Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Then said they to Jesus, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" And Jesus answered and said unto them, "This is the work," and notice that's a singular work, not the works, "that you believe on Him who He hath sent."

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reminds us God's plan of salvation only requires of us that we believe. That's the big work that we're called to do. Not works—what are the works that I should do? Nope. What is the work? Believe on Him who the Father has sent. That's Jesus.

Guest (Male): The prophet Micah sought to emphasize the importance of genuine repentance to the Lord, not merely outward displays of piety. In response to the rebellious attitude, God called for the people to simply walk humbly with Him. Continuing a verse-by-verse study in today's word, Pastor Brett Meador summarizes the essential steps of reconciliation and the forgiveness God offers.

Brett Meador: Micah chapter six, verses one through five, talks about God's loving question. The Lord's loving question that He's going to ask the people of Israel sort of rhetorically here. Let's take a look. Chapter six, verse one: "Hear ye now what the Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice." Do you guys remember the mountains and the hills in this context? What are we referring to? Anybody remember? The nations. So the Lord's saying, hear ye now the Lord arise and contend before the mountains, you might say, or before all the kingdoms of the world. And that's what we're talking about, the mountains are the nations and the kingdoms.

Verse two: "Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel. O My people, what have I done unto thee? And wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against Me. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam."

This is interesting. Here, when God says, "I've got a controversy," the idea is that's the King James way of saying, "I have an issue with My people Israel, and I want to talk with you about that." He wants to sort of plead with them. Not smash them, but talk with them. Does that amaze anybody? Micah is seeing a rebellious Israel. These are people who the Lord saved them and blessed them and provided the land flowing with milk and honey and subdued all their enemies. And what did they do? Started worshipping idols and pagan deities. And by this time, they're already sacrificing babies on the altar to Moloch and Chemosh.

So here in the book of Micah, chapter six, we're seeing God simply reasoning with the people. And that's the heart of the Lord. I love that he's saying that. So then He says in verse five, He goes on and He says, "O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord." He's reminding them of an old story when the children of Israel were there in the days of Joshua and stuff. Balak the Moabite was wanting to curse the children of Israel, but he didn't know how to do that. But he did get a prophet, and there's a strange little prophet. And if you remember there in Numbers chapter 22, the crazy story of Balaam the prophet.

It's a crazy story because the Lord says, "Just go and speak the words that I give you." And Balak was saying, "I want to hire you, the Moabite prophet, to come and curse the children of Israel." So Balaam finally ends up going. And if you remember, he's on his way and he's riding a little donkey, and it gets a little misdirected after that. The donkey sees the Lord with a flaming sword standing in front of him and the donkey stops and is like, "Whoa!" And Balaam doesn't see it and he starts beating the donkey. And the donkey turns around and says, "Have I ever been a bad donkey to you?" Now you've got the talking donkey in the Bible. That's an amazing story. Balaam's just this weird prophet who's just wanting to do his own thing, but he's still called a prophet.

Instead of cursing the people, whenever he'd stand up and Balak would say, "Okay, now curse them, there they are down in the valley," they'd get up on a mountain and he'd try to curse them and only blessing would come out. "I can't curse the people," he says, "but the people can curse themselves." And he says, "Here's what you do Balak, get your young beautiful Moabite women and have them all sexy and come down the mountain with their little idols in their hands and say, 'Hey you big boy' to the Jewish guys." And the Jewish boys would go, "Whoa!" And so they'd marry them with their idols. This was Balaam's idea. The problem is, that's crazy, but it worked like a charm, sad to say. And they started taking in their idols and they cursed themselves by doing sinful evil deeds.

Well, that's the first section. God says, "Okay, this is letting you know what My question is for you," and He says, "What have I done?" The second section of this verses six and seven speak of the people's rebellious question. So they answer God's question with a question. Jesus often did that, but wait until you see this rebellious question of the people. We looked at this a little bit earlier. Check out verse six. The people say, "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?"

This is the question they say. "What do You want us to do, God?" In rebellion, they're answering. It's a bad attitude from the people. And the Lord never really required those things of them, especially the stuff about sacrificing their firstborn. Did God ever ask people to sacrifice their firstborn? No, that's a different god. That was Moloch and Chemosh who wanted their firstborn, those gods and goddesses of the pagans. It's like the Lord made their lives free, but the problem with freedom is sometimes we use our freedom to do evil stuff. And then we wonder why we're in trouble and we're miserable. And they say, "Man, we're miserable. What are we supposed to do, God?" And it's not God's fault. It's their own fault that they're miserable.

If you're a miserable person, you might want to check with that before you say, "Well, what is God doing in my life? Why am I in the situation that I am? Woe is me. Why isn't God doing this? Where's my boyfriend or husband, or where's my wife? Why don't I have a good job?" We get all whiny and wimpy, but we have to say, wait a minute, we need to just put our trust in the Lord. The Lord hasn't been the one to put this burden on us. And these people are sitting there saying, "What do you want from us, God?" Horrible attitude. God forbid that we find ourselves being like these people.

Then when the Lord answers them, it is even more—I'm going to call this section, so we've thus far seen His loving question, verses one through five; the people's rebellious question, verses six and seven; but thirdly we see the Lord's loving answer, and we see that in verses eight through 16. It says in verse eight, "He hath showed 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?" This verse is one of the more famous verses of the Bible because it's the Lord boiling it all down to total simplicity. 613 Jewish laws the people had that they were supposed to keep, and that's one of the reasons why they're rebelling here saying, "What do you want us to do, all this stuff?" And the Lord says, "You already know what to do. Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly."

You've got to love this. And by the way, this whole thing of what the Lord really requires of us is what are we supposed to do as people? I love what John 6:28-29 talks about. Then said they to Jesus, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" And Jesus answered and said unto them, "This is the work," and notice that's a singular work, not the works. They're asking, "What are the works of God?" He says, "Here's the work of God: that you believe on Him who He hath sent." That's the big work that we're called to do. Not works. What are the works that I should do? Nope. What is the work? Believe on Him who the Father has sent. That's Jesus.

So what are we supposed to do? Believe in Jesus. I love that. Do you remember the story of the Philippian jailer? Paul and Silas were singing praises at midnight, and as they sang praises, there was a great earthquake there in Philippi. The gates of the prison flew open, and they were able to walk out free. Their chains and their bonds were all broken off, and they were just walking out. Well, the Philippian jailer, who would have been a Roman soldier, was freaked out because if you lose your prisoners, you're toast. You're going to be killed, probably brutally. So the Philippian jailer gets his sword out and he's going to stick himself through because all the prisoners are going to be gone. But Paul says, "Wait! Do yourself no harm!" And he says, "We're all here. Chill out, man."

So they all walk outside, and there's the jailer and there's Paul and Silas. I love it. It says there in Acts chapter 16, verse 30, it says they brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Don't you love that? And then they were all baptized. I love this. And by the way, this is what the church order is: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Period. And then as a saved person, then you go get baptized. That's something you're asked to do by the Lord. That's a link. It's not the work of salvation to be baptized, but when you do the work of salvation, then one of the things we get to do as a believer is—it's more of a get to, and it's a powerful part of our walk and our life to be obedient—to just be baptized. So they did that.

Some would try to add to salvation. You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and pass out Watchtower magazines and go door-to-door. If people talk about the Holy Trinity, then you shake the dust off your feet. That's the Jehovah's Witness. There are more works that you have to do to really be saved. Mormonism, depending on which Mormons you talk to nowadays—Mormonism is really funny because it's changed, it's amalgamated over the years and depends on which Mormons you're talking to. But if you get down to the Doctrine and Covenants and the early Mormon writings and stuff, they've changed their doctrine more than 3,000 times since Joseph Smith. How many times have we changed the Bible as Christians? Zero. But the Mormons, 3,000 changes.

For example, polygamy was accepted. Joseph Smith had 27. How many wives did he have? 20 something. And Brigham Young had 50 something wives. Polygamy was encouraged back in those days, but thankfully they kind of figured out, "Yeah, that's a little weird," and so they axed that off their Doctrine and Covenants. And we could go on and on about some of the weird things that they had in Mormonism that I'm glad we've never had in Christianity. But Mormons are Christians. The Mormons believe in a different Jesus than what the Bible actually teaches. But one of the things—and this again, I talk to Mormons now and they're like, "Oh, no, no, we're saved by Jesus through grace." But that's a person that doesn't really know their Mormon faith that well because they also believe that you're saved by being one who believes in Jesus and—and you've got to be part of the Mormon Church, be baptized into the Mormon Church.

You've got to really work hard because if you want to get to heaven, you've got to be a really, really good Mormon. And if you're a really good Mormon, you might reach that from go from the terrestrial level to the telestial level. And if you're a really, really good Mormon, you'll become like a god. You'll enter the celestial level because God was once a man like you who was just a really good Mormon. This is what the Mormons believe. And if you don't believe me, if you're a Mormon out there going, "I go to the Mormon Church and I don't know about that," it's because you haven't really read your own writings and know what the Mormon doctrines really are. That's what I'm finding is odd, that a lot of people are Mormons without really knowing some of the weirder things of their doctrine.

So I'm not saying that just to be mean, but that's why the Christian church has never let Mormonism in. Why? Because they don't believe Acts 16:30 and 31. How do I get saved? Paul and Silas were wrong if you're a Mormon when he said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." That's the work of salvation. But be that as it may, some people try to add to that. Watch out for people adding to the work of salvation through Jesus only. Well, that brings us to verse nine. It says, "The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see Thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it." Interesting that the Lord brings up here the rod, because the rod can be an interesting implement. Does the rod make you nervous, or does it make you comforted?

Remember the Psalm 23: "Thy rod and Thy staff, they do" what? "Comfort." Why would a rod comfort a sheep? Well, the answer is because the rod could be used as a disciplinary tool, but it could also be used as a protector from the wolves. The shepherd would use the rod to protect the sheep. And it's all a perspective. If you're walking contrary to God, then the rod becomes a disciplinary tool or implement. And that's probably the context of what the Lord's talking about: the rod of judgment and correction. The rod and the staff, the staff was used to guide and redirect the sheep, the more of the shepherd's crook staff, the tall one. But the rod was more of a club, shorter, and it was used to correct but also protect.

In this context, the Lord's saying, "Man, I'm crying to you guys that the man of wisdom would see that the rod of correction, the stuff that they're going through, was corrective." And even the Assyrian invasion would be a corrective smack with the rod of correction. And hopefully the Jews would hear it, but they wouldn't. We know the story. They wouldn't hear that. I wonder if the United States, if the Lord is trying to get our attention through His rod. You do wonder because we've been very sinful. If we think America has been amazingly godly, we need to reassess our history and our current behavior. Most of what we do flies in the face of God today. And if we don't see the rod of correction, maybe that's part of what we're seeing right now as the United States continues to seem to spiral in the wrong direction.

Speaking of early fathers, Thomas Jefferson, who people used to say he was an atheist or all this, but he wasn't. He said this in 1781. He said, "God who gave life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever." Does that sound like an atheist to you, by the way? No, Thomas Jefferson was not an atheist. But he was a deist. People get into all this. Were you there? I don't think so. This sounds like a guy who knows what the Bible actually says and he's right. When I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever, how much worse is it today than it was in 1781?

And we do have to wonder what's going to happen to the United States as much as I'm a patriot and I want to see the United States do well and I pray for this country daily. If we keep going the route we're going, don't be shocked if we see sort of that rod of correction. But be that as it may, we go on into verse 10. It says, "Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?" We talked about the deceitful weights. Remember they would have the scales, and this is what Micah's talking about. They had the scales of justice and they were sort of dishonest weights or unjust weights, that they were hollowing out the inside of the weight to make it look like it was a shekel's weight, but it really was light. And they would rip people off with their fake weights. And the Lord's saying, "You've got fake weights and you've got fake sinful stuff in your houses that you got by sinful means." And the Lord's saying, "Do you want Me to just ignore that you've got wickedness in your houses?" And the Lord's saying, "I'm not going to just ignore that wickedness."

Then in verse 12: "For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth." Are we seeing lies and deceit today? It's shocking. And man, now we don't even know what to believe in what we're seeing and hearing. But right now, we get to be a people that look to the Lord and we have the Bible to be our solid rock, immovable, unshakable, and there's no fake news here in the Bible. Aren't you glad about that? I am.

Verse 13: "Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins." Now is this the Lord just punitively punishing them? No, He's doing this correctively to try to move them to repent. So that's what He's talking about. And how is He going to do that? Verse 14: "Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down," that is like of seed, "shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but thou shalt not drink wine."

You can work and do all the stuff, but somehow you're going to come up empty. A lot of people, especially I would say in America, man, we've been working hard for a lot of years. We work hard, but we still feel very empty. It's interesting because discontentment—discontentment is like the lonely hitchhiker that we see only in the rearview mirror as we speed by in life trying to get somewhere else. The Lord wants us to learn to be content, the Bible says. But one of the signs that you're not doing what God wants you to do is when you get to a place where you're working hard but you're seeing no fruit of your labor. You're spinning your wheels. That's what the Lord says, "I'm going to judge you guys, and how I'm going to judge you is you're going to be sick, but you're also going to work your tails off, but you're going to get nothing from it. You're going to farm, but you're not going to be able to harvest. You're going to sow seed, but there's going to be no harvest. You're going to stomp on the olives for oil, but there's going to be no oil. You're going to come up empty." And that's what happens when we do kind of our own thing.

And that leads to discontentment, unhappiness. The Webster's Dictionary defines discontentment as a lack of satisfaction with one's possessions, status, situation. Just a lack of being content with what we have. Paul says, "I have learned to be content." These people need to learn a lesson that God is the source of all things good, but they weren't knowing that. So the Lord says, "I'm going to discipline you in this way." Well, then He goes on in verse 16. He says, "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of My people."

Who is this Omri? Omri is Ahab's father. Ahab was one of the most horrible kings. He goes in the top two or three evil kings in all of Israel's history. So they were following these evil leaders, doing what the evil leaders told them to do. And they just kind of went on like sheep following Omri and Ahab and keeping their statutes. It's kind of interesting. It makes you wonder about is there a time where you shouldn't follow your leaders. And I know this goes without saying, but just remember when your leaders—one thing the Bible says, we're supposed to obey the authorities that are over us. And there was some confusion on this. It's interesting how the church had to sort of rethink and remember what the Bible actually says. And there are some people that never really got this, I think. But it's really interesting because I've done whole sermons on we're supposed to obey the laws of the land. Done whole teachings. We talked about that in 2 Peter, Romans 13. There are definitely places where we as Christians, we're just supposed to obey the laws, of course.

But at the same time, the Bible indicates that when leaders ask you to do things that are contrary to what the Bible teaches us and where you're breaking what the Lord says to do, and the world is telling you not to do that, there's a point where you have to say, "You know what? We're not going to just blindly, glibly follow the statutes of our leaders." And the Lord's indicting the people of Israel for following Ahab and Omri's statutes because they were evil, they were wicked people.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador closing Micah chapter six with the judgment of God's people for walking in the counsel of the ungodly rather than the ways of the Lord. And he'll be concluding our verse-by-verse study series of Micah next time on Today's Word. I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church, just south of Portland, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more about Pastor Brett and Athey Creek Church by going to TodaysWordRadio.com. If you missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at TodaysWordRadio.com.

Guest (Male): All right, Pastor Brett is with me. America is seeing a lot of turmoil in the last year or so, and I know it's caused a lot of people to search for answers. What have you seen as a pastor and what encouragement can you give to a person who is searching for hope?

Brett Meador: Well, I would say be careful where you search because I think a lot of us have already figured out you're not going to find the hope in politics, or in money, or our circumstances even getting better or more comfortable. I would just say the first place everybody should look is in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, He said in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives." And then He says, "Let not your heart be troubled, and don't let it be afraid." That's the kind of hope that doesn't rise and fall with the headlines. My encouragement would be just don't ignore the longing that's in your heart. God is inviting you to know Him and you'll find forgiveness and you'll discover a peace that passes understanding that lasts. As a church, we've seen people respond to that message in powerful ways, particularly in the last several months. Lives are changed, families are helped and healed, hearts are filled with hope, and it's a hope that really can't be shaken. So I would just point everyone, you've got to find that hope in Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): Right. And Pastor Brett, if someone listening right now is saying, "I definitely want that hope," what's their next step?

Brett Meador: Well, first and foremost, Jesus said you must be born again, which is a term we use "born again." We're born in sin, but Jesus said you can be born again. And how do you do that? It's really what we as Christians call being saved. And so you've got to be saved. That means just repent and say, "I know I'm a sinner," acknowledge your sin before God. And then accept Him. And you do that by Romans 10:9 and 10. Confess with your mouth, believe in your heart that Jesus died on the cross, rose again. And if you believe that and confess that, it says you will be saved. Romans 10:9 and 10. And then the next step after that, now you're saved, now you're forgiven, you're going to heaven, then I would find a good solid Bible teaching church. If you need help with that, you can go to TodaysWordRadio.com, our website, where you can connect with us and we'll help you get connected to a good church.

Guest (Male): Yes, we sure will. Thank you, Pastor Brett. And again, that website is TodaysWordRadio.com. That's TodaysWordRadio.com. Well, that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will point to the loving grace of the gospel as our source of true salvation.

Guest (Male): Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.