Posts Tagged ‘Micah 6:8’
WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF THEE
*WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF THEE*
“Doing What’s Right”
We do not have prophets today, at least not in the strict biblical sense of the word. Before and during the time when the Bible was being written, prophets received direct revelation from God to deliver it to the people.
*People knew that when a genuine prophet spoke, the message was as good as from the lips of God Himself.
*So serious was this, that if the prophet spoke and gave information that proved to be false, that person would be taken and stoned to death by the people.
*The word of a prophet was reliable. At least when the people cared to hear from God.
*Micah was one of those trustworthy prophets who lived and preached in Judah.
*Scholars group him among what was called “the minor prophets”. Not because of importance but their message was shorter but absolute truth.
*After Solomon’s reign a civil war broke out dividing his Kingdom into two nations : Israel to the North and Judah to the South. God sent a multitude of faithful prophets to rebuke their continued rejection of serving God, so God finally allowed them to be invaded by Assyria.
*Micah feared for his people who had begun to slip back from God as Israel was doing. He saw compromise in three areas:
1) Corruption of the priest.
2) Selfishness in the ruling class.
3) Outright lies by false prophets.
His people needed a word from God. (Vs 8 Read)
(1) What the Lord does not expect or require.
*Micah in (chap 6) alternates between what God says and what Judah would answer: (Vs 3,4) Judah response (Vs 6,7)
Notice what Judah says:
1) Shall we offer up entire animals?
2) Shall we offer up whole herds of rams?
3) Shall we offer up ten thousand expensive barrels of oil?
4) Shall we offer our first born children?
*Listen: All false religions have one thing in common. They attempt to win favor with God by works and more works.
*You can never sacrifice enough, work hard enough, pray long enough, or bow low enough to earn God’s pleasure. Examine yourself.
*What motivates your actions?
1) Are you trying to make up for past sins?
2) Are you hoping to win God’s favor by religious works?
*God’s love is not for sale.
(2) God expects us to do what is right.
(Vs 8) “to do justly”
*The line between right and wrong is not blurred if you use the right discernment, use a direct line of absolute truth.
*Notice: We did not uncover the direct line for what is right, we did not create it, we are not the first to recognize it. It is the Bible.
*66 books inspired, preserved thru the centuries. Right conduct cannot be determined by polling the opinions of others.
(Ps 119:11) “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
(3) The cost of obedience.
*Roughly 750 years after Micah’s prophesy, two of Jesus’ disciples faced a serious dilemma.
*Peter and John were used of God to do what Jesus did, heal the sick.
*The preaching of the resurrection greatly troubled the Sadducees.
*Why would this trouble them? The reports of Jesus alive upset the balance, telling them “you can’t kill Him”.
*They took Peter and John and sought to intimadate them. (Vs 5-7)
*(Vs 7) is not a real question, it is an accusation, a charge, but Peter turns it around. (Vs 8-12)
*He makes his charge: The King you killed is alive again and your only hope of salvation is in His name.
(4) The results of obedience.
(Vs 15-22)
*These two uneducated fishermen, though respecting this council of men, knew what their leader had commanded them. (Matt 28) “Go, make disciples.”
*We see the blessing of their obedience in (5:14).
(5) How does Micah’s message to do what is right speak to the 21st century church?
*We are called Christians not because of the nation we live in butt the relationship we have with the risen Christ.
Doing what is right means:
1) Let God reveal to you what is right from His word. To do that we must read it.
2) Trust the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to lead you toward what is right. (Eph 5:18) we are
told to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
3) Listen to the wisdom of those who follow Christ and who do what is right. (Phil 4:9) “Those things
both learn and received and heard and seen in me, do.”
4) Remember that though we will face opposition, God is in control. (Ps 60:12) “Through God we
shall do valiantly.”
Closing:
Dr David Jeremiah said “What honors the Lord is a heart that beats in the same rhythm as His, a spirit that values the same qualities that define Him. A people who do what is right”.
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