Spiritual Derangement (Part C)

To go through life with what's right in your eyes might be a warrant in God's eyes. And we come across this all the time. People say, well, I think God is this.

Make up something. And it's wrong and it's harmful. And it comes from the underworld. It comes from Satan. Wrong ideas about God are not generated from the throne of God.

And because it is harmful to human beings, it is very important. And there are hordes of churchgoers who do their own thing while putting Christ's name on it. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Rick is currently teaching through the book of Judges.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will conclude his study called Spiritual Derangement. He'll be teaching in Judges Chapter 17. Tozier says, Grace will save a man, but it will not save him and his idol. He just had that with Vance Havner and A.W. Tozier. Vance Havner would make you chuckle.

Tozier would make you close the book and think about yourself. Both of them powerful men of God. He says here, and they were in the house of Micah.

This is his domestic demon network. He had a bunch of little figurines. He had a little shrine. We're going to get that in the next verse. Remember, one man can hold more demons than 2,000 pigs. A great lesson from the scripture.

Man's capacity for evil. Verse 5, then Micah had a shrine and made an ephod and his household idols, and he consecrated one of his sons to become his priests. Who became his priest? Well, the word there translated shrine in the Hebrew is house.

The idea is a dwelling place within the house. This chapter completely mocks Deuteronomy 12, where all of these violations they are guilty of are covered. One verse from Deuteronomy, I'll take two verses from Deuteronomy 12 at the moment. Verse 4, you shall not worship Yahweh your God with such things.

Yet there he is doing it. According to Deuteronomy 12, Shiloh was the place where God was to be publicly worshiped. You could worship the Lord at home.

You could not bring sacrifices to him in the home. They were doing it. They had the ephod there.

They tried to get into it. It wasn't the same ephod in this context as the garb of the priests. It was a pouch. It was likely somewhere where they held the bones that they would read or some form of trying to tell the future.

What do you call it? Omens and things like that. Verse 5 of Deuteronomy 12, but you shall seek the place where Yahweh your God chooses out of all your tribes to put his name for his dwelling place and there you shall go. So here Micah has a dwelling place, a shrine in his home, but the law explicitly says don't do this.

He believed he had a relationship with Yahweh by violating the strict and clear commands of Yahweh. This is insanity. There's no sense in that. There's no way to justify that.

Indefensible position. He says, and made an ephod and his household idols plural. That's his domestic demonic network that he has in home. You know, you have a router at home, a modem. He had a shrine full of idols.

Now when you look at your modem, you're going to stand behind me you. And he consecrated one of his sons to become, who became his priest. Well only Aaron's descendants were supposed to be priests in Israel. There were supposed to be no other priests.

Anybody else was to be killed. No priest true to their calling would have tolerated this. So if he, you know, if he was a real priest, soon as he made him a priest, he said I can't be a priest and I rebuke you for making me one.

Numbers 18, we're going to get this because we'll cover it more as we move forward. He says, Therefore you and your sons with you attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and behind the veil and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death. It was a capital crime to impersonate a priest. If you are not from the line of Aaron, even if you were a Levite, if you were not from the line of Aaron, you were not to be a priest. But you see the high value God puts on the priesthood to serve. He says, and you shall serve. We are a royal priesthood. We are supposed to take the meanings, the value of what's behind this high calling and apply it to what we do as Christians. Preach Christ, which has everything to do with saving souls from an eternal hell.

Certainly Micah knew all this. Anybody outside of Aaron's family serving as a priest was to be killed, but he did not honor it. To them, going contrary to God's word, somehow was not going contrary to God. To them, going contrary to Yahweh was somehow not going contrary. You see how just people become deranged. Spiritually deranged, which is what every person who is rejecting Christ is.

But we're getting to see an extreme case put in front of us. If you took this to someone, you say, you read this and tell me what's wrong with this story. Just even if you read it as literature, you'd have to come to the conclusion that these people are not stable.

And yet, many people would read it, come to that conclusion, and then go ahead and repeat it. Because sin is that deadly of a thing. It is violently deadly.

It's invisibly deadly. How many Christians, and I would say all, can't stand their carnal nature, their fallen nature? That part of us that wants things it shouldn't have. Even another donut can become a big problem. Not the donuts. Yeah, after about eight of them.

You know, it's now becoming a little greedy in one sitting. Well, anyway, verse 6, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Well, there's another indication that the book of Judges was put together during the time of the kings approaching that time. Maybe he was lobbying, you know, I'm part of the movement to get a king in Israel, not a judge.

Can't say for sure. But we do know he's looking back, and he's saying, and the kings, remember, as bad as the judges were, or as, or not as good as they should have been, the kings were worse overall. I mean, with the exception of a few, the kings were just far worse. All the kings of the Northern Kingdom were diabolical. Anyway, the context that Israel's kings, this context says that Israel's kings were to have, to make a great contribution to the spiritual state of the people. The king was to influence the people. He's saying there was no king then, that's why these people behaved this way. There was no one at the top influencing the land, pointing to God, upholding the righteousness of the law.

That's what he is saying. There was no Moses figure. It's supposed to be the pastor. You say, well, that gives a lot of authority to the pastor.

No, it does not. It gives the authority to the body of Christ. So, a righteous pastor is only in front of a congregation by consent of the congregation.

It is a body thing. It is an appointment by Christ. But it goes both ways. The congregation can consent to a heretic in the pulpit, and it often happens. But this church gets enough of that.

We'll be getting more of it come Sunday from Jude. But back to this, in those days there was no king. The context says there was no king then, that's why they behaved this way. Had there been a king, this apostasy would not have been running so unchecked throughout the land as it did. No religious authority. He says everyone did what was right in his own eyes. What was right in their eyes was wrong in God's.

That's what matters. Well, how would I know that when I come to the scripture? This is the only way. There is no other way. You cannot just say, well, I just have a deep suspicion.

Well, that's not good enough. It might be right, but it has to be founded on the Word, because when you do things that is right in your own eye, in the heart being deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, you end up lying about God. The facts become wrong. You cannot guess with God. It's not almost right or almost there. That's good, again, in horseshoes and hand grenades being close enough, but not when it comes to doctrine. Not the essential doctrines. There are many points in the scripture that are debatable.

But there are others that are not. The doctrine of salvation is simple as anything. You are a sinner. Christ is the Savior. He's the Son of God. He died for you. You'll never get to heaven without him. Even the unborn don't get to heaven without the blood of Christ.

He's got it all worked out. When David said, I shall not, he shall not come to me, I shall go to him, that whole situation is arranged by the blood of Christ for that to come to pass in heaven. David could go to Sheol, but he could not get to the Father's throne without the blood of Christ. Anyway, to go through life with what's right in your eyes might be abhorrent in God's eyes. And we come across this all the time. People say, well, I think God is.

They just make up something. And it's wrong. And it's harmful. And it comes from the underworld. It comes from Satan. Wrong ideas about God are not generated from the throne of God.

And because it is harmful to human beings, it is very important. And there are hordes of churchgoers who do their own thing while putting Christ's name on it, just like this couple here that we are considering. Jeremiah 10, and of course Jeremiah, just what a ministry. And I say I would not want to be one of the pastors in Corinth in the day that Paul wrote to the Corinthians. I just would not want a church of those type of believers because I would stumble. I would go into the pulpit with tomatoes and just say, yeah, I know what you believe in.

Okay, that's a bit much, but it's my fantasy. Jeremiah had a worse ministry, is what my point, and he made it to the end. And he kidnapped them in the end. Then you would go to him at one point and say, Jeremiah, just tell us what God says.

Whatever it is, whether we like it or not, we're going to submit to it. And Jeremiah says, okay, come back in 10 days, I'll tell you. He tells them, and they said, we don't like that.

Then he turned on him. Jeremiah writes, oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. And that's what's being brought out in this verse 6 that we're looking at. Again, Jeremiah 13. This is the one with the sash. Jeremiah, go buy yourself a nice sport coat. Sash in his day, but in our day. I wouldn't, you know, if God said buy a sash, I'd go buy a sport coat and say, can I use this instead? Because I look kind of goofy walking. Imagine getting gasoline at the station and wearing a sash.

It's like, maybe in some South American countries you can wear one and get away with it. But here it's not really. Anyway, I'm restraining myself.

Just give me a minute. Verse 13 of Jeremiah, chapter 13 of Jeremiah 4. As a sash clings to a man's way, so I have cause the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me, says Yahweh, that they may become my people for renown, for praise, and for glory, but they would not hear. So it was an object lesson that Jeremiah took an object and he put it on you. See how this sash clings to me? This is how we're supposed to do it to Yahweh. We're supposed to be wrapped around him like this.

But no, you don't want that. Bizarre. He broke 60% of the Ten Commandments without even leaving home. This one Micah. Idolatry, fashioning images, stealing, lying, coveting. Commandments 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, and 10. What an indictment.

That's a rap sheet. She broke 20% of them without leaving the home of the Ten Commandments. Israel became bored with God. Israel became bored with the faith. Israel became bored with an invisible God.

So they wanted to make one up that they could see, like everybody else. And we have Christians who do similar things. They become bored with the Scripture. They start reading other things.

And they get in trouble. Because, listen, being a Christian is hard. Not being one is harder.

Is it worth it? That's the question you have to answer for yourself. All right, it's hard being a Christian. I can't beat people up that I don't like, that I think I can beat up. Stuff like that is irritating.

I'm being humorous because, of course, it's absurd. But it would be hard. That was your preference. But it's worth it. And that helps me. It helps me when things don't go my way to say, but it is worth restraining myself. That ninth donut.

I'll just say no because it's worth it. And the people supporting the idols, Judges 18, listen to this, because the people were supporting their idols, but not their temple, and that contributed to this condition. So they set up for themselves, Mike, I'm reading from Judges 18, 31, so they set up for themselves Micah's carved image, which he made all the time the house of God was in Shiloh. So he's saying, the historian is, the people were just pouring themselves into their image, but God's house was in Shiloh, and that's all he has to say.

It's just the omission of saying anything more is an admission of their guilt. Here they are playing religion anywhere they wanted to, contrary to what God wanted, and God's house just sat there abandoned, pretty much. Verse 8, The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place.

Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. Now this is, as we'll find out, this is a Levite. Did I miss a verse?

I did. Verse 7, just testing you. Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah. He was a Levite and was staying there. Verse 8, The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. So he's a sojourner. From the Levitical cities he's wandering, because the people aren't supporting their priests, they're not supporting their temple. And so when it was his time to go serve, there was nothing to serve, there were no sacrifices being offered for them to live off, not enough.

And so he wanders, looking for a place anywhere, financial support to get a job. And, as I mentioned, the temple that Shiloh was neglected. In verse 8, it mentions that he's from Bethlehem in Judah, because there was another Bethlehem in Zebulun.

A better story will come out of Bethlehem, but everybody will have to wait for that. Verse 9, And Micah said to him, Where do you come from? So he said to him, I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay. Now this Micah, he is worse than Laban. Laban was a scrounger, but this man, he's a religious one.

He's just totally into his idols. He's abandoned to them. Verse 10, Micah said to him, Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance, and free Wi-Fi.

So the Levite went in. Well, I mean, it's a difficult place to put a man. He doesn't have, he's going to eat and live, and this man is making an offer. He should have still said no.

But they've gotten deep into this problem. When he says, you be a father to me, it's a spiritual father. As a father takes care of the child, looks out for them, provides for them, he was saying, I want you to be a spiritual leader for me.

He was making him a chaplain, his personal chaplain. Later we'll find out his name is Charlie. Okay.

Well, we won't, but it's funny. I will give you ten shekels of silver per year and a suit of clothes. So he's bought and sold. Again, the temptation. The priesthood is being reduced to a private possession. Micah possesses it. He's now the Lord. He is the one appointing the callings and ordaining people. We don't ordain anyone. We recognize ordination on them. We recognize that God has called someone. They've proven themselves, according to the New Testament outline and guides, guidance of the New Testament and commandments of the New Testament. And we call it an ordination, but what we're saying is, at least what I'm saying, is I recognize that God has called you to this, and that's pretty much it.

The rest is up to you to work it out. In verse 11, then the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons. Well, the Levite consented to this. That means he supported it and celebrated it, and Micah was just as happy as he could be. Jeremiah 5 again, the priests ruled by their own power.

My people love to have it so. The righteous Jew in any age would be aghast at this. They would just be horrified at such an arrangement that a man could be bought. He's a Levite. It doesn't say he was from the tribe of Aaron, but he's a religious figure in the land, and this will certainly help Micah with his neighbors. And so the young man became like one of his sons. Aw, look at that. They bonded as they trampled God's Word together.

Human sentiment does not somehow make it acceptable, and yet a lot of people think it does. Verse 12, So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. Just like that. They must have made it a solemn event too. They probably had, you know, roasted corn, barbecue lamb, and other things like that.

All the trappings. As they trampled God's commandment. Young man became his priest. He was a hireling. Imagine if Micah rebuked him for anything, ever. You're fired. Give me back my garment, you know. No more Wi-Fi for you. You're out.

So that's what happens to a hireling. He's compromised. There are Jonathans and Micahs throughout the world, throughout history. They always find each other. They need each other, and it is never acceptable.

And not that we are to hate these people, but we're not to have anything to do with it. Verse 13, Then Micah said, Now I know that Yahweh will be good to me since I have a Levite as priest. See, God's a mascot.

He's just a lucky charm. If I, you know, do something good for, that I think God should accept, then he owes me. Spiritually deranged thinking, and by his own words, to suppose that one can just trample the word of God and insist that God bless them nonetheless. Deuteronomy again, 28, 28, The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. That means it will be deep down. When it says of heart, it's deep.

Not on the surface. He says, Since I have a Levite as priest, again thinking that this validated all of his disobedience. Hosea, O Ephraim, what shall I do to you?

God is asking this question. O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud and like the early dew it goes away. And I read those words, I don't want to be that way with God. I don't want to be so fragile that when the heat comes up, my faith is gone. The faith that we have, the Bible studies that we sit through, and maybe endure, they're supposed to count when everything is trying to push us away from trusting God and what we have learned.

Or else what good is it? What good is it if there are pestilence that are out there and arrows that fly at noonday and when they come we run from God and we ask the world, help us, tell us some good news, make us feel better. We're supposed to be on our knees getting orders. I don't mean, you know, well I mean, God, what am I supposed to do right now? Sometimes it is appointed for us to die and go out in a blaze of faith.

That's the idea. Sometimes it's appointed to us to live through these things and preach that others who die may be saved and saved may be strengthened. Micah, the prophet, in his second chapter in the 11th verse, he mocks those who accept anyone as clergy. He says, if a man should walk in a false spirit and speak a lie, saying, I will prophesy to you of wine and drink, even he would be a prattler of this people. So if somebody comes along and says, I'm going to prophesy to you about Lent, not Lent, Lent, and, okay, it's a mockery.

And Micah's calling them out. He says, you people have no discernment. You have no care.

You shouldn't be doing things like this. This man, he bought into this greed and becoming a private chaplain for the plastic gods that he was surrounded with. He's going to lose it all. In the next chapter, it all gets stolen from Micah. He loses his figurines. He loses his chaplain.

And he's shamed in front of his neighbors. And there'll be nothing left of his religion except a record of his spiritual derangement. These last five chapters, they're not a lot of fun, but they're necessary. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. And we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges right here on Cross Reference Radio.