Micah 6:7-8 – What God Wants – Bible study

Micah 6:7-8 What God Wants If I were to ask you want you believe God wants from you, what would your answer be? Some might say, "Be saved. That would be right but is that all? Another might start to list so many things that we would have to get a notepad to remember them all. Are there so many? I believe these verse answer the question for us. In this verses, God list three things, just three things. Lets consider them. I. God expects us to walk or to live justly. A. Justly comes from justice. B. It is a legal term, a court room term. 1. In law, the goal is never perfection. It is beyond the ability of the law to treat everyone perfectly. The law does not even try. 2. The law attempts to set things as right as possible. a. Often, even that is impossible. b. If two people are in a case against one another, they both most likely telling their story in a way that shows them in the better light. (1) How is a judge supposed to know what is truth and what is not? (2) But that is his/her job. (3) And a judge should be selected because they have demonstrated wisdom, discernment, and understanding to do just such things. 3. So in legal affairs justice is to set things as right as possible. C. The word means about the same thing in matters of Gods Word. 1. Still, justice does not make things perfect. a. We are sinful people living in a sin cursed world. b. If justice meant things had to be perfect, wed all be in hell and the books would be closed. 2. Biblically, justice is not perfection. Justice is when things are set as right as possible. 3. To set things as right as possible, the law includes a remedy for sin. a. In the Old Testament, God established sacrifices. b. These sacrifices could not remove sin but they could hide sin until the supreme Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, came. 4. Leviticus details some of these sacrifices. a. Leviticus 1 – Burnt Offering – Sacrifice for sanctification b. Leviticus 2 – Meat Offering – Sacrifice for fellowship c. Leviticus 3 – Peace Offering – Sacrifice for thanksgiving and celebrating d. Leviticus 4 – Sin Offering – Sacrifice for sinning ignorantly e. Leviticus 5 – Trespass Offering – Sacrifice for sinning deliberately D. I go through all of this to point out what it means to live justly. 1. It did not mean to live without sin or sinless. 2. To live justly meant to live with your sins dealt with. E. There is another aspect of justification or justice that many Old Testament Jews chose to ignore. 1. To be just, the heart had to be right with God when those sacrifices were offered. 2. Being right with God was NEVER just a matter of killing an animal. 3. Old Testament believers had to humble themselves and make their hearts right with God. a. \#Is 1:11-20\ (1) \#Is 1:11-15\ They were offering the sacrifices but God want not accepting them. (2) \#Is 1:16-17\ Wash YOU. Make YOURSELVES clean. God was saying repent and turn from the sins that you are committing. (3) \#Is 1:18\ THEN come and I will forgive your sin. (4) \#Is 1:19\ If YOU are willing and obedient, God will bless. (5) \#Is 1:20\ If not, you will be devoured no matter how many sacrifices you bring. b. Others Pr 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind? Jer 6:20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. Am 5:21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. 22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. F. So what does God expect when He tells us to do justly? 1. He expects us to deal with our sins, put them under the blood of Jesus. 2. He expects us to get our hearts right, repent of sin. II. God expects us to love mercy. A. There are two ways to interpret this command. 1. God could be saying He wants us to love to RECEIVE mercy. a. If that is the case, it seems we should sin a lot so we can get a whole lot of mercy. b. I dont think that is what He meant. 2. God could be saying He wants us to love to GIVE mercy. 3. In which case, God telling us again NOT to treat people like they deserve. B. I think there may be some confusion so let me say that mercy and forgiveness are not the same thing. 1. They are similar and stem from the same kind of heart. 2. Forgiveness is a mercy but you can give mercy even when there is no forgiveness. a. Forgiveness is mercy given with the offender repents. (1) Forgiveness is us removing the offense so that it no longer exists. (2) I am getting my understanding of forgivneness from God ways. (a) God never forgives a lost person who does not repent. (b) God even holds a saved person to some level of accountability over sin. 1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. i. This is a condition promise. ii. We must confess THEN we receive forgiveness and cleansing. iii. Sin does not cost us our salvation but still, to some degree, it hinders us until we confess. iv. Our fellowship can be hindered; our rewards can be lost; our blessings can be withholden. (3) When Jesus forgives us, He removes the offense. Ps 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Isa 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. (4) If the offense is gone, there is nothing else left to hold against a person. (a) No punishment is due. (b) The case is closed. b. When forgiveness is spurned, then we have an opportunity to show pure mercy. (1) Mercy does not apply to the offense. It applies to punishment. (a) If one owes $300 and the judge charges him only $100, that is mercy. (b) If the penalty should be death and the judge gives him life without parol, that is mercy. (c) In these situations, the judge did nothing to remove the charge, only the penalty. (2) One has received mercy if the punishment is in any way lessened or delayed. (a) There are a lot of people who have rejected Gods forgiveness but are enjoying Gods mercy. (b) They are alive and not in hell today! (3) Such mercy does not remove the offense. (a) The offense is still there. (b) That kind of mercy removes the penalty. (4) The reason forgiveness works is because there is mercy but even when there is no forgiveness, mercy can still work. 2. So those who love mercy are those who love to give it, and they will give it in whatever form they came. a. They will give forgiveness when they have opportunity. b. But if forgiveness is not sought, they will still release the guilty of as much of the punishment as they feel they can. C. Not to show mercy is to be like the Pharisees. Matt 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. III. God expects us to walk humbly with Him. A. Humility is a valuable commodity no matter who you are with. B. It is essential if you are going to walk with God. C. What is such humility? 1. With God, it starts with the assumption that you are wrong about something. 2. Once that assumption is accepted, there is the continual search for what it is. a. Church is one step is seeking our sins. b. Listening to others is another. (1) Not just to what they say although that is valuable. (2) But also looking how you react to what they say. "Things always happen for a reason. Sometimes the reason is because you make bad decisions." 3. When you find a wrong, you quickly and definitively turn from it and repent. Micah, speaking for the Lord, told Israel that everything the Law says can be boiled down to these three things. This is the Old Testament equivalent to the New Testaments Greatest Command. Interesting, when people try to explain what God wants, they normally create volumes of books to do it. When God explains it, it cuts it down to just a few words.