Theological term
Justifying Righteousness
2 sermons · All terms
The Confidence of the Believer
Micah 7 presents one of the most concentrated confessions of faith under duress in all of Scripture: a prophet who surveys moral collapse, political corruption, and the breakdown of domestic trust, yet steadfastly declares, 'I will look to the Lord.' This sermon works consecutively through Micah 7 in three movements — the prophet's lamentation over the state of the covenant community, his counsel to the godly remnant, and his closing doxology — to show what it means in practice for the just to live by faith. The doxology of verses 18–20 grounds that faith not in optimism or circumstance but in the revealed character of God: his pardoning of iniquity, his delight in mercy, his subduing of remaining sin, and his unbreakable covenant faithfulness. The sermon closes with a direct exhortation to feed faith on Scripture and sound theology, because faith cannot lay hold of what it does not know.
The Godly Man's Confidence
Micah 7 opens in lament — no godly companions, corrupt leadership, and a disintegrating family structure — yet the prophet refuses to succumb to pessimism. The chapter traces a movement from lamentation (vv. 1–6) through confident assertion of dependence on God (vv. 7–10) to triumphant assurance of divine victory (vv. 11–20). The sermon argues that the prophet's resilience is not temperamental optimism but the triumph of faith rooted in theology: a knowledge of who God is, what he has covenanted to do, and how he pardons iniquity through the propitiatory work of the Son. The hearer is called to know Scripture so that, when the conditions of verses 1–6 are upon them, they face those trials clothed in the Word of the living God.