Please turn to the Old Testament
book of Micah, M-I-C-A-H. And I'm double-checking this
now, it is right before the prophet Nahum,
and on the other side is Jonah. Yeah, I knew it was a familiar
book, but it wasn't the other one. Micah chapter 6. Now, before we take a reading
out of Micah 6. I trust everybody's found it. It's page 950 in my Bible. But
that won't help you much, I don't imagine. Let's beg the Lord to do for us what we cannot do for
ourselves. and especially this poor preacher. Lord, we thank you that we've
had the privilege of hearing our brother in the
Bible class with an excellent lesson always wonderful indeed, the
God of the Bible, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of heaven and earth. We come now to this out-of-the-way place in our Bibles to find this gem that is discoverable
in this sixth chapter of Micah. But Lord, if we are to understand
it, if this preacher can explain it, or at least comment on it,
you must give that to us as well. We desire We pray for, we long
for the right understanding of divine scripture. We live in
an age when men are butchering this book, and yet increasing their numbers
with the passing of every week, leading people to pure death
and destruction. Teaching a God who's not God,
and a Savior who's not a Savior, unless we let Him. How pathetic
that very expression is. Unless we let God? Lord, we know it's the other
way around. If you let us, we'll go here and go there and do this
and do that or the other. But we'll do it in keeping with
Your purpose and Your will, or we won't do it. We beg for Your
presence among us today. Lord, teach us these things that
we're about to read about. We bless You. We thank You in
Jesus' name, Amen. My title this morning is, What
God Requires. What does God require? And here
in chapter 6 of Micah, we have a most interesting statement
beginning at verse 8. I wish we could just read the
whole chapter, but I think I better limit myself to verse 8 through
16 in this chapter. He has showed you, oh man, what
is good. What is good. People call a lot of things good.
We call a lot of things good, but they ain't good. But if God
says it's good, it's good. I mean it's really good. It's
good now and it's good forever. God has showed you, oh man, what
is good, and what does the Lord require of you? What does God
require of us? But to do justly, you might want to translate to do
justice, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with your God." And if we took that prepositional phrase,
with your God, and attached it to each of the things that are
said in this verse, it perhaps might help us. The first one
is, what does the Lord require of
me and to walk humbly with my God? The second one is, what
does the Lord require of me but to do justly? And that is with
my God. And what does God require of
me but to love mercy and to walk humbly with my God? Those things are inseparable. They are absolutely true, and
whether I can explain it to you or not, I do not know, but I'll
make another try at it. This is a most important statement
in this part of our Bible. Now let's read the remainder
of the chapter. Verse 9, the Lord's voice cries unto the city,
and the man of wisdom shall see your name. You the rod, and who has appointed
it? Are there yet the treasures of
wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure
that is abominable? These people carried on business
much like people still do today. They make the scales weigh less
or more so it will serve their purpose to get more money out
of your pocket. And if that isn't happening on many fronts, I don't
know what is. We live in a dishonest world,
a God-hating world, and a Christ-hating world. And you can't find good
in any of that. I know people say they're good,
but they're lying. And most of them know it. And
if they don't know it, it's high time they found it out. Are there yet the treasures of
wickedness in the house of the wicked and the scant measure
that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with
the wicked balances and with the bag of deceitful weights?
For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants
thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in
their mouth. Therefore also will I make you
sick in smiting you, in making you desolate because of your
sins. You shall eat but not be satisfied,
and your casting down shall be in the midst of you, and you
shall take hold but shall not deliver, and that which you deliver
will I give up to the sword." Speaking of our giving birth
to children who die a violent death by the sword. You shall
sow, but you shall not reap. You shall tread the olives, but
you shall not anoint yourself with olive oil and sweet wine,
but shall not drink wine. For the statutes of Omri are
kept and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk in
their councils, that I should make you a desolation, and the
inhabitants thereof unhissing. Therefore you shall bear the
reproach of my people." Now let's look a little bit closer at verse
16. Now, what Micah is saying is,
that these people pay great attention to what their kings demand of
them. And they see to it that they
do it. But these two kings, Omri and Ahab, are two of the wickedest
kings that they ever had. Now if the king is corrupt, then
his rules and regulations and stuff that he puts you to doing
is also corrupt. Now look what it says, for the
statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of
Ahab. These kings are as wicked as
wicked can be, and you don't mind serving them, but you won't
serve God. You walk in their counsels, that
I should make you a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an
hissing. Therefore you shall bear the
reproach of my people." Alright, we're going back now to verse
8. God has showed you, O man, what
is good. And what does the Lord require
of you but to do justly with our God, and to love mercy with
our God, and to walk humbly with our God? Let's see what these
things are represented in other parts of our Bible. What does
God require? Number one. to do justly, to
do righteously, to honor and glorify God, to
do that which is right in His sight, regardless of what people
say. And I've printed off some scriptures
that I'll refer to, and then there's three or four places
that I just can't pass up the opportunity of asking you to
turn. And the first one I'll read to you, and the second two
I'll ask you to read in your own Bibles. Alright, so here's
the first place. To do justly with my God. And
here's Psalm 51, verses 3 and 4, where David is confessing
to God his crime in regard to Bathsheba and the killing of
her husband? For I acknowledge my transgression,
and my sin is ever before me against you. You only have I
sinned and done this evil in your sight." Well, he also sinned in the light
of Bathsheba's husband. But right now, David's talking
to God. And that's different. Against
you and you only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight,
that you might be justified when you speak and be clear when you
judge. God cannot be mistaken. He never
gets things wrong. It's always right. It has to
be right. My soul, if anybody has to be
right, it's God. Thank God He is. That's amazing that God might
be justified when He speaks and be clear when He judges. All right, if you want to hang
on to Micah, I don't know if I'll consciously
come back to it, but I probably will have to to remember my place.
But if you would turn in the New Testament to the book of
Luke, chapter 7, and then I've got
another one in Luke, and a third one to follow that one. So you
need to hang on to Luke for just a little bit. Luke chapter 7, starting at verse 29, Luke chapter
7. Luke 7, 29, and all the people
that heard him, and the publicans, the tax collectors, justified
God, how do we know, being baptized of John the Baptist. Now, I know it doesn't say John the
Baptist, but we have no record of John the Apostle ever baptizing. But it's talking here about the
baptism of John. John the Baptist. I'm not trying
to get the word Baptist in here, because I don't think much of
the word anymore is pretty well useless. It has no distinctions
left to it. You can believe anything in the
world and call yourself a Baptist. We might as well call ourselves
Roman Catholics. Be one and the same. One and
the same. All the people that heard John
the Baptist preach and the publicans justified God being baptized
with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers,
sometimes referred to as scribes, the Pharisees and lawyers rejected
the counsel of God against themselves. Hey, we don't like what you're
saying about us. Well, that's just tough. It ain't what we're saying. That
don't amount to a hill of beans. It's what God is saying. They rejected the counsel of
God against themselves, being not baptized of John the Baptist. And then we jump down to verse
35. But wisdom is justified in all her children, all God's children. Are you a child of God? How did you become one? What did you hear that made you
think you wanted to be one? Wisdom is justified of all her
children. Now staying with Luke chapter,
this time it's chapter 23. We're going to go visit the thief
on the cross for just a bit. Let me ask a more far-reaching
question before I get to this exact question. Why did God have this encounter between Christ
on the cross and the dying thief? Why would he put anything about
the dying thief? You'd think he would have found
a moral, upright person who's virtually without sin. I can
answer that real quick. There ain't no such people. Not
me nor you for sure. So why did he do this? So that we
could understand That when the Lord Jesus ascends to glory,
there's one human being that ascends with Him, and that's
the dying thief. What's so special about him?
Oh, he's a trophy of grace. He knows better now. It ain't
what he's done. It's what God does for him. And
that's still how it is. I know preachers tell you if
you tithe, God will bless you and you'll have more money than
you know how to spend and all this kind of junk. That's just
pure garbage. That's the way to trick people
to give money that they don't otherwise want to give. So if
you've got some you don't want to give, just keep it. If God's in what we're doing
here in this place, we'll keep the doors open. Now, you done made me forget
my question. Somebody help me out here. Let's
see. Luke 23. Okay, I got it. Verse 39. Luke 23, 39. One of the male
factors, which were hanged, there were two of them, railed on this
other guy that had spoken about Christ in such a favorable way. But this other thief said to
the Lord Jesus, if you be Christ, save yourself and us. Now guess
what? He doesn't care if Christ saves
himself or not, as long as he saves him, the thief. You follow me? What he doesn't
know is, if Christ isn't raised, neither can they be raised. But
the other thief answering rebuked him. Now earlier in one of the
other Gospels, both of these guys were jawing against Christ
and throwing insults in His face. And at some point, this one thief
could not go any further. He stops to correct his friend. Don't you fear God, seeing that
you're in the same condemnation We're about to leave this world,
all three of us. Oh, he's mistaken about that
only two for right now. And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man, the Lord
Jesus, has done nothing amiss. Nothing amiss. Now, can you imagine what our
Lord looked like physically? at this time, just very shortly
before he gave up the ghost and died. Blood is streaming over
his body. His side is pierced. His hands
are bleeding. The crown of thorns on his head
is bringing even more blood. If there's one thing the Lord
Jesus did not look like physically, that would be a king. But a work of grace has already
begun in this dying thief. He sees what no one else can
see. Can we do that? He said to the Lord Jesus in
verse 42, Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when you come into
your kingdom." I mean, how does this man call
Him a king? And Jesus said to him, verily,
amen, I say unto you, today shall you be with Me in Paradise. Not tomorrow, today! Today. Alright, without turning back
to it, we need to stay here in Luke. We go back to the second
subject in regard to God. The first is to do justice with
our God. And the second one in that Micah
6, 8 trilogy that is in front of us there in three parts is
to love mercy, to love mercy with my God. Now a sinner who
knows he's a sinner can be satisfied with but one thing, and that's
mercy. We sure don't want what we deserve. I mean, the most
holy person in this place got better sense than that, I hope.
It's not us, it's Him. Oh my, it's Him. Alright, Luke
chapter 1. Now, I could have told you where
this other text was three or four minutes ago, but you wouldn't
have heard what I said about this dying thief and about our
Lord Jesus. Luke chapter 1, starting at verse 72. Speaking of our Savior, verse
72, Luke chapter 1, to perform the mercy promise. What is the mercy promise? It
is the eternal promise of God to bring Christ into this world
to die in our room place instead and give us eternal life. His name is the promised mercy. The promised mercy. Oh, what
a statement indeed. Look at verse 78. Through the tender mercy of our
God. Christ is not just mercy. He
is the tender mercy of our God. whereby the day spring from on
high has visited us to give light to them that sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into
the way of peace. My, my, my, my, what wonderful
news indeed. Now, hanging on to that thought
about loving mercy with Our God. Let me read you this statement
out of the book of Psalms. Mercy and truth are met together. When was this and where was it?
It's in the incarnate Christ. The Christ of incarnation. This
glorious statement, mercy and truth are met together. Now,
some people suggest, though not actual, but at least it is pointing to the
possibility of this, though no one that I know believes that
it is. That is, that mercy and truth
have had a falling out. And this is declaring a reconciliation. Now you know, and I know, that
all the children of Adam are fallen from God and must be reconciled
in our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. And it is indeed in Him that
we can have such a statement made to ourselves that mercy
and truth are met together. Then there's another pair that
also seem to be at odds, and that has to do with righteousness
and peace. You'll find this in Psalm 85,
verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the
Lord shall give that which is good, and our land, our lives,
our souls shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before
Him and shall set us in the way of His steps." We have another
problem. In regard to mercy, we have this
tremendous problem. We do not and cannot deserve
mercy. Mercy, by its very definition,
just cannot be earned. It's either free or you don't
have it at all. And it's free in Christ, who
is the mercy of God in person. Now the third word is to walk
humbly with our God. Since Heidi's here, I'll bring
in this little suggestion. I don't remember if I've ever
said this in front of her. She's a proud Texan, by the way.
is getting ready to go back for a few weeks. We hope it's a very
few, but maybe a little longer than that. But we saw David Pledger, pastor
in Houston, at the conference this past weekend. And one of
the times that I went down there, David's always badgering me,
what do you want to do while you're here? I said, not anything
that I can think of. Nothing. You want to go look
at the skyline? You want to go to the Some of
those attractions, I don't remember what they were, but I wasn't
interested. Finally, about the third or fourth
time I went down there, I said, David... He brings it up every
time. I said, David, there is something
I want you to show me in the whole state of Texas. I want
you to show me an humble Texan. And he didn't even have to think
about it. He said, there ain't no such person. He said, now I can take you to
humble Texas, which is a town, but there ain't no humble Texans. If you've ever met Milton Howard,
you ought to know that. Boy, he is incurable. Yes, sir. Walk humbly. Now Texans are saved
just like North Carolinians. You can't be saved. without the
mercy of God being bestowed upon our souls. We're not fit for earth or heaven
until that takes place. Hey, I'm going to break my record,
I reckon, but I need to introduce you to another statement in our
Bibles. The first one is in 2 Kings 8. And I also inform you that I'm
in my new Bible, and it doesn't turn like my old one. 2 Kings 8. Beginning at verse 7, Elijah is now in glory, not by
way of the grave, and Elisha is now prophet in Israel. So
we start at verse 7, And Elisha came to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad,
the king of Syria, was sick. And it was told him, saying,
The man of God is come here. And the king said to his servant
Hazel, his most trusted servant Hazel, Take a present in your
hand, and go and meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord
by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? So Hazel went
to meet Elisha, and took a present, a considerable present as a matter
of fact, even of every good thing of Damascus. Forty camels' burdens. Whatever load forty camels can
carry is what he took him for a present. No mention made that
Elisha had anything to do with accepting his present. He refused
the one for Naaman the Syrian, and that insulted Naaman. And
he was quite upset that he could not buy his cure. So Hazel went to meet him in
verse 9, and took a present with him, even of every good thing
of Damascus, forty camels, burdens, and came and stood before Elisha
and said, Your son, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, has sent me to
you saying, Shall I recover of this disease? And Elisha said
unto him, Go say unto him, You may certainly recover. And with the same breath and
the same sentence, Howbeit the Lord has showed me that he shall
surely die. But it's not the disease that
killed him. And Elisha settled his countenance
steadfastly on this servant, Hazel's face, until he was ashamed,
and the man of God wept. And Hazel said, Why weep, my
lord? And he answered, Because I know
the evil that you will do unto the children of Israel. Their
strongholds will you set on fire, and their young men will you
slay by the sword, and will dash their children and rip up their
women with child?" And Hazel said, "'But what is your servant,
a dog, that he should do this great thing?' And Elisha answered,
"'The Lord has showed me that you shall be king over Syria.'" Now he sure doesn't like the
fact that Elisha speaks of him in such unglowing terms. He's
really uptight about this. And yet he does the very thing
that God said he would do. He goes back to his king. The
king says, what did the prophet say about my sickness? He said,
you'll surely recover. The next morning he took a wet
towel and some other stuff and put it over his face. And he
had his last breath, and Hazel became king instead. Now that's
how people are about the gospel. You tell them that they're God-hating
sinners, oh my soul, they're ready to throw songbooks at you. But it's the truth. Christ only
came to die for sinners, and for the ungodly, the unrighteous,
If we're already good, we don't need Him to die for us. Let's
just usher ourselves right into the presence of God. See how
well He takes it. Alright, one other scripture
in this respect, by way of contrast. 2 Samuel. Let's see, that's off
to your left. 2 Samuel. Chapter 9. If I can read this chapter 9
in 2 Samuel, I'd very much like to do so, so that you can pick
up some of the things necessary to understand what's going on.
David is now the king in Israel. Saul is dead. One of Saul's sons was David's
very best friend, and he's been killed in battle. But he had a son, and David inquires if there's
any other of Saul's descendants anywhere in the kingdom. And
this one guy by the name of, oh, what's his name? I'll get to it in a minute then.
Befebosheth. I don't know how I could forget
a name like that. Gosh. Befebosheth. So David, in verse 1, Chapter
9, David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of
Saul, that I may show a favor, that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? Jonathan was Saul's son and David's
best friend. And there was of the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they called him
unto David, the king said unto him, Are you Ziba? And he said,
Your servant is he. And the king said, Is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God to him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan has yet a son which is lame on both his feet. He got this lameness by jumping
out the window of the palace to escape being captured and
probably killed. And the king said unto him, Where
is he? And Ziba said to the king, Behold, he is in the house of
Matre, the son of Amul, in a place called Lodabar, which means no
pasture. Then king David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Matre, the son of Amul, from Lodabar. And when Mephibosheth, the son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come to David, He fell on
his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth.
And he answered, Behold your servant. And David said unto
him, Fear not, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan
your father's sake, and will restore unto you all the land
of Saul your father, which is actually his grandfather, and
you shall eat bread at my table continually. And Mephibosheth
bowed himself and said, now this ain't a different answer than
what came from that other character just a minute ago. He bowed himself
and said, what is your servant? What am I that you should look
upon such a dead dog as I am? And the king called to Ziba,
Saul's servant. He said to him, I have given
unto your master's son all that pertain to Saul and to all his
house. You therefore and your sons and
your servants shall till the land for him, and you shall bring
in the fruits that your master's son may have food to eat. But
Mephibosheth, your master's son, shall eat bread always at my
table." Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then said Ziba
to the king, according to all that the Lord the king has commanded
his servant, so shall your servant do. As for Mephibosheth, as for
Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table as one
of the king's sons." That's what Christ does for sinners. If you belong to him, he will
eat at the king's table. What a glorious statement, indeed. You can find other illustrations
in your Bible regarding these things. Who can forget Luke chapter
18 that has at least two parables there that speak directly to
the subject that we've been considering? Then another in many other places. Let me read you a couple of scriptures
in closing. Hebrews, wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is
a consuming fire. Another one, Psalm 39. David said, I was dumb. I opened not my mouth. Why, David? Because God did it. God did it. If He did it, it's
right. If He did it, it's on time. But
that ain't even half of it. If he did it, it's forever. Forever. No ands, ifs, or buts. Forever. Forever and ever.