Finally, the call to “walk humbly” is an exhortation to live in submission to God’s will. Romans 12:1 is a New Testament equivalent: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” The call is to think and feel and act in such a way as to love and honor the Lord. Our lives must align with how great God is and how mightily He has acted on our behalf.

By the time we arrive at what God requires in verse 8, it’s all too easy for us to neglect the call in verse 5 to remember and know what the Lord has done. But unless we ourselves have come to know the steadfast love of the Lord, we have no hope to rightly dispense it to others, and we can neither do justice nor love kindness nor walk humbly with God.

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

For the original recipients, to “do justice” was at the very least a call to act in such a way as to reverse all the evil taking place. It meant doing justly in accord with the will and purpose of God as He had manifested it and revealed it to them in Scripture.

For example, in Deuteronomy 10:18, Moses says that God “executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.” So within the framework of God’s revelation of Himself, we want to take these things seriously—perhaps far more seriously than we have to this point in our lives. Surely James had Deuteronomy in mind when he wrote, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).

In short, we might say that this command to “do justice” is the inevitable fulfillment of our Lord’s command to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matt. 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; see also Lev. 19:18; Matt. 19:19; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8).

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

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? (See 1 John 2:9–11; 3:10–18; 4:20.)

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.

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.

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.

We can count upon Jesus to love us faithfully and sacrificially. We can rest in His constant companionship, never leaving us for any reason throughout our pilgrimage here on earth.

Take some time out today. Jesus has invited you to spend time with Him; accept His invitation. Give Him your troubles. Enjoy His rest.

Each day this week we are pleased to share with you an excerpt from Alistair Begg’s “5 Bible Verses on the Second Coming of Christ”.

John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

“In the New Testament, there are literally hundreds of references to the return of Jesus Christ. It has been estimated that one in twenty-five verses of the New Testament in some way relates to this doctrine. … The range of references should leave us in no doubt whatsoever that the return of Jesus Christ is consistently and progressively pointed to throughout all the pages of Scripture. The first appearing of Jesus Christ was the central point in history, the hinge upon which the whole of history since has swung. It was the decisive moment. It was the date from which all other dating has come. …

“Let men and women say what they will, that fact remains. And He has cut across time in His first coming. In the same way, the reappearing of Jesus Christ will bring to completion that which God has purposed. It will be the hinge which joins the world as we now know it with the world that is to come. …

“The Christian hope is not related to a timetable of events. It is not related to a series of impersonal happenings. The Christian hope is related to the personal, visible return of Jesus Christ, just as He promised here in John 14. Our gaze is to Jesus. Our eyes are for Jesus. …

“The cardinal rule in considering the doctrine of the return of Christ must always be this: Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.”

Commentary from the sermon “The Return of Jesus Christ” by Alistair Begg

Each day this week we are pleased to share with you an excerpt from Alistair Begg’s “5 Bible Verses on the Second Coming of Christ”.

James 5:7 “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.”

“The Bible … not only tells us that our history is broken, but it also tells us what God has done in time to deal with that brokenness; that the God who made time, who established the universe, comes … to sound, as it were, a megaphone down through the centuries concerning the good news of His intervention so that what is broken may be, by His goodness, repaired, fixed, transformed.”

Commentary from the sermon “Be Patient, The Lord Is Coming — Part One” by Alistair Begg:

Each day this week we are pleased to share with you an excerpt from Alistair Begg’s “5 Bible Verses on the Second Coming of Christ”.

Revelation 7:9–10 “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”

“What do we know about the return of Jesus Christ? Well, there are certain things that are absolutely straightforward and about which there is no debate …. The return of Jesus will be personal, physical, visible, and glorious. The return of Jesus is secret, it is sudden, and it brings separation. …

“When you stand back far enough from the Old Testament and you look at it, you see that it is an unfolding arrow, as it were, scrolling forward to Jesus. And when you stand back from the book of Revelation, you discover that what is being declared, first to these beleaguered saints in the first century, is that they shouldn’t be alarmed by all that is taking place because Jesus is actually in control—and that, eventually, the reigning power of Christ will be established when His kingdom comes in all of its permanent fullness.”

Commentary from the sermon “The Perfected Kingdom — Part Two” by Alistair Begg