what god requires

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05  Taking  God  Seriously  –  June  26,  2011    

WHAT GOD REQUIRES Micah 6:1-8

There is an event that has dominated everything on TV over the last month. It has been discussed on news reports, hour long specials, talk shows – it’s a wonder it hasn’t appeared on the ESPN highlights. It is the Casey Anthony trial. I don’t want to go into the details of that trial but I simply want to say the trials captivate us. They have always been part of our national interest. Trying to understand why a person does what they do and whether or not the accused is guilty, and what will the punishment be if they are convicted… captivates our interest. In our passage, there is also a trial. Look at v.1-2, “Hear now what the Lord is saying, "Arise, plead your case before the mountains, And let the hills hear your voice. 2 "Listen, you mountains, to the indictment of the Lord, And you enduring foundations of the earth, Because the Lord has a case against His people; Even with Israel He will dispute.” In this trial, God is the aggrieved party. Micah is God's attorney. The people of Israel are the defendants. And the mountains make up the jury. Now if you wonder why God calls the mountains as His witnesses, it’s because they have existed since the beginning, they have witnessed everything that has transpired, they know what has taken place. Next, God presents His accusation in v.3. "My people, what have I done to you, And how have I wearied you? Answer Me.” God asks, “What have I done to you? Why have you abandoned Me? Why do you worship gods other than Me? Why aren't you faithful to Me? Why have you substituted material things, ambition, earthly pleasure for Me? What has caused you to become weary of Me? Why have I become a burden to you.”

Then in v.4-5 the Lord lays out His case that He has always been faithful, kind, compassionate, loving to the people of Israel. He presents four examples, four evidences. • • • •

He brought out of slavery from Egypt. He gave them great leaders. He protected them from the stratagems of their enemies. He brought them to the Promised Land.

To this the people of Israel respond in v.6-7. Note, and we will look at the meaning of this later, that their response is presented in the first person. “With what shall I come to the Lord And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? 7 Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” The people answer. “How am I supposed to come to you? I've been making sacrifices. I've been doing things to please You. Do You want more? What if I upped the ante? How about more burnt offerings? What about thousands of rams, would they be enough? Or 10,000 rivers of oil, would that suffice? What if I sacrificed my child, will that be sufficient?” In other words, “What exactly is it you want from us?” Now the prophet Micah, as God's attorney, informs the Israelites what God requires in v.8. Micah says God has already told them what He wants. “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”

05  Taking  God  Seriously  –  June  26,  2011    

What does God want from you and from me? The word “require” insinuates an intense search. God is searching for something in my heart. And it is something that is always in vogue, something that is perpetual, something that He has always demanded from His people. The fact is Jehovah is a God of requirements. There are certain things that He demands from us. If you entered into the Christian life thinking that knowing God was simply receiving salvation with nothing attached to it, you are mistaken. You bring nothing to God for salvation but salvation, genuine salvation requires something from you. What does God require? “…to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” This morning I want to focus on the question Israel posed to God in v.6a. “With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high?” i.e. “How do I worship God so the He is pleased? What does God demand from me as I live in His presence? What is true religion, what is true worship?” I. This Is a Surprising Question! One of the great controversies in the church for the last 10 to 20 years has not been a theological question, although it has theological implications, but a practical question, “How do we worship?” In the last several decades the controversy of the mechanics of worship has split more Baptist churches than any doctrinal question. Should we have traditional worship or contemporary worship or should we combine both in what’s called a blended worship. Should we clap or not? Should we have song books or not? How should we worship God?

The question Israel poses to God in v.6 is surprising question because of all the people who should know how to worship God it should have been Israel. In fact in the OT the entire book of Leviticus is a how to book on worship! It details everything there is to know on Jewish worship. In fact it is so detailed it is boring! And there's nothing worse, by the way, than boring worship. Read the book of Leviticus and you will see how meticulous God is in telling the Israelites how to worship. And here they asked the question “With what shall I come to the Lord And bow myself before the God on high?” as if God had never said a word to them! Another sad aspect of this question is that these people are doing the things that were prescribed in the book of Leviticus at the very time they ask this question. And here's the key. They lost worship in the midst of worshiping! And so often, we do the same. We come to church on Sunday morning, we go through the motions, we go through the ceremonies, the Baptist “liturgy,” we do all the things we consider biblically important, and in the midst of all that we lose what it really means to worship God. It is a surprising question. How sad it is to come to church on Sunday morning and to go through all the gestures and mechanics of worship and then leave this place having never met with God! You see it is one thing to come before the altar, the Jews did that repeatedly when they offered their sacrifices, but it is an entirely different thing to come before God. It is one thing to come into this physical sanctuary, is another thing to come into the heavenly sanctuary. How often do we come to this place of worship but leave without worshiping? We come to worship but leave empty.

05  Taking  God  Seriously  –  June  26,  2011    

And so the Israelites ask, “With what shall I come to the Lord And bow myself before the God on high?” Not only was it a surprising question… II. It Is a Personal Question! God addresses this passage to the entire nation of Israel, yet when the nation responds, and Micah records their words, he records it in the first person. It is not that God is speaking to one person, but it shows us that when you come to God you may come to Him as a member of the nation, or a member of a church, but you worship Him individually. Notice how Micah poses their answer, “With what shall I come to the Lord And bow myself before the God on high?” And that is the question we must ask ourselves as we come here to worship the Lord. We should NOT pose the question “How are WE going to worship God today,” but instead ask the question “How am I going to worship God today.” We get so wrapped up, for example, in the controversy of music, in the controversy of styles, in the controversy of sounds, in the controversy of volume, but the question is not what is going on around me. The question is “What is happening in me! How shall I come before the Lord!” Notice Micah’s answers in v.8. He again answers in the first person, “He has told you, O man [an individual], what is good; and what does the Lord require of you…” Worship is personal! You don't worship by osmosis. There is no such thing as vicarious worship. You and I sit here but sitting here doesn’t equal worship. You have not really come to God, you have not really entered into His presence, unless you walk away saying I have encountered the living God and I have been touched and spoken to by the Almighty.

Well the Israelites ask, “What am I to do?” And they offer some suggestions. 1. Do I come before the Lord with a burnt offering of a oneyear-old calf? Or… 2. Do I increase my worship and offer thousands of rams or 10,000 rivers of oil? 3. What if I go all out and sacrifice my child, the very “fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Now those are the three suggestions they propose. What they're implying is this. The way you approach God is with gifts! Notice that they keep upping the ante. First they offer that which is expected - burnt offering of one-year-old calves. That was one of the offerings that God prescribed they should bring before Him. They start on the lowest level. But this person is really serious about pleasing God. So he ups the ante by proposing an extraordinary offering. Can you imagine bringing 1,000 rams into the Temple? That would be impressive! God would have to be impressed with that kind of an offering. How about 10,000 rivers of oil? You’d have to be an Arab sheik to bring that much oil as an offering! Surely that would show God how sincere, how earnest I am! This person thinks that to get on God's top 10 list, a calf isn’t really that impressive but 1,000 rams! Nobody else in the church can match that! But God doesn't answer. “Okay Lord, then what I'll do is bring my firstborn and sacrifice my firstborn child to You. That will impress you?” That isn't an expected sacrifice, that isn't an extraordinary sacrifice, that’s an extreme sacrifice!

05  Taking  God  Seriously  –  June  26,  2011    

“Lord surely that would impress you. What more could I possibly do to show my worship of you than to sacrifice “The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” What this person is saying is “Lord give me some great thing to do. Let me make a splash! Give me some sensational, spectacular thing I can do to impress You and everyone else.” Sadly this person has lost his reason. When you come to the conclusion that God is impressed with amounts, large quantities, you have lost your ability to determine the will of God. Also, when this person brings up the sacrifice of the firstborn, nowhere in Scripture does God ever even hint He wants the sacrifice of human being. Other OT religions thought they could impress God with the sacrifice of a human being, but God never even implied He wanted the sacrifice of human being. This man so wants to make a splash with God that he thinks of something that God absolutely abhorred, that God never asked for, that God never wanted. God is not impressed when we incorporate into our worship non-biblical exercises or activities. The other day I overheard two individuals (I was not at FBCR, I was at another “religious” facility) who were talking about incorporating “body prayer” into their prayer retreat. Google “body prayer” you will find a wealth of information about how you can move your body as you worship nature, or meditate, or do yoga. It’s new age mumbo jumbo. These two people were discussing was using “body prayer” in a Christian prayer retreat as a means of drawing closer to God! Let me repeat, God is not impressed when we incorporate into our worship non-biblical exercises.

One truth we must understand is that God is not impressed with the things that impress us! III. It is a Question That Has Already Been Answered! Micah’s answer in v.8 is a stern rebuke. In effect he is saying, “Why are you making these stupid suggestions? Why are you even speaking? What are you talking about sacrificing your first born? God doesn't want some spectacular sacrifice. In fact you don't even have to worship Him in Temple!” Scholars say that this is the high water mark of the OT. This is one of the great statements of the Word of God. There is probably no other verse in the OT that is as high morally and ethically as this verse. God reduces all of life into three basic ingredients. What is God searching for in my heart? What is God looking for in me? Here it is! “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” “But Lord how about all the things we can do for You?” God answers, “I'm not looking for spiritual gymnastics or extreme offerings. Here's what I want to find when I look into your heart” - ”justice, kindness, humbly!” Let’s look at these briefly. A. Do Justice. Justice is a norm, the standard of right and wrong. A thumbnail translation of this statement is quite simple. God is simply saying “I just want you to do what's right!” I want your relationships with other people to be based on what is right. And don't deviate from what is right. In Exodus 23:1-9 we find God's legal standards for Israel’s judges. "You must not spread a false report. Do not join

05  Taking  God  Seriously  –  June  26,  2011    

the wicked to be a malicious witness. 2 "You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice. 3 Do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit… 8 You must not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clearsighted and corrupts the words of the righteous.”

Your heart inclines to show kindness. That is just your bent, that is your default reaction. You're always looking for a way to show kindness to someone!

You can boil down God's instruction on justice to three simple statements.

Do you want justice? If God exhibited justice towards me I’d be in Hell. I don’t want justice, I want God’s mercy.

Watch out for and resist the power of money. Watch out for and resist the pressure of the majority. Watch out for and resist pity for the minority.

Well, how can God show justice and mercy at the same time? Through Jesus Christ! God poured out His justice on His own Son that He might show mercy to us.

• • •

God says to these judges, “Always do what is right!” The old Methodist evangelist Bob Jones used to say, “Do right though the stars fall!” Turn to Psalm 15:1-4. Here we see what a righteous person is like. “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? 2 He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; 3 He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; 4 In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the Lord; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change.” That’s tough! When you take a loss to do what’s right, that’s being just, right. Could you imagine the change would take place in our world, and even in our church, if we simply did what was right! Doing right, being just is our duty. But doing your duty isn't enough. God also says, B. Love Kindness\Mercy. When it comes to showing compassion, mercy, kindness, we are to love to do it.

Now here's the dilemma. Most of the time when you show justice you can't show mercy. Right?

Turn to the very familiar verse in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We all know that verse - but we shouldn’t stop there. Keep reading, “They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Him as a propitiation [GK hilasterion which means "covering." On the great day of atonement the high priest carried the blood of the sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it the "mercy-seat" as a picture of “removal of God’s wrath” by the blood of Jesus.”]   through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 He presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.” The redemptive work of God through His Son Jesus the Messiah is the most amazing event in the history of the universe. No human could ever have thought of such a plan. God brings a just sentence of death on all of mankind, for all have sinned. For God to be just He must judge sin. Therefore He must judge us. But God wants to extend his mercy\kindness to us.

05  Taking  God  Seriously  –  June  26,  2011    

How can He do so? He provides a sinless sacrifice, His only Son, to atone for the sins of the human race. Jesus sacrifices Himself on our behalf, so that while God judges our sin in Christ Jesus by grace He offers us His mercy. God is able to be both just and the justifier (the one who declares us forgiven) through Jesus’ sacrifice. (New American Commentary, Volume 27: Romans) God shows us mercy, not to impress us, but because He loves us. In the same way, we are not to show mercy to impress others. We are to show mercy because we love it. Don't you get tired of important people, well-known people, doing great acts of mercy but making sure the press is there to record it. Jesus said when you do good don't let anybody else know and then your Father in Heaven will reward you openly! How can we possibly always do what is right and at the same time show mercy? Well that's why God adds a third thing. C. Walk humbly with your God. If you leave this one off the first two become mere human ethic. There has to be a right relationship with God before you can do the first two.

“Walking” with God means to establish a deep personal relationship with God. Walking implies that I live in a way that keeps step with God. I actually walk with God step by step each day. I maintain a close relationship with God so that I can have fellowship with him. “Humbly” implies lowliness. It gives a picture of being stooped or bent over. When I walk with God in lowliness, in humility, then I can do what's right because I have no agenda but His agenda. And I can love kindness because God has been so kind and merciful to me.

If I walk humbly with my God, then and only then can I do right and love mercy. Points to Ponder: ü God is not impressed with our offerings, ü God is not impressed with our actions, ü God delights in justice, mercy, humility. That is the sum total of a life that pleases God.