January 30/31, 2011 sermon on Micah 6:1-8 by Pastor Paul G. Eckert

January 30/31, 2011 - Epiphany 4
Sermon on Micah 6:1-8 by Pastor Paul G. Eckert

1 Listen to what the LORD says: "Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say.
2 Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel.
3 "My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.
5 My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD."
6 With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

THE LORD PRESENTS HIS CASE
I THE CHARGES AGAINST US STAND (1-5)
II THE SOLUTION IS NOT FROM US (6-7)
III OUR RESPONSE SHOULD BE EVIDENT (8)

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Our text is from the 6th chapter of the book by the prophet Micah. A verse in the 5th chapter is very familiar to us. It is the prophecy that the promised Savior would be born in Bethlehem in Judea.
Micah was a contemporary of another prophet, Isaiah. At Christmas time we heard also his prophecy that the promised Savior would come by the miracle of a virgin birth. I can just try to picture Micah and Isaiah sitting down together in Jerusalem and talking about this tremendous event that was going to take place. Maybe they even wondered if it would happen in their life time. All they knew for sure was what the Holy Spirit had inspired them to write: the virgin birth of Immanuel would be in a place called Bethlehem. And that happened, exactly as foretold, about 700 years later.
But now let’s get back to the time of Micah and our text, and not to a prophecy but to the picture of a court trial. Here I would like to ask for a show of hands. How many of us here have served on a jury - would you please raise your hands? If you are among those who have served, you can probably relate quite easily to the subject of our text where the jurors are not people but the mountains and the hills and the foundations of the earth. What decision will this jury bring in? Will it be "Not guilty" of the accusations brought, or "Guilty as charged"? Let us now be like jurors who listen carefully as in our sermon text
THE LORD PRESENTS HIS CASE
I THE CHARGES AGAINST US STAND (1-5)
1. Charges against Jesus could not stand
a) prophecies spoken by Isaiah and Micah about Jesus’ birth all
were proved to be valid: they were fulfilled, they stood
b) but think of what was spoken that led to Jesus’ death: false
charges by the church leaders about who He was, and about
Him destroying the temple building; the false charge before
Pontius Pilate that Jesus was going against the Roman
government - these charges were false, could not stand
2. But charges against Israel were valid (1-5)
Listen to what the LORD says: "Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the
LORD."
a) God had been good to Israel: He had delivered them from
Egypt, led them through the wilderness, thwarted the efforts of
a king and a false prophet to defeat them, took them from the
east side of the Jordan, across the river, and gave them there
the land He had promised them
b) in the face of all of God’s goodness, let the jury of mountains
and hills and foundations of the earth recognize that the nation
of Israel had rebelled against God again and again and again
3. What charges could be brought against us? (3)
"My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me."
a) what has our God done to us? - He has given His Son for us
so that in Him we have forgiveness of sins and the comfort of
His presence in the difficulties of this life; He has given us many
physical blessings in this life and the promise of everlasting life
in heaven where there will be perfect joy and no difficulties
b) and what is our reaction? - is it often rebellion like that of
Israel? - is it letting the world’s ideas of right and wrong guide
us instead of hearing God’s holy will? - is it husbands and
wives not striving to love each other as they should? - is it
children disrespecting teachers and disobeying parents? - is it
people young and older going along with sexual immorality and
gutter language? - is it outwardly respectable people thinking
that worshiping God and hearing His Word are optional, and
that bringing offerings to serve Him can be replaced by using
God’s blessings to us to serve not Him but only self instead?
4. There is no question that charges against us stand (1-2)
Listen to what the LORD says: "Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his
people; he is lodging a charge against Israel."
a) add to that: not only against Israel, but also against us today
b) and if you feel that you did not fit some of the categories of sin
that I mentioned, then remember that only one of any other
type of sin is also enough to convict us before a holy God
c) jurors, what say you? - looking at ourselves we have to come
back with the verdict that the charges stand; we are guilty
II THE SOLUTION IS NOT FROM US (6-7)
1. We need to come before the Lord (6)
With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
a) what is the solution to our guilt? what do we have to do?
b) what about bringing our offerings? in OT times did animal
offerings do it? today do our church envelope offerings take
care of paying for our sins and satisfying God?
2. Israel here did not show correct understanding (6b-7a)
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?
a) during the OT, animal sacrifices were required; their purpose
was to point ahead to the spotless Lamb of God who would be
sacrificed on the cross as the Innocent One so that God could
accept that substitute sacrifice and forgive the sins of the guilty
b) but here they thought their doing, their bringing of sacrifices,
their outward worship, might be the solution to their guilt
3. They showed that also with another offering (7b)
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
a) if Israel did what the heathen people around them did, offering
even their children, would that take care of their guilt?
b) how foolish! sinful people bringing sinful sacrifices could pay
for no sin; all that did was to add the sin of thinking something
they did, their outward worship, could take care of their guilt,
whereas God’s plan was to offer His sinless Son as a substitute
4. Don’t look to yourself to remove the charges (6a)
With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?
a) yes, come to church and worship, bring your prayers, offer
your services, bring money offerings as God has blessed us
b) but not a bit of that can take care of earning the forgiveness of
even one sin
c) that only God could and did take care of with the death on the
cross to which OT sacrifices pointed, the death of Jesus that
paid the wages of our sin, forgives us, and presents us as not
guilty, not by what we do but by what Jesus did in our place, as
Micah refers to that at the end of his prophetic book: "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." - Surely this leads us to our next point
III OUR RESPONSE SHOULD BE EVIDENT (8)
1. God tells us what a good response is (8)
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
a) this is not to atone for our sin; Jesus did that for us
b) but it is the response that should flow from a believer’s heart
of thankfulness for what God has done
2. To act justly we need to know God’s justice (8)
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly ---.
a) to be just in forgiving us, God was just in convicting His own
Son because He was loaded down with the sins of the world
b) knowing that God was and is just, let our response also be to
act justly, to know God’s just will, His commandments which
tell us to love not sin but to love God and our neighbor
3. To love mercy we need to know God’s mercy (8)
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy ---.
a) yes, we love the mercy God has shown us in forgiving us
b) to that mercy let our response be to show mercy, to reflect to
others how God has dealt with us, as we pray in the Lord’s
Prayer about forgiving others as God has forgiven us our sins
4. Let our faith’s response be to walk humbly with God (8)
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the
LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
a) such faith penitently recognizes God’s case against us is valid
b) in humility it rejoices in the justice and mercy of God which
tell us, as recorded in Romans 8:33-34: "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."
c) in grateful response to this, then, God’s people will want to
walk humbly before God and will want to act justly and to
love mercy, will want to worship sincerely and not just
outwardly attend church services, will want to not neglect but
bring offerings sincerely to serve God; >>> in other words,
God’s people will want it to be evident that they are what God
has made them to be: His forgiven people, His people who
won’t hear from the jury, "Guilty as charged and as deserved,"
but instead will hear, "Not guilty!"
"Not guilty!" That is what our God says to us. Rejoice in God’s verdict that tells us, "Case settled!" "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)