Myself, sometimes I still have
difficulty finding these minor prophets. So if you can't find
it, if you don't have a Bible, there's one there in the pew.
There's a pew Bible. If you can't find Micah, M-I-C-A-H, just turn
over to the index in the front, and he'll give you the page of
Micah. And I want to begin reading in Micah, and I almost called
it Micah's Gospel. And that would be fine if I said
this is Micah's gospel, the gospel according to Micah, let's just
call it that. All of these prophets have a way of preaching the gospel
to us. They tell of the judgment of
God against sin. They tell of what we are by nature.
They tell of the Messiah, the Christ, to obtain redemption.
They tell of regeneration. They tell of us coming to faith
in Him. That is what the book of Micah is about, the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Let me begin in verse 6 and read
down through verse 8. Then we will review this few
chapters very quickly and come back to my text. How shall I come before the Lord
and bow myself before the Most High, the High God? Shall I come
before Him with burnt offerings, with cags of the first year,
the year old? Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall
I give my firstborn for my transgression? the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul? He hath showed you, O man, what
is good. And what does the Lord require
of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God?" Now, look back in chapter 1 right quickly. The Lord begins
this book, speaking to this prophet. by stating that he has a controversy
with the Jews, what he had with the Jews he has against every
man. He says here in verse 2 of chapter 1, Here are all you people,
hearken, listen to me, O earth, and all that therein is, and
let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his
holy temple, a witness against you. God doesn't come to men
and witness for them. He would if He could, but He's
a truthful God. So when He comes to men, what
does He first do? The first thing He must do is
witness against us. I am here, He says, to witness
against you. And He speaks here of judgment
in verses 3 and verse 4, and here's the way He says it. For
behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come
down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the
mountains shall be molten, shall melt under his feet, under him,
and the valleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire, and as
waters that are poured down." And he tells in verse 5, he tells
the controversy that he has, look in verse 5, against this
For the transgression of Jacob is all of this, and for the sins
of the house of Jacob. For the sins of the house of
Israel, what is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places
of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? His controversy was against these
people because they had sinned. And he tells us here in chapter
1, in verse 7, he begins to relate some of their sins in particular.
Bob just read to us about it in the 44th chapter of Isaiah.
Look in verse 7 of chapter 1. And all the graven images thereof
shall be beaten to pieces, And all the heirs thereof shall be
burned with a fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate."
Then he comes over to chapter 2, and here are some more sins
that he relates. Look at chapter 2 and verse 1.
"...Woe unto them that devise iniquity! They work evil upon
their bed, and when the morning is light, they practice it because
it is in the power of their hands." What is it? They covet fields,
and they take them by violence, and houses, and take them away. So they oppress a man and his
house, every man and his inheritance." Covetousness, violence, and oppression,
and idolatry. That's some of the charges that
he brings against them. Look here in chapter 3. Look
in chapter 3. He begins here in verse 8. Not
only does he confront the people in general, but here he confronts
the princesses, the presidents, the governors, the mayors, the
chief people, the leaders of the country. Look what he says
in verse 8. But truly I am full of the power of the Spirit of
the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob
his transgression, and to Israel his sins. Share this, I pray
you, you heads of the house of Jacob. And you princesses of
the house of Israel that abhor judgment and pervert equity,
you pervert justice, you pervert what's right, they build up Zion
with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. How they're building
their big churches. How they're building their big
organizations. You know how they're doing that
in our day, brothers and sisters? By making merchandise of men's
souls. by perverted justice. Look what
he says on in chapter 4, and look in verse 1 and verse 2. Here now, he's been pronouncing
their sins and God's judgment against him. Now he begins to
predict a better day, a gospel day. And look what he says in
verse 1. But in the last days, God has spoken to us by his Son
in these last days. It shall come to pass that the
mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in
the top of the mountain, and it shall be exalted above the
hills, and people shall flow into it. And many nations shall
come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach
us of his ways, and we will walk in his path. For the law, the
gospel, shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem." Where did the gospel originate? When it went
forth to the Gentile nations, where did it come from? It came
out of Jerusalem, didn't it? He told his apostles, you tarry
at Jerusalem until you be undued with power from on high, and
they left Jerusalem and went out into all the world preaching
the gospel. That's where the gospel came
from. They're out of Jerusalem. And then in chapter 5, in verses
1 and 2, look at this. Here's the Messiah. Here's the
coming of Christ. And look what he says in verse
1, chapter 5. Now gather thyself in troops,
O daughter of troops. He hath laid siege against us.
They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. That's what they did. Pulled
out his beard. made long the furrows on his
back. But thou, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he come forth unto thee
that shall be ruler in Israel, whose going forth hath been of
old from everlasting." That's the Christ, ain't it? That's
the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is He? He's the ruler. God has given all power into
His hands. He's the Lord of glory. And His
goings have been of old from everlasting. And look here what He says in
verse 4. He presents Christ as a great
shepherd, protecting His people and securing them and feeding
them. And He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God, And they shall
abide, for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth."
He's going to say to his people, come and dine, come and dine. He feeds them. He leads them
beside still water. He causes them to lie down in
green pastures. He's the great shepherd. And
how successful he's been. And he will be to the end of
the earth. And he finishes chapter 5, verses
10 through verse 15, and look at this, with judgment. And it
shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cut
off thy horses out of the midst of thee, I'll destroy your chariots,
I'll cut off the cities of thy land and throw them down, throw
down all thy strongholds, and I will cut off the witchcraft
out of thy land, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers. Thy
graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images
out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the
work of your hands. And I will pluck up thy groves
out of the midst of thee, so will I destroy thy city. And
I will execute vengeance and anger and fury upon the heathens,
such as they have not heard." Judgment. God's angry with sin, going to
judge it? The Christ who has suffered and
obtained eternal redemption. That's what this book here is
about. And he comes here to chapter
6. And he says, in effect, here
in verse 1, look at this. Have you heard what I've said?
Have you heard what I've said, old Israel? Have you heard what
I've said, old Jacob and Samaria, about judgment, about your sin,
about the Christ? and redemption by him. Have you
heard? Arise, please your case before
the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O mountains,
the Lord's controversy and His strong foundations of the earth,
for the Lord hath a controversy with His people, and He will
plead with Israel." And he goes on to say here in
verse three, O my people, what have I done to you? And wherein
have I wearied you? Testify against me. I brought
you up out of the land of Egypt, and I redeemed you out of the
house of servants. And I sent before you Moses,
and Aaron, and Narem. O my people, remember what Balak
king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Borom answered
him from Shittim unto Gilgal. that you may know the righteousness
of the Lord." What's he saying here? He's saying this. I've
brought some charges against you. I've laid your sin before
your face. I've told you my judgment upon
you. I've showed you the Messiah. I've told you of Him, the coming
of Christ, and redemption by Him. I want you to rise and stand
before me and plead your case. Here's what I've said. I want
you to stand now before me and plead your case. You know something? God is a just God. But He's a reasonable God. He never He never, that I know
of in all the Bible, mistreats any individual. His ways are
never unequal. He always permits a man to stand
up and say, you've done me wrong. And he says then, go ahead and
prove it. He says to these people here,
listen. He says here in verse 3, O my
people, what have I done to you? Have I mistreated you in any
way? I want you to stand and tell me how I've done it. I brought
you up out of Israel. When the false prophet pleaded
against you and wanted me to curse you, I overrode his curses
and blessed you. Show me where I've ever done
you wrong. Well, I tell you what, the judgment
is going to be amazing. The judgment will be amazing.
When everybody stands before the Lord God and gives an account
of themselves, he will prove to every one of us that in all
his dealings with his creatures, never one time did he ever do
anybody wrong. Never one time did he do anybody
in a way of injustice. I remember we used to go to Muncie
Jail and preach to those fellows up there. And we always ran into
somebody who interrupted us and said, I'm in here because somebody
falsely accused me. I shouldn't be in here. Somebody
has done me wrong. And I always told them, I said,
you know, that may be so. You may be in here by false accusation,
but God will never treat you that way. When you stand before
Him, He'll give you opportunity to state your case. He'll do
what's right with you. And that always stopped them.
That always stopped them. I had a sneaking hunch. I had
a sneaking hunch that they understood. God will do right by man. They
stood before the Lord on the Day of Judgment, there at the
wedding ceremony, and there was a man there that didn't have
on a wedding garment. Remember that? And the Lord didn't
just say, bind him hand and foot and get that man out of here.
You remember how He handled that situation. He said, Friend, Friend,
how come you in here without a wedding garment on? If you
can plead your case, I'm willing to listen to it. I mean you no
harm. I'm not going to treat you in
a way that's unjust and unkind. Stand before me and tell me why
you're in here dressed inappropriate for this occasion." And the man
stood speechless. He stood speechless. One thing
I've noticed about the judgment of God in the Scriptures is that
they have judgment. He always gives people the opportunity,
if they've got any controversy with Him, now come and stand
before me and plead it. He called them workers of iniquity.
But he said, if you see otherwise, then tell me what you've done.
They said, oh, we've cast out devils in your name. We've preached
in your name. We've done many wonderful works
in your name. But he started examining them.
He said, look at your motives. You did it for your glory. You
did it to save yourself. And he convinced them right there.
It'll be amazing, won't it? When the Lord says, as He says
here, What have I done to you? I tell
you, people in this world, while they're good and healthy, can
bring many controversies against the God of glory, but He'll be
different when we stand before Him, and we have to prove it.
And He'll give us sufficient opportunity to do that. He comes here in verses 4 and
verse 5, and that's what He tells us. And He leaves them without
excuse. He leaves them without excuse. That's where he brought them
to. That's where he brought them to. And I tell you, when he does
this, when he confronts a man with these things, and shuts
our mouths, and leaves us without any excuse, and we realize, I
had no idea you were so good to me. I had no idea he was so
good to me. That's why he would be on the
judgment. Remember the fellow that came here and preached to
us about God, the Lord hardening Pharaoh's heart. And remember
how he said he hardened Pharaoh's heart. He was so good to him. He was so good to Pharaoh. And
that's why he hardened Pharaoh's heart. He would be amazed when
men stand to give account on the day of judgment, and they'll
have to acknowledge. Boy, you're so good to me. Man, you gave me a job. You gave
me a family. You gave me health. You gave
me my breath. You gave me fruitful seasons.
You kept me from all these dangers. I had no idea how good you were
to me. No, I ain't got a thing to say
against you. If you downed me, I'll say this,
you're right. You're right. That's the way
the judgment will end. When men are saved, they'll praise
Him for His mercy. And when men are downed, they'll
praise Him for His justice. And nobody will go to hell having
a controversy about that. Every mouth will be stopped. And it seems like we come here
now to my text. And it's seemingly what happened
to these people here. Because look here in verse 6
again. Look at my text. They begin to
ask this question. How shall I come before the Lord
and bow myself before the High? What seemed like the Lord had
won this argument with these people, and some of them at least,
seemed to shut their mouth. And they began to ask this question,
Oh, how can I come before the Lord? I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. He's taught me
that he has a controversy against me, and I've tried and I've thought
for sure I could come before him and plead my cause, but I
found out he's right and I'm wrong. And then we come and he
says, oh, how? How can I come before the Lord?
Boy, the conviction of guilt and a sense of pending judgment
will put men upon inquiring the terms of peace. Did you know
that? When men are convinced that they're
under judgment and they're confronted with their deserved guilt, what
do they do then? They begin to say, oh, how? Is there a way I can come and
stand before the Lord and be accepted of Him and be saved
and be justified? And they said here, and they
weren't worried about others, were they? How could I? How could
I? I ain't concerned with what you're
going to do. I'm concerned about myself. What
am I going to do? What will this man do and what
will that man do? No, they got beyond all of that. They were
concerned about themselves. How shall I come before the Lord? Well, those Jews on the day of
Pentecost, remember those Jews that just a few days before,
By their wicked hands had crucified the very Lord of glory." Spit
in his face. When Pilate was ready to turn
him loose, they said, crucify him, crucify him. He's a perverter
of the nation. Killed him by the wicked hand.
Now Peter confronts them with this sin. That you've done this
and God has charged you with it. What do they do? Their excuses
is gone. Then they were pricked in their
hearts. And then they said, oh, what
can we do? Give us some terms of peace and
pardon. Tell us how we can come before
the God that has proved our guilt. Is there any hope? Can we be
reconciled to God? Can we be forgiven of our sin?
That's what they're saying here. And notice this in verse 6. Boy,
these men never believed in God before, but they believe in Him
now. But not only do they believe in Him, look at the kind of God
they believe in. Look in verse 6. How shall we
come before the Lord and bow ourselves before the Most High? The High God. Not a God, or not even the God,
but the High. He's so high that he has to humble
himself to behold the things that's in heaven. How much more
to humble himself to behold somebody like us, the high God. As the heavens are higher above
the earth, so are my ways than your ways, and my thoughts than
your thoughts. The most high rules in the kingdom
of men and sets over it whomsoever he will. And listen to this,
the inhabitants of this world are counted as nothing in his
sight. I praise and extol the King of
Heaven. That's what the mighty King said.
But when the Lord sent him out into a field to eat grass like
an oxen, he comes to himself and he said, Oh, I praise him.
I extol the King of Heaven. all whose works are true, and
those who walk in the right he is able to obey." Who is God? He is the High God. He is the
High God. A man can hold any old debasing
opinion of God as long as Satan and sin fills his soul. But let
heaven set up its court in his conscience. Let him be called
by the judge of heaven to hear the verdict read against him.
That man will immediately begin to speak highly of God. And he'll desire an access into
his presence, not to boast, but to bow. Oh, tell me how I can
come and bow down before the High God. I tell you, a man's ready to
start worshiping then, when he's finished bragging and he goes
to bowing. Everybody who approaches God
bows. I tell you, it just seems like
a natural thing to do. You even want to do it in your
body. I remember when the Lord wrung my conscience out, I found
myself laying on the floor, saying, Lord, plead my cause. You just
want to get down, don't you? Bow down before Him. Love and
adore Him. Bow. Bow. Hannah and I went over to Saul
at Tarshish. The Lord said, Behold, he is
praying, Ananias. You do not have to be afraid
of him. He is praying. You do not have to be afraid of a man
who is praying. Ananias went over there and he found Paul.
And what position was he in? On his face. On his face. And he had to beg him to get
up. He had to pull him up off the
floor. He said, The Lord sent me unto you to tell you that
you are a chosen vessel. And now get up. Ain't that what
he said? Get up! Get up off your face. Why was
he down? The Lord of glory had appeared
to him. I love what Paul said to Corinthian church. He said,
you guys ought to quit speaking in tongues. He said, you're just
confusing people. You ought to get up one at a
time and preach the gospel. And he said, when you do that,
if there comes a lost person in your midst, and you are preaching
the gospel to him, the secrets of his heart are made manifest. God has made known unto him his
sin. God has revealed the way of salvation. And what does that man do? He
has fallen down on his face. Worship God. That is where you
worship him at. Not just his face. It's the face
of your heart. You get down. You get down. Boy, he mentions two things here.
And this shows us what makes him serious about asking this
question, how can I come into the Lord's presence? How can
I come into the presence of this high God? These two things here
he would begin to see and notice. You find it in verse 6 and verse
7. First of all, it was the One who he was coming to. The Lord. The Lord. How can I come before
the L-O-R-D? How can I come into the presence
of the High God? You may approach Him in my presence. You may approach Him as the President
of the United States or some great king. And it may not matter
how you're dressed or how well-mannered you are, but I tell you, when
we think about coming and standing before the eternal God, that's
serious. But look here what else in verse
7. Oh, here's something. Here's something they say. Look
in verse 7. Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands or rams with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give
my firstborn for my transgression, and the fruit of my body for
the sin of my soul?" Oh, he sees God is high, but he sees something
else. He sees these sins lurking deep
within his soul. Oh, he says, I've got a problem
here, boys. I've got a serious problem. I'm coming into this
high God's presence, and oh, I see these sins lurking in my
soul. Not what I've done with my hands.
It's not what I've searched out with my eyes. It's not where
I went with my feet. It's much more serious than that.
It's my soul. I sin with my soul. Out of my heart has perceived
these evil thoughts. This idolatry and this adultery
and these blasphemies. Oh, he said, it's the sin of
my soul. I've got a problem. How? How
can I approach into such a high God? And he asks these questions,
doesn't he? In the last portion of chapter 6, the last portion
of verse 6 and verse 7. Shall I come before him with
burnt offerings and calves? of a year old with thousands
of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oil? Oh, when a man is convinced
thoroughly of his sin and the evil of it and the misery and
danger that it has brought him into, I tell you he would give
the world if he could obtain peace and pardon of his sin. Isn't that what he is saying
here? Oh, just tell me. what it's going to cost to obtain
mercy with this God, to obtain peace and pardon. Tell me how
I can get in His presence and be accepted. Tell me how I can
remove His judgment from off of me. And I tell you, if it's
the world, I'll give everything I've got. That's what He's saying. Just tell me. But if a man could give everything
he had, I mean, if he owned the world and he could give everything
he had, he can't meet the demands of justice. And he cannot atone
for the sins of his soul. The cost is too great, is it
not? But not only is it too great that man don't have wherewithal
to pay it, but the cost is too precious. Oh, he said here, what
if I bring my firstborn? What if I go get my firstborn
son, my strength, my beauty, my bragging rights, the one I'm
going to leave everything to? What if I bring him and offer
him? He is the most precious thing
I have. Will my firstborn do it? No. We can bring every precious thing
we have, and that won't do it. That won't atone. That won't
make us accepted before God. I'll tell you what will though.
His firstborn will. His firstborn will. Jesus Christ
the Lord. One drop of His blood will do
for you what rivers of oil will not do for you. His sufferings,
the sufferings and death of God's firstborn will bring you into
this high God's presence and bring you there in peace and
pardon and leave you in good standing with Him. You are not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold. but with a precious blood, with
a precious blood, in whom we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sin. How can I get into His presence?
How can God accept me? Well, it's not anything you own.
You can't buy it. You can't earn it. Give your
body to be burned. Give all your goods to feed the
poor. You cannot earn your way into
God's presence. If you try to get there without
a sacrifice that he's pleased with, I'm telling you, his wrath
will fall on your head, and he'll damn you forever. What he requires,
he's already been provided. And what he's provided, he's
accepted. He's our dear and blessed son. Peter told Simon the saucer. Your money perished with you,
Simon, because you thought the gift of God could be purchased. You can't purchase. Now in verse
8, I want to say three things right quickly here. Here the
Lord is going to reveal His mind, and He is going to give us some
information. Look what He says in verse 8. He hath showed you,
O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you,
and he gives them three things here. Number one is this, to
do justly. To do justly. This word justly
means to render an accurate verdict according to truth and facts. To render an accurate, accurate,
accurate verdict according to truth and according to facts. What does God require of us?
He requires us to walk before Him humbly. Before we can do
that, we're going to have to render a verdict. We're going to have to do justice. If you and I do justly before
God, then we must be in agreement with God, who is just. We must render the same just
verdict that God has rendered. How can two walk together except
they be agreed? Whatever God says, we must agree
with. When God says, I show this to
be true, we must say, that's our verdict too. When God says,
this is right, then we must say, I agree with that. God is just,
and to render a just verdict, we must judge the same way He
judges. You say, Bruce, what in the world are you talking
about? This. This. What is God's verdict towards
us? What does He say about us? He
has collected all this evidence, you say. He goes around in His
eyes to see all the sons of men. And he puts it down in his book.
He's a prosecutor. And he weighs all the evidence. And then you stand there before
him and he says, this is the evidence against you. This is
evidence. And I want you to hear it. Then
you have to do justly and say, I agree. Or you have to do unjustly
and say, no, I can't agree with that. Now God has collected all
the evidence, and here's what He says about you, and here's
what He says about me. Whatsoever things the law of
God says, it says to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped, and the world become guilty, guilty before
God. Now, that's the verdict. Here's
the evidence. Listen to this. Listen to this. Do you agree with the verdict?
Do you agree with the verdict? Here's God's verdict. You're
guilty. You're guilty. And here's the
evidence. Listen to this. That we are all
wicked by our very natures. Now, just let me... I'm the Lord
and I'm looking down at... And I said, Clarence, this is
the evidence. I've searched your heart. I watched
you when your mother conceived you. And this is what I've seen. You're wicked by your very nature.
Your mother conceived you in sin. And when you come forth
from her womb, you were speaking lies. That's the evidence that
I've seen. You went astray as soon as you
were born. Lord, I didn't know that. Yes,
I was there. I was there. Your heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Satan has deceived you, sin has
deceived you, and your own heart has deceived you. That's the
evidence. He tells us that we are so bad
that we cannot do good, that we are so inclined to evil that
it's impossible for us to do one good thing, that we all, all of us, are as
an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy,
minstrels, And the wind, our iniquities
like the wind, have taken us away. Oh, this is awful, ain't
it? And what's so awful is, it's
the truth. It's God, the judge of all the
earth, that has brought these charges against us. And he says
this, I cannot endear for you to stand before me with any confidence
in your flesh. My eyes are too pure. to behold
your sin, I cannot look upon iniquity. And if justice has
its full way, then I'm going to quit my glittering sword,
and I'm going to cut you asunder and cast you off into eternal
hell." Now, how does a man go about
doing justice? I've showed you, old man, what's
good, and here's what I require of you to do justice. How then
do we do justice? This is the way. I agree with
you. I am in full agreement with you. I am a sinner. And I can't even
look back on my life and find out when I first began to sin.
Oh God, You know. But this one thing I do know,
that I may appear good to my neighbor. And they may call me
just and upright, but I know this when I see you and stand
before you, the high God, I am indeed a sinner worthy of hell. And if you put me there, I'll
just say, you're right, you're right, you're right. I have a
Jewish friend that calls me sometimes, and he called me one day and
he said, I don't believe that God would be just in punishing
men for all eternity for their sins. That man has never done
justly a day in his life because he doesn't agree with the just
God's verdict. Listen to this. Remember when
David had fallen into sin with Bathsheba, had killed her husband,
and lied about it? The Lord sent Nathan the prophet
to him. and said, you've sinned against
me, bud. You're the man. You're the man.
I find you guilty. I find you guilty. You've done
this and you've done that. You're guilty. You remember what
David said about it? Lord, I acknowledge my transgression. Against you and you only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And listen to this,
that you might be justified when you speak and clear when you
judge. That's what it is to do justly.
The best example I can find of it was when the Lord Jesus was
hanging on the cross in Psalms chapter 22. And he said, My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me? God had put the sins of all
his people on his Son, and there he hangs, forsaken of God. He
says, I cry unto you in the daytime, and you don't hear me. And in
this thick darkness, this night that has come upon me, I cry
unto you, but you're silent to me. You're silent. You won't
answer me. And then he says, "...but thou
art holy." That's what it is to do justice. It's agreeing
with God about what I am by my very nature and my very deed. I am a sinner worthy to go to
hell. That's it. And if a man hasn't
come there, I tell you, he's not yet done what God requires
of him. This naturally brings us to the
second thing, doesn't it? Look at this. To do justly, and
look at this, and to love mercy. Oh, this naturally brings us
there, doesn't it? You take a self-condemned man,
you take a man who has convinced, he's self-convinced, and he's
self-loathing, You left that man here at mercy. And I tell
you what, he'll love it. He'll love it. I've been loving
mercy for 35 years. I'm looking forward to mercy
when I leave this world. That old publican went up to
the temple and he's standing there beating on his chest. Oh,
I'd like to saw that. I'd love to saw him standing
there. Wouldn't him look up? Would he? Wouldn't even lift
a half. He just sat there with his head down, beating on his
chest. He had some misery in him. You know the mercy is for
the relief of the miserable. That's why we love it. What's
the matter with you, you old publican? I'm miserable. My sins
have made me miserable. I can't come into God's presence
because I'm filthy. I'm vile. Oh, have mercy upon
me. And the Lord Jesus said He went
down to his house. And he was shouting, and he was
leaping, and he was singing, and he went in and told his wife,
sweetheart, I've got another lover. I just want you to know
that. I'm in love with somebody else.
Who are you in love with? Mercy. I fall in love with mercy. Do you love mercy? Have you agreed with God that
what He owes you is eternal damnation? Oh, if you're self-condemned,
if you're self-loathing, you love mercy. You love mercy. Here's the way the covenant runs. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins and iniquities. Well, I remember no more. Sin
forgiven. Goodness and mercy shall follow
me. He's going to come right along
behind me. Why? Why would you want mercy following
you? When you look back over your life, what do you see? Don't you see a mess? Don't you
just see misery? I tell you, I quit talking about
everybody else. How could that sorry man do that?
Look what a bad life he's lived. Look at me. I look back over
my life. Look what a mess I've made. Look
at the hearts I've broken. Look at the people I've disappointed.
Look at my sins, my iniquities. Oh, I'll be happy, brothers and
sisters. You'll be happy if you can lay your head down on your
dying pillow And you look back over her life, and your heart's
broken, and you shed some tears, and you said, oh, I wish I hadn't
of did that. I wish I hadn't of done this.
Oh, my utter failure. I'm so unprofitable. I'm so worthless. And you land there with a broken
heart and an afflicted conscience. And mercy comes and whispers
in your ear. I have been following you all
the way. All the hearts that you broke,
I mended them. All the sins that you committed,
I washed them away. Fear not. Be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Oh,
mercy. Do you love mercy? Don't you
love mercy? I'm not talking about the mercy
now that you can earn, that you can marry. Jo's poor grandmother,
I reckon before she died, she had this concept of mercy. If
we be good enough, God will be merciful. I'm not talking about
that kind of mercy. I'm talking about mercy that
will relieve the miserable. Let me ask you this about mercy.
Do you like this kind of mercy? I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. And I'll have compassion on whom
I will have. Do you like that kind of mercy?
Do you like discriminating mercy? Do you like that kind where God
may come to one and say, I'm going to have mercy on you? I'm
going to pass by that one. I'm going to have mercy on this
one. I'm going to pass by that one. Do you like that kind of
mercy? You lack that mercy that is in the sovereign will of God
to dispense as He pleases. Oh, if you love mercy, you do.
You love all kinds of mercy. Look what he says in the last
portion of chapter 7. And I'm almost finished. Look
what he says in chapter 7 of Micah, verse 18. Who is a God,
likened to thee, that pardons iniquity? that passes by the
transgression of the remnant of his inheritance. He retains
not his anger for ever. Why? Because he delights in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities.
And you will cast all our sins unto the depths of the sea. Thou
wilt perform the truth unto Jacob, and the mercy that thou hast
promised to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from
the days of old." Do you love mercy? I tell you, if you are
a self-convinced, self-loathing sinner, you love mercy. That
just naturally brings me to my last point. In chapter 6, verse
8, and look at this. What does the Lord your God require
of you? To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God. When the Lord shows in us our
need of mercy, and He reveals this mercy of God in Christ,
You'll walk humbly. You'll walk humbly every day,
and you'll walk humbly all the day. And He's got a way of keeping
you humble. You take a man who is saved by
mercy, he has been saved by mercy, he is being saved by mercy, and
he hopes to be saved by mercy. Oh, every day he's going to walk
humbly with his God. Let me read you one scripture
real close with this. If you want to turn and read
it with me in Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 2. Moses was ready to go up to the
mountain and die. The children of Israel were ready
to go into the land of promise. They had wandered in the wilderness
for forty years. And look what he says in Deuteronomy
chapter 8 and verse 2. all the way which the Lord your
God led you these forty years in this wilderness, to humble
you, and to prove you, and to know what was in your heart. You tell me He don't know. Oh,
He knows. He's wanting you to know. He's
wanting you to know. Whether thou wouldest keep His
commandments or no. And He humbled you. and suffered
you to hunger, and he fed you with manna which you knew not. Neither did your fathers know
that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone,
but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Doesn't
that matter? May the Lord bless his message.