In this sermon, the speaker begins by reminding the audience that they are children of light and should not be like those who are in darkness. The speaker emphasizes the importance of being watchful and sober, especially in the times leading up to the Lord's return. The main focus of the sermon is on Micah chapter 7, where the speaker highlights the state of corruption and injustice among people. Despite this, the speaker also emphasizes God's faithfulness and mercy, stating that He will pardon iniquity and have compassion on His people.

If we turn to Matthew 10, we'll start in verse 28, Matthew 10 verse 28, I'm just going to read to about 39. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foe shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. What I really want to look at in this verse this morning or concentrate on as I turn to the following verses is the key verses 34. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword. If we turn very quickly to 1 Thessalonians 5, the first few verses. But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that a day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all children of light, and the children of day. We are not of night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. We can see that the times are coming. This chapter here speaks of the Lord's return. And how when everybody says, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction come upon them. Very quickly, and in verse 6, it encourages us to watch and be sober. And this morning, the main section of my reading comes from Micah, verse 7. Sorry, Micah chapter 7. And I'm going to read the whole thing and go through it after. Woe is me, for I am as, when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat. My soul despised the first ripe fruit. 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, that they may do evil with both hands earnestly. The prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward, and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire, so they wrap it up. The best of them is as a briar. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchman and thy visitation cometh. Now shall be their perplexity. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide. Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, and the daughter riseth up against her mother. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house. Therefore I will look unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause and execute judgment from me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall be full of his righteousness. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? Mine eyes shall behold her. Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed. In that day also he shall come, even from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress, even to the river, and from the sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. Notwithstanding, the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as the days of old. According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things. The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might. They shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick dust like a serpent. They shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, that passeth by transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, but he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. I was struck by this chapter when I was reading this morning. It says, Woe is me, 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. There's just hardly anybody there. There's just very few. I think this is almost a righteous man speaking, and he says there's so few. It's as the gleanings of the vintage of the grapeyard. There is no cluster to eat. And it sounds like this person is desiring that first ripe fruit, the bunches, the clusters. The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. Before I go any farther, I kind of have a story to tell. Tikva was telling me a story this week about her cousin in Israel. And how over there, because of this whole coronavirus thing, they have church members, I believe, calling and complaining about everybody else around them, calling the government and putting in complaints about people not adhering to the coronavirus. And it really makes me think about the people in the church and why they're doing that. And it says the good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie and wait for blood. They hunt every man for his brother with a net. It just sounds like this description. They're just all fighting one against another and just looking to turn one another into the government for whatever they can get. It says they may do evil with both hands earnestly. The prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward. And the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire, so they wrap it up. The judge asketh for a reward. I think about a judge asking for a reward. A judge is supposed to be, I guess what I'm thinking of is when you have a judge, and he's sitting on the stand, he's supposed to be righteous and giving just judgments. And this one is asking for a reward for his just judgments. And I don't think that's a judge's job. We know that God is a righteous judge, and this judge spoken of here is not. And the prince asketh, he's supposed to be another righteous man. I shouldn't say righteous, but he should rule his country with uprightness. And the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire, and they wrap it up. The best of them, the very best, is as a briar. You think about Jeremiah and a bunch of us went to pick some blackberries. We went to get the blackberry shoots from the ground, and we were digging through that patch. I'll tell you what, you just have to have one thorn off of one of those briar bushes touch you, and you'd feel the pain. And that's what he says the best of them is. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh. Now shall be their perplexity. He says, when your judgment cometh, when the day that you come and visit us again, that shall be their perplexity. They will find themselves in a bind. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide. Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. We can see that there's hardly anyone we can trust. It's going to go on to continue to say, it says, for the son dishonored the father and the daughter rise up against her mother. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house. We can see that when I think of the church, and have people that are just, may I use the word, ratting out or just confiding in the government, all the things that need to be quiet and things that should be behind hidden doors, and they're just telling everything. This is what this whole chapter makes me think of. And we can see that the family, that the body of Christ is the ones that are in this situation. A man's own enemies are the men of his own house. Your family, the brothers and sisters that you have in Christ, sometimes. Therefore, I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation, and my, the God of my salvation, my God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. What a comfort. When I fall, I shall arise. And when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. Until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me, he will bring forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. This is the situation that we all were in. We all have to bear the indignation of the Lord because we've sinned. He counts our sin against us until we ask for forgiveness. And in the end, the Lord, Jesus Christ, he pleads for us. He's the one that's executing the judgment. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. Then she that is my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? When I think of where is the Lord thy God, it makes me think of atheists. Mine eyes shall behold her. Now shall she be trodden as the mire of the streets. I guess this is an interesting verse to me, but when I think of that, I think of when you're in a horse community, a horse and buggy community, horses obviously have to use the bathroom, and they just go as they're driving down the roads. And you can just, when you're in the roads in Delano or any of those horse and buggy communities, you can just see the manure packed and drove over and just trodden upon, and it's just packed down. And that's what I think of. Now she shall be trodden down as the mire of the streets. It sounds like a terrible, terrible situation to be in. In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed. When the Lord's walls, when God's walls are to be built, that decree that she made will be moved far away. In the day also that he shall come, even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress, even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain, when notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein. It sounds like the people are going to become because of the fruit of their doings. It says in 13, the fruit of their doings has caused the land to be desolate. Because of their wickedness, I think of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we know the fruit of their doings, and we know what the judgment was against them. The Lord struck them down with fire and brimstone and burnt the city, and only three people escaped, Lot and his two daughters. And that was because of the fruit of their doings. Feed thy people with thy rod, and the flock of thine heritage, which dwell in Solarity, solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. I had a few thoughts about this. When, if we read, according to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto him marvelous things, that's the following verse. And when we think of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt, and all that they did, they conquered after they got through the desert. Even in the desert, they were fed by the manna that just fell, and there was just enough, and they all lived contentedly. Except for those that were complaining. And as they came out of Egypt, and they entered into the promised land, the Lord did so much for them. The battles were won. And it was because of him. Because God was leading them. And I don't know exactly what this means. In the midst of Carmel, let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. But Bashan, from what I could figure out, is actually up in Syria way. I could stand to be corrected if I need to be. And Gilead is just on the other side of Jordan from Israel. Just on the banks of the Jordan. So it's in Jordan. As in the days of old, I just wonder if Israel had so much. God was leading them so much that they could eat there. Or that they're fed off of those places. Places that are outside their boundaries now. In verse 17, they shall lick the dust. Oh, 16. And because of all this, like what we see in the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. It says, the nation shall see and shall be confounded at all their might. They shall lay their hand upon their mouth. Their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent. And shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God and shall fear because of thee. We can see that when we're following the Lord and we have his power behind us. That all those around about us will fear. Especially as the time is coming to an end. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity? We have God who sent his only son to the world to die for us. The Messiah. He passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. I think part of this chapter is talking about his people too. The heritage that belongeth to the people of his heritage. His first love, the children of Israel. He retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. And will subdue our iniquities. And thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham. Which thou hast sworn unto the Father from our days of old. There's just so much there. And I felt very encouraged reading it this morning. And thinking about the end times and watching. And just knowing what his will is for us. And that we do have a mouth. And that we need to be careful who we're sharing with. There was 8 verses in this. In the first of this chapter that was warning us against that. I think of in verse 5 it says. Trust ye not in a friend. Put ye not confidence in a guide. In Proverbs 17, 17 it says. A friend loveth at all times. But brothers are born for adversity. Or a brother for adversity. And when I think of the body of Christ. When I think of this particular story that Tikvah had mentioned. I think that you're going to find. That those people. Though their title may not suit them. They are probably the friend. They love us at all times. But when the hard times come. That's when a brother is going to stand strong beside you. That's when we need to be making sure that. Our relationships in the church. Our brotherly relationships. They're the ones that a friend loveth. But a friend usually isn't too quick to correct. Whereas a brother will. A brother in the church will correct you. They will see your errors. And try to help you along the way. We need to make sure that we're making discernment. In those areas. The people that we are confiding in. Are people that are seeking the Lord's will. And that's my encouragement this morning. It's just to make sure that. We are being brothers in the church. That we are being found. Not as those thorns and those briars. And the friends that are going to go and. Tell all the stuff that we're doing. To the people that don't need to know. I just leave that encouragement with everybody today.