Judges 17 and verse 13 for our text, where we read, then said Micah, now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. And seeking God's blessing, we want to meditate profitably upon this text and this chapter and context. And we hold our hands up and we say at the beginning, this is not an easy chapter. And if I was a betting man, I may lay a bet with you that you've probably never heard a sermon from Judges chapter 17. You see, the book of Judges does not make pleasant reading. It does not, in any sense, flatter God's people. Because the book of Judges refers to the behavior of God's covenant people. It doesn't outline the behavior so much of the heathen, of the ungodly, and of those who are up to their necks in idolatry. It deals with the behavior of God's redeemed people, his own chosen people, and those who profess to follow the Lord God of Israel. And in the book of Judges, it outlines how quickly the people fell into idolatry. And of course, when you fall into idolatry, godlessness and unrighteousness automatically follow. And that's why it's so important that people worship the one true and the living God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, is the first commandment. And it's vitally important that this commandment is observed. And when it's not, all kinds of things happen. Idolatry first, and then rank disobedience and chaos. And this is what we have here in this chapter, the beginning of religious confusion. And that's the title I've given to the sermon tonight, Religious Confusion. Let us remind ourselves that God is not speaking here of the heathen, but of God's people behaving in a manner worse than the heathen, certainly no better. And surely this would remind us, all of us, the need to experience moment by moment, day by day, the grace of God. How we need to be preserved. How we need to be kept from the sin that is within us. And how much we need the Savior. These are things that are clear and evident, as you would even have a light study of the Book of Judges. And it does not make pleasant reading, but it is profitable to meditate upon these things. We are entering into the last section of the Book of Judges. The Book of Judges begins with an introduction And then the main part is concerning the workings of the judges from Othniel to Samson. Samson was the last judge in the book of Judges. And what we find here is the last section of the book we have now entered into. But we are not for one minute to think that the things that are recorded in chapter 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 happened after Samson. We are not to think that at all. It can be clearly demonstrated that the things recorded for us in these chapters from 17 onwards to the end of the book happened indeed before the judges, before Othniel. These things happened after the death of Joshua and the elders. And once that generation went, Israel quickly slipped into idolatry and into terrible behavior that we will find as we go through the last section in the book. And it's important that we keep this in front of us. And to realize then when the judges began to judge, Israel was in a terrible state. As you will see as you go through the book, the things that they committed were abominable. You would hardly think that God's people could do these things, but they did. And it proved the need for the judges. So these last five chapters, are events that happened before God raised up judges to restrain Israel and to some extent to bring them back into line. Now this chapter here, as we said, is not an easy chapter for us. But let us try to explain what happened here, if at all possible. There was a man, Micah, and he stole money from his mother. We are told here 1,100 shekels of silver. Now, if you've got a good memory, and if you're thinking back to what we looked at last week, Samson, you will know, or you might remember, in chapter 16, verse 5, entice him and see within his great strength lieth. and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him, and we will give thee every one of us 1,100 pieces of silver. The two amounts are the same. Delilah was enticed to betray Samson for 1,100 pieces of silver, and here we find Many, many years ago, here was the beginning of idolatry when 1,100 shekels of silver were dedicated to idolatry. That's what they were. And the Bible, it seems to tell us, it seems to be presenting something for us to consider. Here we have, friends, in chapter 17, the beginning of idolatry. 1,100 shekels were dedicated to idolatry. And then many years later, Samson, a Danite, He was betrayed for 1100 shekels of silver. There is a connection. God is somewhat visiting their sins. Idolatry first began in the tribe of Dan. And the last judge was Samson, who was from the tribe of Dan. And he was betrayed by his mistress for 1100 shekels of silver. And that's the amount years and years and years ago when idolatry first began in the tribe of Dan, the tribe that Samson came from. Well, she pronounced a curse upon the thief And this curse was heard by the son, and it must have pricked his conscience to some extent. So that he owned up and said, I took it. And then the mother turns the curse to a blessing. Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son. And he restored the 1100 shekels of silver to his mother. And the mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand for my son. to make a graven image and a molten image. And instead of then dedicating the 1,100 shekels to a molten and a graven image, she gives 200 to some kind of founder, and he makes the images for them. And they were set up in the house of Micah. And Micah assigns his son to be a priest. And then, out of the blue, there is this Levite from Bethlehem, Judah. This one who is sojourning, he's moving around. And he comes to Micah's house and presents himself as a Levite. And immediately, Micah takes him into his house. He becomes his own pet. Levite and priest and everything looks hunky-dory for Micah at this time. For he said in our text, now know I that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my priest. Everything seems all right for him. Here he is. He is still worshiping the Lord. He is still worshiping Jehovah. But in some sense, he has departed from the true worship of God. It's a pick and a mix worship. He is doing what he wants as he pleases. And he thinks, because providence seems to be shining upon him, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest." Well, can we say anything from this for ourselves? Well, first of all, let us notice here that Micah misread Providence. Micah misread Providence. And as you will know, and maybe you need to be reminded, but Providence is extremely difficult to read. And the only way that you can read it is by looking back. Because friends, our lives can be rosy and everything can be in order. And everything can be going well. And we might well say to ourselves that the Lord's blessing is upon me. Everything's going well in my life. Why do I need to worry? What concerns have I got? My health is good. My family's good. My job is secure. My bank balance is secure. Everything is in its right place. I can tick all the boxes. I have no cares. I have no concerns. Surely then the Lord is blessing me. This is what the position that Micah came to. And all along he did not realize that he did not enjoy and know the blessing of the Lord at all. God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. And to the true-hearted Christian friends, God's providence is a wonderful, comforting rock to rest upon. You know, We believe that God has made the heavens and the earth. We believe in our great creator God who brought all things into being at a word and at a command by nothing, simply by his word. There was no pre-existing material. God spoke and these things came into being. And we delight in the awesome power of this Creator God. And we delight also that this God is overruling all things. He is exercising his control over everything, even the smallest things in our lives. A sparrow will not fall to the ground, Jesus says, but by my father. And friends, we are meant to take wonderful comfort from this. Even the very hairs of our head are all numbered, we are told. And for someone who's in Christ, and for someone who believes in the living God, providence and God's care and God's concern And God's rule is a wonderful rock to step on every day as you get out of bed. Because is the world not in some sense in chaos? Is it not surrounded by confusion? And if we did not believe in the wonderful providence of God, friends, what turmoil would be in our lives? But it's very possible to misread Providence. He looked at his blessings and came to the wrong conclusion. And we must also be very careful when we look at Providence. We must look at our lives. And although we might have all the trims and all the trappings of this world, we might come to that conclusion that everything's well with our soul. And this would be a dangerous thing for us. Because many will know, and many enjoy, and many experience temporal blessings, and indeed they are blessings. God does bless people. He blesses his people and other people. He gives them things. He gives them food and clothing, health and strength. He gives them minds. He gives them jobs. He gives them homes and families. He lavishes many gifts upon many people. And many people enjoy the gifts that God has given to them. And they, maybe they don't even acknowledge God. and they don't even recognize his hand or never think about him or praise him or thank him. But that does not mean to say that they have all that God can give. They may have these wonderful things, yes, and these things may make their lives pleasant and may make their lives easy in some sense, But oh, their lacking friends, this unspeakable and this most glorious of blessings that God alone can give. They don't know the joy of their sins forgiven. They don't know the joy of being right with God. They don't know the joy of a peaceful conscience. In other words, they don't know gospel blessings. And here was Micah. whose name, friends, in its full form, means who is like the Lord. Everything was rosy in Micah's house. Even his name, who is like the Lord? And Micah could go out every day and say, look how the Lord has blessed me. Here I have my own priest. I have my own house of God. I'm worshiping the true and the living God. I have all the trims, all the trappings. Everything's there. I even have a priest, my own personal priest. Yet, here friends was the beginning, the beginning of idolatry in Israel. In verse six it says, in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Is that not a picture of modern day Scotland modern day Great Britain, everyone, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. This is what we find here. And he misread Providence. He's not the only one who's done that. You will be well familiar with the story of Jonah. Jonah was asked, commanded to go and to preach to the Ninevites. Go and preach repentance to the Ninevites. Jonah looked at Nineveh, thought about Nineveh, knew it was a great city, knew it was a tremendous challenge, knew there were wicked people. And what did he say? I'm not going there. Then he goes down to Joppa. And what do we find? Providence has smiled upon him. There's a ship, but it's not going to Nineveh. It's going to Tarshish. It's going in the opposite direction. Just what I want. The Lord doesn't really want me to go to Nineveh. He wants me to go to Tarshish. Providence there. Is it not wonderful? I don't have to go to Tarshish, to Nineveh at all. Providence has smiled on me. I have been saved. Of course, we know the story. We know the outcome he had to go. And therefore, we must never be led by providence. We must always be led by the word of God. And we must not be guilty of misreading providence. Especially when things are going well in our lives. We're inclined to think that God's blessing is resting upon us. But of course, the converse is also true. It may well be that in some sense, our lives are upside down. It may well be that there's a hard providence upon us. There's a sore providence. There's a dark providence upon us. And it may well be that we are struggling in life We may well find that our faith has been tried and tested, and that we are not enjoying great times. We are not like Micah. We cannot say, now I know that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. We might not be able to say that. We might look at our lives and say, oh, providence is against me. Well, providence may well be difficult, and it may well be in some sense against you, but that in of itself does not mean the blessing of God is not upon you. This is the point that we must derive from this. Micah thought everything was well, therefore God's blessing was upon him, and that was not true. Therefore, friends, if providence seems to be against us, it may well be still that God's blessing is resting upon us. The obvious example to this is Jacob. Jacob, who became Israel, Did he not lose or did he not think that Joseph was dead? Simeon was in prison back in Egypt and the brethren said they'll get no more food unless they go down to Egypt with Benjamin. And oh, he did not want to part with Benjamin because he did believe that his brethren had something to do with the death, as he thought, of Joseph. And here he was in a terrible turmoil. Joseph's gone. Simeon's gone. Maybe now I'll lose Benjamin. And he cries out, all these things are against me. Providence is against me. The Lord is against me. when the actual fact was that God was working all things for his good and for his ultimate deliverance. Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. Do you feel like that sometimes, Christian? Do you feel you're up against a brick wall? Do you feel whatever you turn, all these things are against you? If you're a true-hearted, genuine Christian, you must not think that, you must not realize that. All things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. And therefore, friends, we cannot rule and direct our lives by providence. We believe in providence, yes, but it's only something that you can read backwards. How then are we to live our lives? The just shall live by faith, or their faith. We are to live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We walk by faith and not by sight. Micah, with his physical sight, could see these things, and to him they were all blessings. And he couldn't see that behind it was the displeasure of God. And he was one who instigated idolatry, And the next step, friends, after idolatry is godlessness and unrighteousness. And let's be clear, let's be clear. They were still or he was still worshiping Jehovah, but he had departed from the true worship of God. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is under the waters. You will not make any graven image." But Micah thought he could do that and still worship the living God. And of course, when you begin this, When you begin to tamper even slightly with the worship of God, you fall into full-rank idolatry. You tamper with the worship of God, you worship Jehovah the way that you think that he wants to be worshiped. You add a wee bit to it. You change it a wee bit. Oh, but you're still worshipping Jehovah before you know it, friends. You're worshipping Baal. You're worshipping Ashtaroth. You're worshipping false gods. That's what happened. Therefore, let us live by faith. The Lord has revealed to us the way he is to be worshipped. It may not be popular in Christian circles. It's certainly not popular in the world. And there would be something far wrong if it was popular in the world. But friends, it matters not whether it's popular in the world or popular in Christian circles. We're not here to please men. We're here to please God. And God has revealed to us the way that he has to be worshipped. And we dare not deviate from it. We dare not add novelties. We dare not change it. Indeed, we delight in the simplicity of it. And we delight in it above all because this is the way that God has ordained. Spiritual, simple, in the nicest possible sense, Christian worship. What else can we say then from this chapter? Micah was up to his neck in religion. and he wrongly deduced that God is certainly blessing him. He had his own church, his own priest, his own chaplain. Is that not something that we see in our society today? Hardly a sporting club doesn't have a chaplain. We can be up to our necks in religion, and yet we might not know the blessing of God. Let us make sure that our religion is true. Let us make sure that it is according to the word of God. Let us make sure it is not of our own invention, or our own innovation, or that it is to please ourselves. We are here to please God. Micah then was trusting in the fact that everything looked rosy. We can draw other lessons from this for ourselves. Many people are like Micah. They will trust in their outward circumstances, in their externals, in the things that they can see. What am I referring to? Well, Micah said to himself, seeing I have a Levite to my priest, surely then God is blessing me. I'm all right. I have a Levite. Well, friends, the Levite shouldn't have been there. He shouldn't have been in Bethlehem, Judah. It wasn't a Levite city. And he was someone who sojourned. It looks as if he was someone who was looking for an appointment. Now it does seem that in this particular time that we're looking in, it was a hard time for the ministry. You see, the Levites should be supported by the people, and maybe he had to sojourn from place to place and leave the cities of the Levites because he wasn't being supported. But whatever, he should not have been in Bethlehem, Judah. It wasn't a city of the Levites. And the very fact that he was prepared to do what he did would show that he was not a genuine priest. He was not really the genuine article. But come what may, Micah was trusting in this connection that he had with a priest. And of course, we can go to other churches and look how people will gather and they will put their faith and their hope and their trust upon a priest. Well friends, we are not out to knock these people because these people are not here. But friends, it's possible for us, it's possible for you and I to put our faith and our hope upon connections. And these connections may be good connections. How many put their faith and hope in godly parents or relations. How many have come from godly homes, been surrounded by godly relations. In some sense, they are trusting upon that connection. Their parents were good parents. The parents brought them up well. The parents prayed for them. The parents showed them the way of salvation and lived a Christian life before them as a wonderful example, and they were brought up in Christian homes. And maybe, friends, they're resting upon their pedigree, they're resting upon their forefathers, and they're not putting their faith and their hope and their trust upon the Lord Jesus Christ themselves. You see, friends, grace does not travel through blood. We must indeed make Christ our Savior by ourselves. How many are resting on their baptism? They have been baptized by godly parents. Maybe a godly minister performed the baptism. Maybe they've grown up in the church and they're putting their faith and hope in these things. Friends, no one shall be saved by being baptized. Jesus Christ alone saves. Yes, it's right to be baptized. Of course it is. But we are, what the catechism says, we are to make good our baptism. And we are to know the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's what we're to know. Because that's what infant baptism or adult baptism points to. It points to the wonderful washing by the Holy Ghost. Are we put in our faith? and trust in the fact that we're surrounded by praying people, godly people. that we belong in some sense to a gospel congregation where the word is proclaimed, where there is an exercise gospel ministry, and where we have things in order. Friends, are we sitting here tonight and are we thinking that because of our connections with the church or whatever, that everything's all right? This is the way it was for Micah. I have a priest. I'm all right. I go to the house of God. My minister preaches about heaven, about hell, about sin, about salvation, about repentance. I'm all right. No, friends, you're not all right unless you know these things. Are you trusting in the facts? that you're diligent at the means of grace. You should be diligent at the means of grace. Faith comes by heeding and heeding by the word of God. Friends, we should be in the house of God. It is incumbent upon us. But we need more than that. Oh, we need more than that. We need grace. We need the heart opened. We need the Spirit of the living God to apply these things to us. Micah then was one who misread providence and one who rested upon his connections, upon the fact that he had his own priest he paid. Surely everything was all right with his soul. No. Let us, therefore, take a warning, friends. Let us examine ourselves and let us look and make sure that we are resting upon Jesus, that he is the one we are trusting in, not our minister or our office bearers or our catechisms. or our orthodoxy, but Christ. And whosoever believeth in him shall never, ever be ashamed. Amen. May God be pleased to bless his word to us. Let us pray together.