Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter 21. Proverbs 21. Proverbs
21, I'd like to look at verse 3. The Holy Spirit moves upon Solomon
to write these words. To do justice and judgment is
more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Now, the truth, the
understanding of that passage of scripture is shown more clear,
no more clear. It's not shown in any place to
be more clear than in 1 Samuel. I'll read this to you, 1 Samuel
15, 22, where the prophet Samuel says to King Saul, behold, to
obey is better than sacrifice. Solomon wrote, to do justice
and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. And
the Spirit of God instructed the prophet to pen these words,
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. Now, there's obviously
sacrifice that is acceptable to God. The sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for His sheep. That's what He said. I lay down
my life for my sheep." The sacrifice of our praise and thanksgiving
unto the Lord is acceptable. But here there's something that
is better than some type of sacrifice. In Ecclesiastes 5.1, is the sacrifice
that's not acceptable to God. It's referred to as the sacrifice
of fools. That's Ecclesiastes 5.1, the
sacrifice of fools. Now, what is that? Well, it's
a sacrifice of man's origin. It's a sacrifice of man's own
acts, his own works by which he thinks himself to be sacrificing
unto the little G, God of his own making. Men make up a God
in their mind, a God that they think they can please by their
own works and by the works of, by the deeds, the works of the
law, shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. So these sacrifice
of fools, it's these acts done without true faith. It's acts
without God-given repentance and they're done foolishly thinking
that these self-righteous sacrifices are making an atonement for sin.
And anything that you find that men do in order to be saved,
He's something that they're doing for God. Whatever it is, whatever
it is, it's a sacrifice of a fool. So Samuel, 1 Samuel 15, 22, the
prophet Samuel, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. And to hearken, to hearken unto
the Lord, to hearken to the Word of God Himself better than the
fat of rams. Now, if there's anything that
I truly would desire to do, I want to be obedient. I want to obey
God. I want to be accepted in the
Beloved. I want to be accepted in Christ.
I want to be at peace with God and not Failing, not be found
failing. To obey. I don't want to be found
sacrificing the sacrifice of a fool. And thinking to myself,
well I've been faithful enough, I've been this, I've been that.
Because I know better than that. What had happened back in Samuel,
if you want to look at it, 1 Samuel chapter 15 and Almighty God had
moved upon the prophet Samuel to tell King Saul what he was
to do. Here it is, 1 Samuel 15 verse
3. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly
destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both
man, woman, infant, suckling, ox, sheep, camel, ass. What was he to do? Kill everything. Everything? Everything. Children too? Children too. Well you know the story and I'll
just for the sake of time I'll tell you what he did. He came
and he spared the king. He spared the best of the sheep. He took the best of what he thought,
and then was caught. Samuel came and asked him, what's
going on? He said, well, I've obeyed God.
He said, well, what's all the bleeding of the sheep I hear
then? The lowing of the cattle. What is it? Oh, well, the people.
The people. They wanted to keep the best
to sacrifice it unto the Lord. What King Saul did was he sacrificed
everything that appeared to him to be worthy of destruction,
but preserved that which he thought would be worth retaining, and
then tried to give it a religious twist. You know, that's what
happens when somebody does something in disobedience. They give a
religious twist to it. I'm doing this for the Lord.
I'm doing this for the good Lord. And here's the question. What
was the right thing for him to do? Obey. Obey. What does God require of
me or you for acceptance and peace before him. What does God
require? Obedience. Well now let me ask
you this. How strict, how strict are his
guidelines? Now this is what's required.
Obedience. James 2.10. Whosoever should
keep the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all. So here's what's required. Obedience. But we got a problem. Nobody ever born in Adam has
ever obeyed God. No one. I know what the foolish
heart will say. Well, now, wait a minute. To offend in one point is to
be guilty of all of it. So let me ask you this. Have
we ever offended in one point? Well, yeah. Well, okay then. Well, then that
means we've never obeyed. Because now we're guilty of all
of it. A little leaven. What did it do? It leavened the
whole lump. So here's the sum of mankind. Here's the sum of mankind. They
are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. So here we all sit, a group of
people, all having to admit, whether we want to or not, we've
got to admit we're sinners. We're sinners before God, but
oh, what a blessed place to be found. Though we admit what we
are, Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Man or
woman that won't admit their plight before God being a sinner. I've come short of the glory
of God. A man or a woman that will not
admit. I've told you before, I had an
uncle back in Louisiana. He told me one day, he sat under
a faithful preacher of the gospel. He made that statement, the preacher
did. And I had an uncle that told me, he said, I will never,
I'll never come back here. I said, why? He said I was a
sinner. And he said, I am not a sinner. Well, then you don't have any
hope then. Because sinners is the only one
Christ came to save. It's not that the Lord, though,
has not left us some hope. It's not that we're left in the
dark concerning His requirement for life. Listen to what He said
in Micah, if you'd like to turn here, Micah 6, Micah chapter
6, verses 6 to 8. Listen to the prophet when Micah
Let's ask this question. Let's ask this question to us.
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before
the high God? How can I come before God? Now,
let's just be honest for a few minutes. Let's just get honest. Be honest. You know, we never
really want to be honest with ourselves, but let's just get
honest and just ask this question. How can I come before the Lord
and bow myself before the Most High? Shall I come before Him
with burnt offerings, calves of a year old? Is this what He
wants? Is this what God demands of me? Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall
I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul? What if I gave the most precious
thing that I could think of? One of my own kids. Would the
Lord, you know. He has showed thee, old man,
what is good. And what does the Lord require
of thee? Now, if I ever wanted to hear
something, I want to hear this, Fred, right here. What does the
Lord require of thee? Here's what He wants. To do justly,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Okay. Well, will you do me a
favor, preacher? Will you tell me what that means?
I heard what it said. Here's what the Lord demands. To do justly. Now let me tell
you what the definition of that is. To do the right thing. Well, okay Carl, I agree. To do the right thing. I'll agree
with that, but my problem is that I've already done the wrong
thing. I fell in Adam. I fell in Adam's
transgression. I came forth from my mother's
womb speaking lies. According to the Scripture, God
looked and there was none righteous. There was none that did good.
Not one. And I'm found in that group.
Now, going back now, I'm already guilty. So I don't even get to
go back to the starting point. I'm already in the middle of
the river. I'm already sunk. But to do justly, if that's what's
demanded of God, I'm already lost. To do justly. What? What is it to do justly
before God? Here's what it is. Agree with
God. I'm going to agree with the Lord. I'm going to agree with what
God Almighty has to say concerning His verdict. When the Lord said,
there's none righteous, no, not One, to do justly is to just
say, Lord, I agree with you. Lord, I admit what I am. Lord, I'm a sinner. Lord, I,
in myself, I'm a rebel against God. But Lord, I'm going to agree
with what you say. I'm going to agree with you concerning
my dilemma. I'm going to confess that in
myself, I deserve, because of sin, I deserve the wrath of your
justice. I deserve that. Lord, if I got
exactly what I deserved, you'd put me in hell. I know that's true. I'm guilty,
I've broken your law, I'm a sinner and I deserve... Lord, anything
you gave me, I deserve it. Injustice. So what do I need? Well, I know this. Lord, keep
me from sacrificing a sacrifice of fools. What am I going to
bring before God, Mike, and give to Him? I'm done. In myself, I'm done. What, 10,000
rams? How about some rivers of oil?
What if I foolishly gave one of my own kids? What does the
Lord require? Justice. I agree, Lord. What do I need? What is the only
hope that I've got, the only hope that I've got is that God
would show mercy to me. That's the only thing I've got. I'm not going to please Him because
I'm a rebel. I'm not going to give Him something.
I'm not going to sacrifice before God my own free will or my works. What does the Lord require to
do justly? to be honest with God, honest
with myself, and God's gonna have to make me honest, because
by nature, I lie to myself. My whole heart's desperately
wicked. It's deceitful above all things.
My heart will tell me, Marvin, you ain't that bad. And the Lord
says, yeah, you are. And so I'm gonna take God's word
on that, and I'm gonna go against myself. What do I need? I need
mercy. I need mercy. The Lord declared
unto Moses, when Moses asked him, he said, show me your glory.
And here's what the Lord said, I'm going to have mercy on whomsoever
I will. I'm going to have compassion
on whomsoever I will. Now, as I said a moment ago,
I know that Christ came into this world to save sinners. And
by the grace of God, if God has revealed to me in regenerating
grace what I am, that's when I know it. Until the Lord does
something for me, I don't know that, I don't believe it. I'll
just keep going my happy way thinking that I can do something
for God. I can please Him and I know according to the scriptures
I can. What does the Lord require? To
love mercy. Exactly what does that mean?
Hold your place in Micah and turn to Luke 1. Luke chapter
1. What does it mean to love mercy? Somebody will give a definition
of mercy. Unmerited favor. Okay. I'll go
along with you. What does God say it is? What
does the Lord say mercy is? Look at Luke chapter 1 and verse
67 to 73. And his father Zacharias was
filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying, blessed be
the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his
people and has raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house
of his servant David as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets
which have been since the world began that we should be saved
from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us to perform
the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant. Do you know who mercy is? Mercy is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, He is the mercy of God. To love Him as He is revealed
in the scriptures Not as the one that people are saying He
is that came into this world to try to save sinners. Find me one place in the Scriptures
where God ever tried to do anything. God Almighty is not trying to
do anything. What's He doing? He's doing exactly
as He will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And listen to this, and nobody is stopping Him. Nobody
can stay his hand. That's what Nebuchadnezzar was
saying under the inspiration of God's Spirit. Nobody stops
God. I will have mercy. What did he
do? Ephesians chapter 1. said God
chose the people from the foundation of the world and gave them to
Christ. And Christ in John chapter 10
and verse 15 said, I laid down my life for those sheep. I laid
down my life for the people. Look at John 17 verse 2. The
scripture declares, listen to the words of the Lord, I'll read
it. John 17 2, the Lord's praying. He says, as thou hast given him
power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him. God's got a people, an elect,
that he's going to save. And he is the mercy of God. What does the Lord require for
me to be honest and just in my speech before Him? Do the right
thing. Lord, I'm guilty. Lord, what
do you require? To love mercy. To love the mercy
of Almighty God. I love Him. We love Him because
He first loved us. But let me ask you this, we talk
about loving the Lord. Where did that love come from?
Where does the love of God, by nature, we're born not doing
the right thing. The Lord's already established
that. The Lord looked to see if there
was any that did good. Do you think loving the Lord
would be good? Yeah. But was there any that did it?
There was none. There was none, not one, that
did anything good. So the love for the Lord Jesus
Christ, the mercy of God, where did that love come from? Where
does it come from? I mean, it's got to come from
somewhere because it wasn't there when I was born. Listen to Romans
5, chapter 5. Romans 5, 5. And hope. confidence maketh not a shame
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us. Where did I ever come up with
love toward God's mercy? Love for Christ. Almighty God
poured out and bestowed and distributed largely that love for him. What does God require? What God
requires, God gives. That which he demands of his
people, he bestows. This is my beloved son, whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. How am I going to
hear? The Lord said, I'll give you
ears to hear. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. I'll give you a heart to believe
on him. What God requires, God gives. And then lastly, back
in Micah, what does the Lord require? To do justly, to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Let me ask you this. What is it to walk humbly with
God? But myself, I've never done a
humble thing in my life. If I ever did it, I'd be proud
of it. I'd boast. What is it? Well, I can tell
you this. Buy a new heart in regenerating
grace, and that's only where it's going to come from. God's
going to have to give me a new heart. Because this old heart
that I'm born with is not good. It's wicked. It's deceitful.
The carnal mind is resentful, it's carnal, it's evil, it's
against God. What is it to walk humbly with
God? Well, first of all I can tell
you this, it's to have a high regard for Him. To have a high
regard for Him. Do you know who man by nature
thinks the most highly of? Oh, you say, no, Marvin, not
really. Go back and read in Luke where two men went into the temple
to pray, a Pharisee and a publican. And just listen to the way that
they prayed. Read what they prayed. What did
the Pharisee say? God, I'm glad I'm not like other men. I fast twice a week. I tithe
all. I'm especially not like that
publican right there. Man by nature thinks highly of
himself. To walk humbly with God is to
have a high regard for Him. To have a high regard for His
Word is to search the Scriptures. Take the Scriptures and search
the Scriptures to find out if what I've said this morning is
so. And if it's not, then tell me. Come tell me, show me where
it's not so, and I will recant if you can show me in the scriptures
what I've said is not so. But I can tell you this. To walk
humbly with God is to have respect for Him, for His Word, for His
pleasure, for His will, for His providence. And to walk humbly
with God is to walk with a continual knowledge of my inability. And my lowliness, oh wretched
man, the apostle Paul said, oh wretched man that I am. Not that
I was, this is Paul the apostle. One who was taken to the third
heaven, to paradise itself, and heard things he can't even utter.
I heard people say that so and so died and they went to heaven,
they came back and told all about it was. That's amazing to me.
Because the apostle Paul went there and he said he couldn't.
It's to have a high opinion of God and a low opinion of myself. To walk humbly with God is to
realize my continual need of His grace and His forgiveness. My need to come before Him. Why? Because I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. To walk humbly
before Him is to seek mercy continually. I need to come continually before
Him. Let me ask you something. Are
there any sinners here this morning? If there's any sinners here,
now I'm not talking to righteous folks. If you're righteous in
yourself, and you're not. But I'm telling you, if there's
any sinners here, sinners that need mercy, sinners that need
some help, I've got some good news for you. There's one that
can help. Come unto me. That's what we
looked at the other day. Come unto me, all ye that labor
heavy laden. I'm gonna give you rest. What
does God require? Do justly, love mercy, and walk
humbly. I tell you, according to God's
word, to obey. To obey is better than sacrifice. Lord, give me a heart of obedience.
For Christ's sake and my eternal good. Amen.