I'd like for us to return to
the book of Micah chapter 6 this evening. Last Wednesday night I began
in the first eight verses of this chapter and I didn't finish
it, so I want to finish it tonight on this subject of what God requires. What God requires. I took that
title from verse 8 of Micah chapter 6. where he says here in verse
eight, he, that is God, hath showed thee, that is the people
of Judah, the people of Israel, to whom Micah the prophet is
prophesying and preaching, he hath showed thee, O man, now
this is not just only to Israel in a way, but it's ultimately
to all of God's people, he has shown thee, O man, what is good,
and what doth the Lord require of thee. what God requires. Now, I got through the first
five verses in that last message and I wanna just reread those
verses because I wanna use this as a foundation for what I'm
gonna say tonight. And I won't make a lot of comments
on these first five because I preached on them last time. But let's
just look at it again. This is the beginning of Micah's
third message to the nation Judah. And again, it's a message of
God's judgment against sin. It's a message of God's justice
and God's wrath against all who commit iniquity. But it's a message
with hope. It's a message that is designed
by God's purpose and by God's power to lead His people, the
remnant of grace, to their hope of salvation in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so it starts out, Hear ye
now what the Lord saith. Arise, contend thou before the
mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice, God calling upon
creation itself to stand as jury to hear the charges that he has
against Israel and Judah, Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy. That means the Lord has a matter
against these people. He has a charge. It's not an
argument now. It's not an argument like a debate,
in other words. It's an argument, like I told
you, this is like a courtroom drama. And God is bringing the
charges, and that's the controversy. So he's arguing against, in a
sense, but it's a legal argument. It's an argument that has no
answer. He says, the Lord's controversy, and you strong foundations of
the earth, from the highest mountain to the lowest parts of the earth,
for the Lord hath a controversy with his people. Notice there,
his people. He's speaking of Israel as his
covenant people under the old covenant, which was a temporal,
temporary covenant, conditional covenant. Had a period of time
in which it lasted, about 1,500 years. And now we can see this
as an illustration of God's contention with His covenant people according
to the everlasting covenant of grace because we fell in Adam.
And the Lord in essence in Adam according to the covenant of
works had a controversy with us for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And that's the kind of people
Christ saves. Sinners saved by the grace of God. Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners. If you weren't a sinner, you
don't need salvation. You see, if you're not a sinner,
you don't need salvation. So the controversy here is this. Now he's talking to a people
of his own choice whom he chose for whatever reason, we'll see
that in just a moment, according to a covenant that do not deserve
salvation, that cannot earn salvation. That's why I read Romans chapter
three there. By deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. And it says, and he will plead
with Israel. That doesn't mean he's going
to beg Israel, that means he's going to bring the charge. He
has a plea, but it's not a plea bargain, it's not a begging,
it's a charge. He says in verse three, oh my
people, what have I done unto thee? Now he puts things in perspective
here. This is what he's doing. You
know, it's one thing, now think about this, it's one thing for
us to sin against an enemy. Now it's wrong to do that. Scripture
tells us to love our enemies, but naturally speaking, we can,
according to the flesh, we can reason out in our minds and we
can sort of take somebody sinning against an enemy, somebody who
does us wrong. But to sin against one who has
blessed us and given us so much. I told the people down in Ruston,
I said, you know, one thing that I think that we need to instill
upon our children, and I think about this a lot. And I thought
about raising our children and I think about my grandchild and
grandchildren. One thing we need to instill upon them is that
everything they have by way of the physical blessings of this
life, the physical abilities they have, the mental abilities,
everything they have is an undeserved gift from God. Even the very
breath they take. The next breath you take, God
gave that to you. And I think about that because,
you know, you know how our children are, you know, as they grow older
and get to be preteen and teen, you know, the first thing they'll
start asking is, why do we have to go to church? And I told them
down there, I said, you know, if you were poor, didn't have
a dime to your name, and somebody on the street just came up and
handed you a $10 or $20 bill, somebody you didn't know, what's
the first thing you would do? You'd thank. You'd at least say
what? Thank you. Thank you. And if you didn't say thank you,
we'd think you were the most ungrateful wretch that God ever
put on Earth. Wouldn't we? Even the natural
man would think that. What are we doing tonight? We're
not, you know, I hate that term, going to church, but I use it
now, don't get me wrong, I'm not putting everybody down, I
do it too, it's just our culture, I guess. What are we doing tonight? We're not just going to church,
we're here to thank God. And we have to thank Him all
the time. That's why we ought to put it
to Him, say, do I have to go thank God tonight? That's what
we're doing. You say, well, do I have to thank
him that much? Well, we ought to thank him more because if
you think about every breath we take, the homes that we live
in, we were born in a country where we have freedom of religion,
we have freedom to walk the streets without harm from the government,
we have opportunities All of these things, food on our tables,
a roof over our head. We might not have a lot of things
we want. We might gripe about it. That's just ingratitude.
But we have so much, we ought to thank God all the time. And
that's what he's doing here to Israel. He's putting that in
perspective now. That's the way we got to see
things. And we need to teach our children that way. That's
what I try to teach them in our Bible school, and you teachers
do too. That you ought not resent thanking
God, worshiping God, we ought to worship Him daily. And that's what he's doing. Look
here, O my people, what have I done unto thee? Now what's
God done to Israel? He says, and wherein have I wearied
thee? Have I been a burden to you? Is it a burden that we have to,
quote, go to church? Is that a burden? You know? Just
like thanking the man who gives you the money when you need it
or gives you a food when you need it? Is that a burden? No,
that's just right. And he says, well, testify against
me. Bring your charges against me.
That's what God's saying. If you've got anything to say,
let's say, and I love that passage there in Romans 3 that I read.
For that reason, when he says there in verse 19, when he says,
now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped. Stopped,
shut up, that's what it means. And all the world may become
guilty before God. When God says to Israel back
here in Micah 6 and verse 3, testify against me, you know
what the answer is? Shut your mouth. You don't have
an answer. I don't have an answer. You can't
answer God on this. You can't argue with God on this. God is right and we're wrong,
period. Let God be true and every man
a liar. We've got no complaints. Now,
I know we do complain, just like Israel in the wilderness. Why
me, Lord? Why this? Why that? Oh, my. Let every mouth be stopped. Well,
look at what God says in verse four. Now, I want you to notice
this. Let's put this in perspective, too. This is something. It's
really mind-boggling what the Lord is doing in this passage
here. But here are just a few verses. Just two or three verses
here. where it's kind of like a summation
of the whole history of Israel. Look at it, he says, for I brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt. Now their history reached farther
back than that, it reached back to Abraham and the promise that
God made to Abraham. But his actual dealings in Providence
began in Egypt there as a nation. And he brought them out of Egypt.
Remember, he brought them out, he redeemed thee, he said, and
redeemed thee out of the house of servants forced Slavery. Sent before thee Moses, Aaron,
and Miriam. The law, the priesthood, that
woman's, that prophetic woman's testimony among the women of
Israel. This is what I did for you. Established you as a nation. And then he says, I brought you
through the wilderness, and he kind of caps that off by the
experience that they have with Balak, king of Moab, through
Balaam, the false prophet. It's kind of like a summation,
it's kind of like a what you might say a signification of
their whole experience because they always fought against enemies,
they always fought against idolatry, and always fought against false
prophets on their whole wilderness experience. So he kind of summarizes
it with this last issue here where Balak, verse 5, O my people,
remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, what Balaam,
the false prophet, son of Beor, answered him from Shittim unto
Gilgal." And you know what he's saying here? He's showing how
Balak didn't want the children of Israel to come over into that
land. He was afraid of them. He'd heard of what had gone on,
how the Lord had worked mightily through that nation. And so he
tried to trip him up by paying a false prophet named Balaam
to go over and curse Israel. Balaam, remember, tried to do
it, I think, three times, and he could not do it. That's an
amazing thing. Here's a man who went and tried
to curse the Lord's people, and he could not do it because God
wouldn't let him. And so, therefore, some of the
most blessed words that you'll read in the book of Numbers came
out of the mouth of a false prophet named Balaam. Now eventually,
Balaam was exposed and he did influence the children of Israel,
the men, to intermarry with idolaters and foreigners, and that was
wrong for Israel. But these three times, you know,
what God's saying here, He says, I protected you. I took care
of you. Listen, I redeemed you out of
Egypt by power and by blood. The blood of animals, which was
the blood of that covenant, Now, there was no eternal salvation
there, only in what that blood typified, the blood of Christ.
But you remember, he said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over
you. That was literal blood of a literal
lamb of the first year without spot and without blemish over
a literal doorpost, wasn't it? Now, we know the blood of bulls
and goats will not take away sin, but it got them out of Egypt.
The book of Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 13 puts it like this, if
the blood of bulls and goats purified to the sanctifying of
the flesh. In other words, it got them physically
out of Egypt. It gave them physically as a
nation a right to God. But it couldn't take away sin.
It couldn't get them into the holiest of all, the very presence
of God. Only the blood of Christ could
do that. But God did it. And then he preserved them through
the wilderness. They'd have been destroyed if it weren't for the
power and goodness of God, and they didn't deserve one second
of it. That's like us. How many times
would we have been destroyed if God had not had his providential
hand over us, and we didn't deserve a second of it? You know what
it was all headed toward? He was headed toward getting
this old sinner under the preaching of the gospel of God's grace
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. For the glory
of God to bring me to Christ. That's what it was all headed
for. To the praise of the glory of His grace. Now there's that
whole history there that he says. And why did he do it? Verse five. That you may know the righteousness
of the Lord. Wow. Think about it. Here's the foundation of all
salvation and all salvation truth. That you may know the righteousness
of the Lord. You mean you did all that, Lord,
just for that? Well, let me tell you something. If you ever come
to see that, you won't say it like that. That's the fullness of the glory
of God in Christ right there. Did you know that? That statement
right there in verse 5? Here's the purpose of all history
right here. Not just Israel's history, but
all history. Let me show you that. Look at
Isaiah chapter 46. One of my favorite passages. Somebody down in Ruston told
me after a message, I preached a little bit from Micah down
there, and they said, you really like history, don't you? And
I said, yeah, but let me tell you why. Let me show you why
I like history. I don't like history just for
history's sake. But here's what I like about
it. Look at verse 9 of Isaiah 46. Here's history right here from
God's point of view. God's perspective. And He lets
us in on it. He says, remember the former
things of old. That's history. For I am God
and there's none else. That's what we need to learn
from history. That God is God and there's none
else. There's none like him, none to
be compared to him or with him. I'm God and there's none like
me. Declaring the end from the beginning. You know what that
is now? Do you realize what that statement says there? That's
the God of predestination right there. Now if he'd have said
declaring the beginning from the end, that wouldn't make him
much, because we can do that. I can tell you what happened
this morning. I can't tell you what's going to happen tonight.
I can declare the beginning from the end. The beginning, I woke
up this morning and did certain things. But I can't declare the
end from the beginning. Only God can do that. You know
why? Not because he's learning. Not because he's looking down
through a telescope of time and learning what's going to happen
by some other higher power than because he is the God who works
all things after the counsel of his own will. And he says,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, they're
not done yet, but now listen to what he calls them. Now these
things that are not yet done, you know what he calls them?
Look here, my counsel. He doesn't say my telescope. He doesn't say, my crystal ball. He says, my counsel. Now where
does God's counsel come from? It comes from infinite wisdom
and infinite knowledge. And he says, it shall stand.
Now he doesn't say there, it shall stand if you'll let me.
Or it shall happen if you'll let it happen or if you'll cooperate.
We read that, remember, in the book of Micah. God's purpose
doesn't wait on man. And he says, I will do all my
pleasure. This is history now from God's viewpoint. He says,
calling a ravenous bird from the east. A ravenous bird is
an evil bird. It's a bird of prey. And what
he's saying there is I, he said all things. Within my providence
and my sovereignty, the man that executeth my counsel from a far
country. Yeah, I've spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass, I've purposed it, I will also do it. Now look
at verse 12. Now, based on that history and
the revelation of God in his history, this is what he's telling
them in Micah now. He says, hearken unto me you
stout-hearted that are far from righteousness. You stout-hearted
means self-righteous. That's what that means. Unsubmissive. You're far from
righteousness. How far are we from righteousness? Well, in ourselves, we're as
far as a being can get. But look at verse 13, I bring
near my righteousness. That's the righteousness of the
Lord that Micah speaks of. He says, it shall not be far
off. It's nothing that's far off that
you can attain to. And my salvation, righteousness
and salvation here are connected. Can't have one without the other.
It shall not tarry. And I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel my glory. Now what do you think he's talking
about? He's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back to
Micah chapter 6. You see that? That's the purpose
of all history right there. fulfilled in Christ and the righteousness
that he established by his obedience unto death, so that we may know
the righteousness of the Lord." Here's the purpose of the law.
It was our schoolmaster, Paul said, talking to the Jews, to
lead them unto Christ. Here's the purpose of all preaching.
Paul said, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Here's the purpose
of all providence in our lives. To know the righteousness of
the Lord is to know Christ. And to know Christ is to know
the righteousness of the Lord. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe. This is that same
righteousness that God imputes to his people. It's revealed
in the gospel. And God said that the reason
that I've done all this is that you may know the righteousness
of the Lord, that you may know Christ. And one thing you have
to understand about the covenant that they were under, how did
God show forth His righteousness in His dealings with Israel?
Now, the first way that most people would answer that question
would be this way, the Ten Commandments. Not so. Not so. Because even before there were
the Ten Commandments, God established what this righteousness of the
Lord is. He did it when he stripped Adam
and Eve naked of their fig leaf aprons and slew an animal and
made them coats of skin. That's when he did it. That's
when the sacrificial system started. God didn't say to Israel, when
you all finally keep the Ten Commandments, I'll pass over
you. He didn't say, well, when you
all finally are circumcised, I'll pass over you. He said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Didn't he? Now with
that in mind, read these next three verses. Look at it. Now
listen to this. All right, now this puts it in perspective too. There's the purpose of all this. Here's the requirement of God's
justice and mercy. Now look at it. He says in verse
six, wherewith shall I come before the Lord? Now how am I gonna
come before God? And what he's talking about is to find salvation,
to find acceptance, to be justified, to be blessed. How am I going
to come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? In
what way am I going to do it? I'm a sinner. Now, you're a sinner. How are we going to do it? Well,
shall I come before him with burnt offerings? With calves
of a year old? Will that do it? How about this? Well, if that won't do it, verse
seven, will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams? How about
a thousand? Or not just 1,000, but multiples
of thousands of rams? Or with 10,000 of rivers of oil? Will that do it? If that won't
do it, how about this? Shall I give my firstborn for
my transgression? Will that do it? Will that cleanse
me of my sin? Do you see what the issue here
now is? is how am I going to be justified
before God? How am I going to be accepted
before God? How am I going to be cleansed, clean in God's sight? Isn't that the issue here? He's
not saying how am I going to be clean in your sight or you
be clean in my sight. How am I going to be clean in
God's sight? Shall I bring my firstborn, give my firstborn?
You think that, please God, a man give up his firstborn child?
Will that do it? The fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul, will that do it? Well, look at verse 8. Well, the answer to all that
is a resounding no. It will not do it. Because God
has already said it. God's already showed thee, O
man, what is good. Now, do you understand this now?
This is God's definition of goodness now. You see, it's not our definition
of goodness. This is God's definition of goodness.
So what he's describing here in the righteousness of the Lord
and what it takes to cleanse a sinner, this is what God calls
goodness. This is God's standard. You know,
we've got a lower standard of goodness than God does. You know
that, don't you? We look at a person who's responsible
or kind and all that, and we say they're good, and from our
perspective, they are. But now we're talking about how
a man deals with God. You see that? Well, God's shown
you what is good. And what doth the Lord require
thee? Now, here's three things. Listen, he says, number one,
but to do justly. What is it to do justly? Well,
most people, let's read on. He says, to do justly, to love
mercy, and to walk humbly. Notice the next line, with thy
God. Now most people will look at
those things, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly,
and they'll immediately go to how we should treat each other.
Alright? And that's included. Should we
treat each other fairly, justly, do what's right to each other?
Yes, we should. There's no argument there, no
debate. Anybody who uses grace as an excuse not to treat their
fellow man in a just and fair and right way is a liar. You see what I'm saying? Alright,
should we love mercy, compassion? especially on the downtrodden
and the poor. You know, poor people who are
just destitute, should we treat them with mercy and compassion
and charity? Yes, we should. And anybody who
uses grace or the scriptures to deny that is a liar. And to be humble, even to be
humble before men. I believe that, listen, I don't
believe being humble before men is being fake and false. I had
a friend like that one time. He thought to be humble before
anybody, he was just being fake. No reason he thought that, it's
because he thought so much of himself. Should we be humble before each
other? We sure should. And anybody who uses grace as
an excuse to be proud and to laud it over other people is
a liar. Those things are all true and
they come right in line with the grace of God. But this is
not what he's talking about here. See? He's talking about this. What is good? What does God require? To do justly. And he's talking
about how a sinner comes to God. To love mercy. That's what we
need from God. That's something you can't earn
and cannot deserve. To walk humbly with thy God before
God. What is it to do justly? It's
to act toward God and man according to the divine standard of righteousness
revealed in the law. That you may know the righteousness
of the Lord. Look back at Romans 3 that I
read in the opening. You see, if I'm going to come
before God and do what he requires, I must
do justly. All right? It must be in accordance
with strict justice. That's what he's saying. Well, how do I do that? Well,
think about it. Verse 23, look at it again, of
Romans 3. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. What does a sinner deserve justly
from God? Death and hell. Now, does he
deserve anything more? You say, well, certain sinners
are worse than others. Well, we'll let God deal with
that. That's His business, isn't it? But it says the wages of
sin is death. Well, how are we going to come
before God and do justly? Somebody said, well, when I come
before God, I don't want justice. You know what I say to them?
Too bad. Too bad. Because God cannot do
anything unjustly. Did you know that? You say, well,
where's there any hope for me? Look at verse 24. Being justified
freely, that's without a cause in ourselves. You know there
is a cause for this, it's the glory of God, but in ourselves
there is no cause. There's no reason for God to
justify me in myself. I don't earn it, I don't deserve
it. Freely, how? By His grace, there's your key,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That's how you
deal justly with God. You come before God trusting,
resting in Christ and his shed blood and his righteousness imputed. That's justice. He says, through
the redemption that is in Christ, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation, a mercy seat, Now that propitiation is a mercy
seat where justice is done. My sins are paid for. My sins
are dealt with. Giving my firstborn child to
God would not cleanse me from my sins. But you know what? The
blood of Christ cleanseth me from all sin. Am I right? Rivers of oil, thousands of rams
would not wipe away one sin, would not make me righteous.
But you know, the blood of Christ makes me righteous before God. There is no justice or mercy
from God without Christ. And it says here, through faith
in His blood, that His finished work, His righteousness, to declare
his righteousness for the remissions of sins that are passed, that's
the Old Testament believers, through the forbearance of God,
to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
And therefore we have no room to boast except in Christ. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. Look down at verse 31. Do you
ever notice about this verse, do we then make void the law
through faith? No, God must be just now. He can't just ignore His law. He says, God forbid, yea, we
establish the law. How? By faith. How does faith
establish the law? Not by replacing the law with
a lower law, but by pleading the blood and righteousness of
Christ. That's how we establish the law, because Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. If you're going to know the righteousness
of the Lord, you've got to know Christ. The second thing he says is to
love mercy. That's compassion. And one reason
they were to love mercy was because God himself delights to show
mercy. Look back at Micah. Turn to Micah
chapter 7. Look at verse 18. Listen to this. He says, this
is Micah 7 verse 18. We'll be getting to this later
on. He says, Who is a god like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity? and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage. Now that passing by doesn't mean
God's ignoring it. It's like passing over. When
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. He retaineth not his anger
forever, 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 sins into the depths of the sea. How can God do that? How can
he have such compassion and such mercy on his people? There's not but one way, and
that's through the cross of Calvary. There's the mercy seat. There's
the seat of all compassion from God. Behold the love of God out
there. Herein is love, not that we love
God. but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then lastly,
he says here, to walk humbly with thy God. To walk humbly
with thy God. How do we do that? First of all,
in confession of sin. We gotta take sides with God
against ourselves. Oh, Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? Not me. Whatever God says about
me, we bow to. That's humility. God says I'm
a sinner. I have no answer for my sins. The only thing I can do is take
my place under the condemnation of the law and say guilty, guilty,
no hope, no deservedness. I deserve nothing but damnation.
Secondly, in submission to Christ, the only way of salvation, the
only way of righteousness before God. You remember in Romans 10,
before he spoke of Christ as being the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth, he talked about the
unrighteous, the unbelieving, self-righteous Jews. They would
not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God. Why? Because they were intent on establishing
one of their own. Like Cain, trying to please God
and be saved by His works. That's unjust. You know, if God
were to save any sinner by their works, it would be unjust for
Him to do so. It'd really be unmerciful. Because
God's mercy must be in line with His justice. So we walk humbly
before God when we confess our sins and run to Christ for all
salvation. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow, that
flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing. And thirdly, in submission
to God's revealed will. God's way is the right way. And
it's the only right way. Let me just read you some scripture
and I'll close. Psalm 51, 16, the psalmist David. He writes, For thou desirest
not sacrifice. What does God desire? What does
God require? Thou desirest not sacrifice,
else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering, that won't do it. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. You know what a broken spirit
and a contrite heart does? Runs to Christ for refuge, for
safety, for salvation, for forgiveness, for righteousness, for peace.
Psalm 34, 18, it says, the Lord is near to them that are of a
broken heart and saved such as be of a contrite spirit. In Psalm
147, in verse 3, it says, He heals the broken heart and He
binds up their wounds. How does He do that? He shows
them the great physician, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Isaiah
57 and verse 15, for thus said the high and lofty one that inhabits
eternity whose name is holy. That very same one, I dwell in
the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive
the heart of the contrite ones. How does he revive us? He revives
us by showing us the power and the glory, the glorious person
the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his work on Calvary's cross
to save us from our sins. All right.