of the Lord carrying my sins
to the cross is thrilling. Would you turn back to Micah
chapter 6? In verse 8, Micah asked this question, What
doth the Lord require of thee? That's what I've entitled this
message. What does God require? And don't miss that word require.
What does God require of me? Now, whether we realize it or
not, there is something he does require of each of us individually. And no one will be in heaven
without this. This is how important this is. What does God require of me? Now this is from the prophecy
of Micah. He prophesied during the reign
of three different kings of Judah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. So he was a prophet for many
years and we know very little about this man. We know what
his name means. His name means who is like God. I love that name. Look at the
end of this book in chapter 7. Micah says, who is a God like unto
thee? That's what his name means. Who
is a God like unto thee? That pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He retaineth
not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities
and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Thou will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham,
which thou has sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Who is a God like this? No one can be compared to him. Now, during the writing of this
prophecy, Micah asks a question all of us have asked at one time
or another. Look in verse 6 of chapter 6. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord and bow myself before the high God? How can I come? What do I bring? How can I come
and bow myself before Him? Shall I come before Him with
burnt offerings and with calves of a year old?" Now, the point
is, these are expensive offerings, calves of a year old. Verse 7,
will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten
thousands of rivers of The answer is no, he will not. Shall I give
my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul? Now he's saying, what if I sacrifice
my children? Would that please God? You know,
if you think it would, you've got a warped view of God, don't
you? Why would the Lord want something like that? And notice
he speaks of his transgressions and the sin of his soul. I think
that's talking about his sin and his sins. Everyone knows
deep down something has to be done about their sin and their
sins. Verse eight. He has showed thee, O man, what
is good. Now I love that phrase, O man.
I have been meaning to preach a message on O man for many years. I've never got around to it.
But I'm going to give you the scriptures. with regard to this
phrase, O man, it is O Adam, and five times in the New Testament
we read of O man, and once here in our text. But turn with me
to Romans chapter two. I think it would be good for
us to look at all of these. I'm not going to comment much
on them, if any, I'm just going to read them. Romans chapter two, verse one. This always hits me. Therefore
thou art inexcusable, O man. Whosoever thou art that judgest,
for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for
thou that judgest doest the same things. Wait a minute. I'm not doing those things. God
says you are. Anything else need to be said?
God says you are. Look in verse three. And thinkest
thou this, O man, there it is. This is a word to all men. And thinkest thou this, O man,
that judges them which do such thing, and doest the same, that
thou shalt escape The judgment of God. Look in Romans chapter
nine. This would be a good sermon,
wouldn't it? Romans chapter nine, verse 19. Thou wilt say unto me, why did
he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Now, if God is sovereign, if
he hardens one, and if he hardens me, How can he hold me to be
responsible for my sin when he's the one who hardened me? I love
Paul's answer. Nay, but O man, who are you to
reply against God? Since when do you think you can
disagree with or set in judgment on anything God says? Who are you to reply against
God? First Corinthians chapter seven. Verse 16, and I hope we'll benefit
from this. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 16, for
what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?
Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? Who
can tell what's gonna happen? Lord might save my wife. Lord
might save my husband. You don't know. We don't know
what the Lord's gonna do. James chapter two, verse 20. Well, let's read verse 17. Even so faith, if it hath not
works is dead. Being alone, yea, a man may say,
thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I'll show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there's one
God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble,
but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. I feel like I ought to comment
on this. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works? Verse 21, when he offered Isaac,
his son on the altar. Now God made a promise to Abraham,
the Messiah, my blessed son, my seed is going to come through
you. You know what the scripture says?
Abraham believed God. He didn't have any evidence that
it was gonna take place other than God's naked word. Years later, Isaac, the promised
seed, God said, take him and offer him up as a burnt offering
to me in a mount that I shall show you. Now what if Abraham
would have said, I can't do that, because then God's promise would
not come to pass. If he's dead, that means the
seed won't come through him. I can't do that. His works would
have proved that he didn't believe God, didn't they? That's exactly
what that would have said. His works, he believed God and
his works proved it when he was willing to offer up his son,
believing, the scripture says, that God would raise him from
the dead because God made that promise. And Abraham raised up
that knife to slay his son in obedience to God's command. He
believed that God would raise his son from the dead. His works
proved the reality of his faith. Faith without works is dead. Being alone. Now go back to Micah. Verse eight. He has showed thee,
O man, what is good. Here's the short answer. He is
and we're not. He has showed thee what is good.
A rich young ruler came up to the Lord and said, good master,
what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? And the
Lord replied to him, why callest thou me good? There's none good
but one. That's the words of the Lord. What is the scriptural testimony
of me and you? There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. He showed you what is good. He is. Amen. God's good. Whatever he does is good. He's
good all the time. And we're not. And then he poses this question.
And what does the Lord require of thee? And then he gives three
things. but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Now, there will not
be anybody in heaven that does not fit this description, to
do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. These are requirements that if
I do not have them, I will not be saved. God does not negotiate. God does not compromise. God
does not lower his standards to accommodate us. He doesn't
grave on the curve. He's no respecter of persons.
The cross is the great demonstration of that. When sin was found on
his son, he put him to death. What does God require of me? Three things to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God, and all three of these go together, you cannot
have the one and not also have the other. If you ever do justly,
you'll love mercy. You'll walk humbly with your
God. If you ever love mercy, you're
gonna understand this thing of doing justly and walking humbly
with your God. And if you ever walk humbly with
God, you'll understand this thing of doing justly and loving mercy. Now, the first one. What does
God require of thee? To do justly. Now, listen to
the language. Not to do your best, but to do
justly. Righteously, with perfect equity. Not to try to do justly, but
to do justly. Let me give you some of the other
translations. To do judgment. To act justly. To do what is
right. To do justice. To do justly. There is no moral relativism
here in this statement. There are no gray areas. To do
justly. David said in the 24th Psalm,
who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand
in his holy place? He that hath clean hands. That's what you are on the outside.
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. That's what you
are on the inside. Who hath not lifted up his soul
to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. I don't leave any wiggle room
in that, do you? To do justly. Now I was reading a commentary
on this statement, and this man that I read, and he's not a Puritan,
he's alive right now, he's in the reform movement, and here
was his comment on this doing justly. He said, it is a spiritual
commitment of the heart from which right behavior would ensue. A spiritual commitment of the
heart from which right behavior would ensue. Now that sounds
good. What does that mean if you fail
to do justly in your conduct and you fail in right behavior? Now, to do justly is rewarded
by justification. If you do justly, God will declare
you to be justified. But what if you only fail to
be faithful once? What if you murder only once? What if you only tell one lie? What does that make you? It makes
you an adulterous, murdering liar. That is a complete failure to
do justly. God's requirement is not to do
justly most of the time or even 99% of the time, but all of the
time. What does God require of thee to do Now this is what God's gospel
does. He makes it to where the true
summary of my life, when I stand before God in judgment, this
is a man that has done justly. It's called justification. God has made a way to be absolutely
just righteous, holy, and declare somebody like me to be one who
has done justly, because Christ took my sins with him to the
cross, and he gives me his righteousness. So on judgment day, here is the
sentence with regard to me, he did justly. And don't miss this. I wouldn't, I would be remiss
if I didn't bring this out. It's always right to do the just,
fair, equitable thing. That is always right. I'm not to say what's going to
make me happy. You know, I wish that we would strike that way
of thinking from our very existence. How am I going to be happy? We
shouldn't ask, what can I do to be happy? I'd ask, what's
the right thing to do? In every instance. Anytime somebody
starts worrying about they're gonna be happy, watch out, heads
are gonna roll. I'm gonna do whatever I can to
make myself happy. No, it's always right to do the
right thing. It's always right to do unto
others as you'd have them do unto you, isn't it? In every
instance, you ought to treat people the way you want to be
treated. It's never acceptable to not
treat all men with fairness, all men, with fairness, kindness,
and respect. It's always right to love your
enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that
despitefully use you. and abuse you and persecute you.
It's always right to render to all their due and to owe no man
anything but to love one another. It's always right to do justly.
So when we're talking about this being justification, and that's
what it is, when he says to do justly, this doesn't have any
gray areas. I mean absolute perfect righteousness. You know what happens to somebody
when they find out they've been justified by God? They want to
do justly. They want this to affect their
character and their conduct in every way. They want to do justly. Next thing he says, in verse
eight, he has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the
Lord require of thee but to do justly? You know, I, I'm ashamed
to admit this, but I preached on this message early, probably
35 or 40 years ago, and I never brought this out. We ought to do what's right.
Well, we ought to do what's right. Nobody's denying that. But this
is a reference to justification and the fruit of justification. you're gonna want to do what's
right. Not because you're afraid of
what's gonna happen to you if you don't, it's what you want to
do because you know you have a perfect standing before the
law of God. Now, the next thing he gives
as the Lord's requirement, and this is just as critical as the
first, to love, I like that word love, to love mercy. Now, the first thing that I need
to understand is what is meant by mercy? Or what does the Bible mean by
mercy? That's the critical question.
What does the Bible mean by mercy? Men present God's mercy as God's
offering to you, God offers you mercy. If you will just take
it, he wants to give you his mercy, but you must receive his
mercy or you will not have it. That's not mercy. That's salvation
dependent upon whether you decide to accept it or reject it, which
is absolute foolishness. and nothing more. That's salvation
by works. If that's the way I look at God's
mercy, it's offered to me and now it's up to me as to whether
or not I'll accept it or reject it. That is salvation by works. And that kind of thinking doesn't
even make sense. You mean, I'm going to give you
mercy, but I can't give it to you unless you accept it? No.
God's mercy is his action. It's saving mercy. The first time the word is used
in the scripture is by Lot, when he said, thou has magnified thy
mercy, which thou has showed unto me in saving my life. And
you remember what happened when he made that statement? The scripture
says, while Lot lingered. God told Lot, I'm going to destroy
this place. And Lot, for whatever reason,
did not want to leave. He lingered. You know what the
scripture says? Those angels grabbed him by the
hand and pulled him out. God being merciful to him. Do you love that? I love that. I love being saved
by the mercy of God. But God, this is in the scripture,
Ephesians 2, 4, and 5. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. You love that? Oh, I love the
mercy of God. You see, his mercy is saving
mercy. And his mercy is giving me what, not giving me what I
positively deserve. And his grace is giving me what
I positively do not deserve. Mercy, wherever you have mercy,
you have grace. Wherever you have grace, you have mercy. I
love the mercy of God. And this is all mediated to us
through Christ and him crucified. Now, when the Lord said to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Don't you want that? That means
you didn't have to find a reason for me to give it. He says, I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And his mercy comes through
the rich merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if your sin is all
your fault. Now I couldn't help reading and
I was noticing in Genesis chapter three, Adam said, the woman, you gave
me. The woman, you gave me. She gave
me of the fruit and I did eat the obvious implication. If you
hadn't given me this woman, this would have never happened. That's
Adam and his fallen nature. And Eve was no different. The
serpent beguiled me. It was the serpent's fault. The
serpent beguiled me and I did eat. But when all your sin is
all your fault and you don't have anything else or anyone
else to blame, it's all your fault. I tell you what, you'll
love mercy. Oh, I love the mercy of God. You love being saved by the mercy
of God. You love the God of mercy. And
what goes along with loving mercy? You experience the fifth beatitude. Blessed are the merciful. For they shall obtain mercy. If you ever obtain mercy, you
will be merciful. Turn with me for a moment to
Matthew chapter 18. While you're turning there, I
love Paul's admonition in Romans 12, he that showeth mercy with
cheerfulness. Not begrudgingly, but with cheerfulness. In Matthew 18, the Lord gives
this story, beginning in verse 23. Therefore, as the kingdom
of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account
of his servants, and when he had begun to reckon, One was
brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents. Now that's just a bunch
of million dollars, millions of dollars. It's a debt he couldn't pay back. But for as much as he had not
to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children
and all that he had and payment to be made. And the servant therefore
fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord, have patience with me and
I will pay thee all. There's no way this man could
have paid him back. But here he is trying to bargain with
God, trying to strike a deal. Have patience with me. I'll get
all this back to you. Then the Lord of that servant
was moved with compassion. What was he thinking when he
heard that man make that claim? I'll pay all of it back. And I'm sure he thought you can't
pay this back. But because of the greatness
of this Lord, because of the magnanimous mercy and grace and
kindness of the Lord, he was moved with compassion. Now that's
the way the Lord operates. He's moved with compassion. He's more willing to grant you
his grace than you are to receive it. The Lord delighteth in mercy. And he loosed him. He set him
free and he forgave him to death. Those millions were wiped out.
But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants,
which owed him 100 pence. Fifteen dollars. $15. That's not much money, really.
I've got more than that in my wallet. I'm not going to tell
you how much I have. You might try to rob me, but I've got more than $15. $15. If you lost $15, it wouldn't
even bother you that much, unless it's all you had and you were
starving to death. $15. But the same servant went out,
found one of his fellow servants, which owed him 100 pence, and
he laid hands on him. and took him by the throat saying,
pay me that thou owest. Now, he'd just been forgiven. $100 million. And now somebody owes him 15
and he puts his hands across his throat, pay me. And his fellow
servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying, have
patience with me, I'll pay thee all. And he would not, but went
and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when
his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry,
and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then
his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me.
Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant,
even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, and delivered
him up to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due
unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto
you, if you from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother
their trespasses. Now, you will be merciful if
you've experienced God's mercy. And you know what? You'll preach
mercy. That's gonna be your message. You'll preach mercy. The mercy
of God in Christ Jesus. That's all you'll preach. If
you ever learn anything about the mercy of God, being saved
by the mercy of God, loving the mercy of God, you'll be merciful
and you will preach mercy. What does the Lord require of
thee? To love mercy. Do you love mercy? And then third, to do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God. It was said of Enoch that he
walked with God. I love to think of this. He walked
with God. Every believer walks with God.
There's no such thing as a believer who doesn't walk with God. Some
seemingly with a skip, others with a limp, but they all walk
with God. Enoch walked with God. 300 years he walked with God. And the scripture says he was
not for God took him. Now Enoch wasn't any different
than you or I. Enoch was a sinful man. He had
the same struggle with his own sin that you do. But the scripture
says He had this testimony that he pleased God. And does that
mean that Enoch had such a exemplary walk that God was so pleased
with him that he said, I'm gonna bring him into heaven. He's ready
for here. Doesn't mean that. I'm sure he did have an exemplary
walk, but that's not what that means. And the writer of the
Hebrews goes on to say, but without faith, he pleased God, but without
faith, it is. What's the next word? impossible
to please God. You show me a man with faith
in Christ, a man who looks to Christ only, who has nothing
else but Christ. And I'll show you a man who pleases
God. And I'll show you a man who walks with God. Now, how
is this walk to be walked? He said, this is what God requires
of you, to walk humbly, humbly with thy God. Considering his infinite greatness
and holiness and immensity and my own personal, present sinfulness. Is there any other way I could
walk with you? Then humbly? How can I walk any other way?
Now, what's the opposite of walking with humility? Pride. Pride. Did you know pride really is
the first sin? Someone may say unbelief. Well,
maybe so, but I guess pride and unbelief go together. I know
this. Eve was very attracted to having the same position as
God. If I eat this fruit, I'll be
like God. That's what Satan tempted her
with. You'll be like God. You'll know good and evil. She
thought, I can be independent of God. What a state of pride
that brought her to that. Pride is the first sin. Pride
is the most unreasonable sin. It's the most groundless sin.
It's the most irrational sin. You know, you can think of other
sins. I don't know how to put this, but you can understand
how a man could steal something if he was needing to feed his
family. You can understand that. You
know it's wrong, but you can understand that. You can understand
sins men can fall into because of the infirmity of their flesh.
And you understand that. That doesn't justify it. You
understand it. But pride is a groundless thing. It's a groundless thing. It's so stupid. What do you have
that you didn't receive? Who makes you to differ from
another? Pride is such a What a groundless
sin. Pride is the most evil, pride
is the most evil sin. You remember when God said six
things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are abomination to him.
What's the first thing he mentioned? A proud look and a haughty spirit. Pride. goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before the fall. And maybe because of all this,
pride being the first sin, the most unreasonable sin, and the
most evil sin, it may also be the most humbling sin when I'm
made to see that I've got so much pride in me right now. Pride. The Lord Jesus Christ was meek,
is meek, and lowly in heart. And there's not a drop of pride
in him. How humiliating that I could
be proud. What does God require of thee? To walk by faith. humbly with
thy God. Now all three of these things
go together. If God's justified to you, you do justly. And you
know, you understand the gospel then. You understand the gospel. And you know what? You're gonna
love mercy. Oh, you're gonna love mercy. And by the grace
of God, you're gonna walk humbly with thy God. That's what God
requires of me and you. And let me remind you of this.
Whatever it is he requires, he provides. So we would all do well to ask
him for this. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would take this word and bless it to our good. Lord,
how thankful we are that our record in thy son is doing justly. Lord, deliver us from seeking
our own happiness and our own satisfaction. Teach us to deny
ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow thy son. Lord,
by your grace, by your grace, cause us to do what's right.
And Lord, how we love being saved by your mercy. We pray that we
might be merciful people and Lord give us grace to walk in
lowliness, to walk humbly with our God, deliver us from this
wretched sin of pride that is so we're so filled with. Lord, we confess it. We pray
for forgiveness and cleansing for Christ's sake. Bless this
time together. In Christ's name we pray.