Carl Bradford | SWBTS Chapel, November 12, 2026

Summary

Carl Bradford’s sermon, based on Micah 6, presents God’s faithfulness against the backdrop of Israel’s unfaithfulness. He frames the chapter as a courtroom scene: God brings a case against His covenant people, reminds them of His care, and tells them what faithful living requires.

The courtroom in Micah 6

Bradford outlines the passage in four stages:

1. God has a case against His people (Micah 6:1–2). Micah summons the mountains and the earth as witnesses to God’s covenant dispute with Israel. The people have repeatedly broken faith with God. Their wrongdoing includes idolatry, seizing land and inheritance from the vulnerable, corrupting justice, and having religious leaders who teach or prophesy for money. The natural world serves as a lasting witness to the covenant, even when people forget their history.

2. God reminds His people of His faithfulness (Micah 6:3–5). God asks what He has done to weary them and calls them to remember His actions on their behalf. He brought them out of slavery in Egypt, provided leaders through Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, protected them from Balak and Balaam, and guided them from Shittim to Gilgal. These events were meant to help Israel recognize God’s righteous care. Their disloyalty is especially striking because God had provided for, protected, and forgiven them.

3. The people make a counter-offer (Micah 6:6–7). Rather than respond with trust and changed lives, the people ask what offerings might satisfy God: increasingly costly sacrifices, even the hypothetical sacrifice of a firstborn child. Bradford says this reflects a mistaken view of faith as a transaction—an attempt to buy God’s favor or appease Him with gifts while withholding one’s heart. Religious promises and offerings cannot substitute for genuine faithfulness.

4. God states what He requires (Micah 6:8). God has already made His will clear. He calls His people to:

   • Do justice: Act rightly, fulfill their ethical responsibilities to God, and oppose exploitation rather than merely speaking about justice.
   • Love mercy: Show steadfast, compassionate kindness to others, including people who may be difficult to forgive or care for.
   • Walk humbly with God: Live with the proper posture before God, recognizing His authority and their own dependence on Him.

Bradford emphasizes that these actions do not earn God’s favor. They are the response God expects from people who already belong to Him. Israel’s failure was not simply a lack of religious activity; the people were willing to offer sacrifices but unwilling to give themselves to God.

The sermon’s hope

Bradford warns listeners not to treat Israel’s failures as unique or assume that they themselves are more faithful. The courtroom image invites people to consider what would be said about them, their communities, and the world. The sermon’s answer is not that people can do enough to make themselves right with God: human beings are unfaithful, but God remains faithful.

Bradford turns to Micah 7:18, where the prophet finds hope in God’s delight in steadfast love and His willingness to forgive. He presents Jesus Christ as the ultimate expression of God’s faithfulness: Jesus was faithful where people fail, gave Himself on the cross, and took the punishment of sinners. The sermon concludes that forgiveness and hope rest on God’s character and Christ’s finished work, not on human attempts to earn God’s favor.

Speakers and sources featured

• Carl Bradford — preacher and primary speaker.
• Dr. Dockery — thanked and referred to by Bradford; Bradford says he had already read Micah 6:8.
• Biblical texts cited or discussed: Micah 1, 3, 6:1–8, and 7:18; Deuteronomy 31–32; Isaiah 1:2; Numbers 22; 1 Chronicles 16:34; James 1:27.