and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,
and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.
Special welcome if you're new or visiting with us.
We're glad that you're here,
and we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community,
and as we follow Jesus together,
we become convinced that there's no one so good,
they don't need God's grace,
and no one so bad that they can't have it,
which is why we come back week after week
to hear what God has to say to us in his word.
What I'm about to say has nothing to do with Judges chapter 17,
but I was thinking this morning as we were worshiping,
the longer I serve as a pastor,
one of the emotions for me that grows and grows is that of gratitude.
I am more and more just grateful for the folks who come here every Sunday.
There are many places that you could be this morning,
and God called you here.
And I'm grateful for every month that God sustains this church financially.
Grateful as he brings new people and he blesses them as they go out.
And so I just want to say as we start this morning, I'm grateful for you.
And I'm glad that you're here.
And I always mean that,
but I mean that I think more and more as the months go by.
And so one of my catchphrases now,
as I see many of you on Sunday mornings,
I just say I'm glad you're here,
and that's because I am.
I'm grateful that God has brought this church community together.
With that, we are continuing our series in the book of Judges.
And you will remember that the book of Judges is about many things.
It is about our need for constant renewal and revival among God's people.
It's about the need for a faithful and true king,
a king who can do what no human can do,
which is to change the hearts of men.
It is about the power of spirit-filled leadership,
and it's about God's mercy to hard-hearted people,
people like you and me.
Now, last time we were here,
we finished the story of Samson,
and you'll remember we saw God's redemption in Samson's life.
He used Samson's greatest failure to bring about,
in fact, Samson's greatest success.
We talked about that's the way that God's redemption works in this world,
and I reminded you that wherever you are
or whatever you've done,
if you're still alive,
all is not lost.
That was the end of the lesson of Samson,
and I told you for a while that Samson was the last and worst judge.
And so there's a sense in which we are done with judges.
We are done with judges when it comes to them as people,
as rulers of Israel.
We, however, are not done with the book of Judges.
So Samson ends in chapter 16.
Judges goes all the way to chapter 21,
because now we move away from these central figures,
these leaders,
and instead the author of the book of Judges
begins to tell us what it was like for normal, everyday Israelites.
We go from looking at the chiefs of God's people
to what it was like day to day on the ground in Israel.
And just as we saw with the judges,
we're going to see with their people
that there is a fast descent downwards.
As with that, I invite you to turn with me.
We're in Judges chapter 17.
You can turn in your Bible.
You can turn on your phone.
You can turn in your worship guide.
No matter where you turn,
remember God tells us in Proverbs chapter 30
that every word of God proves true.
He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.
And so that's why we read now Judges chapter 17,
starting in verse 1.
There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim
whose name was Micah.
And he said to his mother,
The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you,
about which you uttered a curse,
and also spoken in my ears,
Behold, the silver is with me.
I took it.
And his mother said,
Blessed be my son by the Lord.
And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother.
And his mother said,
I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son
to make a carved image and a metal image.
Now, therefore, I will restore it to you.
So when he restored the money to his mother,
his mother took two hundred pieces of silver
and gave it to the silversmith,
who made it into a carved image and a metal image.
And it was in the house of Micah.
Verse 5.
And the man Micah had a shrine,
and he made an ephod and household gods
and ordained one of his sons who became his priest.
In those days there was no king in Israel.
Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah
of the family of Judah who was a Levite,
and he sojourned there.
And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah
to sojourn where he could find a place.
And as he journeyed,
he came to the hill country of Ephraim
to the house of Micah.
And Micah said to him,
Where do you come from?
And he said to him,
I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah,
and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.
And Micah said to him,
Stay with me and be to me a father and a priest.
And I will give you ten pieces of silver a year
and a suit of clothes and your living.
And the Levite went in.
And the Levite was content to dwell with the man,
and the young man became to him like one of his sons.
And Micah ordained the Levite,
and the young man became his priest
and was in the house of Micah.
Then Micah said,
Now I know that the Lord will prosper me
because I have a Levite as priest.
I invite you to pray with me
as we come to this portion of God's word.
Our Father in heaven,
we do praise you and thank you
that you do sustain us.
You sustain this church day by day and month by month.
You sustain us in our lives,
in our faith,
by your spirit.
And we thank you that you sustain us by your word.
We ask that you would do that again this morning.
That you would use it to instruct us
and to challenge us.
You'd use it to encourage and comfort us.
Most of all,
you would use it to help us to see Jesus.
That we would see his beauty and his glory
and his majesty and his holiness.
We'd see his power and his authority.
We'd see his mercy and his grace and his love.
And we ask that you would be merciful to us,
that you would not leave us where we are,
but that you would remember us,
that you'd change us,
that you would use our time together this morning
to change us and make us look
more like your son and our savior,
our Lord Jesus.
It's in his name that we ask all of these things.
Amen.
Many of you know that for several years
before and even a little bit after I went to seminary,
I was a teacher.
And one of the concepts that I learned as a teacher
was something called the irreducible minimum.
It's a mouthful.
But the irreducible minimum is what someone must know
to move on to the next level.
So there are certain things that you must learn
in third grade if you are going to have success
in fourth grade.
And so on and so forth.
The reason that someone fails a grade
is not because the school is cruel or mean,
but because they're saying to you,
look, you actually don't have what you need
to succeed the next level.
If you cannot add or subtract,
it is going to be very challenging
for you to work with multiplication.
I told you many times when we talked about Samson
that Samson should have been taking senior level classes
when it came to be an Israelite,
and yet he was failing the most basic things.
He was failing 101.
Now we move along, as I mentioned,
from the leaders of Israel
to those folks who lived on the ground every day,
everyday Israelites.
And as we look at the rest of the book of Judges,
what we are going to see is that at best,
God's people are failing.
That the most basic things,
the most elementary commands
that God has given to his people,
that's best.
At worst, God's people are doing unthinkable,
unspeakable things.
If you don't believe me,
you can just look ahead to Judges chapter 19.
What is Israelite 101
if not the Ten Commandments?
I talked about that earlier this morning
in our confession of faith.
Those are the basics, right,
of all the rules and laws and commands
God gave his people.
The Ten Commandments are the irreducible minimum.
This is what they are meant to know most of all.
This is what Jesus summarizes in Mark chapter 12.
Remember, he says,
the sum of the law is love of God and love of neighbor.
I mentioned the Ten Commandments here
at the beginning of Judges chapter 17,
and I mention the irreducible minimum
because the original audience
who is reading this story,
any Israelite who is hearing about
what Micah is doing
should notice immediately
the Ten Commandments are being broken
left and right.
In fact, it starts at the very beginning.
Verse 2,
Micah has something to confess to his mother.
This is his way, I guess,
of honoring Mother's Day.
Ironic that we're here this morning.
Micah is not coming to his mother
to confess that he broke a lamp, right,
or he marked, you know,
with his crayons in her favorite book.
No, he just sort of casually stole from her
1,100 pieces of silver.
You may remember from the story of Samson and Delilah,
1,100 pieces of silver we've seen before.
That was the amount of money
each lord of the Philistines
offered to Delilah
if she would hand over Samson.
In other words,
Micah has not taken $5
from his mom's purse, okay?
He has taken an enormous amount of money.
So we're starting out here.
Eighth commandment,
thou shalt not steal.
One commandment down.
Now, at the same time,
Micah is able to kill two birds with one stone.
You may realize he's also broken another commandment,
the fifth commandment,
honor your father and your mother.
And in a sense,
it's not just Micah who's broken that commandment,
it's also his mom.
There's a man named G.I. Williamson
who points out that the Ten Commandments,
the fifth commandment,
can be broken in two ways.
The fifth commandment can be broken
by children who refuse to honor their parents.
And it can also be broken by parents
who do not require their children to honor them.
And we can make a safe assumption here
that Micah's an adult,
we find out he actually has a child.
This is the dynamic he is used to with his mother.
This is the way, perhaps, that he's been raised.
I stole 1,100 pieces of silver.
No big deal.
I can just give it back.
No consequence.
So we've got two commandments broken at this point.
But wait, there's more.
We move on from verse 2 to verse 3.
His mom says,
hey, let's dedicate this silver
and we're gonna make a carved image
and a metal image.
What did we confess together this morning
if not the second commandment,
which says this,
no carved images.
We're now up from two of the commandments
to three of them,
but we are not done yet.
What happens in verse 5?
They don't have just an idol.
They don't have a household god.
They have household gods, plural.
Second commandment.
The first commandment tells us,
no other gods.
We are not meant to miss this.
In five verses,
Micah and his mother have broken four commandments.
And that is just scratching the surface.
There is so much in this passage
that is completely upside down.
In fact, we don't have time this morning
to list everything that Micah and his mom do
that is twisted and inside out.
I'll give you just a few of them.
Verse 2,
Micah comes and it seems like
maybe he's repenting of stealing the silver.
No, there's no repentance.
Micah is afraid that the curse
is going to fall on him.
That's why we're told in verse 2,
he heard the curse
and then he returned the silver.
Micah does not do this
out of some sense of guilt or fear of God.
No, he's very pragmatic.
He was pragmatic in stealing the silver.
He's pragmatic in returning the silver.
Oh, I didn't realize
this was going to involve a curse.
Well, in that case, mom,
here all of it is back.
Maybe you can take that back for me.
The mom doesn't get off the hook either.
Verse 3,
she takes the 1,100 pieces of silver
and says,
I'm going to dedicate this to God.
We find out in verse 4,
she gives not 1,100 pieces of silver,
she gives 200 pieces of silver.
And so the reader is left wondering,
what happened to the other 900 pieces?
All is dedicated to God.
Only some reaches at the end.
Verse 5,
they set up their own worship site,
which is in direct violation
to what God has taught his people.
There is to be one place of worship
that God has established.
And if that were not enough,
Micah appoints,
ordains his own son as a priest.
And it should go without saying,
God establishes priests,
not men.
How are things going for God's people?
Everything is upside down.
And we could go on.
And commentators do on and on
about everything in this passage
that does not add up.
That raises a question for us.
What in fact is Micah thinking?
He should know, right?
As an Israelite,
he should know the irreducible minimum.
It should be obvious to him
what is obvious to the readers.
That he is so far away
from God and his commands.
Well, thankfully,
we are not left to wonder.
We find out very quickly
exactly what it is
that Micah is thinking.
Verses 7 through 13.
Now in verse 5,
we found out that Micah
made his son a priest.
That is just for now.
Micah is always willing
to accept a better deal
if it comes along.
He is always willing
to make an upgrade.
And what shows up
but the best upgrade
that Micah could dream of?
If you're familiar
with the Old Testament,
you know that the Levites
were the Israelite tribe
that were designated
to serve as priests.
And so those were the ones
who were actually supposed
to be managing God's house.
And it's verses 7 through 8.
Who comes along?
What luck does Micah have
but that a Levite
stumbles across his path?
This Levite, we're told,
is looking,
this is verse 8,
for where he could find a place.
In other words,
this Levite had gone on
to his LinkedIn profile
and his profile picture
had a banner on it
that said,
Open to work.
He needed a place to plug in
and so he's wandering around.
He is looking for a place to serve.
Micah is open to an upgrade.
This is a deal made in heaven.
There's a perfect match.
The Levite wants work.
Micah wants a Levite.
And so they strike a deal,
verses 10 through 12.
And without getting into
lots of nitty-gritty detail,
I'll just tell you
this deal is highly irregular.
This is not the way
that Levites are supposed
to be chosen.
It's not the way
they're supposed to be compensated.
This is not the way
things work in God's house.
But we've already gotten the picture
that normal was thrown out
a long time ago.
And it's here
that we finally get
to the heart of the matter.
Micah reveals to us
what in the world
he is thinking.
There are two key
and critical verses
in chapter 17.
One of those
is the last verse,
verse 15.
Then Micah said,
Now I know
that the Lord
will prosper me
because I have
a Levite
as a priest.
What is Micah thinking?
Micah loves
religious show.
He has no
religious substance.
Micah is worried
about certain rules.
Micah has no category
for deep
and real holiness.
Micah has religious
actions
and he has
religious activity.
And he does not
have a heart
for God.
So what is Micah
doing here?
He makes it
crystal clear
that really
all he's interested
in doing
is manipulating
God.
He is just
like the pagan
nations around him.
Religion
is merely
a superstition.
In fact,
religion is something
you can make up
as you go along.
If you have
the right priest,
God will bless you.
He is showing
us
superstition
at its
very
worst.
In fact,
one commentator
says this,
the Levite
is nothing
more
than a good
luck
charm.
We might
say that Micah
is like the
Pharisees
that Jesus
condemns,
clean on the
outside,
full of filth
on the inside.
And so
Judges 17
warns us
about this.
Possible for us
as well
to hide
behind
religious
activity.
It is
possible
to have
religious
show
and pomp
and circumstance
untethered
from a love
for God
and his
ways.
It is
possible
to claim
the Christian
faith
and have
merely
external
compliance
to certain
rules.
It is
possible
to claim
the Christian
faith
merely
because of
some sort
of religious
connection.
Micah
here gives
us the
formula.
Now I
know
that the
Lord
will
prosper
me
because
I
have
a
Levite
as a
priest.
And so
we might
say this.
Now I
know
the Lord
will
prosper
me.
I
might be
cheating
on my
taxes,
but
my
grandfather
was a
pastor.
I
might be
destroying
others
with my
mouth,
but I
was baptized.
and I
grew up
in the
church.
So I
know that
the Lord
will
prosper
me.
I
might be
immature
and easily
angered,
but I
have a
big library
that has
a lot
of theological
books in
it.
Now I
know
that the
Lord
will
prosper
me.
I
might
lie
and
conveniently
change
the
story
when the
truth
catches up
with me,
but I
read my
Bible
every day.
Now I
know
that the
Lord
will
prosper
me.
of course,
Micah
could not
be further
from the
truth.
He set up
a system
that allows
him to
worship,
something he
can control,
something that
submits to
his preferences,
something that
is mere
superstition.
Don't hear
what I'm not
saying.
These are not
bad things.
It is good
to have a
Levite as
a priest.
In fact,
Levites should
be priests,
right?
The problem
is focusing
on good
things and
missing the
great things.
The problem
is turning
certain types
of obedience
into a
superstition.
Remember
what Samuel,
the prophet,
says in
1 Samuel 15.
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 says
the same
thing through
his prophets
in other
places.
Amos 5
and Jeremiah
6.
God comes
to his
people and
says,
I will
not accept
your burnt
offerings
because you
practice
injustice.
What did
Brit read
from us?
From Matthew
chapter 23,
Jesus comes
and condemns
the religious
leaders.
He says,
look,
you worry
about tithing
on your
herbs and
mint and
cumin.
You know
what?
That's great.
That's actually
a good thing.
And you've
missed the
weightier matters
of the law.
You've missed
what matters
most of all.
The saddest
thing of this
passage perhaps
is this,
that Micah
says this
with no
hint of
irony.
He is in
fact self-deceived.
He actually
believes that
the Lord
will actually
prosper him.
that is how
far Israel
has fallen.
That is how
separated he
is from
what God
actually calls
his people
to.
And so the
challenge for
us is
this.
Where have
we traded
God's
heart
for mere
religious
ritual?
Where have
we exchanged
the love
of God
and the
love of
neighbor
for going
through the
motions in
the right
place at
the right
time?
Israel has
fallen
far.
They will
fall even
farther.
Because they
truly have
forgotten
the Lord.
There's the
problem here
that Micah
has of
superstition.
there's
another
problem that
brings
itself to
the
forefront
in this
passage
and it's
this.
Micah
and Israel
make it
up as
they go
along.
This is
buffet
style
worship.
We will
make sure
we have
this.
We're
going to
have the
Levites.
We'll
take that
from the
buffet.
We know
Levites
are good.
We're
going to
reject
God's
appointed
worship
place.
We
don't
have a
taste
for that.
We
actually
like having
the worship
site here
in our
town.
It cuts
down our
gas mileage.
It makes
travel easier.
We have the
ephod here.
We don't
have to go
somewhere else
to receive
God's
revelation.
This is
convenient.
What works
for us
is what
we are
going to
do.
Of course,
the same
is a
temptation
for the
church
today.
I don't
need to
worship
God as
he's
commanded.
I don't
need to
search the
scriptures to
know what
it is that
God wants
in the
worship of
his people.
I don't
need to
gather with
his people
as he's
called them
to do
together.
No, I
can make
it up as
I go
along.
You
worship God
at church.
I worship
God on
the hiking
trail.
You think
God has
commanded you
to read
his word?
That's
great.
God has
been speaking
to me
through the
self-help
books that
have come
along my
way.
That's
good for
you.
This is
good for
me.
There's
a new
way of
making up
what feels
good in
the moment.
You'll see
this on
page 7
of your
worship guide.
Micah's
family
shapes a
God who
is convenient
to follow.
They
follow the
laws they
like and
ignore the
laws they
don't.
Why is it
that we
take God's
word and
find a
book and
go from
beginning to
end?
Because we
want to
protect
ourselves from
the temptation
of the
human heart
which is
to pick
and choose.
God's
revelation
for his
people.
We want
to know
the entire
counsel of
God.
We want
to worship
God.
Not in the
way that we
like but in
the way that
God likes.
You wouldn't
give your
mother today
flowers she's
allergic to.
right?
We give
God the
worship that
he has
commanded.
Not what
suits us and
our preferences
and our
entertainment.
I told you
earlier there
are two key
verses in
chapter 17.
The first one
was chapter 13
which reveals
to us what's
happening inside
of Micah's
heart and
his mind.
The other
key verse
is verse 6
which is going
to become a
refrain in
our final
chapters.
In those
days there
was no
king in
Israel.
Everyone
did what
was right
in his
own eyes.
Now you
can take
that verse
and I
think it's
meant in
two senses.
In the
first sense
there is
a manner
in which
there is
no earthly
human
king in
Israel.
We are
looking forward
in a sense
to the
monarchy
that's to
come.
Solomon
and Saul
and David
have not
yet shown
up on
the scene.
So there's
a restraint
that's
lacking.
There is
however a
second sense.
We have
already seen
how deeply
God's
leaders fail.
Samson
did not
lead God's
people into
peace.
Jethro
was wildly
ignorant of
God's word.
We're going
to move on
to Solomon
and Saul
and David
who are
all
disappointments
in their
own way.
And so
what Judges
is pointing
us to
is beyond
simply the
period of
the monarchy
in Israel.
The author
of Judges
is not
merely saying
hey they
didn't have
a human
king and
so that's
why things
were so
crazy.
No they
did not
have
the
king.
they
did not
have
what
they
needed.
They
were not
honoring
God
as the
one
who
rules
and
reigns
over
this
world
and
over
his
people.
They
did not
have
the
Holy
Spirit
at work
in a
powerful
way
like we
do
now
because
the
full
and
final
and
ultimate
king
had
not
come.
What do
we do
with the
problems
of
Judges?
Remember I've
told you
one of the
problems
is this
that there
is a
need
for
constant
renewal
and
revival
among
God's
people.
And the
other
need
is for
a
faithful
and
true
king.
Judges
reminds us
that we
need not
a false
God.
We need
not a
God that
we can
control
through
the right
actions
or through
superstition.
No,
we need
a God
who can
in fact
transform
the hearts
and minds
and lives
of his
people.
We need
a true
and greater
king.
Brothers
and sisters,
we have
what the
Israelites
in Judges
did not
have.
We
have
a true
and greater
king.
The
solution
to the
problem
of Judges
is not
greater
self-discipline.
The
problem
is not,
the solution
is not
that they
would
study
God's
word
even
more
intently
so that
they would
be able
to avoid
the things
that
Jephthah
and Micah
do,
as helpful
as that
would be.
No,
the solution
is our
Lord Jesus.
Our
Lord Jesus
is the
king who
comes who
can do
what no
human can
do.
He is the
king who
comes and
receives the
punishment that
God's people
deserve.
He is the
king who
comes and
lives the
perfect life
that we
could not
live.
And
he is the
king who
ascended to
heaven and
is seated
at the
right hand
of God
the Father
Almighty.
Why does it
matter that
he is seated
at the
right hand
of God
the Father
Almighty?
Because,
remember,
Jesus makes
a promise
to his
people in
John 14
and John
16.
He says,
I am going
to send
my spirit
to you.
That's why
he tells
them,
it is better
that I go
than that I
stay.
Because as
Jesus sits
at the right
hand of
God the
Father,
he is
sending out
the Holy
Spirit to
be at
work in
the hearts
and minds
and lives
of his
people doing
what no
human can
do,
to change
the hearts
of men.
In fact,
Jesus tells
us this in
John 14,
if you
love me,
you will
keep my
commandments.
And if we
left it right
there,
we would
easily be
crushed.
because who
among us
keeps God's
commandments?
Micah
certainly
doesn't.
We're not
crushed,
though,
because Jesus
doesn't end
it there.
Verse 16,
and I will
ask the
Father,
and he
will give
you another
helper to
be with
you forever,
even the
spirit of
truth,
whom the
world cannot
receive,
because it
neither sees
him nor
knows him.
You know
him,
for he dwells
with you
and will be
in you.
brothers and
sisters,
we do,
in fact,
have a
king.
We have
what Israel
could only
dream of
and look
forward to.
We have
great hope
that God
will continue
constant renewal
and revival
among his
people,
because we
have a true
and faithful
king,
a king who
can do
what no
human can
do,
which is to
change the
hearts of
men.
Let's pray.
Our Father
in heaven,
we do
praise you
and thank you
for our Lord
Jesus.
We thank you
that he's not
merely or simply
a good example.
We thank you
that he's not
just a good
teacher,
but we
thank you
that he is
the king
and ruler
of this
world
and of
your church.
We ask
that you
would continue
to honor
your promise.
Jesus promised
to send the
spirit to
his people,
that you
would be
at work
in our
lives,
in this
church,
that we
would not
be able
to say
there is
no king
here,
but we
would
recognize
you,
worship
you,
follow
you,
and serve
you as
our Lord
and our
Savior
and our
King.
We ask
these things
in the mighty
name of
Jesus Christ.
Amen.
I invite you
to stand
for our
closing hymn.
Amen.
You