1886. The Danger of Spiritual Apathy

Welcome to The Daily Platform.

Our program features sermons from the book of Micah. I want to talk to you this morning about a danger. A very real and very present danger. A danger that every one of us at some point, if we're not careful, slips into and then maybe progresses to different degrees of. And it is the danger of spiritual apathy. The danger of spiritual apathy. What is apathy or to become apathetic? Ah, not pathos feeling. It's in a sense to live without feeling.

Or if you will, the sense of feeling there is that I'm not going to live in light of my priorities. The aggressive spiritual apathy. Last semester, as I mentioned, we studied together the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah provides for us the most detailed look at the spiritual and social and moral life of the nation of Israel during her times in exile. As we introduced the book, we noted that not only was the city of Jerusalem in ruins, but the people of Israel themselves were in spiritual ruin. We highlighted the fact that the history of God's chosen people was one that was marked by a cyclical and repeated failure and depravity and spiritual ruin. The nation was marked during the days of the judges by the statement, every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

The jurisdiction of the kings. We see the nation characterized by the spiritual mindset of the leadership of the nation. And often that characterization was voiced this way. He did evil in the sight of the Lord. Overlapping some of that during the times of the leadership of the prophets, we see these oracles of God's truth, crying out against the sin of the people and declaring them the impending judgment of God. And often it was because they forgot God. Did they actually forget God?

No. But something had changed. See, Israel displays for us a case study. A study, if you will, of how it is that people lose their spiritual vitality. How is it that people who have clearly seen the hand of God at work have experienced the clear blessing and provision of God end up living in a place of cold, distant rebellion? I believe that there's a particular Old Testament prophet that gives us insight into this problem.

A problem that doesn't only plague Israel but, if we're honest, is a danger for all of us. And that prophet is the prophet Micah. He prophesied during the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah, so somewhere about the 8th century BC. We know very, very little about him. We know him from this book.

We know him from Jeremiah 26 and verse 18. And he's a prophet from Morashath. And that he's then probably a native from that area, which probably put him about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. For us, that would sound like, yeah, you live in Jerusalem, anywhere 25 miles around Greenville.

In those days when you walked, he probably wasn't viewed as Jerusalemite, but there he was to cry to the capital of the nation. His book is an interesting book. It's a series of oracles or, if you will, pronouncements that he makes for God to the people. As we come to chapter 6, you can turn there.

That's where we're going to be this morning. It's clear the text indicates that there is now a change, if you will. We're coming to another oracle and it actually is going to take a somewhat unique form. It's going to take the form of a covenant court case, if you will.

Only there's some surprising things in this. There's almost a sense that at the beginning of this court case, God calls, if you will, all of creation to bear as witnesses in his controversy or, if you will, his case against his own people. But in doing so, he almost sets it up to make the case such that Israel is given an opportunity for them to bring a case against God.

And I think that is an intentional approach in this text because when we live in apathy, there's something going on in our hearts and in our minds that has changed our opinion of God. And that is something that God is going to address with Israel via his servant Micah in Micah chapter 6. So you follow along as I read, Hear ye now what the Lord saith.

Let me stop because one of the things you need to do as you read through the six chapters, realize that there are changes in speakers and you need to actually get then who is speaking. There are times Micah will speak as a voice. There are times that I think in giving voice then he speaks and speaks for Israel. God will speak. So here we see first it's the Lord arise. Contend thou before the mountains and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy and your strong foundations of the earth, for the Lord hath a controversy with his people and he will plead with Israel.

Here's the plea. O my people, what have I done unto thee? And wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me, for I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the house of servants and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, consulted and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord.

That's an important statement. There's something that you need to know, understand, comprehend, have clarified, return to understanding and it is the righteousness of the Lord. Change in audience, change in speaker, wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God, voices being given to the thoughts of Israel. In other words, if you will, think verse six, this is Israel speaking. Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? You can hear the hyperbole. And then we have this famous verse, he has showed, notice it's an E, not an O. He has demonstrated, he has done things to clearly demonstrate to you, O man, important words.

In addressing the nation, he brings us down to individual application. What is good? And what doth the Lord require of me? But to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.

And most of the time you hear Micah 6 preach, the focus is in preaching the three relational dynamics of Micah chapter six and verse eight. We will touch on that this morning, but I actually want us to look at everything else. Because I want us to see why it is that God could say, I've made it incredibly clear to you what our relationship should look like.

But for some reason, you're not there. And I believe he points out for us factors that we need to be aware of that will throughout this semester if we're not careful. Lead us to the place where come the end of this year when we are all tired, we'll live in spiritual apathy. And I want us to guard our hearts against that.

So let's look then, really at just a couple of things. One, I want you to see the problem, God's controversy. God is going to himself point out that the relationship between he and his people is broken. And here with great pathos, great feeling if you will, the opposite of apathy. And that's really why I thought of that word, it's spiritual apathy, is we see the passion of God. We hear the passion of God for his people, that he would actually come to them and rather than just this being an indictment about their failure and covenant loyalty, about breaking his law, about wandering from his commandments.

He actually turns this around and in real relational terms, he says, look our relationship is broken, tell me what I did wrong. And he uses an interesting word, a word which is not unfamiliar to the prophets in describing the relationship between God and his people. Isaiah asked, unbelieving Ahaz, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also? Malachi said, you have wearied the Lord with your words in Malachi 2 17.

But here instead of wearying Israel, Yahweh redeems her. I believe there's an intentional play on words here, I have not wearied you, I have brought you up from Egyptian bondage. But God turns it around, he uses this word to weary, or if you will, this sense of you've done this over and over and over to the place that you have worn down and ultimately worn out the relationship. Sometimes we understand that relationally, don't we? People's behaviors and their mindset and their selfishness over and over again, we get past it and we come back and we rebuild the relationship and it goes for a while and the behaviors begin again.

But eventually you get to that place where you feel it in your soul and you wonder, is this relationship worth it? It's actually wearing me out and God asks Israel, what have I done to make you feel that way with me? Why would God ask that? Because from his perspective, the behaviors of his people are demonstrating that mindset whether or not they claim it. They so presume upon his grace, they so take him for granted, they so live as though they are spiritual and mindful of what God has said, but they've altered what he said to make themselves comfortable and to live in pragmatic ways. Yet they tell themselves, we're religious and we love God and we're spiritual and yet God stands there and he says, that's not at all the relationship I designed to have with you. But they're happy to live there because they're apathetic.

It's a relationship that's expected of them, but there's no heart. And this is God's controversy with his people. This is the problem and friends, I tell you this morning for all of us, this is a problem for us. Our faith becomes more of a religion. Our holiness becomes more of a habit. Our purpose becomes more of a pragmatism.

It's just the way we live and it's not a bad way to live. But does it really have passion? I want to ask you to raise your hand this morning, but how many of you spent some time with God this morning? You might be someone that likes to read the Bible later, that's fine, but have you begun the day with God consciousness? When you prayed at the beginning of class, did you pray or was it just that thing that a teacher feels is important at the beginning of the class? When you came to chapel to start a whole semester, was this gathering because you desperately needed and wanted to hear from God? Or this is what I do at Bob Jones, there's chapel those first three days and wow, Dr. Benson got up and said there was chapel tomorrow.

What's that all about? Is there passion, young person, in your walk with God? So then I want us to look for the rest of the minutes that we have, not just at this problem, but I want us to see the progression.

How does this happen? I want us to walk through the chapter. You can read the verses, I'll point some of them out, but I want us to see four things in this progression. And if you go back and read through Israel's history, you will find that these actually are progression for Israel that Micah points out here in the sixth chapter in the middle of this court case. I want you to see the first is a prideful ingratitude.

A prideful ingratitude. God makes His case and He calls His creation to bear witness. And part of the reason He does that is because they've been there since the foundation, which means they have been there since the beginning of God's relationship with man. These are witnesses to the fact that the relationship foundationally was broken because man chose to disobey God. And they've witnessed all the events of the covenant loyalty of God demonstrated throughout history, moving from individuals to a people for His namesake. The work of redeeming, getting, if you will, faith and putting it as credit to Abraham's account and then to all of those who would demonstrate faith afterwards, to a nation of people to whom he gives a law so that they might see that they cannot have this relationship with God all by themselves.

The law doesn't justify. In fact, it shows the need for a relationship and then He Himself provides the means for lost and broken man to be returned in fellowship to His God. And thus He makes the case. Prophets taught often in challenging God's people about the incredible, great, redemptive acts of God that He has demonstrated over and over and Micah is no exception. He mentions Moses and Aaron and Miriam in verse four. These were spiritual leaders used by God to lead His people out of captivity and distance from Him. He reminds them of what He did in His mercy and in His grace when Balak, king of Moab, tried to get Balaam to prophesy against his people and rather God caused him to bless them.

He talks about what God did during the days of Joshua when the people journeyed from Shittim, the campsite east of the Jordan River, to Gilgal, the first encampment, after they miraculously, by God's grace, crossed finally the Jordan River and over and over and over again God demonstrates that He is faithful, that He is loyal, that He is loving, that He is kind, that He is gracious. And young people, He's done the same for you. We start a semester and you sit here. Do you realize what God has done to make it possible for you to be a student at Bob Jones University? You know very well the expense of coming to college. Some of you bear that expense and you'll work very hard and you'll have jobs. Friend, who is giving you the strength to get the job?

Who is coming alongside and helping you to pay the bill? What sacrifices are your parents or grandparents making? It'd be easy to sit here and begin the semester focused on how hard this is and how difficult it's going to be and forget what God did to bring you here. And that is just the beginning of His kindness and His goodness, of His grace, of what He has done to redeem you, to save you, of what He has done to sustain you and sanctify you, of what He has done to actually shape your life and is doing to help you be the person He has called you to be and to live the life that He has provided for you to live. Oh, it's so easy for us to get focused myopically on me and my day and the challenges of today and then look at everything as an interruption in my plans and miss and miss the grace and goodness of God. That's why I call this, you see, a prideful ingratitude. You see, the first step toward spiritual apathy is the stride of prideful ingratitude. When I move from gratitude to entitlement, I've begun the journey toward spiritual apathy. When I take for granted the blessings of God, I have taken the first steps of taking God Himself for granted.

Ingratitude leads to distance and coldness. The absence of thankfulness is the first indicator that right worship is beginning to die in our hearts. And so I say to you, this is a process, it's progressive, and so if you sit and at any moment you hear yourself griping and complaining, you hear yourself negligent in recounting the goodness and the greatness of God, it is at that moment that I challenge you to stop and begin to praise God. And to begin to count your blessings and name them one by one. To turn that voice of complaint to a voice of praise and to actually actively share it with someone else. And you know what you will find? You will find you will not progress to spiritual apathy. But Israel did this over and over and over again. And that leads then in our text to a progressive ignorance. How is it they forget God? You see that in the, if you will, rhetorical questions that are asked and given voice to as though they're Israel's questions. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God?

Shall I come with Bernal? What is it that God wants? What is it that's acceptable to him? What is it that's going to give him this relationship that he wants from me?

Cabs a year old? Will he be pleased with a thousand rams or ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn? Human sacrifice seen among the pagans and Israel at the height of its paganism. The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.

This is why God answers by saying, hasn't he demonstrated to you what the relationship should look like? See, this is their statement that is incredibly comprehensive. Burn offerings represented total dedication. Cabs a year old, really the most desirable of the sacrifices.

Thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil are lavish sacrifice. And once firstborn, the fruit of their body, the most valuable thing I have. And really, this is a heart that says, God, what is it that you want from me? And friends, without apology, the God of heaven says, I want a relationship with you that is all in. I want your heart. I want you to know me.

And because you know me, I want you to love me. There's an implied answer here that's somewhat stunning knowing the sacrificial system that they have. The answer is actually none of them. Does it mean that they don't matter? That the sacrifices shouldn't be done? That obedience shouldn't be given to what the law requires?

Not at all. But what he says is to have that without your heart is nothing. You see, young people, God doesn't want your spiritual duties and your spiritual disciplines without your heart. Why is it God wants those things?

Because they're a means to an end. They're to remind you of who he is and what he's done. They're to give you information about him that leads you to loving him. But God doesn't think you're good and God isn't thinking his relationship with you is special because you are able to check off the 365 day boxes of you doing your Bible reading this year. God doesn't think you're special because you sit at a Christian college and happen to check every box with attendance in chapel.

Not if he doesn't have your heart. And what's stunning here is that God has to ask these questions because what has become apparent is that they don't remember. They don't know. They don't understand what this relationship should be like. He's shown you what is good.

Here's what the relationship, if it's healthy, should look like. And he gives them these three relational dynamics. The idea of acting justly or being actually governed by truth and principle in your dealings with others to love mercy.

There's our word hesed that we had as a theme for our student body. Loyal love carrying through on commitments out of a sense of understanding the character of God. And then this idea of walking humbly with God actually is a dynamic principle that you live such with a heart that is marked by humility and modesty that it results in you walking with God. These two are progressive in a sense doing justice is a way of loving mercy and which in turn is a manifestation of walking humbly with God. And if you put them all together what he is saying is these are tangible means of daily practical personal worship. You see worship actually is an active thing that calls for demonstration in the life of what I claim to believe.

This is what it looks like. And for them they were going through activities, duties, and all the while forgetting what their God was like. Getting further removed from what God had actually said.

Becoming more and more divorced from what the relationship was actually supposed to be. Thus a growing ignorance. That resulted then in a pragmatic injustice.

You see that in verses 10 through 15. Why do I say pragmatic injustice? You see what happens here is that there is a rationalizing of behaviors. There's a way that due to my circumstances I begin to justify my wrongdoing.

Look at the progression. I stop being thankful for what I have. I remove myself from being actively informed by and about my God and I begin to change and distort both who God is and what God has said. Now with an altered ethical basis I begin to change my behaviors and because I can somehow give what I think is a good reason for what I needed to do even though it was wrong. I can now justify it in my own mind and even make it out to be good because I believe it was necessary. That's why this is a pragmatic injustice.

Young people, an awful lot of us live there. Well I just, I had to lie. I had to steal. It's just the way it was. My life is the way it is and so you know I didn't have the time that I had other people. I had to cheat. You don't know what my background is like and the things that I've been through.

My family dynamics are these and so now that I found somebody that I believe really loved me I had to be immoral. These thoughts sound familiar. These are just the manifestations of a progress that has happened and has led you to a place of spiritual apathy and you may not know it because all the time you're telling yourself based upon your measures you actually are spiritual and God is looking to you and saying, Oh my child, what have I done to weary you? I have given to the heathen the statutes of armory are kept and all the work of the house of Ahab and you walk in their councils that I should make the desolation and the inhabitants thereof are hissing therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people. The end of spiritual apathy is sadly a devastated relationship with God only you may not actually actively be aware of it because you've accepted other measures for the relationship and you tell yourself you're good. Oh young people I challenge you this morning beware take heed take note of the dangers of the process that leads to spiritual apathy and purpose in your heart that you oh man individually will stop the process by loving your God. Father, thank you for loving us so much and so well bless us this semester I pray dismiss us now in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached at Bob Jones University by Dr. Alan Benson. Thanks for listening and join us again next time as we study God's Word together featuring speakers from Chapel Services at Bob Jones University.