It's lovely to have time again
set aside to worship our God. For those of you with pulpit
Bibles, Micah is on page 855 to 859. It's one of the minor prophets.
Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah and if you care to read Micah
at one sitting you'll see that not only are some of the passages
in Micah exactly the same as those passages in Isaiah, you'll
actually also find that there are many verses in Micah that
the Lord Jesus used. quoted as they are, as they stand. It is the Word of God. I've been drawn to it for some
little time. I found it a delightful prophecy,
a delightful book, a delightful description of this world that
we live in today, which is no different in many ways from the
world of 2,700 years ago when it was written, because man hasn't
changed, God hasn't changed, the Gospel hasn't changed, religion
hasn't changed. And so when we read the Book
of God, they are fresh words to us. And we've just finished
going through the book of Galatians which again reminds us again
and again that the children of God live in this world as they
will live into eternity. They live by the faithfulness
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We live on the basis of His righteousness. Our confidence is in His finished
work. The smile of God that's upon
Him is upon all that are in Him. And yet so clear is the message
of Galatians that it was a shock to me to find, to overhear two
men encouraging one another and one had put this verse up and
the other one who's been a long term missionary for 30 something
years said there's enough There's enough in that verse, Micah 6.8. He has showed you, O man, what
is good and what does the Lord require of thee, to do justly
and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. And he said there's enough in
that verse to keep you fully occupied for the rest of this
year. There's enough there for you
to keep doing. to keep you and to keep God satisfied
with you. What pleases God? What does God
require of me? What does God require of you? That is the great question, isn't
it? And Micaiah was written in a time, Micah, sorry I was talking
to Simon about Micaiah, and you'll, if you look up Micaiah, I think
he's in 2 Kings 20 and in Chronicles as well, there's a delightful
story of Micaiah. Micaiah was in the courts of
Ahab and I was just chatting to Simon and Graham about him
and I'm sorry, I'll keep saying it until my headache tablets
take stock of my weary brain, I'm sorry. Micah, let's go back
to Micah, but Micah was writing in the context of the apostasy
of the professing Christian community, the nation Israel was divided
into two in the days of Micah. There were the northern twelve
tribes and the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Micah
and Isaiah were prophesying at the same time and it would have
been a similar time and the circumstances were similar to the likes of
Jeremiah and others. that Micah was writing in a time
when there were many false prophets around and many people who were
saying to the children of God, peace, peace to them. If you
read in chapter 3 verse 5, just to give us some context, it says,
Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets, that make my people
err, that bite with their teeth and cry, Peace, and he that putteth
not into their mouths, even they prepare war against him. The continual cry of God to his
children throughout the scriptures is to cling to the Lord and to
look to God and to flee. If you go back to verse 10 of
chapter 2, he says, Arise ye and depart, for this is not your
rest. He's talking about the religion
of the day, because it is polluted. It shall destroy you even with
a sore destruction. It is the warning of God. Woe
to them that devise iniquity, that work evil upon their beds.
When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in
the power of their hands. The false teachers are promising
peace, peace to these people, and yet God has other things
planned for them. But God always acts in justice
and in judgment. He speaks of the leaders of the
people. I was thinking earlier this week
that one of the fellows I've been talking to about the gospel
here who preaches that God loves everyone and man has free will
and Jesus died for everyone and I've spoken to him on many, many
occasions. And I keep wondering where he
got that from. Where do you learn? Where do
you learn a false gospel? Where do you learn it from? You
must learn it from others. And then you must find others
that encourage you in it. There is in this world this enormous
sort of machinery of religion, isn't it, that is self-supporting
and encouraging other people in it. And they are led by those
who are in positions of leadership. It says in Micah 3 verse 10,
they build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.
The heads thereof judge for reward and the priests thereof teach
for hire, and the profits thereof divine for money." What a great description. Micah is a glorious, glorious
description of the absolute sovereignty of our God and that He will,
He will and does reign and rule over this. And all of this wickedness
which we see so evidently all around us in this world today,
so much religion, So much religion of all sorts and so little reverence
and so little worship of God in spirit and truth. I found
out yesterday from my daughter that they are actually running
courses now which are part of the psychology degree courses
at the Buddhist temple in Wollongong. Isn't that remarkable? And if
you went along to them and said, I would like to have some tiny
part of your course where I could just very briefly and clearly
give you a description of man as the Bible describes him and
talk a little bit about man who has an eternal soul. A little
bit about man who's made in the image of God and how that image
is tainted and how that image is restored so gloriously in
the Lord Jesus Christ. A little bit about the issue
of so much of this world which is telling people that their
biggest problem is their lack of self-esteem and they need
to have their esteem and their self-worth built up and out of
that confidence in themselves they can then go forward and
conquer the problems that arise in this world. It would be lovely,
wouldn't it, just to have the Buddhists will have a whole part
of that course. The Christian message seems so
often as if it's falling through. Brothers and sisters, our God
reigns. In fact it says something more
than that, doesn't it? Our God reigneth. He reigned over this
creation when he made it. He reigned over all things when
he created them by the word of his power. He reigns right now. Just turn with me to chapter
4 and you'll see how gloriously he reigns. But in the last days
it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the
Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and
it shall be exalted above the hills and the people shall flow
into it. And many nations shall come and
say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the
house of the God of Jacob. And I love what He promises to
do to His people. And He will teach us of His ways
and we will walk in His paths for the law shall go forth of
Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." The law that
goes forth from Zion is not the law of Moses, it's the law of
the Gospel. It's the law of liberty, it's
the law of freedom, it's the law that we've been looking at
as we contrast in Galatians the law of Moses compared to the
law of God. It's His law, isn't it? He rules over His people. He
will teach us of His ways and we'll love it. And we will walk
in His paths. What a great promise from our
God. And the law shall go forth from
Zion. His word will go forth from Zion
and it will cover this world. and His people will find it glorious
wherever it is. And His people will be a humble
people, in verse 5, for all people will walk everyone in the name
of His God. All the people of this world
are walking in the names of their God, whether it be Buddha, or
Allah, or all the other false Jesuses and Christs out there,
all the other religions. And we will walk in the name
of the Lord our God forever and ever. In that day, saith the
Lord, I will assemble her that halteth, for those that are lame.
I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted. He'll wound and He will heal. And I will make her that hauled
it, I will make her that was lame a remnant, and her that
was cast off a strong nation, and the Lord shall reign over
them in Mount Zion henceforth and forevermore. I don't have time to read much
more of Micah to set it into the context, but I just love
how so clearly and particularly it speaks of our great sovereign
Redeemer. There will be consequences for
the sin of God's people and we praise Him for it. We praise Him for His chasing
hand. He says in verse 10 of chapter
4, Be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like
a woman in travail. For now shalt thou go forth out
of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt
go even to Babylon, and there thou shalt be delivered. There
the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. You'll go to Babylon, but I love
what Ezekiel says. He says, I'm going to send you
to Babylon, my people. I'm sending you away. But over
there in that place where all the religious people think you're
cast off and you're living there amongst the heathens, the Lord
says, I will be for you a little sanctuary. a little place where
he dwells, not little in the eyes of God, seemingly little
in the eyes of men, seemingly little in the eyes of God's people
even, seemingly particularly little in the eyes of the enemies
of God's people. A sanctuary for his people. Of course Micah 5 speaks of the
Lord Jesus in those verses that are so often used at Christmas
time. He says in verse 2, that thou
Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands
of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth that is to be the
ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting. From everlasting. That will be
Our great God and Redeemer will come. His going forth has been
an everlasting. We love the fact that our God,
our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the eternal God. We love to
declare His deity. And now to the passage that's
before us in Micah 6. It says, Hear ye now what the
Lord sayeth. Arise, contend thou before the
mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains,
the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has controversy with his people, and he will
plead with Israel, O my people, What have I done unto thee? Wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me." If you're
weary with him, why are you weary with him? Speak to him. What has he ever,
ever done about which you can complain? He says in verse 4,
4, Because I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and
redeemed thee out of the house of servants, and I sent before
thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what
Balak King of Moab consulted, and what Balaam, the son of Beor,
answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, that you may know, you
may know the righteousness of the Lord. Remember, remember
that you might know. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord and bow myself before the high God? He's speaking about
the religion. He's speaking against the religion
of the day. The religion that thinks that
you can bring anything to God. Listen to what he says. Shall
I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year
old? Will the Lord be pleased? Not
just with one ram or one little sheep. Will the Lord be pleased
with thousands of rams? not just a little bit of olive
oil 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? all of that religious activity,
even to that gruesome point which was so common amongst the heathen
of that day and was still happening in India when we were there just
a few years ago. There are still human sacrifices
going on in places around the world. There was a state, just
a couple of states up from us where we had friends, and they
used to, when they built bridges and things, they'd find a human
sacrifice, someone who was drunk and someone who was destitute
somewhere, and they would bury that sacrifice underneath the
bridges. It's an extraordinary thing,
isn't it? It's going on today. Micah was writing 2,700 years
ago. Is the Lord pleased? Is the Lord
pleased with all of that religious activity? He has showed you. This is where we'd like to spend
our time for a little while this morning. He has showed thee a
man. He's shown it to man. What is
good and what does the Lord require of thee? What does the Lord require
of us? Here it is, it's plain, isn't
it? He's shown it to you, the Lord's
shown it to you. What does He require of you?
To do justly. to love mercy and to walk humbly
with thy God." And if you are like my friend, who I trust was
momentarily mistaken, when you read those verses, When you read
those verses as a child of Adam, you are inclined to think that
these are the things that now I must do to please God. And that is how, if you check
the commentaries, that is how this verse is universally taught. In fact I read a commentator
yesterday who spoke about how you keep doing this and you keep
doing this and finally you polish yourself to the stage where you
are fit and ripe for heaven. He is one among a multitude. Does God require that we go back
to the law and go back to our works to do what God requires
of us. And people hear those words,
don't they? They hear, to do justly. They
think, well it means to do what's right. and all of us want to
do what's right, and we want to be seen to be doing what is
right. Who wants to actively do wrong? We want to be seen as people
who honour our promises. We want to be people I trust,
who want to do our duty before men and God. We don't want to
be seen as people who trash the laws of this land. Ultimately
the laws of this land are God's laws. So to do justly in the
eyes of men is to do what is right, to do what is just. And to love mercy, people think
of mercy as someone who is being charitable, someone who is gracious,
and tolerant and understanding of other people, to love being
merciful. It's a great characteristic,
but is that what our God is requiring of us? To walk humbly. Humility
is an attribute It is delightful when it's seen
as much as pride is an offence when we see it in ourselves,
and it rises in us an enmity against the pride that we see
in others. We react to pride in others. And so people would then suggest
that to walk humbly is to be gentle, to be respectful, to
be kind. Some would say it's to fulfil
the duty of the first four commandments, to walk humbly with your God, to have no other gods before
him, to not use his word in vain, to be observant of his Sabbath
days. Some would say it's to obey the
law of God, Some would say it's to be fervent and constant in
prayer. How do you measure up? If that's
what this verse is saying, how do we go? I, the one, can say that I'm
lost. Ecclesiastes say, let us hear
the conclusion of the whole matter, fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. The reality is that the
whole idea that salvation is about our doing is so much a
part of our nature that we cannot escape it, can we? Do this and
live. Do this and live is what we hear
all the time. We must do something to commend
ourselves to God. We must bring something. Even
Cain brought something when he came to church in that first
recorded church service in the scriptures. He brought something,
didn't he? He brought the fruit of his own hands. We keep hearing
it, isn't it, you've got to show some evidence of your faith,
you've got to do something, do your best in order to have some
hope of acceptance and salvation. You know from your own experience
that when you are put into a strait and things are difficult, so
often, so often we look. Do we not? We look back to our
own works and our own doings and we think, well, I'm not quite
as bad as someone else. Thank God for Adolf Hitler and
all those nasty people like Nero throughout history. I'm not quite
as bad as them. And the religious people say
it again and again to us, don't they? They cause the people of
God to err, as Micah says. They say that salvation is of
grace. They want to say that salvation is of grace. And then
they start butting, don't they? They butt like goats until they
can't butt anymore. They keep butting when you tell
them not to butt anymore. But you must make a decision.
But you must sort of show the fruits of it. You must live it
out. You must perform these duties. You've got to keep the commandment
of God. This is the believer's rule of
life. They talk about grace. And then they turn around and
speak of salvation by works. Exactly what was happening in
Galatia. It is wired into our DNA. And we have an accuser of the
brethren, don't we? The accuser of the brethren So
the unbeliever, the unbeliever who's held in Satan's grasp,
what does Satan talk to him about? How does he hold him there? He keeps speaking to him of peace,
doesn't he? He keeps speaking to him of his
good works and his righteousness. He gives them comfort and hope. He soothes their consciences
by saying to them, well, they've done their best and they're better
than many. And then he adjusts the character of God, and he
adjusts the law of God, that even though they think and know
that they fall short in some areas, they think that in the
balance of things they'll be okay. To the believer, Satan
has a different accusation altogether. What does he say to believers?
How dare you call yourself a Christian when you think like that? How
dare you call yourself a Christian when you act like that? How do
you think that God is going to possibly ever accept you when
you behave like that, when you have those thoughts? God's going
to judge you for those things, he says. You'll be lost unless
you start doing some things. Sin grieves the children of God
enormously. But the accuser of our brethren... I love what the Lord Jesus said,
and I think my friends who have pointed this out to me are right.
He says, the Lord Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, He
says, Agree with thine adversary quickly. The adversary of the
children of God is Satan himself, isn't it? And
he has plenty of ammunition in our nature and our activities.
He said, Agree with thy adversary quickly while thou art in the
way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to
the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou
be cast into prison. So he wants to take you back
to the law. And if you go back there, verily I say unto you,
thou shalt by no means come out hence, till thou hast paid the
utmost filing. God's children, when they are
accused of Satan, have every reason under the Gospel of Sovereign
Grace to agree with him. and for him not to be allowed
to take us to the law. It is so wise for us to not try
to justify ourselves or to excuse our sin or to make it less than
it really is. He'll take you to the law and
the law is only satisfied when the penalty is fully paid. Thus children are taught of God,
that Christ has already been punished for my sin. And nothing
more can be demanded. The law has its full reward. The law is perfectly satisfied. And as much as I sin, I remember
what Martin Luther said, and I couldn't find it in his notes
today, but he said, when someone accuses me of being a sinner,
it doesn't trouble me. It causes me comfort because
it causes me to run to my Saviour. He is the Saviour, isn't He? He came into this world to save
sinners. He didn't come into this world
to save the righteous that can look to their doing and their
activities. Nothing more is required. of God's children than to look
to Him. And the Lord uses our old man
Adam to drive us to Christ. He's God's devil to drive us
away from ourselves and to look to Him. We flee to Him who is
our righteousness. We flee to Him who is our justice
before God. What does God require of us?
What must I do to be saved? That was the Philippian jailer's
question, wasn't it? What must I do to be saved, to
inherit eternal life? What does God require of me?
What do we have to do to do the works of God? They asked the
Lord Jesus in John 6 and He said, this is the work of God. This
is God's work in the hearts of His people that you believe. that you trust Him. You look away from yourself.
In fact it's interesting, it says that you believe God, the
preposition there is to believe into. That's how they would have
heard it in the original. You actually believe into Him. You believe into His arms. You believe into who He is. You believe into what He's done
and what He's accomplished. To go back to our text, Micah
6.8, in light of all of that, if doing justice, loving mercy
and walking humbly has anything to do with what I do, then I'm
back in works religion and I'll never stop doing. That was the very religion that
had brought nation Israel to the point where the judgment
of God was upon them and they were to be cast aside. God continually
says, doesn't He, that their religion is something that He
hates. Isaiah says, hear the word of
the Lord, Isaiah chapter 1 verse 10, hear the word of the Lord
you rulers of Sodom. He's describing nation Israel
and its religion as the religion of Sodom and give ear under the
law of our God you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is
the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am
full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts,
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or lambs, or of
he-goats. When you come to appear before
me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations,
no more empty oblations. Incense is an abomination to
me. The new moons and the Sabbath,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with it. It is iniquity. Even the solemn meetings, your
new moons and your appointed feasts. God says, My soul hateth. They are a trouble to me. I am
weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your
hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make
many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Michael 3, we read it earlier,
didn't we? The heads of the house and the
princes of the house of Israel that abhor judgment and pervert
all equity. What does the law, what does
the law of the Lord require of us? As I've said, it cannot be about
law keeping and it cannot be about men's works. And the false
teachers take the word of God, and it's remarkable when you
look at it, as I'm pointing it out to you now, that here is the Bible in Exodus
20. If you hold it up, hold it up
before you, There's Exodus 20 at one end, and the other there
is John 19 verse 30, where the Lord Jesus says, it is finished.
Look at that. There's two little bits at the
end. See the Scriptures? without the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look how much they have to work
with. And then they can mine the New
Testament and make it all about rules and about works and not
about sovereign grace. What did the Lord Jesus say in
the Scriptures about? See, men and religion turn it
into line upon line, precept upon precept, here it is, there
it is. God says they are blind guys.
This is a book about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he
said, isn't it? This is about me. It's all about
him. All of that is about him. And he continually says to his
people, you come back to me for rest. And God's children are
brought to a place of rest because of his work of afflicting them. He brings them low, he takes
them to a place where they see that there is no rest for their
souls in the things that they do. and they are taken away from
themselves to rest on Him, to rest on Him and what He has done. Again and again and again you
read in the scriptures that He says, come to Me, all you that
are weary and heavy laden, and you will find rest for your souls. walk in the old paths." Jeremiah
said it, Isaiah said it, Micah says it again and again and again.
They say come back and walk in the old paths. What are the old
paths? The old paths of sovereign grace, the old paths of the Eternal
Covenant, the paths of Noah who found grace in the eyes of the
Lord, the paths of Abel who was declared righteous by God, the
paths of Abraham who walked with God and was called a friend of
God, and none of them had the law of God. None of them had
good works. And again and again he calls
upon people, the religious people, Stand in the way, says Jeremiah
6.16, and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way,
and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls." It's
a delightful thing, isn't it? To find rest for your souls. To lay your head on your pillow
and be at rest with God, and at rest with God in this world. But they said, and again and
again when this is said in the scriptures, the response of people
is exactly the same, the response of the religious people. But
they said, we will not walk therein. And he sets watchmen over them,
our God, saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet, listen
to the word of God. And they said, we will not hearken. And yet our God is absolutely
sovereign and His people find His requirements for them to
get into Heaven absolutely perfectly fitted to where they are and
to who they are. What does God require? To do
justly. To do justly. In fact, It's more
than just to do, in the original it means to do and to continue
to have done always. Doing justly, you see justice
is the satisfaction of the law. It's to be just before God in
all of His holiness, in all of His righteousness, to do justly. To do justly in the scriptures
means to look to the Lord Jesus Christ for all your justification
before God. That's to do justly. It's for
Him to have done it perfectly for you and for you to be at
rest in what He has done and not anything that you have done. We'll just turn back to Galatians,
you may not have to turn there, but it's good to look again and
it's good to be reminded of what Paul had been led by the Holy
Spirit to declare. He speaks of Abraham. He speaks
of Abraham in reference to the Spirit being given to people
and he says in Galatians 3.6, even as Abraham even as Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." So
the words righteousness and justification come from very similar roots.
To be righteous is to be justified before the law of God. To be
justified is to have kept the law to God's satisfaction. So if As so many people do say
that to do justice is to keep the Law of God, then I'm in very
serious trouble. What does Galatians go on to
say? For as many are of the works of the Law, as many who find
any origin in anything that they do in the works of the Law are
under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them, and it can be translated to have done them. Can you look
back on your life and look and see perfect obedience to the
law of God 100% of the time? If you're looking there, according
to God's Word, you are cursed. But no man is justified by the
law and the sight of God. It's evident that for the just
shall live by faith. How do you do justly? You live
by faith is doing justly. The law is not a faith, God goes
on to say, but the man that doeth them, Galatians 3.12, shall live
in them. They do them and they live in
them. That's all they ever do and it's
where they always live. I don't want to live under the
shadow of Mount Sinai ever. Micah says a law has gone out
from where? not from Sinai, but from Zion,
to lead and to teach and to guide His people. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. We do justice in looking to Him
to come to Him, to come to His mercy seat again and again. I look to the Lord Jesus Christ
as God gives me faith and I rest and don't move a muscle. I come to Him exclusively, absolutely,
and I come to Him forsaking all others. That's what pleases God. That's what God requires. Not
your doing of it, but Christ's doing of it. Doing justice, doing
justly is taking sides with God in the relation to who you are
and taking sides with God about His Son. What did David say in
Psalm 51? Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou might be
justified. God will be justified. Because
sinners have sinned against him and him only. That doesn't mean
that David's sin wasn't a grievous sin against Bathsheba, a shocking
sin against Uriah and his family, and a horrible sin against his
nation. But it was a sin against God
that he might be justified. For justice to be satisfied,
the Lord has to reconcile. And what David says in Psalm
51, for God to be reconciled and for God to treat him with
justice, he must purge my sin. He must take it away completely. We don't try to justify our sin. We don't want to compare ourselves
with others. We don't want to go back to the
law. To do justice is to live by faith
in him. and to love mercy. God's children
are mercy beggars, aren't they? We have before us sin and Satan
and the law of God, and we have all of those enemies. And I love,
I love how Luke recorded for us, as none of the
other Gospel writers did, recorded for us those remarkable words
of Zachariah in Luke Chapter 1. Finally his mouth after 10
months has opened and he speaks with such wonderful words. He
says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited
and redeemed his people. He has visited and redeemed his
people. He was a baby in Mary's womb at the time. He has visited
and redeemed His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation
for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth
of His holy prophets, which have been since the world begun, that
we should be saved from our enemies, the enemies of sin and Satan,
and the law of God which stands against us, and from the hand
of all that hate us. But he's been raised up, just
read these words with me, to perform the mercy promised to
our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. The oath he swore
to our father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we,
being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him
without fear, and how do we serve Him? God's children. We serve
Him in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our
lives. What remarkable mercy. A mercy
that's performed by God. That's wonderful mercy for someone
who can't perform anything of themselves. How does He save
us? How does He save us? How does
He cause us to walk in His holy hill? Titus 3, 5 says, Not by
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us. His mercy is sovereign. It's
His pleasure. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I give thanks unto the Lord for
He is good, for His mercy endures forever. What great mercy it
is for our God. This is what He's pleased with.
He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths. For the law shall go forth from
Zion. I was speaking to Simon earlier. He read Micah and he was amazed
at how gloriously Micah finishes. In Micah verse 9, We see a mercy beggar. What mercy? Verse 7 of chapter 7. Therefore
I will look unto the Lord, and I will wait for the God of my
salvation. My God will hear. 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 for me. He will bring me forth to
the light, and I shall behold His righteousness." What remarkable
mercy from our God. We will be cast down. We will. We will have times where
the Lord will humble us. I love how Micah 6.8 finishes,
and to walk humbly with thy God. Those who have met God walk humbly
with Him. We have seen earlier how He afflicts,
isn't He? He says, I will make her, in
chapter 4 verse 7, I will make her that halteth, make her that
is lame a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation. He speaks of those He will gather
the ones that are driven out, in verse 6, and to her that I
have afflicted." He will bring afflictions. He will bring humbling
afflictions. And there will be times when
the Lord's people will sit in darkness, but what will they
do? Verse 7 of chapter 7, they will
wait. They will wait for God to do
as He has promised. He brings us down. I love what
Isaiah 23 says, He stains the pride of all flesh. We are continually wanting to
polish things. Isaiah 23.9, The Lord of hosts
purposes to stain the pride of all glory. To stain the pride
of all glory. and to bring into contempt all
the honourable of the earth." No wonder Paul says that we are
the circumcision who worship God in spirit and have no confidence
in the flesh to walk humbly with our God, to walk humbly before
Him. What do we have to do to enter
the courts of God? To do justly, to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ in him alone, to love the mercy of God and
to walk humbly with thy God. And it's really fascinating that
in his reminding them of their history, he reminds them of one
of the most famous false prophets in all of the scriptures, Balaam. He takes the people of Israel
back to listen to what Balaam is, and he takes them back there
so that they might know the righteousness of the Lord. Isn't it remarkable? The passage is in numbers. And
you know the story that Moab was horrified by the sight of
Israel and its triumphs and the multitude of the Israelites and
the king Balak summoned Balaam and despite all of the activities
of God and the ass that tried to stop him, Balaam was led there. was paid. Balak wanted to pay
him to curse Israel and Balaam could only say the words that
God had put in his mouth. Isn't it remarkable that the
enemies of God have had these words preserved for us and kept. Behold I have received commandment
to bless, Numbers 23, and He has blessed and I cannot reverse
it." What God does for His people cannot reverse it. This, as Micah
says, is that you may know His righteousness. You might know
the righteousness of God. And this is the righteousness
of God. Listen to the words of God. in verse 21 of Numbers 23. He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is
with him, and the shout of a king is among them. What a remarkable thing. What
a remarkably humbling thing. This is why the scriptures are
so powerful, aren't they? What does God require of you?
To do justice, to love mercy, to do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God. If you're in Christ, that
is what you are doing. And you are doing it before God
all the time. I would love to finish where
Micah finishes this glorious prophecy. seen the wonders of redeeming
love, and God's hand upon His people, and God teaching His
people, and God showing His people the Lord Jesus Christ and His
righteousness again. Micah finishes, doesn't he, he
says, Who is a God like unto 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, because 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 sin into the depths of the sea. They cannot be found." He hasn't
beheld iniquity in Jacob and perverseness in Israel. Thou
wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham. Our God performs these things. This is exactly what Zechariah
said of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will perform the truth to
Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which Thou hast sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old. He has sworn it in the eternal What do you do? What do you need
to do to enter Heaven's glories? You look again to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You look to Him on the cross
and you see justice perfectly satisfied. You see the mercy
of God towards sinners. so wonderfully, wonderfully expressed. And you see a people who are
united with their God and they walk with Him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that You would guide us again, take us by Your strong hand and
do whatever is necessary, Heavenly Father, for us to be taken away
from any confidence in anything that we have in ourselves, that
we might find ourselves at rest in your dear and precious Son.
We praise you, Heavenly Father, that in Him the law is perfectly
fulfilled and the curses of the law are perfectly dealt with.
And remarkably and wonderfully, sin is put to the depths of the
sea, behind your back, and you'll never remember it again. Our Heavenly Father, what a glorious
and blessed Saviour we have. How perfectly fitted all of His
activities and all of His Word is to needy sinners. We praise You, Heavenly Father,
for His works of justice, for the mercy that You've shown us.
and for the humbling effects of the Gospel of Sovereign Grace
in which He gets all the glory and your children find themselves
in a place where they have rest for their souls. May you cause
us to walk this way through this year, our father, and may you
use us for your glory that we might be witnesses to your dear
and precious son in this world. We pray in his name. Amen.