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Bill McDaniel

How Shall I Come Before God?

Micah 6:1-8
Bill McDaniel March, 7 2010 Audio
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Sermon Transcript

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Or write Micah 6, verses 1-8
for those on the tapes and CDs and the website. In Micah 6,
verses 1-8, Hear ye the word that the Lord says, Arise, contend
thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. We're about to enter into a great
controversy here, and notice that, verse 2. Hear, O mountains,
the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth. For the Lord hath a 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. For 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 Moab consulted, and what
Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal,
that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord? How shall I bow myself before
the Most High? Shall I come before Him with
burnt offerings and calves of a year old? Will the Lord be
pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of
oil? Shall I give my firstborn for
my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed thee, O man, what
is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly,
and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Now basically,
the questions in verse 6 and verse 7 will be our subject and
our major text for today. How can one that has sinned approach
unto God? Now, it is the consent of most
of the better commentators that Micah the prophet was a contemporary
of the greater, more famous, and better known prophet Isaiah. that essentially they prophesied
and served the Lord in the same time period. And some have calculated
that this was some eight centuries before the appearing of our Lord
upon the earth in our flesh. Now, one thing most all of the
prophets have in common, and that is that they were bidden
to cry out at one time or another against the sins of the people
that they were sent for to rebuke the people and to cry out and
to remember all of their sin. Because you see, the Scriptures
do very clearly testify that Israel was a disobedient and
against saying people throughout all of their generation. Some
were worse than others. But there were constant periods
of sinning, then of some judgment of God, then of them crying out
to God for mercy and in repentance, and God would restore them and
bless them. And this cycle went on almost
continually throughout all of the Old Testament economy. Now, when the prophets were sent
among the people to cry out against their sin, there is one thing
that the prophets seemed to have in common, and that they used
if I may use the word, as leverage in order to bring conviction
upon the people. And that was to remind them of
the past goodness that God had displayed toward them. And one
of the most often used of those great mercies was to remind them
of the deliverance out of the land of Egypt, again and again. Who could count the time that
the prophets mentioned this great mercy of God in delivering them
out of their Egyptian bondage? And of course, it was culminated
by the Lord bringing them through the desert and the wilderness,
finally into the land of promise. Now, we have that admonition
for the umpteenth time here in the passage in Micah chapter
6 and verse 4. For I brought you out of the
land of Egypt, I redeemed you out of the house of servants,
and I sent before you Moses and Aaron and Miriam. We read in
Exodus chapter 12 and verse 51, and it came to pass the same
day the Lord did bring the children out of the land of Egypt by their
armies, that is, in great number and in mass. By host, or by multitudes,
God brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt. Now, the preamble or introduction
to the giving of the law in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 2. This preamble goes before the
giving of the law. I am the Lord thy God which brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. That is, where you were slaves
and where you were servants. I the LORD thy God brought you
out, and therefore give you this law thou shalt not." How did
God get to be their God is a good question that we might ask. Well, He chose Abraham and He
called him out and He entered into covenant with that man and
with his seed after Him that would follow. God chose them. They did not choose Him. God chose Abraham. Abraham did
not choose God. Likewise, God delivered them
when they could not deliver themselves. They could not be free in any
other way than God delivered them. How long has it been? to go to that old commercial. How long has it been since you
have read Psalm 114? And there in the first and the
second verse says, When Israel went out of Egypt, the house
of Jacob, from among the people of a strange language, Judah
was his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. And then, in practical
metaphors and simile in that chapter, the great psalmist described
the glory of God in the exodus out of the land of Egypt. Spurgeon put it this way, for
it is an interesting chapter, causing all nature to pay homage
and tribute before God's glorious majesty, the fields, the trees,
the mountains, and such like, and causing the Red Sea to flee
away, and causing Jordan to be driven back completely contrary
to its nature, for flowing in a downward direction, yet God
reversed the order of nature. There was a great manifestation
of God's glory and of God's power in the Egyptian deliverance,
in bringing Israel out of that land. And there was seen the
faithfulness, there was seen the sovereignty, and there was
seen the power of God. It was a fulfillment of a prophecy
and a promise that had been made to Abraham hundreds of years
before. And this deliverance out of the
land of Egypt stands as perhaps the greatest Old Testament type
of the deliverance that we have in our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. It is a great picture of the
work of our Lord in His death and the shedding of His blood. that has delivered us from the
bondage of sin and depravity and our own lust and such like. Now, the two leading aspects
of that great deliverance being as follows. Number one, in that,
there was a great display of God's promise to Abraham. They shall go down, they shall
sojourn so many years and I will visit them and bring them out."
God said to the good man. Secondly, there was a glorious
type of Christ's redemption in that that Lamb, that Passover
Lamb, is one of the great types of our Savior, who is the Lamb
of God who taketh away the sin of the world. And on all of this,
Calvin wrote, It is not surprising that it should be frequently
called to their remembrance. No, it is not. And that the Lord's
death ought to be frequently called also to our remembrance. By that covenant made with Abraham
as the great redemption of his seed out of the land of Egypt,
they are known as the people of God. stated in Ezekiel 16
and verse 8. Another metaphor, if you will.
Quote, I passed by, I spread my skirt over you, I covered
your nakedness, I swore to you, I entered into covenant, and
you became mine. Under the metaphor of a little
female baby, then adolescence, and then at the age of marriage. And remember, That that people
lived under what we call a theocracy. They lived under the rule of
God. And the law of God was their
statute and their guide. We see in the text, in Micah
chapter 6, that the Lord God has, in the second verse now,
notice, He has a controversy with His people. There is something
that He has to dispute between Himself and Him. And this gives
us leave to notice then the mention in the passage of verse 2, His
people. In verse 3, My people. There it is again. In verse 5,
O My people, for they were the people of the covenant. They were those that God had
taken as His chosen nation and entered into covenant. But in
working toward our text that we have announced for this morning,
let's take a look first at the third verse of the chapter that
we have read. Here is a most interesting verse
indeed, asking what cause the people had to rebel against their
God. Could they name one? Could one
be brought to remembrance? What will you charge against
me that you have gone into rebellion? The sovereign of all of the world
would upon this occasion, as it were, condescend and invite
them to air their grievances. He asked them, what have I done
unto you? How have I wearied you? Have I wronged you in anything
that you have become so stubborn and rebellious? Have I wearied
you with heavy burdens? Have I wearied you beyond reason
or measure? What had God done unto them that
they had grown tired of his religion and were now
rebelling or had rebelled against him. Look at the end of the third
verse where we have read this morning. He invites them to testify
against me. He says to them, accuse me, answer
me, refute my charges, tell me if you can wherein you might
bring a charge against me that has been the cause of your great
rebellion." Do you remember, brethren and sisters, Jeremiah
chapter 2 and verse 5, where the prophet asked, What iniquity
have you or your fathers found in me, that they are gone far
from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain? What have your fathers found
that would lead them to do so? Let Paul's words become a rebuke
to any of us who would presume to question the ways of our God. In Romans 9 and verse 20, Who
art thou, O man that replies against God? It would be like
the clay chiding the potter for what he has made out of it. Now coming in our text to verse
4 and 5, where the prophet Micah, in the name of God Most High,
sets before them two great blessings with which God had blessed them
and blessed their ancestors in their history. The first one
we notice there in verse 4, their mighty deliverance from Egyptian
bondage. Now, I'm ready to call this a
consummate blessing toward them. The blessing of blessing was
that deliverance out of the land of Egypt. It was the forerunner
of many blessings that were to follow, just as our Lord's redemption
is the forerunner of many blessings for the elect. They had never
gotten to the promised land unless God had broken the fetters of
Egypt and freed them. They had never crossed dry shod
on the Red Sea or crossed over Jordan had not God led them out
and destroyed Pharaoh and his armies by His power. He freed them. He redeemed them. He brought them out. He delivered
them from their years of bondage. He brought them out. Secondly,
there are many blessings, or were many blessings, in that
journey from Egypt eventually unto the land of Canaan. Many
of the time, God worked a miracle in their behalf. Many was the
time that God undertook for them in a supernatural and miraculous
way. But notice in verse 5 of Micah
chapter 6 the particular blessing that Micah wishes to bring to
their remembrance. He mentions a particular thing
which their Lord had done And it required an extraordinary
power to help them on their way. Now, look at verse 5 again. Shall we read it? Oh, my people,
remember now what Balaam, king of Moab, consulted, and what
Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Shedom unto Gilgal. And he said, Do this that you
might know the righteousness of the Lord. Now, here is the
most interesting event that is recorded earlier in their history. You will find it in the book
of Numbers, chapter 22, stretched out to chapter 24. There, that
incident between Balak and Balaam. And the circumstances are this. Israel had now come at last near
to Jordan, near to the land, near to the crossing over, about
ready to cross over into the land of Canaan. The kings of
the land in Canaan feared before the face of Israel because God
had smitten their enemies one after another on their way. And not only that, but Israel
was many. Numbers chapter 22, verse 2 and
3, Thus Balaam, king of the Moabites yonder in the land of Canaan,
sought to come and to hire Balaam, who was a prophet, to curse Israel. Balaam came with an offer of
great money and reward if Balaam would but curse Israel. Now,
the New Testament speaks very ill of this man Balaam in 2 Peter
2.15 and in Jude 11. It has nothing good to say about
him. Calling him the one who loved
the wages of unrighteousness. In Numbers 22 and verse 7, speaks
of the rewards of divination." In Deuteronomy 23 and 4, they
hired Balaam against Israel. What they hoped to gain from
Balaam was that he would place a curse upon the people or the
nation of Israel. And can you believe, can you
believe When he came and said, we'll give you money to curse
Israel, can you believe that that guy said, well, wait, I'll
have to lay it before the Lord. I'll have to pray about it overnight. I'll have to see what it is that
the Lord has to say. I'll have to seek the guidance
of the Lord in this particular matter. I'll let you know tomorrow
what the Lord lets me know. However, the point of stress
in Micah 6 and verse 5, is upon what Balaam told King Bilak,
which was this, that Israel is blessed of God. Israel is under
the blessing of God, and he could not curse what God had blessed. He lay it before the Lord, all
right, but the Lord did not agree. But you can read it in Numbers
22, 19 through verse 24. I won't take time to turn there
now. That he could not reverse what
God had determined. As a prophet, he could not do
that. The Lord is with Jacob. He hath brought them out of the
land of Egypt. There was neither enchantment
nor divination that could succeed against them in the way that
Balaam desired. None could curse what God has
blessed. None can curse the people that
God has blessed. To this answer of Balaam did
not proceed from himself. Oh, he wanted that money in his
purse. How badly he wanted it as the
secret providence of God however, carried the day. For Balaam prophesied
contrary to the desire of his own heart and the intention of
his own mind. And as Calvin wrote on Micah
chapter 6 and at verse 5, quote, we now see the prophet's design
and what a large meaning there is in these words, unquote. As seen in the end of verse 5
of Micah 6, Balaam said, I cannot curse what God has blessed for
this reason, that you may know the righteousness of God. That God is righteous. God stands
by His Word and His oath and His promise and His prophecy. But now, coming to verse 6 of
our text, and I admit, A difficulty here with the transition for
in verse 6 through 8, the question is, who is it now that is speaking? Is it the prophet or is it the
people? Is the contrition here real or
is it contrived that the prophet has written up? Is the inquiry
a real, genuine desire to please God or Or are they deceiving
themselves that God will lay aside the controversy that He
has against them even though the bounty is very large? Gill is about the only author
that I found, the only expositor that I read, that considers these
words in verses 6 through verse 8 to be a continuation of the
exchange between Balaam and between Balak and the prophet
Balaam. That they are the words of Balaam,
inquiring of Balaam how to win the favor of God. However, I
think with others, it is more likely that verse 6 through verse
8 concerns what is the way whereby a sinner, a guilty sinner, under
his conviction may appease the God whom he has sinned against,
and what will put an end to that controversy which the Lord had
against his people mentioned earlier in the second verse. And the Lord had a just controversy,
and the people are to be blamed. They stood guilty in the sight
of God. Now the question in verse 6,
or beginning the series of questions in verse 6, wherein shall I come
before the Lord and bow myself before the Most High? That is,
having sinned, you having a controversy, how shall I approach the Lord
who has been offended? With what shall I come? What shall I bring that I may
then bow myself before Him and do obeisance and show respect
and show reverence to the God of heaven? What will He require
at my hand? My friend, this is the question
of all questions in regard to those who would come unto God. We notice in verse 7 of our text
The people mention, notice this carefully, my transgression,
and later in the verse, the sin of my soul. My transgression
and the sin of my soul. Now, you know, it seems ingrained
in the human mind that if they, having admitted to transgression,
would then seek to approach unto God that they must bring something
of their own providing or furnishing. It is so ingrained in the hearts
of the unregenerate that if they would come to God, if they would
make an approach to the deity, if they would come before Him
and offer themselves, as it were, as His people or His servants,
That they must bring something special that will carry favor
with God. Thomas Goodwin called these,
bribes for pardon, quote unquote. That people will bring bribes
for pardon. They figure they must bring something. Something that they have, maybe
that they consider valuable as a gift to offer unto God. that they must come bearing a
gift in exchange for the pardon that they desire at the hand
of Almighty. Hence the question in the 6th
verse, if we look, how shall I come before Him with burnt
offerings and with calves of a year old? What shall I come? What shall I bring? How shall
I come? Then he first begins to say,
with burnt offering, shall I come before the Lord bearing a flock,
one of my flock, as a burnt offering? Or shall I bring a calf in the
prime of its life? Make that a sacrifice unto the
Lord. Look at verse 7. Will the Lord
be pleased with ten thousand rams, or with thousands of rivers
of oil. Look again in verse 7. Shall
I give my firstborn for my transgression? Shall I make my seed pass through
the fire as a sacrifice to God, as did those wicked worshipers
of Molech? Now all these things were at
one time or another by one people or another used as sacrifices
in the worship of the Lord. with the exception of children
in Israel, which is called an ungodly abomination. But the heathens did it. But
it was strictly and absolutely forbidden of Israel. But in each
of these categories, you see that the idea is quality, then
it is quantity, and then it is preciousness. First of all, they
ask what quality? And then what quantity? How many? Thousands upon thousands. And
then the most precious, the very seed of my own body. Now let us see how. In verse
6, burnt offerings, calves of one year old. This is what we
might call a yearling. That is, one that is about a
year old. Young, in the prime of its life. Strong and healthy. Considered to be more valuable
than an older or a deformed animal because of its value. The question raised is, would
it impress God? The choice of the herd. If I bring the choice of my herd,
you can read Leviticus chapter 9. But then look at verse 7,
the first part of our text, concerns offerings of rams and of oil. But note the quantity here of
this offering. Not just a ram, but thousands
of rams. Rams without number. Rams in
abundance, even under thousands. A big herd, the whole herd. The
usual sacrifices in Israel required but a single ram. But what if they brought thousands
upon thousands of rams to be presented before God? And then
notice rivers of oil. Oil was used in many ceremonies
in Israel. But here the metaphor runs beyond
our imagination. Ten thousand rivers of oil. Not oil in a vessel, not as usually
the amount for the sacrifices was small, but countless rivers
of oil flowing bank to bank. Rivers, great, costly. What shall I bring? Shall I bring
that? Verse 7, the last part then.
What if they brought the very most precious thing that they
could imagine? Their little firstborn. Their
firstborn child. The very fruit of their own bodies,
and not only so, but the first offspring of their body or family,
quite possibly, they might not have anymore. So to give that
one, would that be pleasing unto God? Of course, the sacrifice
of children was a heathen practice forbidden by God, and this passage
does not sanction the practice of children unto God. The idea
is, none of these things, even if done in abundance, and even
if done at great expense and deep personal sacrifice could
not secure for one of them the favor of God or win them a pardon."
I want to turn to the book of Amos and there read a passage
for our consideration this morning. And when we do get there, it
will be, let's see, Amos chapter 5 is the passage that we want
to read. Thin pages, small prophecies. Just a moment, please. Amos chapter
5. Jonah, Obadiah, Amos. Alright,
in the fifth chapter of Amos, I turned here because the passage
is kind of long, but I think it's pertinent to our study of
the morning. If we begin in verse 21, now
we begin to see another contention that God has with them. Amos
5, verse 21, I hate, I despise your feast days. I will not smell
in your solemn assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings
and your meat offerings, I will not accept. Neither will I regard
the peace offering of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me
the noise of thy song, for I will not hear the melody of thy vials. but let judgment run down as
water, and righteousness a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto
me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O
house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle
of your Moloch, And Sheon, your image is the star of your God,
which you have made to yourself. Therefore will I cause you to
go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is
the God of Hosts." Now, turn to Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah says much the same thing
in that first chapter. of His book, and how powerful
does He speak to them about the same thing. Here I will read
verses 10-15. Isaiah 1, 10-15. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our
God, ye 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 ram and the fat of fed beast, and I delight not in the blood
of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goats. When you come to appear
before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my
court? Bring no more vain oblation. Incense is an abomination to
me. The new moons and the Sabbath,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even
the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed
feasts, my soul hater, they are a trouble unto me. I am weary
of them. And when you spread your hands
forth I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers,
I will not hear. Your hands are full of iniquity."
Now, the question that comes into our mind, and in these Jews'
mind, is this. Has not God ordained these ordinances? Was it not God that gave command
that they should be observed? and that they should be kept?
Did not God give them to Moses that He might give them to the
people and impose upon them? How now, does God say, abomination
is your incent? Your new moons and appointed
feasts, my soul hates. When you make prayers, I will
not hear. And in Amos 5 verse 21, I hate,
I despise your feast day. I will not smell, that is with
delight, your solemn assembly." Why does God say these things
about His very own ordinances to the people to whom He had
imposed them as their manner of worship? We answer, and we
must be right here, that it is not the ordinances themselves
It is not the ordinances themselves in or by themselves. It is this. It is the hypocritical sham with
which the people had made of these things that God had given
them. Going through the motions while
their hearts were in open rebellion against their God. You see this
in Isaiah 1, 4-6. especially in verse 4, where
they are called a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. Now, while
it is true, as the footnotes in the Geneva Study Bible, King
James Version say, at Isaiah 1 and verse 11, there are sacrifices
and they were central to the visible observance of the Old
Testament religion. And although God ordered them
to be performed, they lost their value, much of their significance,
when not performed from the heart and by and out of faith. Samuel told King Saul, 1 Samuel
15, 22, to obey is better than sacrifice. Say, Saul, what
means this bleeding? Oh, I brought the best for sacrifice. And the prophet answers, to obey
is better than sacrifice. Consider what David said when
he had sinned against the Lord, when he had been grievously broken
by God's conviction, and when he was confessing and being repentant,
he said in Psalm 51, verses 16 and 17. You desire not sacrifice, else
would I give it. You delight not in burnt offering,
because, verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a
broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. It is
not sacrifices that I must bring. My heart must be broken for my
sin. that David said, because mere
outward observances are but empty vanities if they are not done
by faith and love for God out of the heart, and done to the
honor of God, strictly to the honor of God, not to be seen
of men, and acknowledge that God is the all-holy and that
man is sinful in his sight. No one ever yet worship God acceptably
until two notions were fixed in their mind. None ever will
worship God until these two notions are fixed in their mind. A. That man is a depraved and a
sinful being. And B. That God is eternally
and immutably holy. How shall a sinful person then
come before God and be accepted. Now, there has ever prevailed
the notion, yes, it prevails even today, that religion only
consists of, and God will be pleased, simply with outward
observances and ceremonies if we go through frivolous performances,
as somebody has called them, such as bowing, chanting, making
gestures, going through the formalities, the mechanical rites of some
particular religion. People today think this is worshipping
God, and when we come in all of these ceremonies and all of
these formalities, that it is such a beautiful thing to behold
in the sight of God. A Puritan once said, these things
do only to appease the conscience of the worshiper. Gain temporary
peace. And I mean temporary. Consider
what the Lord said to the Pharisees while in the days of His flesh. In Mark chapter 15, verse 7 and
verse 8, Mark 7 and verse 6, quoting from Isaiah 29 and verse
13, this people draw nigh Me with their mouth, but their heart
is far from Me. They said, Lord, Lord, They made
long prayers. They paid tithes of all they
possessed. They attended the synagogue at
regular intervals. But how often did the Lord call
them hypocrites, generation of vipers, a sinful and adulterous
generation. And though they were the descendants,
the literal descendants of Abraham, and had the sign of circumcision,
yet their religious worship was vain and empty, of any value. Spurgeon wrote on this text,
theirs was mouth religion, lip homage, and that only. Their heart was not fixed upon
God. Their lips spoke great swelling
words of vanity. It is true they professed loudly. They knew all the traditions
of all of the elders passed down, but their heart was not right
or fixed upon God. In the original text in Micah
6, and the question, how shall any become a true worshipper
of God? In verse 8, what does the Lord
require of the old man but to do justly and to walk humbly
before thy God? This does not suggest that personal
righteousness can win the favor of God, just that those who would
be reconciled unto God and come before him must empty themselves
of any vain hope of winning the favor of God by the works of
their hand or the merit of their lie. They will own their unworthiness. They will humble themselves before
the Most High God. For God resists the proud. He
giveth grace unto the humble. High opinions and estimates must
die. Imagine merit must be abandoned. True worship depends not on the
building, but on the heart that is before Almighty God. The Lord said to the Samaritan
who came to Jacob's well, true worship is to worship the Father
in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship
Him. Now under the old covenant, people
were used to a settled place of worship. But under the gospel,
it is more emphasized that worship is spiritual. It is spiritual. It is in the heart, spirit and
in truth, rather than in place and in ceremony. How shall one
come? One must come only through Christ,
who has made the proper sacrifice. There's no other door. There's
no other opening for one to come other than Christ who gave his
life for those who would enter in. Thank you, and let's stand
together for a word of prayer, please.

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