SCRIPTURE: Micah 6:6-8 "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 give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
TITLE: What will appease the Supreme Lord and King of the universe?
PROPOSITION: to use this text and others to show that nothing can appease God but the blood of Christ, his suffering and his death.
1.) Why do Sinners feel the need to appease God?
A. Because God has written his law upon our heart, He has given us a conscience, and when our conscience accuses us we feel the weight of that guilt. Romans 2:15 "Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another"
B. Because God has given us his written law, and a broken law always "works wrath", when the law is broken punishment must be given. The greater import of the offended party, the greater the punishment, "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul"
if provoking an Earthly King is as the "Roaring of a lion" how much more dreadful is it to provoke the Supreme Lord and King of the universe by violating his law and trampling under our feet his glorious Majesty? Romans 4:15 "Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression."
2.) What are some of the ways that sinners have tried to appease their guilty conscience?
A.Some have attempted to appease God through an outward display of piety. In the Old Testament God commanded his people to bring a blood sacrifice unto him but these sacrifices could never take away sin. " will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams"
Hebrews 10:4 "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." These animal sacrifices which were part of the old Covenant only pointed to Christ who was "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world"
Sinners contrive that by an outward act of piety or by a strict moral life they will somehow appease God, and make themselves worthy to come before the Lord, and be accepted by him, but these things are "nothing and less than nothing"
Psalms 51:16 "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering." The gulf between Holy God, and sinful man remains just as deep and just as broad, until the sinner comes with a contrite heart to God through Christ.
B. Some have attempted to appease a guilty conscience, by inflicting suffering upon themselves, and there have been others that have even offered their children to pagan gods in hopes that somehow it would pacify the offense of their transgression. "Shall I give my first born for my transgression"
2 Kings 17:16-17 "And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire.."
3.) Our text gives us three things God requires, Micah 6:8 "...to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" the scripture makes it clear that only Christ has appeased Gods just wrath for our sins on the cross, and that the only way we can have a righteousness in our heart is if God has implanted a new heart within us, a heart that is tuned to love God and sing his praises.
A. "To do justly" this is impossible apart from a heart transplant, that we receive in the new birth. Jeremiah 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."
B. "To love mercy" this is also impossible apart from having a new heart, the scripture represents our heart before conversion as being a stony heart. And a stony heart can never show Mercy in the way God requires it. Ezekiel 36:26 "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."
C. "To walk humbly with thy God" in order for us to walk with God we have to be first reconciled to God through the propitiatory sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:10 "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
CONCLUSION: there is nothing that we can do to appease God, all of our good works are like "filthy rags" in his sight, Christ's death paid the penalty for sin, he became "the propitiation for our sins" and the only way we can "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God" is if we have come to Christ and been born again by his spirit. Acts 20:21 "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
