Well, for tonight, as we come to the word of God, we will be departing from our series in the Psalms for this evening to consider a verse from Micah, chapter six. And I ask you to turn with me there in your Bible, Micah, chapter six. And please follow with me as I read verses one to eight, page one thousand seventy five in the pew Bible, Micah, chapter six. I'll give you a moment to get there. Micah chapter 6, please follow with me then as I read verses 1 to 8. God speaking to the prophet says, hear now what the Lord says. Arise, plead your case before the mountains and let the hills hear your voice. Oh, you mountains, the Lord's complaint, and you strong foundations of the earth, for the Lord has a complaint against His people, and He will contend with Israel. Oh, my people, what have I done to you? And how have I, weary Jew, testify against me? For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Oh, my people, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, counseled, and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him, from Acacia Grove to Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness of the Lord. With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, calves a year old, will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown 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 your God. Before we come to the message for this evening, dear congregation, let's once again pray and ask the Lord's blessings upon our time. Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you for the great delight which is ours to be in your presence. We confess, O God, with the psalmist, that in your presence there is fullness of joy. There is fullness of joy knowing, O God, that at your right hand sits Jesus Christ, sits Jesus Christ, the Mediator of His people. That this One, the God-Man, intercedes for us always. He ever lives, O God, to make intercession for His people. And we thank You, Lord, that in and through Christ we have all that we need to be accepted by You. We thank You, Lord, for Your electing love in Jesus, that in the fullness of time He came and died for His people, bearing away all of their sin and shame through His bloodletting on the cross of Calvary. And we thank You, Lord, that in time, space, history You called us through the Gospel. You gave us hearts to respond to the overtures of grace. You made us alive in Your Son. You brought us to know Him. You brought us then to the church You brought us under the sound of Your Word that we might grow as Your people. And Lord, we thank You for all of the benefits that we share. And we know, O God, that behind all of these things is a gracious Heavenly Father who desires fellowship with His people, who has loved them with an everlasting love and has drawn them with cords of everlasting kindness. O God, we bless You this night, for You are the high and eternal God but the God who was condescended in His Son to give His own life, Jesus giving Himself, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to You. Father, this night as we come to Your Word, we pray that You would give us help in understanding it. Lord, You know it's later in the day and we're weary, but we ask, O God, that You would come and quicken us by the Holy Spirit. Enliven, O God, our understanding. Open up the eyes of our understanding, that we might receive Your Word into good and honest hearts. Lord, help us, we pray. Get glory to Yourself, we ask. We pray these mercies through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. Have you ever asked yourself the question as a Christian, what does God want me to do Now that I am saved, typically I know that when people are initially saved, this is a question that they ask because they're so excited about serving the Lord and being used for His namesake. After a person has spent so much of their lives doing sinful things, once Jesus has saved them. There's now an earnest desire to please him. And so they ask, Lord, what is your will for my life now that I am your child? Lord, how would you have me to live now that I am yours? Well, this evening we come to a passage that gives us some very helpful directives in this regard. Tonight as we come specifically to Micah chapter 6 and verse 8, we have a text that answers our question and its answer is universal in its application because it's for every single believer that has ever existed. This evening, whether you're young or old, male or female, save for a little while or save for many years, we have a text that speaks to all of us. And because this is the case, our passage is extremely valuable for us to consider. Church, in our verse we have the sum of all true religion stated. What then would God have us to do with our lives as believers? How would he have us to live? Well, thankfully, we're not just left to figure this out on our own. Rather, we're told the answer very plainly in verse eight of this chapter of Micah. Now, before we come to consider the answer to our question at hand, I want us to just back up a bit so that we can get a general sense for this book as a whole. So let's begin then by asking some fundamental questions, namely, who was Micah, this a prophet of God who wrote this book, and what is the context in which this book grows out of? So firstly, who was the prophet Micah? Well, Micah, whose name means who is like the Lord, was a prophet of God who prophesied to both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel, but primarily to the southern kingdom of Judah in this between the years 735 and 710 BC. specifically through the reigns of King Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, as we're told in chapter 1 and verse 1 of this book. Now, this book of Micah, which I'm sure many of you know, reads very much like a courtroom document as the prophet of God prophesies God's judgment against his people for their sins. In this book, we're told that the tribes of Israel, both in the north and the south, have sinned greatly against Jehovah. The people have committed idolatry. There were false prophets in the land. Men were acting very unfairly with one another. The rich were oppressing the poor. Materialism was running rampant and social injustice was abounding. Church in Micah's day, sin had infiltrated just about every segment of society and hence the nation was ready for destruction and captivity. Now, Micah speaks about the sins of the people. in many different places, but we'll just note this in a few. Consider with me first, then, the sin of idolatry as spoken about in chapter 5, verses 13-15. The sin of idolatry. Micah 5, 13-15. Here, God says to the people, your carved images I will also cut off, and your sacred pillars from your midst. You shall no more worship the work of your hands. I will pluck your wooden images from your midst. Thus, I will destroy your cities and I will execute vengeance in anger and fury on the nations that have not heard. Secondly, then, consider with me a word against the false prophets in chapter three, verse five, a word against the false prophets. There we read, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets, who make my people stray, who chant peace while they chew with their teeth, but who prepare war against Him, who put nothing into their mouths. Thirdly, notice with me the sin of covetousness spoken of in chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. The sin of covetousness. The prophet says, Woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil on their beds. At morning light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. Verse 2, They covet fields and take them by violence, also houses and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Lastly then, note with me the sin of injustice in chapter 6. Verses 11 and 12, the sin of injustice. God says, shall I count pure those with the wicked scales and with the bag of deceitful weights? For her rich men are full of violence. Her inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouths. Clearly then, these passages give us a sense for the social and spiritual climate existing in Micah's day. His day, very much like our own, was a day that was filled with greed, wickedness, and lies almost on every front. Well then, coming closer to our passage 4 this evening, we have specifically in verses 6 and 7 of this chapter, Micah 6, We have here, specifically, that of the prophet Micah speaking for the people, setting forth their response to God's charges against them. Remember, God, in verse 2 of this chapter, has made His complaint against the people. So now, in trying to win back God's favor, the people start listing some things that they think might be able to do this. Notice this with me again. In verses 6 and 7, the people say, having been charged by God, note the response, with what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression? fruit of my body for the sin of my soul. Well, quite clearly we see them in the people's questions that they had gone very spiritually far from God. Here we have the people living in gross sin of all kinds, and yet the only thing that they can think about concerning getting right with God are external deeds, nothing internal. Well, friends, again, clearly these people had strayed in their walks with God. They had gone so far in sin that they had completely forgotten what the essence of true religion is all about. I ask that you notice how heavy the emphasis was on externalism. I mean, did you get a sense for how over-the-top their language was? Note it again. They say, will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and 10,000 rivers of oil and even a precious child if we give it to him. Church, the point is that these people were completely missing the boat. They were so far off the mark and surely these extremes reveal to us a fundamental problem in their understanding concerning what God truly requires of His people. These people, like many in our day, thought that their many sacrifices to God, their much churchgoing, and their much giving is really what ultimately matters to Jehovah. Well, friends, the fact is none of these things please Jehovah if in fact they come from hearts that are far from Him. Well, to be sure, it's good that we do the external religious deeds that God requires us to do, which of course shows our obedience and love to Him. Friends, there is so much more than this. What then is it that God Himself fundamentally requires of His people? How would He have each and every one of us to live before Him daily as the people of God? Well, this is what Micah tells us in verse 8, our verse for this evening. Note again his words with me there. Micah 6 and verse 8, the prophet says, He has shown 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 your God." What a change of perspective we have set forth here by the prophet in contrast to what the people were saying to God. And the real sad thing is these people should have known these things from the start. Here, Micah begins his opening statement in verse 8 somewhat chiding the people and says, note the language, he has shown you, O man, what is good. Note the past tense in the words. So what's the point? Well, it is that although God had talked to the people at various times about outward religion, sacrifices, etc., that they were to bring to God. Still, nonetheless, in his word, in days gone by, God had always stressed that love to him and love to our fellow man was to be first and foremost. Friends, in these opening words here, Micah is saying to the people that they should have been aware of what God wanted. He has shown you already in His Word, O man, what God requires. To be sure, all the people would have done was to think in the past about such passages as Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 6. And there we read the sum of the law where God says that you are to love Me with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And you are to love your neighbor as yourself. But dear friends, these people had forgotten this, and clearly this is seen throughout this book by their actions. The people had forgotten what was really important to God, and so now God, through the prophet, needs to re-educate the people concerning first things. Well, having spoken then about what the people should have known. God addresses the nation with the words, oh man, right? See it there in your Bibles. He has shown you, oh man, and God does this specifically to remind them that his instructions are for each one of them. Individually, Micah says, God has shown you, O man, what is good. That is to say, He has made known to each of you specifically, through His Word, what is pleasing to Him. God deals with them corporately, yet speaks to them each man on his own. So we ask the question, what is good in the sight of Jehovah? What is it that he is seeking or requiring of us his people? Well, the prophet tells us next when he says, but or except to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. And what does God require of you? But to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Well, here in the second part of the verse, we have three key phrases which instruct us in the matter of true religion. And we'll consider these phrases one at a time. Here we have. three different dimensions for how each one of us, as God's people, are to live. And we'll consider them under the headings of first, the outward requirement, secondly, the inward requirement, and thirdly, the upward requirement. So firstly, note with me the outward requirement. God says that as his people, we are to do justly. So what does the phrase mean? Well, very plainly, it means that we are to do what is fair towards others. to do justly means that we are to do what is right, never distorting the truth or lying. It means as Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator, says, to render to all their due according as our relation and obligation to them are. Henry writes, we must do wrong to none, but right to all in their bodies, their goods, and their good name. Well, friends, this then, firstly, is how God would have us to live as His saved people. He would have us in all of our dealings with others to act truthfully, uprightly, honestly, and with integrity. Or to state the matter another way, according to Philippians 2 and verse 15, we are to be blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom we shine like lights in the world. Now remember, as I said earlier, these things were not happening in Micah's day. There was much injustice in the land. People were robbing and bribing each other again, very much like the day that we live in, and God saw this as an abomination in his sight. So we ask then, because we live in a wicked world and the temptation is around us to be unjust in our dealings with others, how can we avoid such sins in our own lives? How can we as Christians deal fairly with all men? Well, let me say three things. Firstly, we do this by remembering that the all-seeing and all-knowing eye of God is upon us all of our days. How do we deal justly with others? Fairly, righteously, purely, honestly. How do we do this, church? We do it by living our lives coram Deo. That is, always with a conscious sense that the eye of God is upon us. God sees all things. God hears all things. And since that is the case, we need to deal fairly with men. We need to be honest in our dealings. We're not taking more than we deserve. We're not giving men what they really deserve. If we're going to do justly, we've got to remember that God knows all things. That nothing is hidden from the eyes of God with whom we have to do. God's all-seeing and all-knowing eye is always upon us. Secondly, we do justly by remembering that God is pleased with us when we treat people right For we read in Proverbs 11, verse 1, that dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight. So think about that. Here's the positive side to what I just said. God delights, God rejoices when we His people are honest in our dealings with others. When we're fair. When we do righteously, God is pleased with this. The one is negative, the other positive. Just weights and accurate scales are His delight. He likes when we act honestly as His people. It brings joy to His own heart. Thirdly then, we do justly by remembering that Jesus said that we are to treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated. Matthew chapter 7. So you ask yourself the question, do you like when people Rob you? Do you like when people cheat you? When people don't treat you fairly, do you like that feeling? No, none of us do. Well, Jesus says, as you would have men do to you, do likewise to them. Well, friends, as I said, this is the first disposition that is to mark us out as the people of God. Do justly. So I ask you tonight, dear Christian, how are you doing in this regard? I ask you, are you treating others the way that you yourself want to be treated? In the church, in your homes, in school, if you go to school, how are things with you, dear Christian? Church, I say that since this is the way that God wants us to live, we must be sure that If we have fallen short in this area as His people, then we ask God to forgive us. To cleanse us from our sin. If we haven't been treating men fairly, equally, righteously, then we need to ask God to cleanse us. Because it's not pleasing in His sight. And yet positively, we need to be sure that we are regularly pleading God's grace. asking Him to help us in this most important area. Friends, look at the passage again. To do justly is the first thing God requires of us. He doesn't say just to think justly or to speak justly, but to do justly. That is our part. That is what God requires of us. And this is what we must do. by His grace and His Spirit's enablement. Secondly, then, from our passage, we have an inward requirement set before us in order to help us to walk in a way that pleases God, because the text says next that the essence of true religion is to love mercy, to love mercy. Now, it seems quite obvious, at least to me, that all of us would love mercy in our lives because we've received so much of it. So what is God calling us to do in this verse. Is he calling us just to love the mercy that we've received? I don't think so. I think the point here is not so much to love that free mercy that we've received, but rather to be those who freely and willingly show mercy to others even if they don't deserve it. Okay? Now this, of course, again, is something that the people in Micah's day grossly negligent of. These people were not showing mercy to their brethren, no. Rather, they were extorting one another. Well, here we have the prophet now exhorting the people to go beyond doing justly, but now to be compassionate towards others even if they don't deserve it. God says here that they are to love showing mercy. It's an inward reality because you've received it. And He says, based on the fact that you've received it, I want you to show it to others. Now, this Hebrew word here for mercy is important. Literally, the word means, as you might see in some of your marginal readings, the word mercy here is the Hebrew word which means goodness or loving kindness. Word here is the closest Old Testament word to the New Testament word for grace. Friends, this word mercy here speaks about God's covenant kindness towards His people. And this undeserved favor is what God would have us to show to others, because we ourselves have received this from Him. Here's the point. God does not want us to treat people cruelly. He doesn't want us to be harsh towards others. No, rather, He wants us to be those who are full of grace, full of compassion, full of mercy to those all around us. We are to be merciful knowing that according to Jesus in Matthew 5, blessed are the merciful For they shall obtain mercy. So we ask, how do we do this in our own lives? How do we actually develop this disposition of showing mercy towards those who don't deserve it? Let me suggest three things. Firstly, we do this by remembering that all men are creatures of God, reflecting his image, and therefore we are to despise none. Right? We go back to the fact that men are made in the image of God and therefore, I ought not to look down at this person and lack compassion towards them. No, I ought not to despise them. I ought to have a love for all people. Seek to do them good if it's in my power to do it. Be merciful to all people. They are made by God. They bear His image. Secondly, we treat others with mercy by remembering that as we show mercy to others, we imitate our Father in Heaven. For Jesus says in Luke 6 and verse 36 that we are to be merciful in the same way that our Father also is merciful. Is it not true, dear friends, that God Almighty is merciful to all people in common grace? He is. Right? He's merciful to man. He's kind to wicked men. The sun shines on them every day. They receive rain upon their crops so that food might grow and they could eat. Well, Jesus says, be like your Father in heaven and show mercy to others. And thirdly, if we are to show mercy, we must remember that we ourselves as hell-deserving sinners have received so much mercy from the Lord and therefore we are to express the same towards others. Friends, there is no people on the face of the planet that have received as much mercy as we have. We have received the greatest amount of mercy from God Almighty and therefore I say we are to be kind towards others. Unlike the wicked servant in the parable of the unforgiving servant, we are to show compassion towards our fellow man. Well, brethren, I ask, how then are we doing in this area? I ask you, are you showing kindness to those who don't deserve it? You know what it's like. People could become annoying to us. They sometimes deserve our just anger, if you will. But are we restraining ourselves? Are we being compassionate even as Jesus was full of compassion? Listen, friends, the hard, mean, and stern Christian is not an individual who is living the way that God would have them to live. Stern, mean, and hard? Is that how God is with you, dear Christian, here today? I think not. Not the God of the Bible. His mercies endure forever. He's not that way to us. So we are not to be that way towards others. God wants us to be loving as His people. Not spineless, not unprincipled, but loving, kind, gracious. When perhaps others would cut an individual off for a certain thing that they've done in their lives, the Christian goes on being compassionate, showing mercy, undeserved favor, and love. This is how God wants us to be in the world, in our homes, at our jobs, towards our neighbors, etc. This, dear friends, as I said earlier, reflects the nature of God, and shows that we in fact have been made partakers of His wonderful grace. People should ask us, why do you keep up with me? Why do you treat me so kindly? Others have turned their back towards me. I know I'm not a good person, but you continue to love and show compassion. Why? Because God has dealt with me that way. That's why. That's the only reason why. only by his grace from beginning to end. Thirdly, then, not only does our text teach us that the essence of true religion for those who know God through Jesus is that of an outward and inward requirement, but there's also an upward requirement because the prophet says that we are to walk humbly with the Lord our God. Now, perhaps here most clearly, we are confronted with the fact that We absolutely cannot do what God requires of us unless we have been born again by the power of His Spirit. Dear ones, listen. No one, absolutely no one can walk with God, and absolutely no one can walk humbly with God unless they have been saved by Christ and given new natures. Church, all of us by nature and by practice walk with the devil and we are at enmity with the living God. And here, my dear friends, is where we see once again the absolute foolishness of the liberals who take Micah 6 and verse 8 and make it to say that if a person does these three things, They can go to heaven. I mean, can you imagine liberals actually taking this passage and saying, don't talk to me about regeneration. Don't talk to me about repentance of sin. Don't talk to me about exclusive faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. No, this is my passage. This is my religion. I'll get to heaven by doing justly, showing mercy, and walking humbly with the Lord my God. That's my religion, all my friends. That is a great distortion of this passage. This passage does not say, what must I do to be saved? Of which there's only one answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. This passage is not dealing with salvation. It's dealing with how those who are saved by the mercy and merit of Christ are to live. So they twist the passage, right? If we do these things, we'll be saved, I say. Foolish and deadly, indeed, are those who twist the Bible to their own destruction. Liberals and others who deny what the Bible teaches concerning salvation do it to their utter ruin. We're not saved by doing these things. We do these things because we're saved. Well, Micah says, lastly, that the essence of true religion is to walk humbly with The Lord our God. Literally, the text reads in the Hebrew that we are to walk low or bowed down before God. What does it mean? Well, it means that as we live our lives as Christians each and every day, we are to walk obediently to Him, bowing to His commandments, and dependently, is the word I'm looking for, dependently looking to Him for all our needs in faith, trusting that He will supply them. So what does it mean to walk humbly with our God? It means to walk obediently to Him, bowing to His commandments, and dependently looking to Him to meet all of our needs, trusting that He will do this very thing. Now, this is exactly how Christ walked, right? This is how Christ walked. Jesus throughout the entirety of His life kept the commandments of God. And He always had His eye looking to His Father by faith to give Him the things that He needed while He ministered among men. Well, this, brethren, is how we are to live. No better picture of a humble person than Jesus Christ the Lord. He humbled Himself and became a man. And as a man, He kept the commandments of God. And he looked to his Father to provide his needs. And as I said again, this is how we are to walk if, in fact, we are to walk humbly with our God. In our walks with God, we are not to walk contrary to His law. That's the height of pride, the height of arrogance. And in our lives as Christians, we are not to think ourselves secure enough with our own financial resources so that we don't look to the Lord our God and daily cry out and say, our Father who is in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Our Father who is in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread. That's what a believer says in his heart if he's walking humbly with God. He sees the commandments of God and he says, oh God, Your commandments are exceedingly broad. But Lord, I love to do Thy will. O Lord, I want to serve You. I want to live for You. Whatever You say, I want to follow. Nothing, O Lord, will I put aside. I will worship You in the way that You say. Your Word, O God, will be first and foremost. Not my will, but Yours be done. That's a humble Christian. That's what it means to walk humbly with the Lord our God. Now we might ask the question, what's the great motive to walking humbly with God? Why should we seek to do this each and every day? I mentioned two things. One's negative, the other positive. Firstly, negatively, we're to do this because according to James 4 and verse 6, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. No, that's written to Christians. So you say God resists the proud Christian? Yes, that's right. I didn't say he cuts them off. I didn't say he loses his salvation, for which he could never do. I said that God resists him. I don't care who he is. God is going to resist him in some way. The fellowship is not going to be as close as it should be. Though union can never be broken between the believer and his God, communion can be. God resists the proud. Why should I be humble? Why should I walk lowly before my God? Why should I look to Him for all my needs and seek to obey what He has said? Because I don't want any breach in my relationship with Jesus. I don't want to be resisted by God. I want to be loved and welcomed by Him daily. But He resists the proud. That's negatively. Positively, But to walk humbly with our God, because Isaiah says in Isaiah 57, verse 15, that God's got a wonderful promise for the lowly in heart. And there we read, for thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. Listen, here's the promise. God says, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one. Here is this great God, the High and Holy One, and He says that I dwell with Him who has a contrite and humble spirit. Why should you walk humbly with God? Because what you do, God draws near. That's a beautiful promise, is it not? I want to know more of God in my life. I want to know His nearness, which is my greatest good. Be humble before Him. Don't kick against His providence. Don't bend His will to suit your own fancies. Do what He says. Serve Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and God will draw near to you. Again, a similar passage which shows us that humility gets the attention of God. Isaiah 66, verse 2, we read the words which say, God speaking, but on this one will I look. Which one is it? On Him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My Word." Those are beautiful passages. You want God to smile upon you? You want Him to look favorably upon you? Your day-to-day living? Well, here it is. Humility. Two motives to that end. Well, seeing then that God desires us to walk humbly, we ask, how can we cultivate this in our lives? Suggest three things again. Firstly, we learn to walk humbly with the Lord our God by remembering a key truth of the Gospel which says that at one time we were wicked sinners, but Christ, the Prince of Heaven, came and redeemed us. You see, friends, when we think about this aspect of the Gospel, Which tells us that we're undone before God. We're wretched. We're foul. We're stinking in God's nostrils. And then we think that this glorious One, the One whom the angels worshipped, the One who is the brightness of His Father's glory, the expressed image of His person, the One who upholds all things by the power of His Word, when we think that this One willingly took to Himself our nature, came into this world by way of Mary's womb, lived the life that we should have lived, died the horrible wrath bearing death in our place, all so that we could be forgiven. Oh, friends, I say, when we think about how pitiful we were, we will be humble before God. And this is why the hymn writer could say, when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God, all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them in His blood. It's the Gospel. that teaches us to be humble if we truly understand the Gospel. If we truly have seen ourselves as we are wicked and vile in the sight of God. And yet that in love He sent Jesus the glorious Savior to bear away our judgment so that we can be forgiven. Secondly, we cultivate a humble walk with God by remembering how absolutely perfect God is in His character. and how absolutely perfect we are not in ours. Just be saved for a short time and you'll see how many shortcomings you have in your life as a Christian. Some people say, oh, you're a Christian now, so you think you're perfect? Far from it! Now that I'm a Christian, I'm a mess. I think I'm really a mess. When I was not saved, I thought I was perfect, just like you, my dear unsaved friend. But now that I'm a Christian, I see my sin, and I cry out with Paul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death. I'm not perfect, but thank the Lord I've got a perfect righteousness imputed to my account that gets me to heaven all alone. Friends, listen. God is perfect. We are not. And as Christians, we live with that reality. We live in the already-not-yet reality. We're accepted by God already, but not yet what we need to be. And that's a struggle for the true Christian. It's his greatest burden. Lord, I want to be perfectly pure, but I find in me working something in my members contrary to your law, so that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Oh, Lord. It's tough. It's tough. But friends, this helps us to be humble. People say when God saves us, why doesn't He just translate us automatically to heaven? He could have done that. Nobody's got many purposes. And again, touching on what we're talking about now, one purpose to leave us in the already not yet stage is to keep us humble. A prideful Christian, it makes no sense. Shouldn't be. Thirdly then, if we're going to learn to walk humbly with God, We must seek to put to death the first showings of any pride in our hearts, repenting of it. See, pride is always going to spring up. Right? Scurgeon, I was reading his sermon on this text, and he says, oh, preached a good sermon that night, the devil will come and whisper in your ears. Many people said they were blessed by it. Ah. And then pride starts growing in the heart of the individual. Oh, you did this. You did that. Oh, not bad. Pride. Pride. So we're going to walk humbly with God the moment Pride creeps up in our hearts. We've got to deal with it and say, no, no, no, I'm not going there. I'm not going to pour water on that thing and encourage it. No, I'm going to repent of that. I'm going to say with the solemnest of my own heart, not unto me, not unto me, O Lord, but unto Your name be all the glory and praise. I'm not going to take pride to myself and encourage the thing and walk around like a strutting peacock. No, I'm going to deal with it. I'm going to repent of it. Because it's an ugly thing in the sight of God. It's not right. God is to get all the glory. Not us. Well then, brethren, this is the third thing that God would require of us as His people, to walk humbly with Him, hand in hand with God. So I ask you, how are you doing in this regard? Walking humbly with the Lord your God? dealing with pride, seeking to follow Him, walking softly before the Lord. I ask you, are you seeking Him daily for His grace and help to obey His commandments? This is the kind of walk that pleases God. According to 1 Peter 5 and verse 5, we are to be clothed with humility We're to put it on daily as a garment, spiritually speaking. And again, when the devil would come and whisper in your ear, ha, you really are great at that, aren't you? Whatever. It doesn't matter if I'm great at it. What matters is that God got glory through it. Pride. The first sin of Mankind, you will be like God. Sounds pretty good to me. It's the mother hen of all sins, as D.L. Moody once said. Brethren, God would have us to be humble before Him. And therefore, we must daily pray, O God, work this grace deep within me. I want to walk humbly with You, Lord. Help me to do it. Church, this is the kind of prayer that God loves to answer. Because He loves to see His people walking as His Son walked. Humble before the Lord. Softly with God. Dependent upon Him for all things. This is the kind of life that pleases our Lord. Well, this evening we've been considering this key passage here. Micah. 6 and verse 8, which teaches us how God wants us to live as His people throughout the entirety of our lives. Tonight we've been given a summary in this three-fold answer for what God requires of us as His people. And as I said earlier, it's applicable to each and every one of us. Male, female, older person, younger person, whoever you are, going off to college, See, what does God want from me? How should I live before the Almighty? It's right here. It's right here. It doesn't say everything, I know. But it says a lot. It says a lot. This is the kind of life that glorifies God, my dear brethren, here this night. And so I say, come back to this text again and again. And pray it in. Pray it in. Lord, help me to be this kind of person. Lord, I want to be like this in my own life. Lord, characteristically, I want to be like Christ who perfectly embodied all of these things, Lord. But help me. Help me. And again, friends, when you call upon God, to help you to be like this, He will. He will. Again, this is the type of prayer that God loves to answer. Church, since God desires that we would live like this in our lives, we can be sure that when we come to Him asking for such a request, He will grant it to us. Since Jesus redeemed us so that we would be These kinds of people, you can be sure that He won't turn a deaf ear to you. Brethren, look to Him then daily for help and strength. How should you be living in the world, dear Christian? Mother at home. Child at home. What should mark you out as a child of God? Here it is. Do justly. love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord your God. I end then this evening with a word to those among us who might not be saved. You're not a Christian. You're here tonight. You don't know the Lord. What can I say to you? But like the people in Micah's day, you're basing your acceptance with God on the wrong things. Right? It's all do, do, do. Lord, what would You have me to do? Right? You're bringing your own stuff before God. Your deeds. Bob spoke about some of this this morning. Your works of righteousness. Kind of piling them up. hoping that one day this will happen. It's not, friends, going to happen. What God requires of you to be accepted by Him, you don't have in yourself. You don't have it. You can never have it. It's a perfect life. Do you have that? No. So therefore, you've got to find a whole other way to get right with God. As a matter of fact, you don't have to find it. I'm going to tell you. The way you get right with God is through His Son and His Son only. It's through Jesus Christ. He came to save us out of our horrible condition. A lot of talk about religion. We don't need religion. We need a Savior. And only Christianity provides it. Because only in Christianity do you have a sinless One giving His life for the guilty. My friends, Jesus has done this. Jesus left heaven and came into this world on a mission to save sinners from their sins. And this is what He has done upon the cross of Calvary. If you would be saved tonight, turn from your sins, and trust in what Christ has done as the sinner's substitute. He gave His life to be the sacrifice for our sins. He died for our sins. He was buried. And He rose again on the third day, which means today He lives. And He invites you to Himself. And He says, come. Come how? Come with all your sins. Come just as you are. Throw yourself at My feet and say, Lord Jesus, forgive me and make me acceptable with Your Father based upon Your righteous life and Your sacrificial death. Come to Jesus like this. And He will receive you. He will change you. He will save you. And He will bring you to heaven in the final analysis. You want to be saved? You want to stop trying to work? To hope that one day those works will get you right with God, my friends, there is a completed work which gets every sinner to heaven alone. It's the work of Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You that You have given us instruction as your people, on how to live, on how to serve you, on what pleases you. We ask, O God, that we would be people who do flesh out the things that we've considered this night. Again, Lord, we know that there are many things that could be said, but oh, if we could just master some of these things we know that it would be good. Not only good for us, but glorifying to Your own name. Oftentimes, Lord, Christians don't do these things. Even we have fallen short. So forgive us and cleanse us and work in us a determination by the Spirit to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with You all of our days. in the matchless merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.