Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the July 5 sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 6:35 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's scripture is Micah, chapter 6, verses 1 through 8, and the Sermon is entitled the Requirement of a Nation, delivered today by Pastor Jeffrey Campbell.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: I am thankful to grab God's word today and go into it. I'm going to ask you to do so. But we're not going to the Gospel of Luke today, so don't jump the gun with me. Stay in your Old Testament. Go to the book of Micah, Micah, chapter number six.
For those of you that may be visiting with us today, we have the Lord's Supper going on. So this will be a little bit of a devotional message for us today. I wanted to take advantage of it, and I want to be honest with you. There is a fine line that we walk as Americans. We are thankful for the nation that we live in. We are grateful for where God has placed us, and we're thankful for all of those things. So I think that we walk with a sense of thankfulness and pride that we are in a great nation, in a great place, and God has placed us here. But our foremost allegiance is to Jesus. And so how do you walk that line? Lord, thank you for where you have placed me in this great big world. But in this great big world, Jesus, you died for everyone, of every nation, of every background. So as we do so, we are thankful for a semi quincentennial. Say that five times fast, would you? What does that mean? 250 years of the life of America. Yes, you can clap for that.
On this day, in this weekend of celebration of our nation, I want you to know there's so much to be thankful for. There's so much to be thankful to God for, for where he's placed us and what we have done.
But also on the other side of the coin, over 250 years, we have messed a lot up.
And we have drifted a long ways in 250 short years.
And when you understand about the issues that we have in health care and the issues we have with immigration and the issues that you have with addictions, our schools have become targets of the evil and wicked minds of men and women, our children murdered and martyred from the womb in which God has created them.
From our country, half of the people can't get along with the other half of the people.
And what we look at is that doesn't even scratch the surface.
And so as we look at our nation, we are reminded of the words of Abraham Lincoln that says government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish.
By the people and for the people shall not perish.
But I'm going to submit to you this morning that government divides people as well.
And it divides good people, Christian people.
Maybe these words ring true.
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by that Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Jefferson's words written 250 years ago.
And in 250 short years we have drifted from from our Creator as a nation as a whole.
I'm not going back 250 years.
I'm going back to 700 BC.
As you open your book to the book of Micah, that's the time frame. You're going back 2700 years and you see a man that God uses to speak to a nation who is led by leaders who are not godly, who is a nation that is divided.
But this prophet is sent by God with a godly message to Samaria and Jerusalem. And that message boiled down very simply as this, you need to come back to God.
If you get nothing out of the devotional message today, that's it.
I could say those words to our country. You need to come back to God. And that could be the sermon.
But what does this have for you and I today? As a reminder, as we look at this prophet that was called to lead a nation back to a holy God, I want to look at Micah's words in Micah chapter number six.
And as we boil it down, we understand that we must walk with God.
Micah, chapter six. Look at the first five verses as we read them together today.
Hear ye now what the Lord saith.
Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
Hear ye, O mountains. The Lord's controversy and ye strong foundation 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 the servants. And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam.
O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered to him from Shittim to Gilgal, that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord.
Three quick points today as we look at this requirement from a nation.
And I want to start this off by saying this. The United States is not Israel. So when you read your Bible, you can't put the United States in Israel's place. These words were intended for a nation that belonged to God. But what we can learn as the United States is this, if you drift from God, you will have to answer for it.
And so, as we understand that, there are three quick points and I want you to see today you need to see the reprimand from God. We need to look at the reprimand that Micah is speaking by God's leading to these nations. It is the scene of a courtroom.
The prosecutor begins and the Lord calls the witnesses.
And you notice in the beginning of this chapter, verse number two, that you see the mountains and the hills and the strong foundations of the earth are testifying of the goodness of God.
We know that throughout Scripture, if men and women won't give glory to God, that the rocks will cry out and give glory to God. And so there is the glory of God that he needs to hear from his people and from the people of his creation.
Remember Job? God tells Job this.
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Job was complaining a little bit.
And God's argument is this. Where were you when I began it all? Job, I put all of this into motion. When we understand that the foundations of the earth were not created by us, but they were created by a holy God. Those creations and those foundations should testify of the Lord.
But do you know what the God's prize creation is?
It's not the Rocky Mountain, it's not the Alps. It's not some beautiful majestic site. God's prized creation are you and me human beings. We are his prized creation. And all God desires from his creation, even his prized creation, is that they give glory back to the one who created him. And so today we understand that Israel has not done this. They have moved away from God. And so God is calling them to the courtroom. Israel, come before me. And here's what he says. Look at verse number three.
O my people, what have I done unto thee? And wherein have I wearied thee?
Testify against me.
God is saying this. What have I done to you to make you walk away from me, to leave me, to forget about me? Why won't you glorify the one who created you? Israel, what have I done? Testify against me, but I love. In verses 4 and 5, he tells them exactly what he has done for them, not against them. Look at verse number four. The first thing he says is this. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. What we See, here is, is God is giving the proof of his side, of what he has done for his people. And he looks at this nation and he says this. I have delivered you out of slavery from the Egyptians hand. I have brought you out of that slavery to where you are today. How many of us today in this room can testify that Jesus Christ has delivered you from the slavery of sin and, and death. Amen. We can testify that we have been delivered. But here's what we can't do, Church. We can't forget about that. We can't forget to give God the glory because we too have been delivered. Anyway, back to the courtroom. God is saying, I've redeemed you. I've brought you up, I've brought you out. And as a nation, I have redeemed you. He also says this. I have given you godly leaders. Godly leaders that have heeded godly warnings and they tried to lead you the very best that they could. How many of you know that every human leader, whether it's the pastor or the president, is human and you're human. And when we factor in the humanity of who we are and even who our leaders are, really, there's no perfect leader, there's no perfect pastor, there's no perfect president. But what God is saying, I put godly leaders in your leadership positions.
You were to heed their warnings and sometimes you did and sometimes you didn't. But I gave you godly leaders. Today as a church, you have godly leaders. Not necessarily looking at myself, but I pray I'm one of those and I pray that you see that. But as a nation, listen to me, church. Whoever is in charge in that White house in Washington D.C. god has put them there. It's not an accident. And where we as the church need to be reminded is this, that even though we may not agree with all that is going on there, God has put these people in charge. But more importantly, in the church, God has given us godly people. Godly leader. There's a third thing he says. He says, looking at Balak and Balaam, that they wanted to pronounce curses on Israel. You can go back and read numbers chapter 22 through 24 if you want to, but guess what? God did not allow that those curses to happen. And so as we understand that they could only pronounce blessings, and even though we look at our nation and as bad off as we are, we're in a really good spot.
I don't know how many of you got the World cup fever, but boy, I got The World cup fever. I don't care who's playing. I'm cheering for one of the two teams. Usually the underdog I try to pull for. But listen, what blows my mind is over a little soccer ball that you kick around for an hour and a half. That nations come together and they rally around and everyone is cheering for their nation to win. And even the people that are not playing, they're cheering for other nations to win. And you know what the other nations are saying about the United States of America? Oh, it's a wonderful place.
It's a wonderful place. The picture we get on the news, it's going down. But many nations can testify the United States is a blessed place.
A blessed place. Listen, listen. It shouldn't take a little soccer ball for people to say the United States is good. We need to realize God has put us here in this place. God has given us godly leaders. He has put us in this place. As we understand that God could have put us anywhere in this big old world. God has planted us in Virginia. I know some of you are not in Amherst, Virginia. I had to pause there. Okay. But God has put us in Virginia is that he brought them into the promised land. When we understand that place that the Bible calls shittim, or the place that is called Gilgal, here's what you need to understand.
One is the last place that they were in bondage. And the other is the first place they were in the land of Canaan. And when you understand that and you read that. That in your. In your Bible, here's what we understand.
God is leading that direction in this courtroom. Here's the picture that you need to see the Lord is laying out. Here's what I've done for you.
Here's what I've brought you out of. Here's what I've given you. And you have still turned your backs on me. This is a great, great reprimand from God. And as we understand and look at these four reasons or four ways that God has blessed the nation, we must look at our own lives.
That God has placed us here by his guidance, not by accident. God has allowed us to be under godly leadership, whether that's locally or more higher up. As a nation, God has put those leaders there. God has allowed blessings to be in our lives when we could have been cursed. And God has brought us out and continued to lead us to where he needs us to be. We have grown complacent. And that reason alone. We are now a divided nation. We feel the burden of that, and we must realize this, that God has been good. Despite all the evil and all that's wrong and all that we've done wrong, God still is good. And this nation must continue to look to Jesus to lead it. Or else how do we scale that down to the church? If somebody stands behind this pulpit and fails to point to Jesus, you better go to another church. That's what I mean by that. Individually, if you are leading your life in this great big freedom that we have and you're not looking to Jesus individually, you need to get that fixed. You need to change priorities.
You need to get refocused and put the Lord Jesus first.
The reprimand to Israel from Micah is this. You have forgotten God, my prayer. There's not one person in this room, in this church, or we as a nation, we cannot forget our God. That's the reprimand. Look at verses six through 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 give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Point number two today is you need to see the reply of the nation for the people to hear the charges and the questions that God has against them. Here's what they say then. What shall I do? What shall I bring before the Lord? What shall I offer to God to gain his forgiveness? The issue with the law of the Old Testament is this.
You pay the price and you continue on. And that's the way some Christians live their life today. I'm not throwing any denominations under the bus, but if you offer prayers or you offer penance, God will forgive you. You better be careful with that because here's what we see in Micah as they come before God, the question is this. What do we need to do to be forgiven? Church, look at me real quick. What do we need to do to be forgiven? The thing that we always do, Fall down before a holy God, turn to him, repent, say I'm sorry, move away from the sin and move your focus back to God and follow him faithfully. When we understand that verse six starts with a burnt offering, some of you may not know exactly how those Old Testament sacrifices work. As I come before the Lord, should I just bow down before the high God or should I come before him with a burnt offering? Depending on your social status in the Old Testament day, you know what you did. You offered an animal, the male, the firstborn. It had to be without blemish and without spot.
And here's what you did. As you offered that animal, you put your hands on that animal. And basically that symbolized your sin transferring to this animal. And as that animal was brought to the altar and killed, the blood was sprinkled around the altar and that animal's body was burned. Your sins would be forgiven before a holy God. Now that sounds gruesome. Praise be to God. We don't have an altar out back where we have to do that anymore. There's been a sacrifice once and for all, and his name is Jesus. He was the perfect lamb. But could you imagine bringing the first, oldest, best and saying, okay, God, this is my sin. I put it before you. I'm turning to you as I trust this animal to take away my sin, God, that you will forgive me and I will walk with you again. How many of you know there's not enough animals in amherst county for what we would have to pay for over and over again? What does that mean for us? If you look at verses 6 and 7, here's what the people are saying. God, do I bow down before you? Is that good enough? God, do I bring a burnt offering? Is that good enough? How about a year and a half old animal? Do I bring that year and a half old calf before you and lay it before you? Is that good enough? Verse number seven?
What about thousands of rams?
God, can I bring thousands of rams before you? Is that good enough? What about 10,000 rivers of oil? Would that be enough? God, how can I buy your forgiveness? And that's the heart of the people of Israel. What can I exchange?
What can I do that can buy forgiveness from a holy God? It even goes as far in verse number seven, that I'll give my firstborn, that you'll forgive me. Now, we think that's crazy, but it's happening. It's happening. Through abortion, they get rid of the sin once and for all. It's done. I'll get a new slate. I'll start over. Do you think somebody would really offer their firstborn? Here's what we understand.
What are you willing to exchange for the forgiveness from your holy God? And what the people don't understand is this. You and you can't buy God's forgiveness. There's nothing that you can do in your own strength and your own power.
There's not enough money, there's not enough good deeds that you can come before a holy God and say, God, here's the good I've done. Now you've got to forgive me. What did God really want? Can I tell you? He wanted their heart. He didn't want the oil. He didn't want the animals.
He wanted his creation. His prized creation's heart. Heart. And Israel would not turn their heart to him. That's what he desired. And so today, as you sit here on a wonderful weekend, a weekend that is filled with all the freedom in the world, here's what you need to understand. God wants your heart more than anything. God wants your heart. And we have a reply. And that reply needs to be offer our lives to before a holy God. Bow down before him. Lord, forgive me, help me, lead me back to you. And our prayer collectively needs to be, God, forgive us as a nation. Forgive us as a people. We have failed you miserably. Church, I'm going to tell you something right now that probably does not surprise you, but it may surprise some of you. We are no longer a Christian nation.
Why? Because we've turned our back on God. There's a reprimand. There's a reply. Third thing today, there's a requirement. Look at verse number eight today. I hope you don't leave here doom and gloom. We're so bad. Verse number eight is icing on the cake. And here's what God calls the nation of Israel to do. And I just want to share it with you, as we are part of, I believe, the greatest country in the world. Here's what God requires of a nation that he leads. Look at verse number eight. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. The requirement is simply this. When we understand how much God has done and how good God has been to us, we must turn to him for our lives to give him the glory. But to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God. That's all Micah wanted this nation to realize that they could do the right thing to everyone.
Church, listen to me. You can do the right thing no matter what somebody's background looks like. You can be the same to every person you meet. God calls us to do justly, to do the right thing to those that we come in contact with. God calls us also to love mercy. Not out of duty, out of compassion, out of forgiveness, out of kindness that we look at someone and with the love that Jesus loves us with, we can love them with. And then the third thing that we see. And verse number eight is this. To walk humbly with thy God. I told you I could have boiled this sermon down into one thing. Just walk with God.
Just walk with me. Can you see a God that puts a nation on trial, that demands proof of why they've turned their back, that has shown proof of how good he's been? And he just simply says this, I want you to walk with me. I just want you to walk with me. And as we understand this challenge, the requirement to walk humbly with God, Micah had reminded them of God's goodness and simply this. Will you come back and walk with your God? The New Testament sums this up. You don't have to turn there, but I'm going to read a couple verses from Matthew, chapter number 22, verses 37 through 40. Here's what God's word says. And Jesus said unto them, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Micah is preaching the same thing in 700 BC that Jesus preached in Matthew chapter 22, that you need to love the Lord your God with all that you are.
You need to walk with him, and then you need to treat others accordingly. And so today, church, that's the devotional message. That's the requirement that God has from his people, Love me and love others because I love you, because I've shown you love, and because I've shown you mercy. You can extend that love to everyone that. That you meet, not just because they serve a certain political party, not because they have the same color skin as you are, not because they grew up in the same nation that you are. You can extend this love simply because Jesus has loved you. Church, I'm convicted to this point that I must every single day make sure that I'm walking with my God. And you are called to do the exact same thing.
Every one of us right now are looking at a wonderful table, a wonderful reminder of the greatest love in the world. There's no partiality with his love. The Bible says whosoever. There's no partiality. Jesus doesn't give you an interview or ask about your background or how good you've been or what you've done. No, no, no. Jesus says this. Come. We look at this table as a great reminder of what it means to live a life of humility.
Of walking with God.
There's no greater example of that than Jesus Christ. And so today I want to put our focus there for the next 10 minutes, let's focus there. And as we come before our holy God, here's what we need to say. Oh God, as a nation, we have failed you, but we understand that you are a God of forgiveness and love. That if we turn back to you and we walk with you, you will forgive us and lead us in the days ahead.
I'm looking at my age, I don't know that I'll be here for 300, the 300th anniversary of America. Maybe, maybe I'll be a 93 year old man if that's the case. Right? But here's what I want to say. How, how many years that are before us can Clifford Baptist Church come together and say this? God, no matter how many years you give us, we as a church are going to commit to walk with you. We want you to lead us. We want your truth to lead us. Oh God, we fall before you as a church.
Lead us individually. Will you lay your life down and say, lord, I want you to lead me. Man, woman of God, boy or girl, God, that you will lead my years. That I want to walk every day of however many years you give me. I want to walk humbly with you leading me. Oh God, maybe there's somebody today that. That as you're walking this big old world, you're realizing you're doing it on your own, you're doing it without God. Here's my little 2 cent advice. You better get Jesus in there and get him in there quick because the world according to this book, the world I'm not. Not according to the news. The world according to this book will not get better. It's only going to get worse. And the only hope, not only for a nation, but for a world is people will follow Jesus. That he will use us as a light in this world.
Today, if you need Jesus to be your light, maybe you're a mom or dad, husband or wife, fall before God, come before him. Seek God's leadership in your personal life, in your church's life, and in your nation's life. Maybe today you want to make a big prayer. God as a nation, bring us back to you. That's a hard prayer because I don't know what that looks like.
I don't even want to think. What are the requirements today to love and to walk with our God? Let's go before him now. God, as we come before your table today, we center our hearts on you. We give thanks for the place in which you have given us to call home the great country of America.
Lord. We are thankful, Lord. We admit, Lord, we have fallen short through the years.
Lord, today my hope for a church for Christian individuals and for the nation is that we come before you, that we seek your leadership and we seek to walk with you, God. I pray that you will speak to our hearts. That not only we will seek our own walk, Lord, but we will lift up our nation and our leaders daily before you, God. Turn our hearts back to you, Lord. Turn our hearts to others.
That with your love and your forgiveness and your mercy that we can extend that hand of love to those that are around us.
God, I pray that you will use this moment in a church's life to remind us who we are, but more importantly, whose we are, who we belong to. Oh, God. Lead Clifford Baptist Church.
That's my humble prayer.
Walk with us. We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.
Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church,
[00:29:44] Speaker A: please call our church office at 434-946-0555.
