In the book of Micah, chapter
6, the question is asked in Micah,
chapter 6, what doth the Lord require of thee? Speaking of Israel, the title
of this message tonight is, What God Requires. What God Requires. is the beginning of Micah's third
message to Judah. I was looking over my notes from
last week and I noticed I had a little misinformation there,
and I made the statement that chapter five was in the third
message, but it's actually the end of the second message. But Micah had three messages.
for the nation, for Judah, the Southern Kingdom specifically.
And he also spoke to the Northern Kingdom or spoke of the Northern
Kingdom. And they were all messages of judgment, judgment of God
against sin, that God is just to punish their sins. But in
these messages, there were also messages of hope. But that hope
would not be found in men. It wouldn't be found in men's
works. It wouldn't be found in physical elements. It would be
found in the promise of God to send one of himself and from
himself, even God himself, God the Son, the second person of
the Trinity, who is known as the woman seed, Messiah, who
is known as the hope of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ who would
come out of Bethlehem and Ephratah and who would save his people
from their sins and in that promise there is the answer to this question
of what God requires in the gospel because I want to tell you something
I want you to listen to this very carefully if God had found
or known of any other way to put away the sins of his people,
he would not have sent his son into the world to die. And I
say that without reservation. I've heard some say that God
didn't have to send Christ, that's just the way he chose to do it
in his sovereign authority. That is not true. In fact, when you speak of things
like that, we're really getting way above our heads, and I'll
tell you what I mean by that. The Bible identifies and distinguishes
Christ as the eternal Son of God and also the eternal mediator,
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. who is the author
and finisher of a salvation which was given to God's people before
the world began. So in God's eternal mind, there
never was any other way. This is the only way. And in
this way, this one way, God is glorified in every attribute
of His character and nature. That truth there is summarized
in the phrase that Isaiah used in Isaiah 45, a just God and
a Savior, or just and justifier, as Paul put it in Romans chapter
3. And if you want to see the real message of all of God's
prophets throughout history, And the real message of God's
preachers in the New Testament and even up into the time of
His Second Coming, read that Romans chapter 3 and you'll see
it, which speaks of the sinfulness of man and the impossibility
of men being saved by their works by deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in his sight or by the laws of the knowledge
of sin. And then it sets out there beginning in verse, I believe,
21 of Romans chapter 3 of how God fulfills His promise to save
His people by sending Christ into the world to put away our
sins and establish righteousness. And that's the message of Micah.
That's the message of this third message of Micah in Micah chapter
six and chapter seven of what God requires. Let me read you
a passage from the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy literally means the
second law. And what this is, Deuteronomy,
is the law given to the nation of Israel through Moses before
they entered into the promised land. So it's a reissuing of
the law. And so, therefore, it's called
the second law. It's not a different law. Same law that God gave on
Mount Sinai. But it's stated here, and look
at verse 12 of Deuteronomy 10, or I'll just read it to you,
verse 12, Deuteronomy 10. Listen to this. It says, And
now, O Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee? Now, that's a good question for
us to ask ourselves. What doth the Lord thy God require
thee? And he starts off, but to fear
the Lord thy God, now fear has to do with worship in faith according
to God's way. That's what fear, that's not
a legal fear there. Man by nature has a legal fear.
That's why man by nature is religious. I'll never forget when I first
heard Henry say that from the pulpit, he said, man by nature
is religious and he's right. Now, there are some who are irreligious
because they're rebellious. But that's not in their nature.
Their nature is to be religious in some way, shape, form, or
fashion. It's false religion. It's self-righteous religion.
It's works-oriented religion. It's self-aggrandizing religion,
self-righteous religion. But man, by nature, is religious.
So we're not talking about a legal fear here. The fear here is worship,
respect, honoring God. To fear the Lord thy God. And
the book of Hebrews chapter 4 defines it for us when it talks about
our faith in Christ. We believe in Christ. You don't
really fear God unless you run to Christ for salvation, for
forgiveness, for righteousness, and for life. Unbelievers really
don't fear the Lord this way. And so he says to walk in all
his ways, whatever his ways are. Well, it's the way he showed
them in the law. and to love him." In other words, God doesn't
require sham, outward ceremony in religion. He says, "...and
to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul." And he says, "...to keep the commandments of the Lord
and His statutes, what I command thee this day for thy good."
Now, to keep the commandments doesn't mean that a sinner is
commanded of the Lord to keep the law in order to be saved.
because the commandments of the Lord here, the covenant God,
is never for sinners to seek salvation by their works. He
forbids that. Listen, even under the old covenant,
God forbid that. Else, why would Christ tell the
Pharisees, Moses wrote of me? Why would he open up the scriptures
to his disciples and teach them the things out of the law? and the prophets and the Psalms
concerning himself. He told the Pharisees, he says,
you study the scriptures, you think you have eternal life,
and then there they which testify of me. Paul wrote in Galatians
chapter 3, I believe it's verse 22 or somewhere around there,
he says, the law was our schoolmaster to lead us where? To seek salvation
by our works? No. To lead us to Christ. The
law was a convicting law. to show us our sin and our depravity,
and it still is in that sense. To show us the impossibility
of salvation by works. So when he says that God requires
you to keep his commandments, you must understand that the
commandment that God gave Israel was meant to drive them to Christ
for salvation. Not to themselves. Verse 14 says,
behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord thy God,
the earth also, with all that therein is. In other words, it
all belongs to God. And that means, and what he's
saying there is that God's in charge of this whole thing. I
mean, if you're the owner, if you own it lock, stock, and barrel,
then you're in charge. And that's what he's saying there,
all right? Well, let's go to Micah chapter six. As I said,
Micah six and seven record the third and final message of Micah
to Judah, and ultimately to Israel too. It describes a courtroom
scene. That's what we have here. That's
why I kind of relate this to the book of Romans, because that's
the way Paul presents the gospel in the book of Romans, like a
courtroom scene. You know how he starts out, he
talks about the gospel of God. And the gospel of God is found
in a person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man
in one person. Remember he said in Romans 1
there, he's made of the seed of David according to the flesh,
but declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection
from the dead. That's the person of Christ.
And the gospel concerns the finished work of Christ. That's what we
read there in Romans. We talked about His resurrection
from the dead. That's His finished work. He wouldn't have rose from
the dead unless He'd put away sin. You understand that? Sin
demands death. Christ was made sin. Our sins
were imputed, charged, accounted to Him. He finished the transgression,
made an end of sin, and brought in righteousness, which demands
life. And so he was raised from the dead because he finished
the work. He said that himself in John 17 in his high priestly
prayer. He said, glorify thou me with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was. On what
basis? He said, I finished the work
which you gave me to do. Now if he hadn't finished it
or he'd left it undone, he wouldn't have been raised from the dead
and he wouldn't have ascended unto glory. And he wouldn't be
our advocate, our mediator. But he is, isn't he? Why? Because
he finished the work. And so there in Romans 1, 16
and 17, it talks about the gospel wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed. Now, what is that righteousness
of God? Well, that's one of the key, if not the key phrase or
idea or truth of the whole Bible. Even in the Old Testament, listen
to it. In Micah chapter 6, Verse 1,
look at it. Hear ye now what the Lord saith.
Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills
hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's
controversy. When I read that, I always think
about that passage in 1 Timothy 3 and without controversy. But
you see, there's a controversy here. And he says, and you strong
foundations of the earth, for the Lord hath a controversy with
his people. And he will plead with Israel.
He says, oh, my people, what have I done unto thee? And wherein
have I wearied thee or burdened thee? Testify against me, answer
me. He says, here's what happened.
I brought you up out of Egypt. And he goes on and on. And we'll
get back to that. But listen, what's he talking about here?
This is the first thing he's talking about, the purpose of
God's judgments. There's a purpose in it. There's
a reason for it. It's not arbitrary. It's not,
listen, now God is sovereign in all things. But it's not just
God's sovereign prerogative. There's a reason here. He says,
I have a controversy with you. I've got a matter against you.
That's what that means. There's a reason for this. This
is not just God, this is not just the mean old God of the
Old Testament as opposed to the loving God of the New Testament.
No, sir, same God. And let me tell you something,
he punished sin in the Old Testament and he punished sin in the New
Testament and he'll continue to do so. He saved sinners in the Old Testament
and he saved sinners in the New Testament and he'll continue
to do so according to his appointed time and will. There's a contrary,
there's a reason for it. And he starts out there, he calls
forth for the mountains and the hills, even the foundations of
the earth to form the jury As he sets forth his case, just
like Paul in Romans 1, he starts off there with the gospel. And
he says, therein is the righteousness of God is revealed. And so in
this courtroom scene that Paul sort of sets up in Romans 1,
he says, it's like they say this, well Paul, why do I even need
the righteousness of God? What is that? Why do I need that?
And so he starts off in verse 18 of Romans 1, he said, for
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness
and uncleanness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
What truth? The gospel truth. that truth wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. So from Romans 1.18 all the way
to Romans 3.20, he makes his case against all men and women
by nature, humankind, fallen in Adam, ruined by the fall.
And remember how he concludes it in Romans 3.10, there's none
righteous, no not one. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. There's none that seeketh God,
no not one. He says, in Romans 3, 19 there, that the
law brings all men and women in guilty, so that every mouth
may be stopped, shut, and all the world may become guilty before
God. And therefore, by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified
in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And
there's the case. There's the irrefutable evidence
that brings all of us, by nature, in Adam, guilty before God. That's why we need the righteousness
of God. And so, from Romans 3, 21, all
the way to the end of Romans 5, you have the definition given
of the righteousness of God. It's the entire merit and value
of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
substitute of his people. That's what it is. So here, that's
what Paul's doing, he says the Lord has a controversy, that's
what he's doing right here. The Lord has a controversy against
you and he calls forth, look at it again, let's read it again,
verse one, hear ye now what the Lord saith, arise, contend thou
before the mountains. Here's the mountains, he says,
and let the hills, the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains,
the Lord's controversy. What he's showing here is that
the whole earth, nature itself, is going to be witness to the
judgment of God against the sins of his people. And literally what it means is
this, you can't hide from it. You can't get away from it. It's
like David in Psalm 139, you know, he said, where shall I
hide from thy presence? If I go up to the highest mountain,
you're there. If I go down to the deepest valley, the deepest
hole, if I go down to the grave, you're there. You can't get away
from this, you see. This is God's judgment of His
righteous judgment against the sins of His people. And you can't
get away from it. Even the strong foundations of
the earth, for the Lord hath a controversy with His people.
and he will plead with Israel now when it says he'll plead
with Israel doesn't mean he's going to beg Israel it literally
means he's going to plead against Israel he's going to contend
with Israel he's going to bring a charge that's what he's going
to do just like in a court of law what's the charge how do
you stand before this charge guilty or not guilty well what's
going on here what happened here well Judah The nation Judah and
Israel had replaced God's truth with religious lies, just like
our generation. They'd replaced humility and
real conviction with self-righteousness and pride, just like our generation. They'd replaced heartfelt worship
with empty vein ritual. they'd replace mercy and compassion
with religious ceremony thinking, well that's all God requires
he didn't require anything else and here's another key they replace
God's standards of judgment and righteousness with their own
standard that's the real problem there is a way that seemeth right,
just, righteous to men But it's a way that leads to destruction.
Think about it. Even amongst people who call
themselves Christian, they've all got their own ways, their
own ideas, their own opinions. What have they done? They've
replaced God's standard of holiness and justice and righteousness
with their own. And that's why people get so
mad when their false refuges are exposed. You're not going
to tell me that that doesn't count for something. that my
church going, my baptism, my tithing, my sincerity, my charity,
my mission trips, my singing doesn't count for something to
recommend me unto God. Well, let me tell you what the
Lord says about that. He has a controversy with such. Am I
right? He has a charge to bring. And they replace those standards
of judgment and justice and righteousness with their own standard in two
ways. First, in their attempts to be accepted with God. How
can a sinner be accepted with God? Here's what God says about,
Oh my people, look at verse 3, Oh my people, what have I done
unto thee and wherein have I burdened thee? Answer me, testify against
me. Back in the 60s, I think it was,
there was a play on Broadway, and I don't even know what the
play's about, to be honest with you, but I looked at the title,
and it said this. The title of the play was Your
Arms Are Too Short to Box with God. Now, I don't know what the
play was about, and I'm certainly not recommending it, but that
title's right. Your Arms Are Too Short to Box
with God, mine too. You can stand and argue with
me all day long. I've told people that. I'll never
get Brother Mahan talking about standing in a Sunday school class
in another church here in town and just reading. I think it
was either Romans 8 or 9 or both. And a man was arguing with him.
He said, are you saying to Henry, come back with him and say, I'm
not saying, I'm just reading what God says here. You see, your
argument is not with the preacher who tells you the truth. It's
with the Lord. And this is what the Lord's saying
here. How had God put a burden on them? Answer him. He says,
look at verse 4. He says, for I brought thee up out of the
land of Egypt. Now think about this. God did
this for them. And he told them they didn't
deserve it. And they didn't earn it. Remember
back in Deuteronomy 7, he said, I didn't choose you because you
were the greatest or the most in number or the best of the
best. You're the least, you're the worst of the lot. What's that a picture of? Christ
Jesus came into the world to save what? Sinners, of whom I'm
chief. He doesn't come to save the strong.
He comes to save the weak. He doesn't come to save the best.
He comes to save the worst. The Pharisees said to the disciples,
I know your master can't be sin of God. Look who he's eating
supper with. Publicans and Pharisees. That kind of people. And they always did it in the
name of God, in the name of religion, trying to take some moral high
ground, assuming themselves and judging themselves to be righteous
and other people sinners. Now you know what that really
means. Now let me say this. What they're actually saying
when a person says, well, I judge myself or count myself righteous
and others to be sinners, in most cases, they're not saying
I'm sinlessly perfect and everybody else is. What they're actually
saying is something to this effect. They deserve to go to hell, but
I don't. They deserve to perish, but I
don't. And I think of the psalmist when
he wrote in Psalm 130 in verse three, oh Lord, if thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, who among us would stand? If God gave any of us or all
of us what we deserve and what we've earned, what do you imagine
we'd get? eternal damnation. Isn't that
right? But here is a vivid picture of
the sinfulness and depravity of man. All fall short and deserve
death. And then another way that they
had perverted justice was in their dealings with men to cover
their own greedy practices. And again, they do it in the
name of religion. You remember he talked about the Pharisees,
how they devoured widows' houses? Well, you know what that means.
That means that they were taking widows' material things to promote
their own good, and they did it in the name of God. It's like
a lot of preachers we see on television today telling people to sell their
seed money, taking it from widows in the name of the Lord. That's
what it is. That's exactly what it is. He
talked about that before in Micah chapter three. But here God pleads. It says
here in verse two, he will plead with Israel. Now again, that
doesn't mean God, God's not begging anybody. Don't ever think, listen,
this idea of Christ begging people, that's not so. When he said,
listen, when Christ said, come unto me all ye that labor in
heaven, he was issuing forth a command from a king. He wasn't
begging anybody. But he contends with them by
bringing a charge, arguments of evidence that cannot be rightly
answered or denied. That's what that is, that's when
he pleads. And notice here, it says here in verse two, it's
with his people, the Lord hath a controversy with his people. Now, in other words, this is
a covenant lawsuit, that's what this is. It's a covenant lawsuit. National Israel under the old
covenant, but it's a picture. Now listen, it's a picture of,
of spiritual Israel under the covenant of grace relating to
our fall in Adam, we fell in Adam, the whole human race, God's
elect people included. And according to the covenant
of works, we stand under that covenant condemned in Adam. And
God entered into a relationship with Israel such that they were
His people here in this time, but yet at the same time, they
had not been faithful to the covenant. Well, listen to this.
God entered into a relationship with His elect in Adam, according
to the covenant of works, and we fell in Adam. When Adam broke
the covenant, we broke it, all sin, and come short of the glory
of God. We failed to meet the conditions of that covenant.
And it could be said that in Adam, God had a controversy with
us. But, thank God, he had already
entered into another covenant even before Adam. Even before
the world began. The covenant of grace in Christ. So that even his elect people, even as fallen creatures, it
could be said in that covenant relationship according to Christ,
that we were still his people. You know what happened when Gomer
left Hosea and went back into her harlotry? You know what happened? She still remained Hosea's wife. Amazing, isn't it? She didn't
deserve it. She didn't earn it. But because
of his love for her, she still remained his wife. Do you know
that? And it's the same way in our
relationship with God. We still remain His people, even
though we didn't deserve it, didn't earn it. But in Christ,
because of His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
what? Enemies. Enemies. Isn't that right? That's covenant
love. And so God asks them, He calls
on them to remember what He had done for them, to remember His
goodness, His wondrous works to deliver them, protect them,
provide for them. Verse 4, "...brought thee up
out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house
of servants." Remember how He redeemed them? Well, they didn't
deserve to be delivered, redeemed. They didn't earn it, no. It was
a sovereign act of God's mercy toward them. Did God deal with
the Egyptians in a just manner? Yes, the wages of sin is death.
How then did He deliver the Israelites if they too were sinners? What
did God say? He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. It was a deliverance by power
and by blood, which pictured the deliverance
of His elect people in Christ, spiritual Israel, a deliverance
by power, the power of God and the salvation. and by blood,
through the blood of the crucified lamb. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And this redeemed here means
to deliver someone or to free someone who's bound by legal
obligation, by payment of a price. It means to ransom, that's what
he did, to Israel through the blood of animals. It's sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh, but it didn't bring about the
forgiveness of sin. It didn't make a sinner righteous. Only
the blood of Christ can do that. And listen to this, he says in
verse five, or verse four, he says, and ransomed thee out of
the house of servants, and I sent before thee Moses and Aaron and
Miriam. Why does he mention, you know,
as we look at that, we can say, well, I understand why he mentions
Moses and Aaron. Moses represented the law. God gave him the law. And as we said, that law was
a convicting law to bring them in guilty before God and drive
them to Christ for salvation, for righteousness. To see that
only way I can stand before God righteous is by the imputed righteousness
of Christ. That's what the righteousness
of God that is that's revealed in the gospel. And then you can
see Aaron. Aaron was the priest to it. We
need a representative to represent us before God. We need a substitute
to stand in our place, to take our place. We need a blood offering. Because without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sin. But why Miriam? Well,
Miriam, I believe, speaks of her prophetic word to the women
of Israel. And I believe he specifically
mentioned this to show the women. of this nation, that you're in
this number too. You're not excluded from this
number. For in Christ, there's neither male nor female. Christ,
Jesus, came into the world to save sinners. And then look at
verse five. He says, oh, 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... Now, remember what
Balak... Balak, he was the king. He was
the heathen king, and he'd heard about Israel and what happened
in... Jericho, he'd heard about all
that, and he didn't want those people to come in there. So what
did he do? Well, he hired him a prophet.
He thought was a prophet of God named Balaam. Remember what he
did? Recorded in the book of Numbers,
I don't have a reference specifically, but you look up Balaam. He hired
Balaam to curse Israel, paid him to curse Israel. You see,
Balaam is like the archetype of hirelings. I'm going to pay
you to say this." And he hired Balaam to curse Israel, and Balaam
took the money and he said, I'll curse Israel. And you know what?
Balaam tried to curse Israel, but he couldn't. And you know
why? God wouldn't let him. And you'll find some of the greatest
truths that you'll find in the Old Testament come out of Balaam's
mouth. Balaam, the hireling false prophet.
So don't ever think that a false prophet cannot say some good
things, because they can. And of course you know the story
of Balaam's ass. So Balaam tried to curse Israel but he couldn't
because God wouldn't let him. Now later on he did incite the
men of Israel to intermarry. with heathen women, which was
bad. But what God is saying here is
when you were going through that wilderness experience and you
were about to come into the promised land, I'm the one who delivered
you. I'm the one who protected you. I'm the one who provided
for you. None of this was done by your power or your goodness
or your efforts. It was always God who did it. So he says, how have I burdened
you? Answer me. Answer me. All of this, He speaks
of it. He speaks of His guiding them
through the wilderness and their entrance into the promised land. And so why does God remind them
of all this? Well, look at verse 5. Look at
the end of verse 5. Here's what God's doing. Why
does He bring them before in judgment? I've got a controversy
with you. Why does He remind them of all
that He'd done for them? Here's the key. Underscore this.
That you may know the righteousness of the Lord. That's why. That's the purpose of it all.
That's the reason for it all. That you may know the righteousness
of the Lord. Child of God, everything that
you've gone through in your life, even before God brought you to
see the glory of Christ, is for this purpose right here. That
you may know the righteousness of the Lord. Think about it. Not only the justice of God in
dealings with Israel, not only God's justice in dealing with
the heathen, He's just. He always deals with them righteously
so that they could have no just answer. Every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. Listen, God always
judges according to truth. But what he's talking about here
is the justice of God in the salvation of sinners through
Christ. That's the purpose of the whole
law. Turn to Romans chapter 10. Do you realize, and this is something
that hit me between the eyes when I first started coming here
and hearing the gospel preached. Now, I'll tell you how I reasoned
it in my mind and I look back on it now and I see it was the
Spirit of God leading me to Christ. I didn't know it at the time.
But listen to what this says. Now, he had already spoken of
Israel in Romans chapter 9. And he said, now Israel was seeking
after righteousness. That's what they were doing.
Now, he makes a general statement about the history of Israel.
That's what he's doing there. in Romans chapter 9. Because,
you know, he started off Romans 9 how he could wish himself a
curse for his brethren according to the flesh. And then he talked
about who is true Israel, spiritual Israel there, the seed of Abraham,
those who look to Christ and rest in him. And then he spoke
of the sovereignty of God in salvation, that God doesn't save
any sinner because he's a physical Israelite or a physical Gentile,
circumcised or uncircumcised, but it's of God that showeth
mercy. And God's purpose will always ruin all these things.
God even raised up Pharaoh, that great enemy of Israel, that great
enemy of the Hebrews, to glorify him even in Pharaoh's hardness
of heart. God overruled it for his glory. Sometimes it says Pharaoh hardened
his heart. Read the Old Testament. Sometimes it says God hardens
his heart. You can go home and lose sleep over that if you want,
but I'm just telling you right now, God's sovereign in salvation
and in damnation. Now he is, and he always does
that which is right, don't ever question that. So he concludes,
he says, what shall we conclude from all this? Well, the Gentiles,
he said, the believing Gentiles, the elect Gentiles, It says in
verse 30 of Romans 9, they followed not after righteousness, they
didn't have the law and their religion and all that, but they've
attained a righteousness, even the righteousness which is of
faith. What is the righteousness of faith? That's the righteousness
that is faith looking to Christ for righteousness. That's what
that means. But now Israel didn't, they looked for righteousness,
but they didn't find it. Why? Because they sought it by works
of the law. But look at Romans 10 in verse
1. He says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Now what knowledge are they missing? For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
They were ignorant of the righteousness of God. Now, what did Micah say
over here? Why is God bringing out this
controversy? Why is He setting up this courtroom
situation and bringing them in guilty and exposing their sin
and reminding them of all that He had done for them when they
didn't deserve it and didn't earn it? That you may know the
righteousness of the Lord. Do you know, and this is what
I thought when I first started seeking this and reading this
and hearing this, I remember Brother Don Fitzer, he was teaching
through the book of Romans back here in the college age and I
was going to that class and studying this and reading this and I'd
gotten a copy of Robert Haldane's Commentary on Romans and somebody,
I think it was Henry, I'm not sure, but somebody gave me that
little pamphlet by John Bunyan called Justification by an Imputed
Righteousness. Do you know I had been to seminary
and never heard of such a thing? I didn't know what that was.
I'm serious. And so I looked at that and it
says, they were ignorant of God's righteousness. And it just dawned
on me, so was I. I didn't know what that was.
I couldn't really tell you what it was. I could make a stab at
it. I really didn't know what it was. Well, my friend, do you
realize that what this passage is saying and what Micah chapter
6 is saying is this, to be ignorant of the righteousness of the Lord
is to be lost? You realize that? That's what he's saying. Here's
the foundation of all salvation and all salvation truth. Now,
how did God show forth his righteousness in his dealings with Israel?
Well, he continued to remind them that without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sin, no forgiveness. Am I right? He gave them the
priesthood, he gave them the holy of holies, the tabernacle,
all of that. What did all that picture? Well, look at verse
four. Here's the righteousness of the Lord that every child
of God knows. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Now, that's
what God requires. That word end there is an interesting
word. You remember it's recorded in
John chapter 19, I believe verse 30. Christ hanging on the cross. Remember the three words he said?
It is finished. And the veil on the temple was
written too, from top to bottom. That word in there is the same
word. For Christ is the finishing of the law, the fulfillment of
the law, the consummation of the law, the complete perfection
of the law for righteousness in its precept and in its penalty
to everyone that believeth. Now go to 2 Corinthians 5 21. That's where we're going to end
up and I'll close with this. Look at verse 18 of 2 Corinthians
5. Now here he's talking about reconciliation
with God. That's his subject. How sinners
are reconciled to God and God's reconciled to sinners. And he
says, if any man's in Christ, he's a new creature, all things
are passed away, all things are become new. Verse 18, and all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
that's how we're reconciled to God, by Jesus Christ, by what
Christ accomplished on Calvary. That's what he means here now.
And hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, that's the
preaching of the gospel, To win, or namely, that God was in Christ,
God engaged everything that He is, in every attribute of His
nature, in Christ. Reconciling the world unto Himself,
not imputing, not charging their trespasses unto them. Who'd He
charge them to? He charged them to Christ. and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation." This message of reconciliation, how
God is reconciled to sinners and sinners to God in Christ.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be ye reconciled
to God. Now, how are you going to be
reconciled to God? Well, I'll tell you exactly how. Mike already
said it. You're going to come to know
the righteousness of the Lord. Well, how am I going to come
to know that? Well, look at verse 21. Here it is. For He, that
is God the Father, hath made Him, that is God the Son incarnate,
to be sin or sin for us, who knew no sin. Christ, our sins
were imputed, charged to Him. That's what He said back up here
in verse 19. That's what He's talking about.
Christ who knew no sin, he was not a sinner, he wasn't made
a sinner, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now, there's that phrase, the
righteousness of God, again. Now, what is the righteousness
of God? It's the same thing that Paul defined it in Romans 3 and
Romans 10. Christ is the end of the law.
It hasn't changed. It's not different here than
it was back then. He's talking about the same thing
right here. How do we come to know the righteousness
of the Lord? Through Christ who is the Lord
our righteousness. That's what God requires. That's
what God provides. And that's what every one of
His people come to see and know and believe. All right.