How Then Shall We Live? | Classic DT

[00:00:00] Daily Truths. This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman. Hi everybody, welcome back to Daily Truths. How then shall we live? In response to what God has done for us through His Son, how do we live? And you might be saying, well, the Ten Commandments show us how to live. Yes, they do, but I'm going to be focusing on a different passage today, found in the book of Micah, chapter 6, verse 8, and we'll talk about that here in just a minute.

[00:00:27] To launch our discussion, we go back to the book of Matthew, chapter 23, verses 35 and 36, and Jesus, remember, has been talking to the scribes and Pharisees, and now He's basically saying the Jewish nation has rejected the prophets, and now the religious leaders are going to crucify me. It's in that context that we pick up this passage in Matthew, chapter 23, verse 35.

[00:00:51] So that on you, namely, you as religious leaders, the Jewish leaders, the scribes and Pharisees, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth. In other words, your ancestors did not treat the prophets very well. And it started, listen to this, from the blood of innocent Abel. Remember, Cain killed Abel because Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God and Cain's was not, and out of jealousy he killed Abel.

[00:01:17] So from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. In other words, God's people did not like what Zechariah was saying. He was the last prophet of the Old Testament. And he basically was telling them to turn away from false gods. This is the theme of the Old Testament, by the way, to turn away from false gods, to quit doing wrong, and to follow the Lord, to turn back to God. And the people didn't like to hear that. And so what did they do?

[00:01:46] They killed Zechariah. This is 2 Chronicles, chapter 24. They killed Zechariah in the sanctuary. What? So that's what Jesus is saying. Your ancestors have killed the prophets. And now you're going to kill me and those who profess my name, my apostles, my followers. You're going to martyr many of those who profess my name as a result of their heartfelt faith in me as Messiah.

[00:02:14] That's basically what Jesus is saying. And then he says, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. This is talking about Zechariah. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. In other words, you guys are going to have to pay for your rebellion against me, against God, not recognizing me as a Messiah. And what was that punishment? The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. All right. So you might be saying, well, I'm not like them.

[00:02:44] We're not like them, Pastor Dave. We love Jesus. We know he's the Messiah. And so how then shall we live? Well, the first thing we have to say is we live in response to the grace of God. Recognizing the fact that we were sinners, that Jesus came to the world to die and rise again to save and rescue and redeem us. We now live a life dedicated to God. And how then shall we live our life?

[00:03:09] Not just talking about the Ten Commandments, which we've talked a lot about in DT and also talking about the Sermon on the Mount, which we talked a lot about on DT. But here's a passage I want to focus on today to answer the question, how then shall we live? And it's Micah chapter six, verse eight. And this is what it says. Here is how to live for the Lord, to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly before your God.

[00:03:39] Let's take that apart. First of all, to do justice, to do, think and say the right thing and to stand up in this world for those who are oppressed. We've talked about that before. That's what it means very succinctly to do justice. Secondly, to love mercy. To love the mercy that God has bestowed upon us through his son, the unconditional love that God has given us through faith in Jesus.

[00:04:06] His mercy, despite our sin, is given to us fresh and new every day. So to receive that mercy, but then to bestow mercy and grace and love and acceptance and pardon upon those who've let us down, failed us, disappointed us and sinned against us. So we receive this mercy. We bestow this mercy. Remember, it says to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly before our God. Do you know what that means?

[00:04:36] To walk before the Lord with an attitude of repentance, to say, God, I'm not who you want me to be. Many times I offend your ways, break your promises, break your commandments and fail and disappoint you through my sinful condition.

[00:04:53] But I walk humbly before you with repentant heart, admitting my sin, confessing my wrongs, giving them to you, knowing I'm forgiven and then walking in a different direction each and every day. Right. This is what it means to walk humbly before our God. And humbly also means, hey, we don't pat ourselves on the back. We don't trumpet our accomplishments. We don't say, look at me. Look at all the great things I've done.

[00:05:23] We say all credit, honor and glory and praise goes to God who does everything good. Any good I accomplish. He's the one who does it through me. That's what it means to walk humbly before our God. These religious leaders, the scribes and Pharisees could not do any of that. And we talked about that before. They didn't do justice. They didn't love mercy and they didn't walk humbly before God. They did just the opposite.

[00:05:50] May we, in response to the gospel, follow Micah 6.8 as a great leading and guiding for our life to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly before our God. And that is today's Daily Truth. Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for tuning in to Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman. Pastor Dave Ahlman is the pastor of Mount Hope Church in Boulder, Colorado.

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