♪ Jesus has saved me ♪ With his blood, with his blood ♪ Jesus has saved me ♪ With his precious blood ♪ I'm in the trap, he breaks his way ♪ Let me just stand here, precious holy King ♪ ♪ Growing and growing and growing ♪ ♪ I want to be like Christ, my Lord, my King ♪ ♪ And growing and growing and growing ♪ God is my father, I'm his child, I'm his child. God is my father, I'm his only child. He gave me birth this morn, at age four. ♪ In earthly holiness ♪ ♪ Glowing, glowing every day ♪ ♪ I want to be like Christ the King ♪ ♪ Glowing, glowing every day ♪ ♪ I want to be like Him ♪ In Christ I'm changing every day, every day. In Christ I'm changing every single day. In His miracles we turn every day, every day. ♪ This world calls me to every single day ♪ ♪ Growing, growing every day ♪ ♪ I want to be like Christ, like Him ♪ ♪ Growing, growing every day ♪ ♪ I want to be like Him ♪ ♪ Growing and growing ♪ ♪ I'm going to be like Christ, my Lord, my King ♪ ♪ Growing and growing and growing ♪ ♪ I'm going to be like Christ, my Lord, my King ♪ ♪ Growing, growing, growing, growing, growing ♪ ♪ As we carry on ♪ Amen, all right, thank you guys. Appreciate you singing this morning. And we'll just dismiss the little ones to go to class with Mr. Shore. Appreciate the work these guys do. You know, we have children's choir at half five every Sunday, and it takes a lot of work, you know, to be here early and spend the time practicing so that they can sing, so I really appreciate the work that they put into that. All right, got a question for you this morning as we get started. Do you care about your looks? Do you care how you look this morning? If you don't, your family might, right? They might care about that more than you do, but there's a natural desire that we have to look good. I think it's a little bit of self-preservation, maybe. We do have this desire that we want to look good. Oftentimes, you leave a home. I know this is the way it is in our home. As you leave the home, there's a mirror. It's kind of like that last point of making sure everything's okay before you go outside so that you don't embarrass yourself or embarrass your family. Have you ever been out in public and seen your reflection in a mirror and said to somebody in your family that ought to love you, why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you say something? Don't let me go out of the house like that. Or you've seen that poor soul that's out there in public and you think somebody should have told him. Somebody should have pulled him aside and said, look, you know, there's something you should have taken care of before you came out of your house. You know, why it's important that you help us as men to look good and let us know, right? We all need that. Children, you can help us out, too. But we care, don't we? We care about how we look. And in life, it's true that to look good, you've got to look good. You gotta have a good look in a mirror so that you look good. Does that make sense? Physically. You know, biblically, the same principle applies spiritually. That for us to look good, and really I'm speaking about this morning, look good to God, be approved in God's sight. That when God looks at us, he sees something that he says is right in his sight. that to look good in God's sight, we gotta have a good look at the things that he wants us to look at. And what we'll find in our passage this morning is God cares enough about us this morning to stop us and say, this is where you need to look to look good. And I hope that idea will help us this morning as we look at this text that God gave to us through his prophet Micah, Micah chapter six, and again, primarily verse eight, but where we need to look so that we can look good. Let's pray and ask God to open our eyes and our hearts and our minds this morning. help this morning. Lord, it's important to us that spiritually we look good. We need to look good in your sight. Father, so that when you examine us, there's nothing that you disapprove of, so that you see in our lives things of which you do approve. And I pray, God, help us this morning, just like David prayed, let the words of my mouth and meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Even so, we pray, Lord, help us to look good in your sight. Help us to consider what we're going to look at this morning and think, you know, am I looking in the right places to please God? Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would speak to each heart. Lord, I don't want to preach a clever message this morning. I think it's a good way for us to look at this passage. But Father, may that idea of looking in the right places not take away from the truth that the Word of God desires us to see. So may it just be a help to us this morning. Father, I pray that you give me liberty and powers I preach. I pray, Father, you give us grace to hear this morning that we'd have years to hear. Thank you for your help just now in our service. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Alright, so where do we need to look so that we can please God? First of all, we need to look in the Bible. We need to look in the Word of God. It says in verse 8, He hath showed thee, O man, what is good. Where? In his word. In his word. He's revealed it. He has showed thee, O man, what is good. And he's put it right there where, as by God's grace, praise the Lord, in our, in most languages and dialects, there's the Bible. There's the word of God. There's not just general revelation through nature, but specific revelation that God has given. And in the point in our story, Israel is being chastened and they want to get right with God. But they're asking kind of the question, how do I get right with God? What do I do to please God? And they're looking to their own ideas. They say in verses six and seven, wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I get my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? It doesn't surprise us this morning to realize that there's a lot of people in a lot of religions and they're trying to think How do I get to God? How do I work my way to God? How do I earn favor with God? How do I please God? Mankind has always done that. They've always sought to, whether they understand the idea of God as the Bible lets us know about God, or they just believe in this power that they desire to please, there is a desire in the heart of man to appease God. And they're asking the question, how do we do that? Well, they begin with sacrifices. Of course, Israel had rightly had the sacrificial system that God had given, but that sacrificial system was never intended to be a means whereby man could actually please God. It was a picture of the way that mankind could rightly relate to God through Jesus Christ. Every lamb that was slain was a picture of the coming lamb of God that would die for the sins of the world. Those bloods of bulls and goats didn't do anything. And so Israel says, how do we do this? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Is that gonna please God? But again, the word of God says, Hebrews 10.4, for it's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. Not possible. I mean, it was a picture. It was never intended to be anything other than an image of the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, that would take away the sin of the world. And they're just thinking from a human standpoint, what can I do? I wanna get right with God, so I'm gonna do something. What can I do? I wanna offer a sacrifice. And they wonder, will this work? Then they ask, what about extreme sacrifices? Verse seven. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and with 10 thousands of rivers of oil? Okay, it's not enough just one ram, but thousands of rams. It's not enough just a little bit of oil, but a lot of oil. Rivers of oil, will that please God? And it's almost like they have this idea, God can't be pleased. You know, there's a lot of people in self-righteous religions or works-based religions that have that idea. They think God can't be pleased. And they're partly right. Because God isn't pleased with what we can do. God isn't pleased this morning if I dress nice, look nice, talk nice, say right things. That doesn't make me any closer to God spiritually from the standpoint of God's gonna accept me now because I've cleaned myself up, dressed myself up nice, and I'm saying the right things, I'm doing the right things, and so now God will accept me. The Bible doesn't say that's the way to God. And I mean, these people are thinking bigger than that. They're thinking, not only do I wanna do this, but man, I wanna give huge offerings to God, and I'm gonna just do these things, extreme sacrifices. But they think beyond that to most extreme sacrifices, as they say, shall I give my firstborn for my transgression? the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul. Back in this day, there were people that would offer sacrifices, even Israel got into this at times, of human sacrifices offered to appease deity. And they're saying, should I take my firstborn child and offer this child in the fire to God so that God will forgive me? Can you see the desperation? They want to get right with God. They desire to get right with God. And they're saying, what can I do? What can I do? But the problem is, it's never, righteousness has never been about what can I do? Because it's something that only God can do. It's not anything that mankind can earn. And you know what? Micah just answers and says, you know, he showed you what pleases him. Where? In his book. Do you know anybody that's in a self-righteous works religion, and there's lots of them, Catholicism, Mormonism, Islam, they're all religions that are based upon my goodness. And if I'm good enough, someday I'm gonna stand up for God, and God's gonna accept me, but anybody in those religions could pick up the word of God, they could read the book of Galatians, they could read the book of Romans, and they could come to the conclusion very quickly that I can't do anything to earn my righteousness. The Bible says, Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified. That word justified means to declare righteous. Like a judge would look at that person and go, not guilty. Not guilty, they're innocent. Declare righteous. I declare you innocent, right? That word justified means that. So knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. For by the works, or he's gonna go on to say that, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. So somebody in this works I'm gonna talk like a Christian, I'm gonna sound like a Christian, I'm gonna be baptized, I'm gonna join the church, I'm gonna do all these things, and if I do all these things, then God's gonna accept me. And the Bible very clearly says, look, by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Even if you took this book and you memorized it, the Old Testament, and all the law and all that God said to do, God says it's not enough. And I've said to people, even this week, as I've shared Christ with them, I've said, you know, the only thing the law's gonna do at the judgment is gonna say guilty. Somebody that's self-righteous, they think God's gonna accept me, I've earned my salvation now because I'm good enough, I'm gonna stand before God and say, God, I should get into heaven because of my goodness. This is what they're thinking. They're thinking the law's gonna come and stand before God and say they're not a liar, they're not a covetous person, they're not a lustful person, they're not an angry person, they're not a, you know, they've never taken God's name in vain, they never disobeyed their parents, but we all know what the law's gonna do. The law's gonna say liar, luster, coveter, God-hater, unbeliever. You know, you think about it, the law's just gonna condemn. And so they're saying, how do I get to God? How do I get to God? And Micah goes, look, go to the book of books, the Bible, see what God says. You know, that's what God would say to us today. Again, are you looking in the right place? You could look in, and frankly, I encourage you not to do this, but you could look on the television and see all these religions channels. You could look on the internet and find all these religious things. But you know where we need to look this morning? It's just very simply in God's revelation and see what God said. And that's all Israel had to do. They're all frustrated. How do I get to God? I don't know how to get to God. And they're thinking extreme, and God just goes, get back to the book. See what the word of God says in his book. So if you're trying to earn your salvation through human reasoning, God just goes, hey, get back to the book. So how do I look good to God? Look in the right place. Where do I need to look this morning? Look in the Bible. I encourage you, I would encourage everybody, whether you're a believer or unbeliever, read the Bible. Take time to pick up the word of God and to see what God says. It's readable. Sometimes people are kind of scared of the Bible. Oh, that's too big. Admittedly, there's things that are difficult to understand sometimes. But you know, there's a lot of stories in the Word of God. A lot of good stories, interesting stories. I think people would be surprised how interesting this book is and what it says, but we need to get in there because that's God's revelation to us. So look in God's Word. Secondly, Look out for God's authority. So look in the book, the Bible, and then look out for God's authority. Look in the right place. You wanna please God, then look out, be aware of God's authority. Because it goes on to say, and what doth the Lord require of thee? Okay, what doth the Lord require of thee? As you get in the book and you start reading the Bible, what you find is that God has requirements. For his creation. Humanism, atheism, evolutionism all have their creed which says there is no God. There is no authority. In fact, the Bust put it pretty well for stating atheism's position on the Stonewall campaign that was taking place. It says there is no God. Stop worrying and enjoy life. What's it saying? Cast off restraint. There is no God. In fact, what they're really teaching is you are God. You are God, there is no God, you're the only God, and so you get to decide what's right, you get to decide what's wrong, but that's not what the Bible says, and that's not what's true. There is a God, and we need to look out for God's authority. You know, did God disappear because of their unbelief? There is no God, so stop worrying and enjoy life. And God goes, well, there's a bus that says I don't exist, so I guess I don't exist. God still exists. Alec, you'll remember this, the man that we were talking to that believed the earth was flat. Remember that conversation? Hey, he believes the earth is flat. I mean, here we are, 21st century, you might think there's nobody, at least in modern society, that believes the earth is flat, but he does. He believes it's flat. Well, did his belief in a flat earth make the earth suddenly flat? By the way, the Bible in the book of Job says the circle of the earth. 3,000 years before man realized it, the word of God said it. That's interesting. But he says the earth's flat, didn't change anything. He believes, well, he believes some other interesting things, but did his belief in the earth being flat make it flat? Did his unbelief around earth make the earth flat? No, his unbelief or his faith didn't change anything. And neither does our, this morning, unbelief that we're gonna give an account to God, or belief that we are gonna give an account to God. Neither of those beliefs changes anything, does it? What do we need to know this morning? We need to know what is true, because unbelief doesn't change anything. Here's what the Word of God says, Romans 3, verse 3 and 4. For what if some did not believe? Okay, and that's true today, isn't it? I mean, we're walking around, we're speaking to people about God, and they say, well, I don't believe in God. Prove it, there's no God. I mean, they might boldly state their unbelief, and here's what, again, God says. What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? Does it hinder the gospel? God forbid, yea, let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. God's not worried in heaven. You know what he says? Let God be true and every man a liar. Satan, by the way, is a deceiver. Should we be surprised today that there's strong belief that there is no God? No, nobody's, I mean, Satan's a deceiver. He's gonna do his best to put people in the dark. He's gonna do his best to blind people. But unbelief doesn't change the fact today that there's a God in heaven to which mankind is gonna give an account. That out of Silverest today. Eddie, we just enjoyed having Eddie come to the football tournament. Some of you had a chance to meet Eddie. He was a footballer in Ireland that was basically in professional football in Ireland. But he got saved. But the way he got saved, he started looking at his life. He had everything. He was on the club scene and he had money and he had popularity. He's playing in front of big crowds. He's getting new shoes every week and just living life large and it's empty. It didn't satisfy him. But he went to a church and he was with a bunch of hypocrites. They looked at their life and go, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be here because I know the real you and it's not anything to do with this. But as he listened to some kids answer some Bible questions, he thought, you know what? They know more about the Bible than me, and I'm gonna read it. And so here he is, 22 years old. Maybe he might have been about 20 at this point. He starts reading the Bible, starts in the Old Testament, and he gets to the law. And he sees that God says that somebody that gathers sticks on the Sabbath day, God's holy day, is worthy of death. You know what Eddie thought to himself for the first time in his life is God is serious about sin. God hates sin. See, we excuse sin. We live as if there is no God. It doesn't matter what I do, do what I want to do. If I'm comfortable with it, it's fine as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, but we all know the Bible is clear. Sin always hurts somebody. It's either you or somebody else. But if I feel it's okay, it's okay, I am my own God, there is no authority, and that's the way we're living our life. And all of a sudden, Eddie came face to face with the fact that, look, I need to look out for God's authority. If I wanna look good before God, I gotta look out for God's authority. I gotta realize that I am living my life accountable to somebody, I'm accountable to God. And I'm gonna give an account to God. And so, We need to look out for that. The Bible says, Matthew 12, verse 36, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Are we living in a day where there's idle speech? Oh, very much. I'm standing in front of a place of business here at Straighten, and it was just before they opened, and the workers are standing outside smoking before going in. You know, they're standing beside me. Here I am, I'm a customer. They have no idea who I am. It doesn't matter who I am, but I'm a customer. I'm standing there, and they're using the worst word in the English language as they speak to one another. And I turned to them, I said, look, that's inappropriate. I've heard other times, often, I heard it last night, I'm walking in my house across the street from the pub, I hear the worst word. You know, every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give a counter of in the day of judgment. Oh, people don't, they're not living like that, are they? No, I mean, if people understood the wrath of God against their sin, they would be so careful about their language. And as believers, how careful ought we to be knowing that God is a God that we understand and we live in the sight of and to whom we give an account to. But we're living in a day, again, where man needs to look out for God's judgment. And so Micah says, hey, look in God's word and then look out for God's judgment because he's a God of authority. What does the Lord require of thee? So prepare to give that account. But then thirdly, look inside and see what needs to change. So look in the book and see what God says. Look out for God's authority, because he is the authority, but then look inside and see what needs to change. Because it says, what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly? Okay, the word justly, that means to act in accordance with the law. to do justly, to do righteously. And can I say this morning about us, we've all failed, haven't we? We've all failed to do what God has said in his word that we ought to do. We failed before salvation, before we got saved. It says in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All of us, it doesn't matter who you are this morning, and I'm not embarrassed when I stand before unbelievers and I'm witnessing to them, I'm not embarrassed to say I'm a sinner. Because I understand I am a sinner. There's a lot of people that you knock on their door and they like to tell you, oh God, do you hope to go to heaven? Oh, I'm going to heaven, why? Because I'm a good person. We've met, even Benson was with me recently, and met a very self-righteous person. Oh, I'm a good person. Oh, I'm not perfect. I'm a good person. I'm gonna stand before God. Why is God gonna let you into heaven? I'm a good person. What about sin, is what we asked her. For all is sin. and come short of the glory of God. And sinning is to miss the mark. I mean, it's, you don't hit it. God says, hit this, and you don't hit it. Sin is to miss the mark. When I was in college, I couldn't play contact sports growing up because of, I'm not explaining it all, but I've got three kidneys, two on this side, one on this side. The two on this side go below my rib cage. This side only functions at 45%. If I got hit right here, it could rupture this, and it could leave me without the kidneys I need. So I couldn't play contact sports growing up. So I played volleyball. That was my sport. And a men's net is higher than a women's net. But on a men's net, believe it or not, I could hit really hard when I played volleyball. Spiked ball is what they called it. I could hit really hard. I had a vertical that when I jumped with my feet straight down, my feet would be 40 inches off the ground. I could touch a 10-foot rim. You can see where my hand is right now. So to get up to where I could touch 10 feet is quite a ways. I could probably, I would guess, most people in here, I could probably jump higher than you. Maybe not now, but I definitely could have, and I might still now. I could jump higher than you, but if both of us had to touch the ceiling, It doesn't matter if I can jump higher than you or not, because why? We both missed the mark. And if that ceiling represents the righteousness of God, the problem is this, God expects us to touch it. God says, if you can't touch that ceiling, you're not gonna enter into heaven, is what the word of God says. The reason we can't go to heaven is because of our sin. All of sin comes short of the glory of God. So somebody could say, but I'm a good person. And a lot of times, you know, what they're doing is they're looking at somebody else and they say, well, that person's done that. I've never done that. You know, look at the prisons. The prisons are full of murderers. I've never done that. I'm a good person. Well, they've done that. They've done that. They've done that. But honestly, the Bible says, 2 Corinthians 10, 12, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. They say, oh, I'm good. But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves with themselves are not wise. These people look around and go, you're down here, I'm up here. I'm a good person. But here's the problem, Christ is up there. And the standard that God has is not this, God's standard's that. And with any sin, this morning, that's not been put under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ through salvation and the applied blood of Christ and the forgiveness of God, that sin has to be judged. Has to be. So somebody could say, well, I'm a good person. I'm a good person. But the problem is they're looking at themselves. We all fall short, but can I say this morning, it's kind of like this, we're down here, we're down here, neither of us can touch it, but can I say that God is almighty and God is able to take us and lift us up to where we can touch it? Isn't that awesome? See, God says, that's my standard. You have to attain to that standard. And we've got to come to the point where we realize I can't do that. So that what? So we reach out, we grab Christ, and Christ takes us up. Does that make sense? Here's how the word of God says it. For he hath made him, Jesus, who's up there, to be a sin for us, down here, so that we might be made the righteousness of God. That's the standard up there in him. That's how righteous God makes somebody. When somebody gets saved, he makes them completely righteous. Praise God. We need to look inside this morning. It might be what needs to change is salvation. God says do justly, but in your heart, you know, I'm a sinner. I failed God. I'm not right with God. God says you can get it right. You can do justly by how? Taking the hand of Christ and getting salvation. But after I'm saved, we can fail God, can't we? Even though I'm saved, God still expects me to live justly. Just because my sin's been forgiven, God's given me His imputed righteousness. But God still expects me to live a holy life. You know, Dr. Bob Senior, who's the president of the university that I went to, he was the founder of it. He said, do right till the stars fall. It's a good statement. Do right till the stars fall. I mean, continually live justly. The Bible speaks about some righteous men in the word of God. There were three that were particularly noted for their righteousness, that God commended for their righteousness. He said it this way in Ezekiel 4. He said, though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls in the city that he was gonna judge. They should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. God said, even if these righteous men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it. How do I know they were righteous? Noah was righteous when everybody else was judged by God. God saw Noah's righteousness and God saved mankind through Noah. Job, having considered my servant Job, God said to save a righteous man. Daniel, Daniel purposed in his heart. They went to find something, just a kid living in a foreign land in the Babylonian captivity. And he goes, no, I'm not gonna eat the king's meat. I'm not gonna eat meat offered to idols. I'm gonna please God, give me some porridge. God honored that. But I wanna ask you something. Did Daniel, Job and Noah become righteous on accident? No, it was purposeful. God says to us this morning, look, live justly. How do I do that? By seeking to live a righteous life, a life that pleases God. You know, peer pressure is high. Last night I was witnessing to some teens down by the viaduct. And when they walked away, I'd give them tracks. They were polite, they were kind. I was speaking to four young men. Some girls were trying to pull them away. And I said to the guys, I said, guys, some things are more important than girls. They laughed and they stayed. And they kept listening as I shared with them about God and why there is a God and what the Bible is and who Christ is. They stood there. But you know when they left, I could tell there was peer pressure there. And some of those kids, when they left, they took that gospel flyer and they tore it up. When I came back, I found it on the ground, and I picked it up, and I could see them way up the path ahead of me, and I'm quite confident they saw me picking up the pieces. And I was just praying God would convict them, that God would work in their heart through that, that they would realize there is a God, and not just tear up God's stuff and say, oh, that's fine. When I got to the garden up here, I come around the corner and there they were standing there. And I said, hey, you guys, you dropped your flyers. The one kid that was really tenderhearted as I was speaking to the four, he was 17 years old. He goes, and he reaches in his back pocket and he pulls it out. He had it still. But you know, that's not easy. I commend that young man. I said, you're awesome. I commend him. Why? Because to stand for something when other people are standing against it, it's not an easy thing. But God says to us, look, you're to live justly. We're in an ungodly world, the pressure is conform, be like the world, be like the world, be like the world, but you know what, we gotta do by God's grace, gotta say, no, I'm gonna honor God, I'm gonna please God with my life. So look in your heart and say, God, is there anything there that needs to change? Because God says do justly. Look out for God's authority, look in the book, then we find as well, look out for those around you. Look out for those around you. Not only what does the Lord require to live justly, but to love mercy. God says, what pleases me in my creation is to see individuals that are like me, that are merciful. Be merciful, be a merciful person. As you think about this, are you an exacting person? If people don't measure up, I mean, are you exacting? Are you unforgiving and unmerciful? God says we're to be a merciful person and extend mercy. Matthew 5, 7 says, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 6, 15, but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. God says, if you don't forgive, I won't forgive. And so if in your heart this morning, there's something harbored there where you've said, nah, it doesn't matter what they do, it doesn't matter what they say, they'll never be forgiven. You know, God says, look, you can't be forgiven. He says it very clearly, if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will my Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. Wow, I don't know about you, I don't wanna stand up for God because God is a forgiving God, God is a merciful God, but I don't wanna stand there with no hope of mercy because I hate somebody else too much. so that God despises me. Think about that. I mean, that's a strict thing that God has said there. Jesus even taught this in a parable. He told a story about this just in case some people had a hard time getting it. It's in Matthew chapter 18 and beginning at verse 21. It says, then Peter, the apostle that we love, because Peter would often say things that were on his mind. He wasn't shy, if he had a question, he wasn't shy to bring it up with the Lord or to say something, and God used that to teach through Peter. So Peter came to him, and he said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Tell seven times, Jesus saith unto him, I say unto thee, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 times seven. 490 times, I mean, it's just a number that means always forget. Always forget. If somebody comes and says, look, I'm sorry, always forget. Because Jesus tells a story now. He says, therefore, is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents. And so he's starting to go over the books that he has for his kingdom, and he finds his debtors. And he goes, wow, there's a debtor that owes me a huge amount. Get this guy and bring him to me. And, But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord, have patience with me and I'll pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt. Now I wanna stop there real quick just to say this. It's a picture of God. And God begins to reckon in his books and says, debt, and it's sin debt, it's breaking God's law, and it's disobeying God, displeasing God, and it's a great debt, it's a debt that man can't pay. But God's strict. He's gonna hold man to account. He calls him before him, and this person falls down and worships him. What's it mean? He acknowledges that who he is and his right. It doesn't say, no, you don't have the right. It says, yes, you have the right, but please, please, please have mercy on me. And the heart of the king is moved. And being a compassionate king, he looks at him and says, you know what? I'll forgive you. He forgave him a huge debt. He didn't say, just pay me later, did he? He said, forgiven. But watch what this guy does that was forgiven. But the same servant went out and he found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence, and he laid hands on him. He took him by the throat saying, pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down on his feet and besought him saying, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. Does this remind you of something? Pay me what thou owest, and he gets down. Please, you know, I just have patience. I'll pay it, I'll pay it. And it's not much, 100 pence. And he would not, but he went and he cast them into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and they came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that he called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, that means he was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him. Now get this, so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. God says, if you're not gonna forgive, I'm not gonna forgive. And he doesn't just say from your mouth, he says from your heart. Have you ever seen a kid forgive from their mouth and not from their heart? I love you, I forgive you. Spit. I forgive you, right? You go, you don't mean that. Stop that. Stop that. That's hypocrisy. You know what God says? That in your heart, you got to say, look, I forgive you. Why? Can I tell you why? Because God has forgiven you so much. And God is willing to forgive you so much. You ought to say to that person, look, you don't owe me anything. What I owe God is way beyond what you owe me. And God's willing to forgive me. So I'm willing to forgive you. Be merciful. What does God require this morning? What does he want for you to look good? Be a merciful person. Look out for those around you. Be quick to forgive and to lose people from debt of forgiveness from you. So look out for those around you. Look inside, see what needs to change. Look out for God's authority. Look in the book and then look up instead of looking down. Look up instead of looking down. Because what's it saying? He requires you to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Look up, instead of looking down. Have you ever seen a proud walk? I could try to do it this morning, you'd probably laugh at me, but back when I was in the 1980s, There's kind of this strut thing. I don't know if I'm going to try to do it, because I don't think I can. Not as cool as those guys. I mean, they kind of float. You know what I'm saying? And I mean, they're walking on air. They're so above everybody else. I mean, you know, it's just, we all look at that and go, it's just like proud as a peacock, you know? I mean, you see somebody just inflated with pride. And God says, no, he says, what I desire is somebody that walks humbly with God. I've handed out flyers, gospel flyers to people. I handed to them, and I don't know why this stands out in my mind, but nothing bothers me more than a middle-aged or older woman that kind of looks down her nose at me as if I'm filthy and like I stepped on something really nasty and walked under rich carpets, you know, that kind of really, I'm above you, please don't talk to me. It's just part of what you get. They don't even know what I'm handing to them. But they're up there somewhere. I love people that, hey, thank you, I'll take that. Yeah, thanks, appreciate it. You get a lot of people like that, too. But there's some people that are real smooty. You know, and I'm down in Princess Street, I suppose, man. There's some well-to-do people down there. Maybe they don't, you know, hang around my kind, you know? I don't know what it is. But it's just pride, isn't it? But what does God desire this morning? God wants humility. God wants people that look up to him and say, you know what, God, I don't understand why you love me so much, care so much about me. I'm not worthy to walk with you. I'm not worthy to know you. The Bible says in James 4, 6, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. If you're a proud person, I'm all right, I'm righteous, I'm a good person. You know, that person, that person's a sinner. That person, you know, if they're a drunkard, they're down in the gutter and they need to get saved. No, no, no, no. We're all down in the gutter. All of us. No matter what we've done. All sin is equal. Sin is the great equalizer, isn't it? I mean, we look at some sin and say, that's bad sin. And I mentioned one, I can mention so many others. All sin is that way. So what do we all need to do? Look up to God and say, God, I'm so sorry. My sin puts me down here. Thank you so much for loving me. You know, I recently read a statement by a man in a book about the gospel. And he said this, he said, this is an exact quote. Most of the time when somebody rejects the gospel, it's a lack of understanding. And I said, wait, wait a second, because I don't agree with that. And he's a good man. I'm sure he meant, I understand what he's saying. People do need to understand. They do need to understand. But I think the greatest hindrance to the gospel is pride. I think the greatest hindrance to this church growing is pride. It's people that are too proud, too concerned about what other people think, too concerned about their own self-righteousness to humble themselves and say, God, you're right, I need that. I need that and I'll take that. And not just with salvation, but God help us. We need to be, as we walk with God, we need to walk humbly with God as believers and in that place of dependence with God. And so look up instead of looking down. Look out for those around you, be merciful. Look inside, see what needs to change. Look out for God's authority, look in the book. And then lastly, look to God, look to God. To walk humbly with thy God. Look to God. Look to God. We've already sung about it, haven't we? Look to Jesus now and learn. Look to Jesus. Look to God. Stop looking other places. Look to God. You got a problem? Look to God. Walk humbly with thy God. Can I tell you about God, Jesus Christ? Philippians chapter two, verse six. Who being in the form of God. In other words, if you were to look at Jesus, his form, okay, I'm the form of man, right? I'm a human. He's in the form of God. Who is he? He is God. He's God. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. You know, for me to say today, and I'm not saying this, say I said I am equal with, and I hesitate even to say it because it's so blasphemous, I'm equal with God. Do you have a problem with that? If I put myself off as God, it's not robbery for me this morning to say I'm equal with God? Do you have a problem with that? I hope so. But Jesus Christ could stand here today and say, I am equal with God. What's he saying? I am God. But because of that, it wasn't robbery, but he made himself no reputation. He took upon him the form of a servant. So he's in the form of God. He takes upon him the form of a servant. He's made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Okay. When he died on the cross, what happened? All the yuck of this world was put on Jesus. All the sin, you ever sin and go, oh, that's rotten, tastes like garbage, tastes like rubbish, right? Sin stinks, guilt stinks. It's an awful sinking feeling in the pit of our heart because we've defiled ourselves. Now think about it, Jesus Christ was perfectly sinless. He didn't just become a man. but he got put on the cross as if he was guilty of our sin and had our sin dumped upon him. Just like if I set this Bible on top of something, just like that, God put our sin on Christ. Yuck. Okay. Why did he do it? For you? For me? So that I could be forgiven, so that you could be forgiven, so that you could be saved? He humbled himself that much to walk with us. Shouldn't we humble ourselves that much to walk with him? Shouldn't we look to God and say, Jesus, you've done so much for me. I just wanna please you. I just wanna serve you. I wanna look to you. God, if you say anything to me, God, I just wanna do that. I just wanna obey you. The Psalmist said this. Psalm 123, two, behold, as the eyes of servants look into the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until then he have mercy on us. Just like a servant looks at the master and is just intent, whatever you say to do, that's what I want to do. And David said, just like that, that's how I want to win on God. God, whatever you say to do, we are just waiting upon you. I'm just looking to you and saying, God, what do you want me to do? That's how we ought to win. You want to look good? To God. Not to men. I'm not talking about looking good to men. We started with that, didn't we? Looking in the mirror. I hope you want to look physically good. But what's more important is that when God looks at you, God sees something truly good. And you might be thinking this morning, what do I need to do? Do I need to become religious? Do I need to do this? Do I need to do this? Do I need to, you know, and then God will accept me, and it's not it. It's not it. That's what Israel was trying to do. They're trying to, all these sacrifices, and they're saying, how can I get right with God? How can I please God? God can't be pleased, but he can be pleased, but it's his way. Where's it found? In his book. So what do I need to do? Stop looking to all these other things and look in the word of God and say, what does God's word say about a right relationship with God? Look in the Bible. Are you looking out for God's authority? Do you understand this morning that you're gonna give an account to a holy God? We ought to look out for God's authority. We're gonna start living right when we understand God is gonna be very strict when it comes to accountability with him. Are you looking inside and saying, you know, God, what needs to change? It might be salvation. It might be that I need to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior, so I have the righteousness of Christ, so I can touch the standard that God wants me to touch. It might be that there's sin in your life that you know is there, you're harboring sin, and you need to get rid of it, because God says to live justly. Are you looking out for those around you? Is that on your radar? Are you concerned about those that are about you? Is there a principle of mercy in your life that you're merciful and a forgiving person to those that are about you? And how we need to be merciful that pleases God. Are you looking up instead of looking down? Instead of being high and mighty, looking down on everything and everybody, including God, are you looking up saying, God, I'm so unworthy, so unworthy. And are you looking to God saying, God, you're who I wanna please. God, help me to please you. We can all look good to God if we'll look where God wants us to look. And I hope that's a challenge to you this morning. If there's something that the Spirit of God has spoken to your heart about, don't delay. The song says it well, to delay is to disobey. When the Spirit of God speaks and He makes known to us something in our life that needs to change, for us to say no is to resist, isn't it? What do we need to do? Say, yes, God, you're right, I'm wrong. I'm gonna humble my heart right now and I'm gonna obey you in this. I'm gonna please you. So if the spirit of God has spoken to your heart about something this morning, just encourage it in this time of invitation. What we're seeing, just bowing your heart before God, saying, God, I'm just gonna obey you right now in what you've spoken to my heart about. Let's pray. Father, take your word, apply it deeply to our hearts. Father, remind us not to look elsewhere, but to look in your word. Father, I pray, that all these other truths that we've looked at this morning will be truths that would stick with us and challenge our hearts, Lord, so that we can look good spiritually to God. Certainly, Father, if somebody's unsaved is born, I pray that they'd accept the gift of everlasting life through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and Calvary for them. Father, if there's a believer that's not living in victory, Father, they're not spending time in God's Word. They're not walking in humility. They're not walking mercifully. And then I pray, Spirit of God, speak to their hearts, give them grace to turn to you. And Father, by your grace, we wanna be right in the sight of God today. Thank you for your help in this message. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Turn your hymnal, please, to 321. Let Jesus come into your heart, 321.