What Does God Require?

Q: What does the Bible say about justice and mercy?

The Bible teaches that to do justly is to agree with God's definition of justice and that loving mercy involves showing compassion based on the mercy we have received from God. In Micah 6:8, the Lord requires us to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him. To do justly means to agree with God about His standards of justice, acknowledging that we deserve condemnation apart from His grace. It is the recognition that without His mercy, we are lost. Loving mercy, on the other hand, flows from realizing how much we need God's mercy ourselves. It involves extending kindness and compassion to others, mirroring the mercy God has lavished upon us in Christ, who bore the punishment for our sins fitting God’s justice. Ultimately, these principles remind us that our actions are rooted in our understanding of God’s grace and our position before Him as recipients of His unmerited favor.

Q: How do we know God's justice is satisfied?

God's justice is satisfied through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the punishment for our sins. The satisfaction of God's justice is fulfilled in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. As stated in 1 John 1:9, confessing our sins acknowledges God's justice and His faithfulness to forgive us through Christ's sacrifice. Jesus did not bypass the requirements of justice; instead, He fulfilled them by taking our place on the cross. His death meets the demands of God's holy law, ensuring that we can be counted as just before Him. Thus, to understand God's justice, we must look to the cross where Christ perfectly displayed both love and righteousness, offering Himself as the ultimate payment for our sin. In Him, justice and mercy meet, allowing us to stand justified before a holy God.

Q: Why is humility important for Christians?

Humility is crucial for Christians because it allows us to recognize our dependence on God's grace and fosters a genuine relationship with Him. Humility is described as walking humbly with God, which is essential for spiritual vitality. It acknowledges our need for God's mercy and grace, understanding that we are incapable of achieving righteousness on our own. This humility leads to a deeper relationship with God, as seen in the life of David, who, despite his sin, recognized his need for God's mercy and approached Him in humility (Psalm 51:1-4). By walking humbly, we also cultivate a heart that seeks to serve others and love our neighbors genuinely, understanding our shared position as undeserving recipients of God's grace. In doing so, humility ultimately shapes our character and fosters a life that reflects Christ's love.

Let's open our Bibles to Micah chapter 6. In Micah chapter 6, we have probably the most familiar verse out of the book of Micah that is often quoted, often taught to children. And I want us to consider this verse tonight. It's been said that the gospel of God's free grace comforts the afflicted, and it does.

We have found that to be our experience. When we're afflicted with sin and troubles and trials, the message of salvation in Christ accomplished is a great, great comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem. Tell them what? Their warfare is accomplished and their iniquity is pardoned. What a comfort. We don't have to fight for acceptance with God. The Lord Jesus fought that battle for us and he put away our sin. The gospel is a great comfort to those that are afflicted.

And it also is an affliction to those who are comfortable in their own righteousness. It's a double-edged sword. It encourages one and it offends another. If I preach this text tonight in the way that I have often heard it preached. It will not be a comfort to the afflicted. It will be an affliction to the afflicted. And it will be a comfort to the comfortable.

Micah chapter six, verse eight is often presented as a work to be done. And I want us to understand this verse of scripture in light of the gospel. Every time we go to God's word, we're looking for Christ and we're trying to understand what the Lord is telling us in light of who the Lord Jesus is and what he has accomplished for us. And if we look at this verse of scripture under any other microscope, believers who have some understanding of their sinful nature, if told that this is God's command for you, and if you'll just do this, all will be well, will be convicted because they will see how far short of these things they fall. And the conviction will come without comfort. Whereas the unbeliever who is self-righteous, if told what to do, will be encouraged to find a false refuge in their works.

Over the years, I've had people tell me, you need to preach more about what our responsibilities are and what our duties are. And I've come to understand some of these folks And I've come to believe that really what they're asking is you need to preach the law to encourage me in what I'm doing and to promote my righteousness.

I don't want to do that. I want us to understand what the Lord is saying here in a way that will that will comfort us in our afflictions and that will honor Christ in the work that he has accomplished in the putting away of our sins. I pray that when we leave here tonight, that that will be our experience and that will be our hope. The verse I'm referring to is verse eight.

He has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before thy God." If you'll just do those three things, everything will be well. If you'll Act in a way that's fair and honest and faithful if you'll do right. If you won't lie and steal and treat your fellow man good, do justly. Of course we want to do those things. Of course, that's a heart that God has given us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Love is always seeking to do good unto men. And certainly, we want to honor God in doing that which is right. Is that the context of what the Lord is telling us here?

To love mercy. Be a merciful person. Help your fellow man. reach out to the needy, show kindness and compassion and concern. I've heard this text preached in this way and just the duty. Of course we want to be merciful. Being merciful is like loving and it's like forgiving. It's the result of something that we have received. We're to were to be kind and tenderhearted toward men, even as God, for Christ's sake, and forgive one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. We will. We'll show mercy if we receive. You see, we give that which we've received. We love him because he first loved us. We forgive because we've been forgiven. We show mercy because we've received mercy. But if we present this one verse as if these are the three rules of life, and if you'll just follow these rules and commit yourself to these things, then everything will be well.

The problem with understanding these ways, and of course, walk humbly with thy God, which usually for the legalist, those who are trying to earn their own favor with God and establish their own righteousness, walking humbly before God is usually a pretended humility before men. Of course, if we ever stand in the presence of a holy God, we're going to be humbled and we're going to walk humbly before him. And if we understand these first two things in doing justly and loving mercy, we will walk humbly with our God. But this walking humbly with God, it's not a feigned piety that religious people have with trying to impress each other with how spiritual they are and how religious they are. But that's how most people read these. Well, I'm going to do right. I'm going to treat my fellow man with mercy. And I'm going to be humble. And this is what God's required. This is what he requires. And I've got to deliver on what God requires. Now, if that is what the Lord is telling us in this verse, then it's a reverse order of everything else the Lord has told us.

When the Pharisees asked him, what is the greatest commandment? The Lord said, walk humbly with your God. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your soul, and then love your brother. You see, why would the Holy Spirit reverse the order of that? The Lord said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things be it have done to you. Why would Micah put walking humbly with God after doing justly, and loving mercy. When Solomon was writing the book of Ecclesiastes, he closed that book with these words.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God. First, fear God. Walk humbly with your God. Seek first the kingdom of God. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your soul.

And keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Obeying God can only come after the Lord has enabled us to return love to him. Love is the fulfillment of the law. We, we, we have a law, but it's the law of love. It's the law of grace. It's the law of the spirit.

So I don't believe in comparing scripture to scripture that the Lord is telling us that walking humbly with God comes third. after doing right and treating your fellow man better. I don't believe that's what the Lord is telling us in these verses. In order to understand verse eight, we need to back up to verse six.

Wherewith shall I come before the Lord? How can a man be right with God? How can I stand in the presence of a holy God? How can me, a sinner, be accepted before God? That's what Micah's asking. And verse 8's the answer to that question. Wherewith shall I come before God, and bow myself before the high God?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings and with calves of a year old? Will that be acceptable to him? If I bring to him my sacrifices, what did David say in Psalm 51? If sacrifices is what you want, I bring them. But the sacrifices that God requires are a broken spirit and contrite heart. That he will not despise. And he doesn't despise that because he's the one that gives it. But Micah's saying, how am I going to come before God? Am I going to bring him a bunch of sacrifices?

And you know, David was miserable for almost a year. Between the time he had done what he did with Bathsheba and had her husband put to death, he lived under shame and guilt. And don't you know that he went every day and tried to make sacrifices until Nathan the prophet came to him?

In the end, it said, David. Thou art the man. David's heart was broken. And what did David say? What did David say? Oh, I've sinned. I've sinned. When David said in Psalm 51, if sacrifice is what you want, I'd give more. Don't you know that he'd been given a whole bunch of them? But now he understands that God's got to do a work of grace in my heart. Look at verse 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with 10,000 rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the son of my soul? What greater sacrifice could anyone make? You say, well, no one would do that. They certainly have. History of the world is full of cultures that have sacrificed their children to their gods. in hopes of atoning for the sins of their bodies. Is there something that I can do? And Mike is saying, is the ultimate sacrifice sufficient? No. No, it's not.

No, the first thing that you must do is do justly. What is it to do justly? It's to agree with God on the matter of justice. It's to agree with God on the verdict that He has given as to what is just in His sight. As a sinner, I am justly worthy of eternal damnation. I'm justly worthy of that. If God gave me, if he didn't show me mercy, if he gave me just justice, I'd go to hell. For the best thing I've ever done, not for my worst sin, I'd go to hell for the best thing I've ever done if God gave me justice. For I've broken all of God's laws. I'm deserving of the wrath and indignation of a holy God.

To do justly is to agree with God as to what God says justice is. The wages of sin is death. That's the sentence. That's the verdict. That's God's justice. And there's no way to avert that. There's no way to change that. There's no way to soften that. There's no way to lessen that. There's no way to make myself better than what I am. And there's no way to bring God's standard of justice down to where I am.

To do justly is to agree with God as to what He calls justice. That's where it begins. How am I going to be right with God? How am I going to come into the presence of God? Am I going to offer Him all these sacrifices? Is that going to atone for my sin? If I gave my precious child as an offering, as a burnt offering, would that Would the fruit of my body take care of the sin of my soul?

No. No, it wouldn't. I've got to start with justice. That's where I've got to start. That's why John said in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess, and that word confess is a conjunction of two words. One word is to speak, and the other word is the same thing. If we speak the same thing that God speaks, if we take sides with God against ourselves, if we agree with God, if we, that's what it is to do justice.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all of our unrighteousness. There's no removing the sin of the soul apart from being made a sinner, apart from agreeing with God and acknowledging my sinfulness before God.

In Leviticus, it's called accepting the punishment of your iniquity. Accepting the punishment of your iniquity. Let me show you that. Leviticus chapter 26. We read in Ezekiel 36, they will loathe themselves. Leviticus 26 verse 40, if they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers and their trespasses, which they have trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary to me, and that also and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and I've not been in step with God, that's my problem, and have brought them into the land of their enemies, if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob.

There's no separating these two things. There's no separating the standing in the presence of God and bearing the full blame of our sin. Agreeing with God that it's all our fault. When Isaiah found himself in the presence of the Lord, high and lifted up, and the seraphim crying, holy, holy, holy, the first thing out of Isaiah's mouth is, woe is me.

Woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. My mouth, my throat is an open sepulcher. Out of the issues of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Lord, I'm a sinner. Woe is me. I live among a people of unclean lips. There's nobody that can help me. Everybody else is in the same boat I'm in. We're all a bunch of sinners.

How am I going to come before God? Do justly. Agree with God as to what He says justice is. And it begins with confessing our sin. Daniel, the scripture says, was praying, confessing his sins and the sins of his people. And then the Lord appeared unto him. Now, these two things, it's not that the confession of sin is a work of grace in the heart. It's not that we confess our sins in order to please God. We're just agreeing with God's justice. God has given us a new heart. He's given us the mind of Christ. What is the mind of Christ?

It's the admission that my heart, my affections, and my mind, my thoughts, are not reliable. They're broken. Proverbs says, if a man trusts his own heart, he's a fool. So how do I know the mind of God? He's given us his mind and his word. I've got to agree with whatever it is God says. I can't see how wicked I am, but God says every thought in the imagination of my heart is only evil, and that continually.

So that's the way it must be. To do justly is to agree with what God says about what we deserve if God gave us justice. David said in Psalm 51, against thee, and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou might be justified when thou speakest, and clear, clear when thou judgest. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Your justice is clear. Clear. And what you say is just, this is not something the natural man will ever conclude.

He will hold on to the, I mean, I used to preach in a prison years ago. And there's a, I figured out right away, there's a pecking order in prison. There's guys that, everybody has a place as far as the severity of their crime and the evilness of their heart. And there's always somebody below me, even in that environment. And men are holding on to something, and they'll hold on to their righteousness or their potential for righteousness. And there's another thing. Men will say, well, I can fix this. Just give me some time. I'll work it out. No. No, I can't.

And God is just in what he says about me and what it is that I deserve. Secondly, it is agreeing with God that justice must be satisfied in order for mercy to be given. God did not sacrifice his justice on the altar of mercy. You know, most people think, well, you know, God's gonna love us through it and he's gonna forgive us. No, justice has to be met. The law of God has to be satisfied. Someone's got to uphold the standard and someone has to make a payment that's going to be sufficient before God to put away my sin. To do justly is to bow to what God says about what justice is.

We often say in this world, there's no justice in this world. And how many times guilty people go free, and we hear people that have been in and out of jails and been out of the court system, and they get out, and the next day they kill somebody or do something. And we think, where's the justice in all of that? There's no justice in this world, but there's justice with God. Justice with God. He doesn't miss anything.

Every T will be crossed, every I will be dotted, every law will be satisfied, every sin will be paid for. I will know, wise, clear the guilty. I am holy, and I am just, and I must punish sin. This is what I believe. Look at verse 8 again in our text, in Micah chapter 6. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good. And the unbeliever, self-righteous man, the man that's looking for something to do in order to be good in the sight of God, will interpret this verse to mean, well, I just need to be more. more faithful and more just. And, of course, we ought to always be truthful and faithful in everything we do. And what does God require of thee? Now, you remember the questions being asked up in verse 6. How can I come before God?

This is what God requires. Not that you do good in order to earn favor with God. but that you do justly, that you agree with God as to what his definition of justice is. And we know that the Lord Jesus was offered up for our offenses, and he was raised again because of our justification. This is God's definition of justice. The only way that I can be found just and justified without sin in the sight of God is to acknowledge what God says about my sin nature, to acknowledge what I know to be true from God's word about His holy nature, demanding justice for all sin, and Believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that can pay the price that God requires to put away my sin.

That his precious blood is the only thing that will. Doing justly. The law demands satisfaction. I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that ever has or ever could satisfy God's justice. That is what it is to do justly. This is what God requires if we're going to be found in his presence.

To love mercy. Oh, sinners love mercy. They love mercy. Why does your master eat Republicans and sinners? And the Lord heard them. And he said, the whole need not a physician, but them which are sick. Go and learn what this means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Only sinners need mercy. The self-righteous, he wants to claim justice before God based on what he's done. But Lord, we've done many wonderful works in thy name.

Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. They fell short of my glory. They didn't satisfy my justice. I never knew you. Only those who know that they can never offer up anything that will satisfy the justice of God are looking for mercy. I got to have mercy.

How many times we read in the Psalms where David says, oh, Lord, have mercy upon me. In Psalm 6, verse 2, he says, have mercy upon me, oh, Lord, for I am weak. I am weak. In Psalm 9, verse 13, he said, have mercy upon me, oh, God, for I am in trouble, and I suffer from them which hate me. My own sin, this world, I'm at enmity with these things. Have mercy upon me, verse 25, verse 16, O Lord, for I am desolate and I am afflicted. Have mercy upon me.

The publican would not so much as look up, but smote himself upon the breast. He wasn't like that Pharisees who said, I thank thee that I'm not like other men. And he talked about his fasting and all of his good deeds. And he looked over at that publican and he said, I'm especially glad I'm not like him. Oh, he wished he had been like him. It was the publican that would not so much as look up, but smote himself upon the breast and cried, have mercy upon me, the sinner. Only sinners need mercy.

Psalm 30 verse 10, have mercy upon me, oh God, be thou my helper. Psalm 51, we've mentioned that a couple of times. Let's look at the first verse in Psalm 51 briefly. Psalm 51. David begins this prayer of contrition and confession with have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies brought out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly. Remind iniquity, cleanse me from, for I acknowledge my transgression. My sin is ever before me. This is doing justly and loving mercy. And if you have any understanding of what justice is before God, then you'll love, love mercy.

Blind Bartimaeus, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. Hold your peace, Bartimaeus. Hold your peace. Nobody's interested in a dirty blind beggar. And he cried all the louder, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. This is what it is to love mercy. We ought to be merciful. We ought to be kind and compassionate and tenderhearted and forgiving to others. But oh, how we need mercy. I love the mercy I get from God a whole lot more than I love any mercy I'm able to give to others. A Syrophoenician woman had a daughter that was vexed with the devil, and she said, have mercy upon me, O Lord, thou son of David. And the Lord Jesus ignored her. He ignored her. And she continued to cry. And the disciple said, send her away, Lord, for she crieth after us. She kept pleading for mercy.

And the Lord said, it's not me that I should give the children's bread to dogs. I've come for the lost children of Israel. And she said, truth, Lord. Truth, Lord, that's what I am. I'm a dog. But oh, would you be so merciful to just scrape a few crumbs off the table for this dog? I'll lick them up off the floor. Just a little bit from you, Lord, would be all I need. David brought Mephibosheth back. The Mephibosheth said, why would the king have such mercy upon a dead dog such as I? And what did David say? He said, for Jonathan's sake, I made a covenant with your father.

For Christ's sake, God has mercy. And he delights in showing mercy. and we need mercy and we love mercy. How am I gonna come before God making sacrifices, sacrificing the fruit of my flesh, my own child for the sin of my soul? No, no, this is what's good and this is what God requires, to do justly and to love mercy and to walk And that word walk is the continual pattern of life, to walk humbly with thy God. You see, we never graduate from doing justly and loving mercy. We never graduate from that.

Paul said in Colossians, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. How did we receive him? We received him as a sinful mercy beggar, one who could not satisfy God's justice. We cast all our care upon him, believing that he cared for us. We look to the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only sufficient payment for our sin. And we're humbled before God that he gave us such faith.

Lord, why me? We don't say with the unbeliever when God says, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and whom I will I'll harden. We don't say, well, that's not fair. We say, oh, God, why would you have mercy on me? We're humbled before God. This is not a feigned humility. We're trying to be religious and pious among men. Humility will be appropriate in our relationships with men if we are humble before God. We're humble before God.

We'll know how we ought to act. and how we ought to esteem others more highly than ourselves, and how we ought to be self-effacing and downplay ourselves, and how we ought not to be self-promoting, all those things that pride brings will come if we walk humbly with our God. And as this passage is so often misunderstood, doing right will come. And being merciful and kind toward others will come. But the Lord said, walking humbly with thy God, that's, that's, this isn't, this isn't a, well, you do this and then, you know, and then get right.

No. Greatest commandment of all, love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly with thy God. This is good. This is what he requires. Here's the blessing. What God requires, God provides. God provides. Tom. 232. Let's stand together. 232.

What Does God Require?

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about justice and mercy?

How do we know God's justice is satisfied?

Why is humility important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Greg Elmquist

Comments

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

What Does God Require?

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about justice and mercy?

How do we know God's justice is satisfied?

Why is humility important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Greg Elmquist

Comments

More from Greg Elmquist

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Greg Elmquist

Suggested for You

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book