A Humble Walk With God

Date: July 21, 2013

Context

Micah's similarity to Isaiah
1. Compare Isa 2:2; Isa 2:3; Mic 4:1; Mic 4:2.
Micah particulars
1. 1:11- Wine and strong drink
2. 3:2- Hate the good
3. 3:4- Hide his face
4. 3:8- Filled with power
5. 3:9- Make crooked all that is straight
6. 3:10- Build Zion with blood
7. 3:11- Is not the Lord in the midst of us
8. 3:12- Plowed as a field
Micah 6
1. 6:1-2 Preamble, stir attention
2. 6:3-5 Plea, call to remember, ingratitude of God's people
  1. Seen in the exodus
  2. Remember Balak, Balaam, Shittim to Gilgal
3. 6:6-7 Conviction awakened
  1. What course shall we take to avoid the wrath of God? Shall I come: ...
  2. Hearts were laid open, yet their hopes were in their repentance, amendment of life and performance of duties, not in God. "Who has required" Isa 1:12
  3. 2 Illegitimate means of answering conviction
    1. God's
    2. Man's
    3. We imagine our ways better than God's
    4. How foolish to trust in sacrifice especially if:
      1. We rest in them forgetting sacrifice as a pointer to God's mercy and condescension
      2. To suppose they negate sin such that sin may now be lived in. Rom 6:1. This effectually alters God's character, especially regarding his attributes of justice and mercy
      3. To add to them according to man's vain imaginations

Our business: Walking with God in holiness

Obedience over sacrifice (last weeks verse list), Hos 6:6, Mark 12:33, Mat 5:24, Psa 51:16-17
Doing justly, loving mercy: 2nd table love your neighbor as yourself
Required (naturally and spiritually):
1. Peace and agreement (naturally): Amos 3:3, Psa 50:16, 22, Eph 2:14, Isa 1:11
  1. Consider the impossibility of man walking with God
    1. By status we are rebels against the just and mighty king
    2. By power we are worms
    3. By holiness we are filthy
    4. By righteousness we are wicked and abominable
    5. By faithfulness we are whores and prostitutes
  2. Must be in covenant (spiritually)
    1. Gen 17:1
      1. God Almighty, God all sufficient: expressive of God's part of the whole covenant
      2. Walk before me and be blameless: expressive of man's part of the whole covenant
    2. The covenant is the basis of our walk with God who is too far removed from us so as to be walked with but according to the way he has set
2. Oneness of aim
  1. The aim of God is his own glory Isa 48:11, Rev 4:11, Eph 4:6
  2. God aims to glorify his mercy not our works, Titus 3:4-5
    1. (Optional: Yet we glorify him by making much of his mercy through our works)
  3. Enjoying him in the way of this mercy is the great reward of walking with him, Gen 15:1
    1. Our aim then is to glorify God's grace and mercy by humbly walking with him and enjoying him as our exceeding great reward 1 Cor 10:31
    2. Q. How do we obey to exalt grace (not authority and justice)
3. A living principle (dead men cannot walk either naturally or spiritually unless acted upon by an external force)
What it is to walk with God
1. Examples:
  1. Gen 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
  2. Gen 5:24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
  3. Gen 6:9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
  4. Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless
  5. Isa 38:3 “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
  6. 1John 2:6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
2. An obedience according to the terms and tenor of the covenant of grace which the bible characterizes as blameless, perfect, upright, holy, and worthy of the Lord
  1. Terms:: Blameless, whole-heart, upright, faithful, worthy of the gospel
  2. Col 1:10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God
  3. What is it to have obedience according to the tenor and terms of the covenant?
  4. Types of perfection:
    1. Perfection as an attribute of God
      1. Deu 32:4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
      2. Mat 5:48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
    2. Perfection as an attribute of man.
      1. The external (alien righteousness) perfection that God applies to us through justification. By faith he has rendered us perfect. Perfect in absence of sin, perfect before his law. He is our priest who interecedes the merit of his blood on our behalf. This is the perfection of God applied to us by his free mercy and grace. May we ever stop when we come to this subject and marvel before we pass by. But pass by we must for it is the subject of our sanctification we now aim at.
        
        1Cor 1:30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption
        Phil 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith
        2Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
        Gal 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
        Rom 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
        Jeremiah 23:6 Jehovah Tsidkenu "And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’"
      2. The internal (proper righteousness) perfection that the covenant of works (do this and live) required in us, and that we are now aim at though fall short of.
        
        Gen 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
        Phil 3:12-15 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
      3. The internal (proper righteousness) perfection that the covenant of grace requires in us.
        
        Psa 37:37 Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace
        Mat 5:48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
        2Pet 1:15-16 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
        Jas 1:4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
  5. Interrelations of these types of perfections
    1. The starting point for any definition of perfection must be God. Our holiness comes always in relation to his holiness and if anything in this universe is to have any holiness whatever it is an imputed and derived holiness from the holiness of God. He is the only fountain head of holiness, there is no other source or fountain we may go to in order to find it. If we are to define perfection it must be grounded in the holiness of God.
    2. God gave man an incorporation into his perfection that we may walk with him therein. This is implied in God's desire to walk with man in the cool of the garden, for how were Adam and Eve to walk with God if not in holiness?
      1. We must be holy for he is holy...
    3. Yet this perfection of holiness was lost in the fall and not reclaimed until Christ in fulfillment of all the covenants including the covenant of works lived the perfect life required of Adam thus becoming the new Adam and our representative and federal head.
    4. This perfection is applied to us so that we might be in covenant with God and walk with him in righteousness. As Adam did and in a sense beyond what Adam was capable of.
    5. Now, in order to this walking God has required of us perfection of 2 kinds. His own perfection applied to us in justification, and a righteousness that is real and internal in our sanctification. This sanctification will find its fulfillment in our glorification when we become really internally and properly perfect, but until then God has contented to make up the lack of internal righteousness that we have with his own righteousness applied to us, but this is only given to those who are universally sincere in aiming after perfection with all their might and all their heart.
      1. In this we see all the types of perfection in a beautiful dance. Our aimed at perfection required by God for him to consider our actions as perfect (sanctifiction/glorification), which complies to how he sees us legally perfect (justification) so that we might be considered both denominated as perfect and actually perfect and all this flowing from the work of Christ on the cross by which he alone in complying with the perfection of God is to us the treasure house of all perfection so that we might walk in communion with God his Father who is perfect. So perfect that he will not walk with anyone who is not perfect.
  6. Which is the perfection required of walking with God.
    1. As we said before we must be in covenant with God as a prerequisite to walking with him or he will not accept us as friends. This is to have the alien righteousness of God applied to us by grace and through faith. Eph 2:8-9
    2. However, though we can never exaggerate the importance, weight, and gravity of this justifying power of the blood of God for the sake of our passage it is a prerequisite not the thing itself.
    3. God requires a universal uprightness, guilelessness, purity of heart in how we obey him and seek after him. He does not accept half efforts here. He requires us to press on, to fight, to aim at perfection even though we miss time and time again.
    4. This is required not as a righteousness in itself where with to stand before God, but it is no less required.
  7. Universal sincerity is what is required of God by Abraham and by us in order that we might walk with him.
  8. "God in the covenant of grace is pleased to accept of that holy obedience which is universal as to all parts, in all known instances of duty, and sincere as to the manner of their performance."
    1. Universality: Obey God's word. What God says in terms of a commandment he is saying it to you. When he says love me, he is saying it to you, when he says meditate on my word he is saying it to you, when he says run the race set before you he is saying it to you. These are not optional.
    2. Sincerity: In all these commands God further adds that you shall do them with all of your might and all of your heart. This is absolutely consistent throughout the whole of scripture
  9. One might here object: what is the reason for a lesser obedience in the covenant of grace? A lesser obedience? What has God lowered his standard will he now accept imperfect righteousness where before his glory demanded an absolute perfection? And all this because of Christ's work? No!
    1. This would be to make Christ the minister of sin
    2. To the covenant of grace belongs a righteousness which is far more complete and glorious than that which was belonged to Adam.
    3. The reason of this lessening of obedience lies here: that our evangelical obedience, which is accepted with God, according to the terms and tenor of the new covenant, does not hold the same place which Adam's obedience should have had under the covenant of works. For Adam, obedience should have been his righteousness and justification absolutely before God and these works would have merited him eternally rewarded. But this working of all righteousness is now filled up by the righteousness and obedience of Christ, our mediator; it is the obedience of the Son of God which we stand in. And this obedience, this righteousness is far more eminent and glorious, and shouts to majestic attributes of God far more wonderfully than Adam's obedience ever could no matter how steadfast he could have been.
    4. Evangelical obedience
  10. Do you remember what it is to aim at perfection?
    1. Sum of all of this 1John 2:6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
    2. "To believe in Christ for redemption, for justification, for sanctification, is but one half of the duty of faith; — it respects Christ only as he died and suffered for us, as he made atonement for our sins, peace with God, and reconciliation for us, as his righteousness is imputed unto us unto justification.
      1. Unto these ends, indeed, is he firstly and principally proposed unto us in the gospel, and with respect unto them are we exhorted to receive him and to believe in him;
      2. but this is not all that is required of us.
      3. Christ in the gospel is proposed unto us as our pattern and example of holiness; and
        
        as it is a cursed imagination that this was the whole end of his life and death, — namely, to exemplify and confirm the doctrine of holiness which he taught, —
        so to neglect his so being our example, in considering him by faith to that end, and labouring after conformity to him, is evil and pernicious.
      4. Wherefore let us be much in the contemplation of what he was, what he did, how in all instances of duties and trials he carried himself, until an image or idea of his perfect holiness is implanted in our minds, and we are made like unto him thereby."
3. Constant steady progress is implied
  1. Terms:: Way, road, path a course of life that is headed towards a destination
  2. As implied before there is no coasting. It is steady progress or steady regress.
  3. Phil 3:14, 12: I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ... Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
  4. A Christian always aims at perfection
  5. A tree must grow every year
  6. Psa 63:8 (KJV) "My soul followeth hard after thee"
  7. "The enjoyment of God in Christ is the mark before us; our walking is a constant pressing toward it"
4. Delight there in (pg 100)
  1. Peace, life, and God's desire for
  2. Bound with cords of love, Hos 11:4
  3. Zeph 3:17, Sos 2:14, Prov 8:31, Sos 4:9-6
5. Humility, with a sense of our own utter inability.
  1. Terms:: Humility, inability
  2. John 15:4-5 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
  3. I can't tell you how many times these last few week I have caught myself trying to do some great thing to satisfy God. It wont work. He has shown you O man has been the consistent reply to these failures. Praise God for it.
6. Other terms
  1. Terms:: Fear, light, Spirit, Worthy
Do you walk with God?
1. What evidence have you that you are in covenant with him? that your covenant with hell and death is broken, and that you are taken into the bond of the covenant of grace? What account can you give to God, to others, or to your own souls, of this covenant and your place in it? How many are at a loss as to this foundation of all walking with God!
2. Is your obedience from faith? What evidence have you of it? Do you try yourself, as the word commands, to see if you be in the faith (2Cor 13:5)? Go over all the causes, effects, and adjuncts of a justifying faith, and see whether you have this principle of all acceptable obedience. How and when was it wrought in you? What work of the Spirit have you had upon you? Is your heart purified by it, and are you by it baptized into one Spirit with the people of God with whom you have fellowship?
3. Is your walking universal and perfect, according to the tenor of the covenant? Have you no sweet morsel of the world under your tongue, no beloved lust that is indulged to, that you cannot as yet thoroughly part with? no allowed reserve for sin?
4. Do you delight in God in your obedience? or are his ways burdensome to you? Are you weary of private prayer, reading, meditation, gathering with the saints and of all the worship of God? I leave these things with your consciences
5. I leave these things to your consciences

Parking Lot

2 Covenants works/grace
1. Covenant of works: do this and live
2. Covenant of grace: walk before me and be blameless or perfect or upright
Our obedience must proceed from faith Rom 1:5, Heb 11:6, John 14:6, Titus 3:8
Our obedience must be perfect Gen 17:1, Gen 6:9, Psa 37:37, Math 5:48, Job 1:1, 9:20
1. Simplicity, no guile, without craft, plain-hearted, integrity, no hypocrisy
2. It aims at perfection, It aims at God's glory
3. It keeps in mind all of God's law Psa 119:6, Jas 2:10 / Universal Sincerity