom and storm, a sight so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear”, as we heard in the epistle from Hebrews 12. And it was not obeyed. Even the Israelites turned from that law: and that before they'd even left the foot of the mountain. As we'll see under our next point, when it goes out from Zion, the Law wins the world. When the law goes out from Zion, from the place of God's grace, then God's people can speak verse 5:
All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of YHWH our God for ever and ever.
How come? They didn't manage it before. The answer is a work of God, verses 6 and 7.
I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief. I will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation.
God gathers the lame. He makes the lame His remnant. How can the spiritually lame walk in the name of YHWH? He heals them. Friends, when God's people obey God's law, when they delight in it and not only delight in it but do it, that's not their own doing. Read Romans 7 and 8. By nature we are such spiritual cripples that we cannot walk in God's ways. But God makes the spiritually lame to walk in His name. From the mountain of grace comes a work of God that heals us and enables us to obey. It is by the grace that flows from Zion that the law from Sinai is upheld.
God's world is won
What a wonderful picture of the age of God's work we have seen. God dwelling in the midst of His people. God's King on the throne. God transforming His people so that they can walk in His ways. God, God, God. It's a picture of God at work in accordance with His grace. It's God establishing Zion as the place of His presence under the saving rule of His King to ensure the preservation of His people. When the world sees that, they stand up and take notice, verse 2:
Many nations will come and say, “come, let us go up to the mountain of YHWH, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.”
It is when grace – the mountain of YHWH's temple, verse 1 – is exalted that people notice God. All the religions have laws, and many are very sensible laws, even Biblical. But grace exalts the God of Jacob and makes Him attractive to the nations. Then they will want to come under His rule, even obey His laws, because they've seen His grace. It's when the law goes out from Zion, the place of grace, that the world is transformed. As people submit to the judgements of God, they don't fight for their own rights any more, and warfare ceases. Then the nations come to the gracious God of Jacob, peace comes to the world. That has a simple application. If we want world peace, we must support world mission. If we want world peace, we must support the proclamation of the distinctive saving work of God in Jesus Christ. Forgetting our differences in multi-faith forums won't bring peace. All we have in common with the other religions is our laws – and the way of law only brings judgement, because the law exposes sin. It is the message of God's grace in Jesus Christ that will bring the nations to God and peace to the world.
Let's conclude. I've one key question for everyone today.
Where do you stand?
Which mountain is each one of us standing on? Two questions will show our answers.
Obedience
Why do we obey God? If our answer is to seek His favour, we're standing on Sinai. We are seeking blessing from a God who establishes conditions. If our answer is that we're worried we might lose His favour, we standing on Sinai. If that's you, I plead with you, come to Zion. Seek the grace of God. God dwells with His people now in the person of Jesus, who is the King who has ridden out to rescue us from God's wrath and who makes us safe. On Zion, as the writer to the Hebrews put it in our epistle, there is a sprinkled blood that speaks a better word, namely that your sins have been paid for. There is no need to fear losing God's favour here.
Communion
Why do we come to the Lord's table today? If we come thinking we especially please God by coming, we're trusting in our own actions. We're on Sinai. If we come to secure our salvation or to make sure of our place in heaven, we're standing on Sinai, hoping our actions will save us. But we approach this table not trusting in our own righteousness, but in God's manifold mercies. We trust that it is Christ's table, at which we commemorate and celebrate all that He has done for us. This table is spread for us on Zion. It is covered with the blessings of God. God is present here to bless us. God speaks here of His King, and how His King died to save us. Here God declares that on His mountain He has provided for us, who share the faith of Abraham, the faith in God that God will preserve His people. He has provided His Son to die for us. And by these tokens He would remind us once again of all He has done for us, and He would have us by faith receive it all not because of anything we have done but purely because He is gracious.
Where do you stand? Sinai or Zion? Law or Grace? God's demands or God's generosity? Come, let us come up to the table of the Lord and receive all He has done for us.
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