If doing justice is the action, then loving kindness, or loving “mercy” (KJV, NIV), is the attitude of the heart. This is warm-hearted compassion. God calls His people to correct injustice and promote righteousness not as a grudging performance of duty but as a glad action. As we see so clearly in the New Testament, love “rejoices with the truth” (1 Cor. 13:6, emphasis added), and God Himself loves cheerful generosity (2 Cor. 9:7).

Unless we delight to share with others the pardon, love, and compassion our heavenly Father has granted us, how can we claim to truly know God?

Unless we delight to share with others the pardon, love, and compassion our heavenly Father has granted us, how can we claim to truly know God? (See 1 John 2:9–11; 3:10–18; 4:20.)

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This article has been adapted from the sermon “What God Requires” by Alistair Begg.

In times of wanton injustice, people often turn to Micah 6:8 to point out what God expects. Certainly, it is a fitting text for recent history, but if we wish to understand it as fully as we ought, we first must consider the passage in its context.

God wants His people to know and understand themselves as recipients of His unrelenting grace and mercy.

In the book of Micah, God indicts His people through His prophet. They have degenerated to the point that they “devise wickedness and work evil on their beds.” They can’t wait to get up in the morning to “perform it” (2:1). Clearly, Israel is in rough shape. In the third chapter, Micah even likens Israel’s rulers to cannibals who “chop [others] up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron” (3:3).

Nevertheless, by the time the reader arrives at chapter 6, the Lord’s tone is one of entreaty. Twice in verses 3–5 we read the opening phrase “O my people.” Perhaps there is even a hint of tenderness. God then calls His people to remember and know “the righteous acts of the LORD” (v. 5), giving them a little reminder of history: their redemption from Egypt and the righteous leaders He raised up (v. 4), how He providentially turned curses to blessing with Balak and Balaam at Shittim, and how He led the nation through the Jordan River to Gilgal (v. 5). This isn’t merely a history lesson; God wants His people to know and understand themselves as recipients of His unrelenting grace and mercy.

Verses 6–7 then describe an array of sacrifices from the would-be worshipper. But these sacrifices don’t cut it with God. We see this in parallel in 1 Samuel 15:22, when Samuel confronts Saul: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” God is not saying that sacrifices or other expressions of devotion are irrelevant; rather, He is looking for genuine obedience from the heart.

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This article has been adapted from the sermon “What God Requires” by Alistair Begg.

By all accounts, the Cleveland Orchestra is one of the finest symphony orchestras in America—indeed, even in the world. Founded in 1918, the orchestra’s music has amazed listeners and impressed the toughest critics across the globe for over a century.

What would happen to such a world-renowned group without their conductor at the helm? Surely, each musician is more than capable on their own, but were the conductor deposed in a musical coup, all the harmony that could have resulted from submitting to the score and bowing under the baton of the conductor would be forfeited.

Our world is like an orchestra that has deposed its Conductor. We have been created by God and for God, and He intends us to live under His sovereign direction. Yet we have been separated from God, and we have been scattered in the imagination of our hearts. By nature, we resolve ourselves to play whatever tune we like, shunning the very Conductor who desires to bring us into harmony with Himself and one another.

At the beginning of this decade, the pandemic, economic strain, and racial prejudice have all collided to amplify our discord. Fear has gripped our nation and our world, and the demonstrations that came in the aftermath of George Floyd’s unspeakably brutal and cruel death have highlighted our deep brokenness.

Every pundit has his or her ideas about what will heal our fractures and bring harmony to our society. But what matters most in such tense times as these is that we look to the Conductor. He alone has the hope we so desperately need.

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This article has been adapted from the sermon “What God Requires” by Alistair Begg.

There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away:
Wash all my sins away,
Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its pow’r,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more:
Be saved to sin no more,
Be saved to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more.

E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

When this poor, lisping, stamm’ring tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save:
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save;
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.