If you will, let's be turning
in our Bibles to Micah chapter 6. It's always good to be with
you again, coming back home. Anybody in the back, if you have
trouble hearing me, it's hard for me to tell how loud I'm speaking,
just tell me to speak up and I'll be happy. You won't hurt
my feelings. I want you to hear the message. So, our subject
this morning is, what does the Lord require of me? You ask yourself that question.
What does the Lord require of me? Our text in Matthew 6, it says
in verse 6, the question is asked, wherewith? With what? What shall I come with? before the Lord and bow myself
before the High God. What do I bring to God when I
come and bow before the High God? Verse 8 says, He hath 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 I'm going to preach here
from verses 1 through 8 so that we get the full context of what
the Lord is saying here. Now let's go back up to verse
1 and just get this first statement. Hear ye now what the Lord saith. Hear ye now what the Lord saith. Brethren, the government is on
Christ's shoulder. The government is on Christ's
shoulder. The purpose of God is that His Son have all preeminence. It pleased the Father that in
Him dwelt all fullness. And I award Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, in eternity intercovenant with the Father to glorify the
name of our God. to manifest all His holy attribute,
to come as a man and be that express image of God and reveal
who God is. He entered covenant particularly
to glorify God by manifesting the righteousness of God, how
God can be just and the justifier of His people. The government's
on His shoulder. Christ created everything. He
created everything. Colossians 1 said, all things
were made by Him and for Him. He's before all things, and by
Him all things consist. They're all held together by
the Word of His power, by that covenant Word, by His power. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
Prophet, the Priest, and the King. That means He's everything. As the King, those powers and
principalities He created that are visible and invisible, He
created all of them. And He's the King who rules all
of them. In heaven, earth, all deep places,
He rules all. Christ our King does. That means
He can bring the gospel to His child and put His child under
the sound of the gospel. And He never fails to do it.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the priest. That means He is the
advocate for His people with God the Father. He's the propitiation
where God promises He will have mercy on His people in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why? Because He's our righteousness
with the Father. And He's our prophet. When he
sends the gospel, when he brings his child to here, it's because
Christ Himself is preaching effectually into the heart of His children. Paul said in Colossians 2, all
nourishment comes from the head to the body. He said in Ephesians
4, the Lord Jesus Christ works effectually in every part, every
member, and that's how He edifies His body. It's Christ speaking. The Lord has sent Micah here
to preach. And this is the first word out
of Micah's mouth. Hear ye now what the Lord saith. It's the Lord speaking. It's
the Lord speaking. If we only hear this message,
As the message of man is saying, and it's the words of a man,
we will miss the gospel completely. But God, our Savior, our Prophet,
Priest, and King, He's not going to let His child miss it. He's
going to make sure His child hears the message. Now, the Lord
had a controversy, a legal case against His people here. And He declares here in verse
1, Arise, contend thou, this is the Lord's word to Micah,
Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills
hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's
controversy, and hear ye strong foundations of the earth, for
the Lord hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead
with Israel. Now, when you read this, it sounds
like the Lord's telling Michael to preach this word loud and
clear before all. And that's what it means. That's
what Micah did. He preached it loud and clear
before all. But the Lord, being the one mediator between God
and man, He's always been the one mediator. And He is the one
who is always speaking when He's speaking to His people throughout
the Scriptures. It's just a garden. It's Christ
speaking to His people. And that's who it is here. And
He has a controversy with His people. He has a controversy
with His people. And He's referring to the men
and women of Israel as the mountains and the hills. He's referring
to them. He's saying, you strong foundations
of the earth. Why? because they were puffed
up in pride by a high esteem of themselves, so that they stood
lofty like high mountains and high hills, and they thought
they were so righteous by their sacrifices that they were foundations
that will never be moved. What was going on here? We see
it back in Micah 3, verse 10. Micah 3, verse 10. He says, well, I lost my place here. Let
me read it to you. I don't know where I am. I wrote
it down wrong in my Bible. But listen to what he says here.
Maybe in verse... Anyway, let me read. They build
up Zion with blood, Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof
judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire. He says,
the prophets thereof divine for money, and yet having a form
of religion, looking to their sacrifices, he says, yet they
lean upon the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? None evil
can come upon us. That was the problem there. Now,
most people look at this and most people think that that's
the problem. That's the problem right there.
how they were dealing with men. They were dealing unjustly with
one another. They were not loving to show
mercy to one another. They weren't humble before one
another. And so men will preach messages
on how to do that to men. But that's putting man before
God. That's putting our regard and
how we treat man before what God requires. And this is the
Lord speaking here about what He requires. What He requires. You see, that's not the problem. That's the symptoms of the problem. All those things. The problem's
the depraved heart. The problem is a heart that's
sinful and proud and doesn't understand how holy God is and
what God requires, that's proud, that thinks that that we can
actually come to God and present to Him a sacrifice that God will
accept. That's the real problem. The
problem's in the heart. The problem's in the heart. It'd be easy to preach this message
and condemn self-righteous will-worshippers. It would be easy to do. But then we'd all leave out of
here thinking like the Pharisee, well, I thank the Lord and I'm
not like they are. The Lord sent Micah to preach
to the Lord's elect. Not everybody in Israel was His
elect, but he's preaching to His people in the midst of Israel
and Judah. He says there, the Lord had the
controversy with His people. Brethren, it's not only unregenerate
sinners that have a sin nature and have a problem with pride
and self-righteousness. It's not only the unregenerate. It's not just will-worshippers,
and it's not just the papacy, and it's not just all vain religion. We have a sin nature. And our
greatest problem that we have is sinful pride, self-righteousness. That's the biggest problem we
have. Or none. I'm like Martin Luther. He said
that in every message he had preached, and since the Lord
gave me the privilege to preach His holy name, I've tried to
preach against pride and self-righteousness. And Martin Luther said, I preached
it, against it, in every message I've preached. And he said, I
can't eradicate it in myself, and I can't in anybody else either. This is in my sinful breast. This pride and self-righteousness
is in you, brethren. It's with us all the time. All the time. But Christ speaking
in our hearts, He's going to keep His people humble. He's
going to keep His people crying out to God and saying, Lord,
don't let me be deceived. Don't let me be carried away
in pride and self-righteousness. Don't let me look to myself.
Keep me, Lord. Keep me looking only to Thee. So how does the Lord do this? How are we brought down from
this pride from the first hour to the last? From the first hour
to the last, how are we brought down from this pride? It's by
our prophet, priest, and king, speaking affectionately into
our hearts through his gospel and revealing in us that he is
our righteousness. And number two, revealing he
is not going to receive a sacrifice from us. And number three, teaching
us exactly how to come before holy God and with what we are
to come with. He's going to teach you those
three things. He doesn't just teach you this in the first hour
and then you got it. You know, I thought about last
night after the brethren preached, Brother Donnie and Brother David,
I thought, I'm going to go home and try to find something else
to preach. They preached my message. But you forgot it last night. And you need to hear it again.
And that's how we are. And especially when we are fallen
and lifted up and we're walking in the pride of our heart and
we're looking to ourselves and our self-righteousness. It takes
the Lord to teach us. It takes the Lord. It's just
like being converted all over again. That's what he told the
apostle Peter. When you're converted, Peter was converted. He was a
believer at that point. He needed to be converted again,
didn't he? He just regenerates you one time,
but he's going to renew you and revive you continually. He's
renewing the inward man daily. The outward man's perishing day
by day, but he's renewing the inward man day by day. There's
some sweet seasons where he teaches you so affectionately in your
heart, and he'll make you think, is this the first day I ever
believed him? So I want to see how the Lord
does this. He's going to reveal to us that He's our righteousness.
Reveal to us that He won't receive a sacrifice from us. And show
us exactly how to come to God. First of all, He reveals that
He's our righteousness. This is how He shows us our sin.
This is how He's going to bring us down from our sin and our
self-righteousness. You see, light is what exposes
darkness. He shows us His righteousness,
and that's how we see our sin. And He does this the first hour
to the last. He calls you personally to Himself. You're sitting in
a crowded room, the gospel's going forth, but He starts speaking
to you personally, and it's like it's just you and Him. And He
calls you to Him personally. And here's what He said to them
through Micah. Verse 3, O my people, what have
I done unto thee? And wherein have I wearied thee?
Testify against me. It's like He's brought He brought
them into a courtroom. And He brought them before the
judge. And He is the judge. And He brings
you before Him. And He asks you this, do you
have a case against Me? What have I done to you? And
we don't have a case against Him. We have no case against
Him. And He starts teaching you again.
He is your only righteousness. He said this, for I brought thee
up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the house
of servants. Christ reveals He's our Passover
Lamb. That night in Egypt, every firstborn
child in Egypt died, including the firstborn in the house of
Israel. The justice of God fell on every firstborn child in Egypt,
including the firstborn in the house of Egypt. They all died.
The difference was God provided the Lamb and all the firstborn
in Israel died in the Lamb. John looked at the Lord Jesus
Christ and said, Behold the Lamb. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Passover Lamb. Our Lord Jesus Christ went to
the cross at Calvary. And brethren, I want you to think
about this. This is how Paul declared it
in Romans 6. This is how he was telling us
to reckon it to be. When our Lord Jesus Christ was
on that cross, this is how you that believe, you look at this
that way. You bore the justice of God and
you died under God's fierce fury that day right there on the cross.
God's justice was poured out on you. You who are God's, you
who are his elect, you who he's called. God's justice fell on
you that day. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. And when he died, when he gave
up his spirit, Before the law of God, our body of sins was
destroyed. Your old man died. He said, reckon
ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. He died. And he that
is dead is freed. That means he's justified. He
justified. It's Christ revealing to us that
he's our Passover that's going to bring us down from our pride
and make you want to have nothing to do with that leaven of the
Pharisees anymore. He said through Paul, purge out
therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you
are unleavened. Our sin doesn't change what Christ
has made us. He said you are unleavened. But
He reveals this to you, shows you this again, purge it out,
for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore,
let us keep the feast not with the old leaven, neither with
the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth. We have to be taught this over
and over. Christ shows us our sin by renewing
us to behold that due to Christ our righteousness, He will not
let one for whom He died perish. That's His righteousness. He
won't let one for whom He died perish. He's going to bring you
to believe on Him. He says there in verse 4, I said
before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Because the Lord Jesus
Christ justified His people, He shall send the gospel to His
people. He shall send faithful preachers
to preach His Word. And He shall give faith. He'll
regenerate us and give us faith and bring us to believe. It's
because He justified His people. Look over at Titus 3. I know
you're familiar with this, but I just want you to see something
here that you may, maybe you haven't noticed this. Titus 3.
The reason you were regenerated and the reason He taught you
the gospel and gave you faith is because of the righteousness
of Christ. Because you'd already been justified
by Christ. Look here. Titus 3 verse 5, not
the works of righteousness which we've done, but according to
his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior. that being justified by His grace,
that means having been justified by His grace, we should be made
heirs according to the hope of eternal life. He said the same
thing in Galatians 4. He said Christ came and redeemed
us from the curse of the law, that you might receive the adoption
of children. And because you are sons, God
sent forth the Spirit of the Son, and your heart cried, I
have a Father. That's His righteousness. He reminds you again. What have
I done to weary you? I've redeemed you. You're saved
by my righteousness. I sent my gospel to you and I
taught this to you. And then He shows us our sin
by reminding us that there's therefore now no condemnation. to them that believe on our Lord
Jesus Christ, due to His righteousness. He said in verse 5, O my people,
remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam
the son of Beor answered him from Shittimon to Gilgal, that
you may know the righteousness of the Lord. Everything that
he said here is him showing us the righteousness of the Lord,
including this last thing right here. He uses the example of
when Balak came and tried to get Balaam to curse Israel. And due to Christ being the righteousness
of his elect people amongst Israel, God wouldn't curse them. God
said this, He said, He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither
hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with
him, and the shadow of a king is among them. Reverend, because
Christ purged our sins, like Brother Roland just preached,
because He purged our sins, it's not as if we don't have sin. Before God, they're gone. Before
the justice of God, they're gone. God's righteous. God's righteous. Christ came and put them away,
and they're gone. I read one writer said on that
verse, the Lord cast them into the depth of the sea, and God
put a no fishing sign up there. Can't go hunting for them anymore.
Fishing for them. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it's written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. There's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. They walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. But there's another
way the Lord manifests His righteousness in that day when Balaam came
trying to get Balaam to curse him. God did destroy 24,000. He sent a plague and destroyed
24,000. Why? Because they turned. They manifest they was never
called by the Lord. They turned from trusting the
Lord and they began to worship Balaam idolatry, the works of
their hands, and commit all manner of sin. And God poured out the
curse on them, judged them. You see, the same righteousness
of Christ, the same righteousness of God, that will by no means
condemn one for whom Christ died, is the very same righteousness
that will condemn every sinner that does not believe on Christ
or that proves he was never called by turning from Christ and going
away. And so God's showing them His righteousness. Now, when
you hear that, and He's showing you your sin and pride and your
self-righteousness, and He brings you to hear that, this is what
you think. This is our thought right here.
You think, done that, I turned from Him. In my unbelief, in my pride,
in my self-righteousness, I've turned from my Passover lamb.
I've turned from the Lord who's done me good. I've turned from
Him who sent the gospel to me. I've turned from Him who is my
righteousness to myself. And yet, the very fact that He's speaking
that into your heart, Makes you to know. And yet He didn't throw
you away. He didn't pour out the curse
on you. Because He's the righteousness of His people. He said, no man
will pluck them out of my hand. None. None. That's how the Lord's going to
humble us down and keep us walking by faith in Christ. Then secondly,
Christ keeps His people walking by faith by teaching us over
and over again that He's not going to receive our sacrifices.
He will not receive our sacrifices. He says in verse 6, Wherewith
shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high
God? Now this is due to my transgression,
due to the sin of my soul. That's what He's going to say
here. He's saying, since I'm the sinner, What should I bring
with me before God when I come to bow myself before God to atone
for my sin? Does God require I bring a sacrifice? Verse 6, shall I come before
Him with burnt offerings and with calves of a year old? Does
God require a multitude of sacrifices? Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oil? Or does He
require I sacrifice to God that which is dearest to me? Shall
I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul? Every child of Adam comes into
this world with this vain imagination. We're all Pharisees by nature.
We come into the world imagining we can atone for our sins by
our sacrifice. And we don't have to be taught
this, brethren. Nobody taught Adam after the
fall. Nobody was there to teach Adam
after the fall. Not another human being. And
when he sinned, the first thing he did was make a fig leaf to
cover his nakedness. This is what we're born with.
Vainly imagining we can atone for our sins and make ourselves
accepted of God. Now, most in religion will tell
you that salvation is not by works, it's by grace. Everybody
says that. But you listen and you start
hearing the sacrifices that they're trusting in. You listen and you
hear the sacrifices they trust in. I gave my heart to Jesus. My faith justified me. At least
I have my faith. They turn a faith into a sacrifice. Most say sanctification is a
co-effort between God and the sinner. This is a common teaching. And I believe that ones that
are most prone to do this are the very ones the Lord was speaking
about when He said if it was possible, they would deceive
the very elect. It's obvious Armenians are Armenian. That's obvious. It's obvious
that somebody is jumping over the hues. But when you've got
somebody preaching the sovereignty of God and election and predestination
and limited atonement, but then they come down to this thing
of sanctification. It's subtle. It's subtle. It's not synergistic. That's
what they say, synergistic between the believer and the Lord. How
are we made holy? Christ is our holiness. He is
our sanctifier and He is our sanctification. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the holiness we must have, without which no man will
see the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ, in regeneration, enters
into His child, and He is the holiness of the new man that
is created within us. He is. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is. And you know, like a child. You
take a child in a mother's womb. That child in the mother's womb
has everything in in it right now, that it's going to be, if
it grows, to be 90 years old. It's not going to grow to be
more of a human. It is a human. But in that human
state, it's going to grow up to be more of a human. Well,
in the new birth, when Christ is formed in His people, Christ
has created a new man that is holy, and everything it'll ever
be, it is. You are holy. You either are
holy or you're not holy. And Christ is that holiness.
He grows us in grace and knowledge of Him in that state of holiness,
but you're not getting more holy. In fact, holiness, sanctification
is being separated out from the rest and being consecrated to
God for His holy use. Being made pure in heart. And if sanctification Is this
thing that you co-effort and all that? That's what everybody
preaches. That's not being separated. When He separates you, you're
not going that route anymore. You're not going that way anymore.
And it's Him doing what He's doing right here through Micah
to His elect in that day. It's Him sending His gospel to
you and teaching you this again. And teaching you of His grace
to you. And giving you a renewed knowledge
of Him. that keeps you separated unto
Him and looking to Him and trusting Him only. He's the fitness to
enter heaven. We give thanks to the Father
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sin." You see, when He's regenerated you and given you faith, the
moment He quickens you and gives you faith to look to Him and
trust Him, You're fit to enter into glory because Christ is
all your fitness. That thief on the cross had that
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord with his hands
and his feet nailed to the tree. Christ is all. Now we know this,
but due to our sin nature, our greatest problem is always this
self-righteousness. This nagging question keeps rising
up, especially if we fall, if we sin. This rising question
comes up, what must I do that I might work the works of God?
It only takes a whisper for the leaven of the Pharisees to puff
us up. You remember the Pharisees came to John's disciples and
they said, you're John's disciples and you fast often. They said,
we fast often too. They said, why doesn't his disciples
fast often? And that one word, that one word. Now you understand this, every
true believer that was made a disciple under John's preaching was the
disciple of Christ. born of the same Spirit, given
one faith in the one Lord Jesus, robed in one righteousness, with
the same Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They were brethren. Those made through Christ's preaching
were His disciples, and those made through John's preaching
were Christ's disciples. And they were true believers.
This was their brethren. But that one word made them start
comparing their outward works with their brethren's outward
works. And they came to the Lord Jesus
and they said, why do we and the Pharisees fast often? They
united themselves with the Pharisees. But thy disciples fast not. That's their brethren. How much
sin is in that? How much self-righteousness was
in that question? It turned the motive of their
heart from faith constrained by love to a sacrifice to be
accepted. They began to think they were
a little bit better than their brethren. Is that not in all
of us, brethren? Is that not in all of us? Have
you ever seen your brothers in and say, I just can't believe
they did that? You can't. from the first day, and every
time a believer is puffed up or we fall in, whatever it is,
our great Physician is the only one that can heal us. And He
comes to us with this Gospel one-on-one. One-on-one. You can't work it in your breath.
You have to wait on the Lord. Only He can do it. And He does
it through the same Gospel He worked it in the first hour.
And He comes and He teaches you one-on-one That salvation start
to finish is by the mercy of God. Just what Brother David
preached last night. He said, I will have mercy and
not sacrifice. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. You know, from the first time
he called you and every time he corrects one of his children
that he's made complete in him. Every time, from the first hour
to the last, that He draws us to Himself and calls us to Himself,
He's calling a sinner to repentance. Me and you. You're righteous
in Christ, you're complete in Christ, but every time, we just
don't get beyond being sinners in our sin nature. And when He
calls you to repentance and grants you repentance, it's not a one-time
thing. He keeps renewing your faith.
He keeps granting you repentance and turning you and turning you
from anything that would harm you. And every time he does it,
he's calling a sinner to repentance. He's the great physician, but
he makes you to know he's not going to take a sacrifice from
you. God already, He said, shall I give my firstborn? God already
gave His firstborn. He gave His only begotten Son.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only sacrifice that God is pleased
with. And He suddenly said, I'm satisfied
and pleased with Him. He said, I'm well pleased with
Him. Well pleased with Him. This is
what our Lord has to keep teaching us over and over. Over and over. And then lastly, and I'll just
be brief right here. He draws you to Him personally,
teaching you exactly what He requires, how to come before
Him. He says in verse 8, He hath showed
thee, O man, what is good. Remember what David preached,
one thing is needful, Mary hath chosen that good part. He showed
you what's good. And what doth the Lord require
of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God. Preachers preach this, and they
tell sinners that this means you deal justly with men, and
you deal mercifully with men, and you deal humbly with men,
and men go out and try to do that, and it's just one more
sacrifice they're trying to bring to God. Now that's important,
but something's got to be done before that happens. I have a
coffee table book at home about the Mississippi River, full of
beautiful pictures of the Mississippi. There's a place where the Mississippi
River starts. You can stand strapped up right here and turn it with
your hand. You go down to the Gulf of Mexico, that thing's
a mile wide in places. And when you start with man,
and you start telling a man that he needs to be just and merciful
with a man, and that's how God's going to receive him, that's
going down there to the Gulf of Mexico and trying to turn
the river. God goes to the heart and deals with the real issue
and makes you see you don't have what's needed to come to God.
And He teaches you that all of these things right here is with
thy God. This is how you're going to come
before your Most High God. He teaches you to do justly with
thy God, to come before God. When He's worked this, this is
when we do this. When He's chasing us And correct
it. This is how we come all over
again. We keep coming this way. We come
to God confessing, I'm the sinner. Lord, I've never kept your law.
I've broken it. You're just to judge me. You're just. David said, I acknowledge
my transgression. My sin is ever before me against
thee. The only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when
thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. And he teaches
you to love mercy with thy God. This is coming to God, asking
God to be merciful to me, the sinner, for Christ's sake. No
other reason. No other reason. It's coming
and loving that salvation is all by the mercy that Christ
accomplished. He said in Luke 1.71, Zechariah
said he was blessing God for sending the Lord Jesus. This
is what he said the Lord Jesus came to do. To perform the mercy
promised to our fathers. To perform the mercy. to remember
His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham
that He would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the
hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness
and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. All
of salvation beginning to end is by mercy. It's all accomplished
by Christ. David prayed, Have mercy upon
me, O God, according to the Thy lovingkindness and the multitude
of thy tender mercies blot out my transgression. Micah says later in chapter 7,
who's a God like thee? That pardons transgression and
iniquity and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage,
he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy.
And then to walk humbly with thy God is continually walking,
knowing in my flesh dwells no good thing. When I pray, I'm
sinning. When I do some good deed for
somebody, there's sin mixed with it. We got sin mixed with our
repentance. It's to walk by faith. Christ
said, without me, you can do nothing. Paul said, as you therefore
receive Christ Jesus the Lord. How do you receive Him? Through
faith. He said, so walk ye in Him, rooted, built up in Him,
established in the faith as you've been taught, and abounding with
thanksgiving. I want to show you what this
all is. And the Lord didn't just go over to Micah 7. I'll end
right here. The Lord didn't just teach His
people this in Israel. He taught His preacher this too.
He taught Micah this. You know, when the Lord's giving
a message to His preacher, you can't come and preach the gospel
to somebody if you're preaching down to them. You have to be
the center with them. You have to be included in that,
including yourself as the self-righteous, proud sinner. And Micah, he's
brought here, now he's dealing justly with his God, he's loving
mercy with God, and he's walking humbly with God. And this is
what he said, Micah 7, 7. He said, Therefore I will look
unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my
salvation. My God will hear me. Rejoice
not against me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When
I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear
the indignation of the Lord. because I have sinned against
Him. Until He plead my cause and execute judgment for me,
He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His
righteousness." That's it right there. Now, when He brought you
there, brethren, brought you to His feet, that's when you're
willing to do the same thing towards your brethren and toward
all men. And when you know that God declares
that He justified your brethren. He showed you this again so personally
and so abundantly. And He made you to know now that
those who are your brethren, He said, I've justified them.
They are complete in Christ. I will not charge them. Who shall charge them? Who's
going to lay a charge to them? And He makes you say, If God
won't charge him, I don't want to charge him. And he makes you
see how God, for Christ's sake, had mercy on you and forgave
you. And he makes you not only want
to show your brethren mercy, he makes you love to show mercy. If we're going to be zealous
about something, I'll tell you what we ought to be zealous about
more than anybody on this earth. We ought to be zealous to be
merciful and forgive one another. Even as God, for Christ's sake,
has forgiven you. And you can't work this in your
brother. You can't do anything to, you know, make your brother
receive you if you've offended him or whatever the case is. And to walk humbly before God
is to trust Christ to work in them. If he gives you the opportunity
to preach, speak Christ to him, remind him of Christ. He said,
Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master
he stands or falls. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God is able to make him stand. That's a work of faith, believing
God's able. God's able. He can raise my brother
up. How do you know he can't? He raised me up. It keeps raising
me up, keeps saving me from me. That's how I know He's able.