PLEASING GOD
DR. JIM DIXON
MICAH 6:8
AUGUST 2, 1992
According to the Roman Catholic Church, Saint Anthony of Egypt is the patron saint of hermits, along with Saint Giles and Saint Hilarion. Now, Saint Anthony of Egypt lived during the third and fourth century AD, and he was of course born in Egypt. In fact, he was born in a little town called Coma, which seemed somehow appropriate since Saint Anthony spent so much of his time in a kind of mystical, contemplative trance. When he was 20 years old, it was Saint Anthony who sold everything he had and gave it to the poor, and he had took a vow of poverty. He left the city, he went into the deserts of Egypt, and there for 15 years, he lived in abandoned tombs. After 15 years, Saint Anthony returned to the city. He was welcomed as a prophet, as a holy man. He was said to have powers of healing.
After one year, he left the city and he made his way into the deserts once more and out to an abandoned fort in a remote region that was called Pispir. There he lived for 20 years. It is said that during that 20 years, Saint Anthony did not converse with another human being. The sum of his life was 103 years on this earth. Saint Anthony today is considered to be the founder of the monastic movement. You might well ask, “Well, why did men like Saint Anthony or Saint Giles or Saint Hilarion do what they did? I mean, why did they take such vows of poverty? Why did they live such lives of self-denial?” Indeed, why have thousands of people through the Christian centuries adopted lives of monastic asceticism? I think it would be fair to say that most of these people have done such things because of their desire to please God.
Now, hopefully all of us in this sanctuary, at least in some measure, have some desire to please God. The Bible tells us it is not possible to please God through our self-denial. The Bible tells us it is not possible for us to please God through our own sacrifice. It is not possible for us to please God through asceticism. Indeed, in our passage of scripture for today, the prophet Micah tells the men and women of Israel that they can’t even please God through their sacrificial systems, cannot please God through burnt offerings, cannot please God through the giving of the finest youngest calves. They cannot please God through the sacrifice of thousands of rams or ten-thousands of rivers of oil as an offering. They cannot please God through the giving of one’s firstborn for the sin of one’s soul.
I think as Christians we know what the New Testament has taught us. We know that we can only please God when we believe in His Son Jesus Christ. We please God as we come to faith in His Son Jesus Christ, and we receive Christ as our Savior from sin and as Lord of life. However, as Christians, we need to know how we can live lives that please God day-by-day. This is what the prophet Micah is dealing with. How can we live lives that please God day-by-day? If we would live such a life that is pleasing to God, we must do three things according to the prophet Micah has revealed in our scripture for today.
First of all, we must do justice. “For you know what it is that pleases the Lord. You must do justice, you must love kindness, and you must walk humbly before your God.” Now, this concept of doing justice comes from a Hebrew word. The Hebrew word is “mishpat.” Mishpat is the word that the Jews use for the rule of law that judges applied in the courtroom and trying to deal fairly with disputes between people. The whole concept of justice had to do with the concept of fairness. Now certainly, we live in a world that is not always fair. God wants us, if we believe in His Son Jesus Christ, to seek to make this world a place that is more fair and to reach out for to those people who perhaps have not had a fair deal in life. Now, we’ve all had times in life when it seems like we got the short end of the stick or things weren’t exactly fair. I think this is true even in businesses.
I know there was a story in the Los Angeles Times not long ago about a man who went to a department store and he bought a lawnmower and he took the lawnmower and he brought it home, mowed the lawn, and everything was going great. Then he had a brilliant idea that he and his neighbor (there was a big hedge that separated his yard from his neighbor’s yard) would take the lawnmower and use it to cut the hedge that was six feet tall but kind of unruly and needed to be trimmed. So one neighbor took one into the lawnmower and the other neighbor took the other end of the lawnmower, and they held it up and they turned it on and they started to run it along the top of the hedge.
It was actually doing a pretty good job until they reached the point where the one neighbor’s hand slipped and the lawnmower fell and it just cut up. I mean, it just ground up part of the other neighbor’s arm. That neighbor wound up losing 50% of his function in that arm. That neighbor sued the lawnmower company. He sued the lawnmower company and he won. He won because it was determined that the lawnmower company was negligent in not putting a warning in their literature that the lawnmowers were not to be used in the trimming of hedges. Now, I don’t know how you feel about that, but that doesn’t seem fair to me. It doesn’t seem fair to me. But I think we would all have to admit we don’t really live in a fair world. We don’t live in a fair world.
I think the black community all over America, and perhaps people outside the black community as well, felt like the Rodney King verdict wasn’t fair. I mean, most of the black leaders who have spoken on this issue have said that they acknowledge that the police need to apprehend criminals, but they say police are not supposed to punish criminals. Police are merely supposed to apprehend criminals, bring them in for trial, and when they have been duly tried, if they’re found guilty they are then to be punished. Now, the apprehension of criminals they have pointed out should not require just scores of beatings, particularly when you have a number of police there to apprehend the criminal and the criminal is not armed. They said, even if the criminal is violent and no matter what his crime, they didn’t understand how it could be justified to beat this man so many times. But of course, the jury ruled that there was no unnecessary force in the apprehension of Rodney King. I think people in black communities all over America and others as well have felt like that wasn’t fair.
We have whole segments of people in our society who just feel like they can’t get a fair shake. We have whole segments of people in our nation and perhaps even around the world who feel like life isn’t fair. But you see, if we are to live lives that are pleasing to God, we are to seek to reach out to those people in our society for which or for whom life isn’t fair. You know, in the Jewish world and in the biblical world, the word that the Jewish people used for their offering that they gave to the poor and to the needy was a particular word, the word was actually “tzedakah,” and that word in the Aramaic meant justice. For the Jewish people to give to the poor and to give to the needy was justice. That’s what it meant: to establish fairness, to give to the needy and to the poor.
The concept of doing justice in the Jewish world had to do with social justice. It had to do with reaching out to widows and orphans. It had to do with reaching out to the poor and needy to the oppressed and to the persecuted so that, in a world where so many people are denied equity of opportunity, it is the responsibility of those who believe in the Son of God, to those who believe in Jesus Christ, to reach out to such people and compassion.
Indeed, that is what Mother Teresa is doing. I mean, Mother Teresa is doing justice as she seeks to minister in her clinic in Calcutta and other places around the world. As her sisters seek to minister to those people who were born in poverty, who had less opportunity than most people in this world. That’s what the Bible calls “doing justice.” We’ve had hundreds of people in this church who have gone into the inner city in conjunction with our missions department, have labored in the inner city with a sister church of ours in the inner city, New Life in Christ Church, and they have ministered in a tutoring program downtown trying to help disadvantaged children and minority kids to learn basic skills that will someday enable them to have the dignity of a job. While these volunteers have gone into the inner city to do this work, they’ve also shared their love for Jesus Christ and the person of Christ. But they’ve gone in order to do justice, to seek to make this world just a little bit fair place for some people.
You know, the Bible tells us someday when we stand before God and we’re going to be evaluated in our Christian life. One of the things He is going to look for is whether or not we did justice in the world, whether we had concern to reach out for those who weren’t treated fairly. That’s why the Bible tells us, our Lord Jesus tells us in Matthew 25, that He will ask that if when He was hungry, we gave Him to eat. If when He was thirsty, we gave Him to drink. If when He was naked, we clothed Him. If when He was sick or in prison, we visited Him. Of course, we need to understand that in the ancient and biblical world, many were in prison unjustly. But the message is God wants us as His people to seek social justice.
He also wants us to seek criminal justice. The concept of justice in the Hebrew was a concept that included social justice, fairness. It also included criminal justice so that as a society when crimes were committed, they were duly punished. Certainly, we have problems with our criminal justice system here in America, and we should be concerned. As citizens and voters, we should do all we can to make sure that criminal justice is established in our land. This word justice in the Bible had the same root as the word righteousness. Sometimes the concept of doing justice had to do with seeking moral righteousness. We should also be concerned about the erosion of moral righteousness in our society, the erosion of Judeo-Christian values. All of these things are part of what it means to do justice, to be involved in the doing of justice. That’s part of what God requires of us if we would live lives pleasing to him.
But there is a second quality He looks for. The second quality is this: that we would love kindness. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness.” Now, the Hebrew word that is translated kindness is the word “chesed.” It’s a very difficult word to translate into the English. The word chesed in some of your bibles is translated as “loving kindness” and other bibles it’s translated as “loving mercy” and other bibles it speaks of “steadfast love.” But the concept of chesed in the Hebrew community was a concept of covenant love with deep loyalties and deep commitment. But it was always a kind of love that was manifested and expressed in the form of mercy. It was a merciful love. That is why in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this word chesed is translated by the Greek word “helios” and the word helios is the word mercy. Modern-day scholars who really study Greek and Hebrew tell us that this word chesed was the Hebrew way of summing up the New Testament concepts of both mercy and grace. So what this passage is saying to us is if you want to live a life pleasing to the Lord, you must love mercy and you must love grace.
I hope you understand the distinction between mercy and grace. I mean, mercy means to not give somebody the bad things they deserve. Grace means to give somebody the good things they don’t deserve. That’s mercy and grace. If the IRS was to come to you and say, “Hey, you know, we got some problems here. You’ve cheated on your income tax and you owe us a lot of money, however, we’re willing to just forgive and forget the whole thing.” That would be mercy. It would also be incredible. That would be mercy. Then if the IRS were to say, “and in addition to that, you know, we know it’s really tough for you and the government’s going to give you a thousand dollars a month for the rest of your life,” that would be grace. Mercy and grace.
Now, as Christians we understand that the supreme source of mercy and grace is God’s Son, Jesus Christ. When we come to Christ, as hopefully all of us have, when we come to Christ and we believe in Him, and we embrace Him, and we take Him as Savior and Lord, we experience His mercy and our sins are forgiven us, and the punishment we deserve is lifted from us, having been taken by His Son on Calvary’s cross. We are forgiven and our sin is removed from us and we are washed whiter than snow. That’s mercy.
Then we are given life itself and the promise of heaven and the promise of eternal life and the promise that forever and ever we will reign and rule with Christ. That’s grace. Mercy and grace. If you’ve really experienced mercy, and if you’ve experienced grace, then your heart’s desire is going to be in your personal relationships to show mercy and grace towards others.
Indeed, if we would live lives pleasing to God, that’s what He expects of us. We want to make society a fair place. We want to make society a just place. But in our personal lives, we want to be more than fair. In our personal lives, we want to be more than just. In our personal lives, we want to show mercy and we want to show grace. The Bible tells us again that when we stand before Christ, the mercy and grace He shows towards us is going to be in some measure dependent upon the mercy and grace we’ve shown towards others. Indeed, the Bible says “judgment shall be without mercy for those who have shown no mercy.” The Bible says, “Forgive and you’ll be forgiven. Give and it shall be given to you.”
Now, there is a third requirement that God makes of us if we would live lives pleasing to Him and this third one is perhaps most difficult. In a sense, it’s a hard subject to even approach. This is the admonition that God has given that we should walk humbly with Him. “For you know what is required of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Now, the word humble in the Hebrew is the word “anav.” This word is one of a number of Hebrew words that are translated “humble” in the Old Testament. It’s related to another Hebrew word, the word “naphal,” which means to fall down, to prostrate one’s self, to make oneself low. The actual word anav, however, refers to the attitude of the heart that a person has when prostrating themselves. The proper attitude of heart that one has when one lowers oneself. Indeed, it’s similar to the Greek word for humility, which is the word “topeinos,” a word which literally means to lie low. If we are humble before God, if we are humble before God then we prostrate ourselves before Him. We fall down before Him in our hearts daily. That’s the attitude of heart. We approach Him with awe, with a holy fear, with an awareness of His majesty.
Some of you I think are familiar with the passage in the Book of Revelation, the first chapter where the Apostle John describes how he was imprisoned on the island of Patmos in the Mediterranean or the Aegean Sea. How he was there on account of his testimony for Jesus Christ. It was sometime around the year 90 AD. John tells us how suddenly Jesus Christ appeared to him on that island. Jesus Christ resurrected, Jesus Christ alive, and when Christ appeared, Christ appeared in all of His majesty. He did not appear cloaked in His humanity, but in His celestial glory, with His heavenly countenance. He radiated pure light. The Bible tells us that the face of Christ was like the sun shining at full strength. His voice was like the sound of many waters. John says that when he saw Christ in all of His majesty, he fell down before him prostrate, face to the ground as though we were dead.
In a sense, that’s the kind of picture, that’s the kind of image which in our minds and hearts we need to have before Christ daily. It’s the meaning of the word humble. You see, I must say, I think we live in a culture, we live in a society, we live in a nation that has lost its awe of God. It no longer reverences God, and in fact has lost its holy fear. I think a lot of people in our culture think, “Well, if there is a God, He must be some kind of lovable teddy bear and everything’s okay with Him.” Of course, it’s really not the biblical portrait of God.
In this last issue of Time Magazine, the cover story is called Losing the Battle. This issue of Time Magazine deals with the subject of the AIDS epidemic. It appraises the progress or lack of it that has taken place in the 11-year battle on this planet with the affliction called AIDS. According to Time Magazine, we are losing the battle. We’ve not found the cure, and the cure is not in sight. According to Time Magazine, this virus, this disease is now attacking women in greater numbers. By the turn of this century, there will be more women with AIDS than men. According to Time Magazine, the virus may be mutating, taking new forms, more subtle, more difficult to discern or detect, but equally deadly. Of course, the death toll is rising now. It is true now as it has always been that this disease would cease if our society were drug free, if our society were heterosexually monogamous.
Indeed, all scientists agree with that. All who are involved in sociology agree with that. All those who are involved in the medical field agree with that, that if we as a society, if we as a nation, if we as a world were drug free and if people would adopt monogamy as a lifestyle, AIDS would cease on the earth. Now, I think we all would have compassion, hopefully, for anyone who has AIDS. I think we all would love to see a cure for that hideous disease. Surely, we would. I think certainly there are what we might call innocent victims of AIDS.
But of this there can be no doubt, no doubt that this disease is spread because of the practice of sin. This disease is spread because of the practice of sin. In the arrogance of our country, we are not willing to admit that, not willing to admit it. 11 years ago, when this epidemic had its inception in our world, the question was raised, “Could this perhaps, could this just perhaps reflect something of God’s holy wrath? Could this in any sense reflect the judgment of God upon a fallen society?” Of course, the political community immediately responded “No, absolutely not.” That is the politically correct answer today. Even the theological community has uniformly said, “No, this is not the judgment of God” because our culture is immersed in a growing theological liberalism.
But I must say there’s a certain theological naivete that’s prevalent today and a complete ignorance of the biblical data because the Bible tells us that God has in times past brought pestilence on the earth in response to human iniquity and sin. God is a holy God. He’s a loving God, but even His love is holy and God is a merciful God and God is a gracious God, but He will not forebear sin forever. There comes a point in time where God does judge and He does pour out wrath. Biblically, it is impossible to deny it. Now, I’m not saying, I’m not saying that AIDS has been caused by God. I don’t know, I don’t know, only God knows. But I think it is absolutely amazing and very important for us to understand that we live in a world that has simply ruled that possibility out of bounds.
They’ve ruled it out of bounds, they’ve ruled it impossible because their view of God. I mean they view God as someone who, because He is love, must always forebear everything. God is not allowed to express anger or wrath. But you see, the Bible tells us that God does have anger and God does have wrath and God is holy. It’s not just the Old Testament that tells us that. It’s the New Testament as well. It’s the New Testament that says, “the wrath of God is poured out from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness, suppress the truth.” It’s the New Testament who warns Christians saying, “If we sin deliberately and repeatedly,” or at least it warns the alleged community of believers saying “if we sin repeatedly and deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains an offering for sin, but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries for we know Him who said vengeance is mine. I will repay. The Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
You don’t hear many sermons preached on passages like that. I’d like to challenge you to go home and read 2 Peter. I’d like to challenge you to go home and read the book of Jude in the New Testament, even portions of the Book of Revelation and tell me if God winks at sin. God doesn’t wink at sin. He doesn’t look at our society, our culture, our nation and other nations, and ignore the iniquity and evil that is there. He is merciful, He is gracious, but He does not forebear sin forever. I tell you, I believe with all my heart that we live in a time where God is calling His people to holiness. God is going to call this nation to holiness. God calls all who believe in His Son to holiness. I believe we will either have revival and repentance or we will see judgment.
The Bible says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray, seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and I will heal their land. I will forgive their sin.” Somehow, as a nation and a people, we’ve lost our holy fear, our reverence, our awe.
You know, I have a minister friend who has told me many times that he can’t wait to see Jesus face-to-face. He said that when he sees Christ face-to-face he’s going to run up to Him and give Him a big bear hug. He has tears in his eyes when he tells me this. He always does whenever he tells me this, because he loves Christ. He views Jesus Christ as his very best friend. Christ is indeed his friend. Christ is my friend. I hope you have entered into friendship with Jesus Christ and you love Him like that.
But I’ve really got to say personally that when I see Christ face-to-face, I’m not sure I’m going to feel so free to just run up and give Him a bear hug. I think I might feel a little bit more like the Apostle John and fall down on my face because He’s not simply my friend. He’s the Son of God. He’s the creator of the worlds. He is Lord of the Lords, and He is King of Kings and He is holy. He’s utterly holy, and I’m not.
What does the Lord require of us as we live life in this world? What does He require of us? He requires that we do justice, that we seek social justice, criminal justice, moral righteousness in this world. That we seek to reach out to those who are less fortunate, those to which life does not seem fair or for which. He requires of us that we love mercy, that we love grace, that in our personal relationships we’re willing to show mercy to others as Christ has had mercy on us, grace to others as He’s poured out His grace upon us. But He also requires that we walk humbly.
If we would live lives pleasing to Him, he requires that we walk humbly before Him knowing that He is a holy God. One day He will judge the world. He will judge the living and the dead. He asks that we live with a holy fear, reverence, and awe, for He has majesty and omnipotence. Let’s close with a word of prayer.