Please turn with me tonight to Judges 17. Judges chapter 17. Chapters 17 and 18 basically run somewhat together, although they're really two separate stories involving the same people. Tonight we're going to consider together Judges chapter 17. We've finished with our consideration of the major judges, And now, in the last five chapters of Judges, we enter into a section of the Word of God, which really, in many respects, is very difficult. Very difficult to understand, very difficult even to accept for God's people. Judges chapter 17. Hear now the Word of God. Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and about which I heard you utter a curse, I have that silver with me. I took it. Then his mother said, The Lord bless you, my son. When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol. I will give it back to you. So he returned the silver to his mother and she took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith who made them into the image and the idol and they were put in Micah's house. Now this man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and some idols and installed one of his sons as high priest. In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit. A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah who had been living within the clan of Judah left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way, he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim. Micah asked him, where are you from? I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, he said, and I'm looking for a place to stay. Then Micah said to him, live with me and be my father and priest and I'll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food. So the Levite agreed to live with him and the young man was to him like one of his sons. Then Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. And Micah said, Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest. Dear people of God, at times when there is a contradiction between the way things are and the way things are supposed to be, one might ask, Well, what's wrong with this picture? What's wrong with this picture? And that question you see identifies the fact that there is indeed a problem and then another is being asked and challenged to examine the situation and to determine what that problem is. Boys and girls, it's a little bit like if someone would give you a picture of a farm scene and you would see farm animals on there. Cows and horses and chickens and sheep and pigs and an elephant. They say, well, what's wrong with this picture? And of course you know, well, the elephant doesn't belong. You see, as we have considered the cycle of events in the book of Judges, as you recall, that cycle included that the people fell away from the Lord. God sent divine judgment. There was crying out for help. God sent a deliverer. And then there was a time of peace. And of course, that whole cycle was present when we began to consider the book of Judges. But by the end, we didn't see all of those elements. Yet, through that cycle, which was really, as we said, a downward spiral as things kept getting worse and worse, yet the Word of God always made it clear to us what the problem was. The Word of God always made it clear what was wrong with that picture. And each judge provided a ray of hope as they pointed forward to deliverance through Jesus Christ. But the last five chapters of Judges are of a different character. In these chapters, a few different stories are told to us about certain events that took place among or in the lives of God's people. But you see, as we read them, there's a kind of numbness involved, especially in the last three chapters where we read about the concubine that died and was cut up and pieces sent throughout Israel. There's a kind of numbness involved as the details are described, almost as if there is no shock with regard to what's going on. You see, there is no foreign oppression that we read about. There is no crying out for help. There is no deliverer. But there is also no sense on the part of Israel that anything is wrong. They're just enduring it. Yet we know, or if you don't know, chapters 17 and 18 is a picture of the, we might say, the spiritual cancer growing in Israel, which we consider tonight with chapter 17. And chapters 19 through 21 is a picture of the moral cancer growing in Israel, which we consider next time the Lord willing. And I encourage you in preparation for next week to read those three chapters. In many respects, what we find in these chapters are just details without any sort of divine commentary again. And we are left with the help and the guidance and the illumination of the Holy Spirit to answer that question as we consider these things. What's wrong with this picture? Well, the writer of this book does pass a little bit of judgment with a reoccurring theme that is especially evident in the last part of this book. Again, it's not a surprise to us. We began to consider this first as a matter of fact. Verse 6 again says, In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit. And then he also reminds us in 18 verse 1 and 19 verse 1 that there was no king in those days. And then the last verse of this book, chapter 21 verse 25, which was the text of our introductory sermon on judges, repeats what we just read from verse 6. In those days there was no king. Everyone did as he saw fit. that which was right in his own eyes. But now we need to understand and be reminded once again that when the writer of Judges says that there was no king, he's not talking about just any old kind of king. Boys and girls, he's not talking about the kind of king that the nations around Israel had. He's talking about a theocratic king. Theos means God. He's talking about a king who represented God. A king who represented the rule of Jehovah in the midst of His people. There was no king like that. Long before this time, Moses in Deuteronomy 17 speaks of the time when God's people would ask for a king like the nations around them. And Moses made it clear in Deuteronomy 17, verse 18 that the king's task would be this, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes. That was the king's task. Now we could go through all the kings of Israel and Judah and probably figure out how many of them actually fulfilled that task. But that was the type of king that is in mind, the one who would uphold the Lord's covenant standards, the one who would uphold the law of God. Israel needed a king to rule and govern them who would be faithful to the Lord's covenant requirements, One who would lead them and guide them and keep them on the straight and narrow path. Because without this type of king, what we have in these last chapters of Judges is a picture of lawlessness. A violation of the Lord's covenantal laws. There was no set of rules being followed, you see. And when the rules are out of sight, as you may guess, the rules are also out of mind and disobedience grows and grows. Now often this portion of Scripture is overlooked. because it's depressing, it's hopeless. As we read through our personal Bibles and devotions, we read through it. That's about it, isn't it? We read through it. We want to get through it. There's nothing good here to say about Israel. We don't like this picture of God's people, and we wonder why it is in the Bible. Where is the edification for God's people? Even preachers don't like to preach on it. They would prefer to just forget about it. I would have. If I hadn't been challenged at one time by a father and son, that after considering the Judges, to consider these last chapters. You see, if we are going to be faithful in preaching and studying the whole counsel of God, we must take time to examine even this difficult Word of God. Therefore, with this 17th chapter of Judges, I preach to you the ripe fruit of lawlessness attacks true worship. That's spiritual cancer. And this is displayed in Micah's family. It's encouraged by the chosen spiritual leader and it is magnified through Micah's ignorance. Now beloved, in the first five verses of the story, we see that the lawlessness of the nation had infected the very foundation of that society, namely the family. There was anarchy, lawlessness in Israel. Again, everyone indeed did as he saw fit and it had filtered down to the very root of the social structure, the family. Now, first of all, Micah's mother must have suspected that someone close to her, maybe even someone within her own family, was the guilty party for stealing from her. And she uttered some sort of a curse, which obviously Micah heard. He was a thief. He stole from his own mother, and it was not just some little pickpocket job. He didn't go to her wallet, boys and girls, and take out a couple of bucks, although that wouldn't have been right either. But this was grand theft. It's difficult to determine the value in our day of 1,100 Hebrew shekels of silver, but I think it would have been in the neighborhood of over $200,000 as we know it. This was no small crime. And Micah confesses to his mother for taking the silver, But before we pat him on the back for doing the right thing, we need to understand that there was no heartfelt sorrow involved. Nowhere do we read that he admitted that his actions were wrong. Nowhere do we read that he truly repented, and true repentance includes a heartfelt sorrow. You see, Micah was not moved by a sense of guilt for doing wrong, but he was moved by a superstitious fear for his mother's curse. They took curses very seriously. This much money, indeed it was a lot of money, yet it wasn't worth what he considered would be the effect of this curse. Boys and girls, Micah, like you and I have been at times when I was younger, he was sorry for getting caught. He was sorry that he was going to be punished. But he was not sorry for his disobedience. He was not sorry that he had done wrong. But his actions really aren't so surprising when we then turn and look at his mother's actions. She simply overlooks his sin. She never holds him accountable. She never rebukes him. Instead, what does she do? She blesses him of all things. Bless you, my child, for stealing from me. Oh, you gave it back. Yes. But you see, her actions show that in her mind, What was done outwardly is what counts. Micah gave the silver back. That was a good thing to do. It was the right thing to do. You see, they never even considered the heart of the matter. But God always considers the heart of the matter. But things get worse as she piously says that she solemnly dedicates or consecrates or wholly dedicates the silver to the Lord for her son. Now again, by itself, that was not a bad thing to do. However, she decides what to do with it. And that's the atrocity here. Make a carved image and a cast idol. That was an abomination in the sight of God. That was something that carried with it the curse of the Lord. Moses said, Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image and abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsmen and sets it up in secret. Little did Micah know that he might be able to evade his mother's curse, but he could never evade the curse of the Lord. Most likely this image was the image of a bull or a calf like Aaron had made at Mount Sinai or like the golden calves that King Jeroboam set up later on in Bethel and Dan. You see, this image was not intended to be another deity or another god alongside of or in the place of Jehovah. It was intended to be Jehovah, to be the Lord. They would worship the God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, like the Israelites, in this image. This was false worship. But then it's clear that Micah already practiced false worship. He already had some sort of a shrine or sanctuary where he could worship, complete with an ephod and household idols, which were probably small images in human form, commonly known as teraphim, which were supposed to bring earthly prosperity and provide blessings in the household, the same kind that Rachel stole from her father Laban when Jacob took his family and fled at night. You see, we must remember, beloved, that the designated place of worship was Shiloh, or as the Lord says in Exodus 20, 24, every place where I record my name. But here Micah had decided that he would set up a sanctuary based on convenience. And the ephod, which you recall was to be used to find out the will of God through the Urim and the Thummim, it was a priestly garment to be used only by the Lord's appointed priests, the Levites. But Micah appoints and anoints one of his sons as priest, a non-Levite. Do you see the violation upon violation and the disobedience upon disobedience as it stacks higher and higher? How many commandments had Micah and his household broken? And it included their worship, which was an attack upon true worship. We can start at the beginning and just consider, if nothing else, the first two commandments. The first commandment says, you shall have no other gods before me. Micah had the household idols. The second commandment says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image. you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Micah had an image of a creature that he would use to worship the Lord. What's wrong with this picture? Micah introduced foreign worship, false worship, and gods of his own making, but also a syncretistic worship. Boys and girls, syncretism means to worship the Lord in a wrong way, to worship Him in such a way that mixes the worship of the Lord with false gods. It's sort of a melting pot religion, if you will. A little bit here, a little bit there. Let's put it all together. Blending false worship along with true worship. But of course, when you do that, the result is only false worship. Kind of like if you take a drop of poison and put it in this glass of water and stir it up. The whole glass of water is poison. This picture of Micah and his family and their worship is a picture of the fruit of lawlessness that attacks true worship. We might wonder what happened to the command found in Deuteronomy chapter 6. These commands that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. What happened? The answer is already found in Judges 2 verse 10. When all that generation, that is the generation of Joshua, had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel. God's commands were no longer taught, or maybe they were considered, as we said this morning, to be an outdated way of thinking. After all, it's good to change with the changing times, you know. It's good to keep up to date and to fit in with the culture and to follow what pleases the people, what is right in their own eyes. Beloved, as the right fruit of lawlessness is displayed in Micah's family worship, we are reminded that when one departs from the Word of God, that one also departs from the God of the Word and that which God requires. And that includes worship. And God is then worshipped according to man's definitions and man's ideas, according to any old way which seems right to man, but that is not accepted by God, you see. And when our children are not taught the truth of God and of His day and of His worship, then they too come to believe that they can worship according to the dictates of their own heart and that they are only accountable to their own conscience and that how they worship doesn't really matter just so long as they are comfortable with it. Beloved, the only way to be in and to live in Christ is to live according to His law of which the psalmist says the law of the Lord is perfect. Restoring the soul. And that law of God includes viewing and treating God as He describes Himself in His Word. He is the Sovereign One, the Holy One, the changeless One. You see, it matters very much to God how we view Him. How we treat Him. How we worship Him. In the second place, the right fruit of lawlessness is then encouraged by the chosen spiritual leader. It's interesting, and it's clear, I think, that Micah knew that something was not yet right. Oh, he had no problem setting up a shrine somewhere other than where God had commanded. He also wasn't ashamed to worship the Lord in the form of an image next to his other little cultic tinker toys. but he knew that he wasn't following proper protocol when it came to the minister in his little homemade church. He had made his own son a priest. But when this Levite stumbled by, Micah thought he had hit the jackpot. The Levites, you know, were the chosen spiritual leaders of God's people. They were the ones to minister at the sanctuary of the Lord in Shiloh. This guy, he was a Levite. He was legitimate. And therefore, Micah decided to hire him on, to make him a part of the family. And therefore, in Micah's eyes, to legitimize his illegitimate system of worship. But the additional problem here was that this Levite encouraged this illegitimate worship. Well, what do we know about this guy? Verses 7 and 8. a young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah who had been living within the clan of Judah left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way, he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim. And if we were to jump over to verse 30 of chapter 18, there the Danites set up for themselves the idols and Jonathan, son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. You see, the Danites came and took this guy away from Micah. His name was Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses. Now if you look back at Joshua 21 where the Levites are given certain cities in which to dwell, number one, Bethlehem isn't one of those cities. The children of Kohath, which if you do the research, Jonathan was not from the children of Kohath. They were given the cities in Judah. And in addition, it was Kohath who supplied the actual priests, particularly from the descendants of Aaron, and Jonathan was from Moses and the other Levites helped as their assistants around the sanctuary. This guy is set up as a high priest, you see. But also, he was out of his territory. He wasn't living in the land, in the cities that had been given to his Levite clan. He wasn't content with his lot in life. And as some have described him, he was a fortune seeker and he admits himself that he was traveling around until he could find a place. And he wasn't even a real priest in that sense, but just an assistant. Yet here with Micah, he finds an offer too good to refuse. Comfort. Security. A steady income. Fringe benefits. And all for a job he's not biblically qualified or called to do. So, what's wrong with this picture? Among other things, this member of the tribe which had the service of a legitimate sanctuary at Shiloh, this member of the tribe which was assigned to take the place of all the firstborn in Israel as being set apart for the direct service of the worship of the Lord, this Levite had no eye for the service of the Lord, and he certainly had no heart for it. He represents the corruption among many church leaders. He represents the corruption among the priesthood of that day as well. You see, of all people, he should, as a Levite, he should have challenged Micah for all of his illegitimate worship. He should have brought a charge of church discipline against him. Instead, he demonstrates his own lawlessness in not only giving his blessing on Micah's activities, but participating in Micah's activities wholeheartedly. This Levite himself had also lost the sense of the awesomeness and the majesty and the sovereignty of God. Apostasy didn't even bother him. He too had forgotten what was so important about worshipping only at the place where the Lord had placed His name and in a manner prescribed by God. He as a chosen spiritual leader of Israel represents the spiritual decline, the spiritual cancer and disease that had infected this chosen people. What's so important about worshiping God as He has instructed in His Word? The point, beloved, is obedience and respect for who God is and what He has said and taking Him at His Word. But notice finally then that the right fruit of lawlessness is magnified through Micah's ignorance. Verse 13, And Micah said, Now I know that the Lord will be good to me since this Levite has become my priest. Can you believe it? Can you believe the attitude of Micah? Actually, it's probably not so surprising after all that we've said so far. Not only did he think that he could worship the Lord according to what was right in his own eyes, but he also thought that God would bless his disobedience. But we see just a chapter later, as I mentioned a moment ago, that the Danites came and took everything away from him. He lost everything. But at least at this point in chapter 17, this Levite was his magical charm, his four-leaf clover, his lucky rabbit's foot. Again, in his eyes, the heart didn't matter, but the outward form did. And like so many today, Micah thought that if it looks like a church and sounds like a church and acts like a church. It must be a church. And with a Levite to run the church, surely now he can get the Lord to cooperate with all of his corruption. And superstitiously and in the deceitfulness of his own heart, Micah imagines that since he has a Levite as his high priest, his sanctuary, which was illegitimate, and his image worship of Jehovah, which was plainly contrary to the second commandment, and an abomination in the sight of God, that all of this was now legitimate. Everything was okay. God would overlook everything else. He reduced everything to works righteousness and simply doing my best. Reducing it to works righteousness, including the fact that man knows better than God what God requires or what God needs or how best to worship God. To put it in New Testament terms, Micah was quite pharisaical. The Pharisees, we know, kept the outside of the cup clean, but the inside was filthy and stained with all of their additional laws. They worshipped God as they saw fit that He ought to be worshipped. Just like those today who say, just believe in something, it doesn't matter what you believe in, just so you have faith. Just have it. Micah was lawless in that he thought that he could worship God in any way he wanted and that God would be pleased with that, that he would bless him. But congregation, God doesn't bless disobedience. He punishes it. Not only in worship, but in living our lives. We must not forget that God does not bless disobedience. He punishes it. And contrary to the popular belief today in the church scene, we may not worship as we please, doing what is right in our own eyes. Contrary to popular belief, God's grace cannot be secured by us in the way that we do or don't worship. How we worship is indeed important, but we cannot secure God's grace. If we could, it wouldn't be grace. Contrary to popular belief, man doesn't make the church grow through his many worship gimmicks and conveniences. God grows his church by replacing hearts of stone with hearts of flesh that are new in Christ Jesus by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit as He takes the gospel message of Jesus Christ and applies it to our hearts and lives. Like Micah, many fail to understand that God despises those who worship Him with their lips, indeed offering sacrifices and other offerings, but whose hearts are far from Him. Many fail to understand that God takes our relationship with Him and how we treat that relationship and how we nurture that relationship, God takes that very, very seriously. In those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit. However, Samuel made it clear later on when the people demanded a king that they already had one, the Lord. But they had rejected Him. They had rejected His commandments and His rule. Again, beloved, as we consider this portion scripture tonight, I'm sure it would be no surprise if I said that this is not a favorite passage of many, if any at all. All it does is highlight the fallen state of not only God's people, but His chosen priests, His spiritual leadership. The depravity here is hard to swallow. The truth definitely hurts. So then we ask, where is the hope here? Is Is there hope here that we can find? Well, indeed there is. We can see the hope today in that those days with no king are over. Nevermore will the throne over God's people be empty because God has raised Him up and highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus Christ is our King who rules His church. And He was punished for our sin. For our abomination. We see Him ruling, for example, in Revelation 2 and 3 with regard to the seven churches. We see Him ruling in His role of judge over and among His churches. He walks among His churches today through His Spirit. He rules through His office bearers that He has established in His churches. He is King because He was obedient in life and in death. And therefore, He governs His people by that same law of God. And He says to you and me, If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. It's ironic that Micah means who is like Yahweh. Yet he tried to be the opposite of the Lord. But Jesus Christ, by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, restores His people to the image of God. Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. He is our rightful King and He continues with us for our good. Through this Micah, in Judges 17, we see that it is possible to set out in ministry with all of the right earthly ingredients, but not to have the blessing of God. It's not our purpose tonight to give all kinds of examples of do's and don'ts for worship and for godly living. There was another man named Micah, the prophet, who tells us what is right in the sight of God. He says, what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? We are called to be obedient to the rule of King Jesus. To be obedient. It's clear what God would have us be obedient to His Word. We are called to be obedient. The right fruit of lawlessness is disobedience to the King. And if that describes you tonight, then you must heed the psalmist when he says, The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. The way of the ungodly shall perish. And if you are busy fighting against King Jesus instead of bowing before Him, then you are called to repent of your sins and believe on Him and trust in Him alone for salvation. And then with a thankful heart be obedient to Him. Because only this King is victorious. He is the only Savior. And nothing can stand against Him and those who are in Him. Beloved, this passage reminds us of our own depravity and our own kicking and screaming against God apart from the Holy Spirit and only when we understand where we were without the King that we were totally cast off. And now where God has brought us in Christ Jesus into His very presence accepted in His eyesight. Only when we understand that only then will we be in awe of such a great salvation, totally undeserved and we must confess completely unwanted. This passage is yet another reminder of why Jesus Christ came suffered, died, rose again lives and reigns as king over all things not because we are worthy or deserve it but because of God's grace and good pleasure and our king says to us I have redeemed you you are mine you belong to me therefore remember every moment of your lives remember to whom you belong and live as my children those who desire to live apart from God in lawlessness will one day live under the law of His wrath for eternity but may we who were lawless give thanks and praise to God for His gift of grace in Jesus Christ and for making His law our delight see King Jesus restores obedience to God for His people He already restored it with His perfect life and by God's grace we are the recipients of His work we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ freely imputed to you and me and God looks upon us as righteous only for the sake of Christ there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we might be saved Amen shall we pray Dear Heavenly Father we do confess before you that there are some portions of Scripture that indeed are very difficult for us to say, well, so what? So what? But yet you give to us a reminder through your Word and especially in these difficult portions where we see of the sin and the wickedness of your people and of how they turn from your Word. We see such a clear reminder of our need as well for your saving grace. And then we are reminded also through your word of how you satisfied your wrath against our sin. You've given to us life and given it to us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Father, may we ever be grateful to you, eternally grateful to you for your precious work on our behalf. May we not take it for granted. May we live in the joy of that salvation day by day. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.