Ten Shekels and a Shirt
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| In loving memory of my father Robert Louis (Bob) Padgett July 28, 1931-May 22, 2023 |
This message was sparked by a man named Reidhead, who preached on this subject in 1965.
This account of Micah, his mother, and the young Levite presents a striking illustration of apostasy and an exaltation of false priests.
The social condition in that period was that every man did as seemed right in his own eyes and there was no king in Israel. Micah was unable to get to Jerusalem because the Amorites had blocked the way (Judges 1:34), but he desired to get along as best he could. So he built a replica of the temple on his own property. He built what he thought would be an appropriate building and he made the instruments of the tabernacle, and the furnishings, including the ephod, but then he also gathered some of the things from the people around him; the teraphim, the images which God had forbidden.
So he took a little bit of the world and a little bit of Judaism, that which had been revealed by God, and he mixed them up, until he had something that he thought might please the Lord. Then he was delighted beyond words when a wandering young preacher came along from Bethlehemjudah. Every Levite was provided for but this young man didn't like his living. He had wanderlust and an itching foot and so he started off to see if he couldn't do better for himself than what was being done. He felt that being a Levite was good but there should be better opportunities associated with it, and so he came to the house of Micah. There he was invited in and asked to become the priest. And Micah made a deal with him; he said "You be my priest, be my father and priest, and I'll give you ten shekels and a shirt." It says a suit but the people of the day wore what might be called a gelabia, a long shirt or gown. And he gave him a change of apparel and his food and ten shekels a year.
This was a pretty good living for him so he decided that he would stay there and enter into the mixture of idolatry and stuff that was in the house of Micah. Although the young man who came to Micah was a Levite and performed religious activities, he was looking for a place - a place which would give him recognition, acceptance, and security, a place where he could shine in terms of those values which were most known to him. His whole business was serving in religious activities, so it had to be a religious job. He was very happy when he found that Micah had an opening. But he had decided that he was worth ten shekels and a shirt, and he was prepared to sell himself to anyone that would give that much. If somebody came along and gave more, he would sell himself to them. But he put a value upon himself and he believed his religious service and activities were just a means to an end, and by the same token, God was a means to an end.
But in Judges 18 the people of Dan came along. The name "Dan" speaks of the judgment of God. The Danites were supposed to have driven out the Amorites but the Amorites were too strong, and they wanted to find someone that was a little easier to displace. They came to Micah's house and the Levite told them to go ahead with their plans. Then the Danites discovered that the people at Laish were peaceful and no one was there to protect them, so they figured that would be a very good place to take some land for themselves. When they came with the men that were sent to conquer this area they figured that since they found the land through the young Levite, it would be a good idea to enlist his assistance.
So they went into the house of Micah and took all the things that he had made, which had cost a good bit of money, because two hundred shekels had been given for one piece of furniture. They just took it all, made it theirs and took the Levite. Rather hard on Micah, but the young Levite was able to adjust himself to this. It was amazing how flexible he was and how easily he could accommodate himself to such changes with a little rationalization along the way. And soon he began to see that it was far more important to serve a tribe than one man's family. He could see the wisdom of this and he could justify it. With no real strain of conscience he could make the adjustment and hold his hand over his mouth while they took the furniture out of the little chapel that Micah had built. But he was a wise man; rather than go along at the front or rear of the Danites, which would put him in a place of danger, he put himself right in the middle so that if Micah sent any of his servants to get him he was safe with soldiers on every side.
How does this apply to our generation? If all we receive from the book of Judges is an historical account, then we totally miss the point.
Human nature has never changed; you and I have the same human nature as all of those Israelites in the book of Judges.
Let's think about utilitarian religion, expedient Christianity, and a useful God. In our day the dominant philosophy is pragmatism, which means if it works it's true. If it succeeds it's good. The test of all practices, all principles, all truth, all teaching, is do they work? According to pragmatism, the greatest failures of the ages have been some of the men God has honored most.
For example, in 2 Peter 2:5 Noah is called a preacher of righteousness. He was a terrible failure as a preacher. His wife and three sons and their wives were all he had. Seven converts in 120 years; you wouldn't call that particularly effective. As a ship builder he did quite well, but as a preacher he was a failure.
Then consider another well-known person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He never organized a church or denomination. He did not build a school. He didn't succeed in getting a mission board established. He never had a book printed. He never owned a home. He never had a college degree and never had any preaching credentials. Our Lord preached for three years, healed hundreds of people, and fed thousands of people. The day that He was taken, one man said "If all the others forsake you, I'm willing to die for you." He looked at this one and said "Peter you don't know your own heart. You're going to deny me three times before the cock crows this day." So all men forsook Him and fled. By every standard of our generation or any generation, our Lord was a failure.
The question is, what is the standard of success and by what are we going to judge our lives and our ministry? We must ask our self, "Is God an end or is He a means?" We have to decide very early in our Christian life whether we view God as an end or a means. Our generation is prepared to honor anyone that seems successful. As long as they can get things done, then our generation is prepared to say well done. So we need to ask ourselves at the very outset of our ministry and our walk, are we going to be Levites who serve God for ten shekels and a shirt? Serve men in the name of God rather than serve God? That is the difference, in Ezekiel 44, between the priests who minister to the house and the priests who minister to the Lord.
Many years ago I knew a young man who was an assistant pastor for 15 years in a nearby charismatic church. But he rarely had an opportunity to preach or teach. Moreover he was very evangelical oriented and the senior pastor was not. So he decided to leave that church, take some of the members with him and start his own church where he could be the preacher and call all of the shots. He even persuaded his new flock to build a large church building. When things like that happen, we see another fulfillment of Psalm 106:15, "And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul."
Also many years ago one of my relatives, who was baptized with the Holy Ghost, told me that she and a number of other believers were going to leave their charismatic church and start a new church. She also said that they had hired a man from another state to come and be their pastor. When she told me that, I asked to come to her area, 300 miles from me, and talk with the elders of their new church. She arranged the meeting with five or six of the leaders of their new church. In essence I told them that what they were about to do was not of the Lord. Their response was, "The pastor of the church they just left told them what they were doing was not right; and now I drive 300 miles to tell them that what they are doing was not right. But they said they had prayed about it and believed the Lord told them to do it." I told my relative that their new church would not last one year. Their new church disintegrated in one year.
Now in order to understand the implications of Judges 17 in our day, we have to go back 270 years to a conflict that attacked Christianity. Just after the great revivals in America with Charles Finney, the Spirit of God having been marvelously outpoured onto certain parts of our country, an open attack on our faith came in Europe through the higher critics. Darwin had set forth his theory of evolution, certain philosophers had adapted it to their philosophies, and theologians had applied it to the Scripture. So 1850 marked the opening of a frontal attack upon the Word of God. Satan had always been insidiously attacking it. But now it was open season on the Bible, open season on the Church, and Voltaire declared that he would live to see the Bible become a relic and just have it placed only in museums; that it would be utterly destroyed by the arguments that he was so forcefully presenting against it.
What was the effect of this? The philosophy of the day became humanism, which declares the reason for existence is man's happiness. According to humanism, salvation is simply a matter of getting all the happiness you can out of life. Nietzche, a well-known German philosopher, said that the only true satisfaction in life is power and that power is its own justification. It is therefore up to man to be happy, to become powerful, and become powerful by any means he can use. For it is only in this position of ascendancy that one can be happy. That produced in due course a Hitler who would take the philosophy of Nietzche as his working operating principle and guide and would say to his people that they were destined to rule the world. Therefore, any means that we can use to achieve this is our salvation.
Someone else says, "Well no, the end of being is happiness, but happiness doesn't come from authority over people, happiness comes from sensual experience." That gave rise to the type of existentialism that characterizes most countries today ... which emphasizes that the individual is a free and responsible agent determining his own development through acts of his will. That gave rise to beatniks in America and to the gross sensuality of our country. A beatnik was one with a very unconventional life style, long hair, shabby clothes, and who typically used drugs. Since man is essentially a glandular animal whose highest moments of ecstasy come from the exercise of his glands, salvation is simply to find the most desirable way to gratify this part of a person. So the effect of humanism, that the end of all being is the happiness of man, was to be achieved through sensualism.
John Dewey, an American philosopher who influenced education, was able to persuade the educators that there were no absolute standards. Children shouldn't be brought to any particular standard; the end of education was simply to allow a child to express himself and find his happiness in being what he wants to be. So we had cultural lawlessness, when every man could do as seemed right in his own eyes and we had no God to rule over us. They said that the Bible had been discounted, disallowed and disproved. God had been dethroned, He didn't exist, and He had no personal relationship to individuals. Jesus Christ was either a myth or just a man, so they taught, and therefore the whole end of being was happiness. The individual would establish the standards of his happiness and interpret it.
Now religion still had to exist because there were too many people that made their living at it, so they had to find some way to justify their existence. So back about 1850, the church divided into two groups. One group was the liberals, who accepted the philosophy of humanism and tried to find some relevance by saying something like this to their generation, "We don't know if there's a heaven. We don't know if there's a hell. But we do know that you are going to live for 70 years! We know there's a great deal of benefit from poetry, from high thoughts and noble aspirations. Therefore it's important for you to come to church on Sunday, so that we can read some poetry and give you some little adages and axioms and rules to live by. We can't say anything about what's going to happen when you die, but if you'll come every week and pay and help and stay with us, your trip will be more comfortable. If you come along with us, we'll make you happier while you're alive." And so this became the essence of liberalism. It is simply nothing more than to try and put a little sugar in the bitter coffee of our journey and sweeten it up for a time. This is all that it could say.
Another group of people have taken exception with the liberals - the fundamentalists. They say, "We believe in the inspiration of the Bible! We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ! We believe in hell! We believe in heaven! We believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ!" But remember the atmosphere is that of humanism. And humanism says the chief end of being is the happiness of man. Humanism is like a stench or smell out of a pit; it just permeates every place. Humanism is like an infection, an epidemic, it just goes everywhere.
So it wasn't long until the fundamentalists knew each other because they said "We believe these things!" They were men for the most part that had met God. But it wasn't long afterwards that the second generation said "This is how we become a fundamentalist! Believe in the inspiration of the Bible! Believe in the deity of Christ! Believe in His death, burial, and resurrection! And thereby become a fundamentalist." And so it wasn't long until the whole plan of salvation was to give intellectual assent to a few statements of doctrine. And a person was considered a Christian because he could say "Uh Huh" at four or five places that he was asked. If he knew when to say "Uh Huh", someone would pat him on the back, shake his hand, smile broadly, and say, "Brother, you're saved!" So it came down to the place where salvation was nothing more than an assent to a formula, a sinner's prayer, a "repeat after me" and the end of this was that salvation was the happiness of man, which is humanism. If you were to contrast fundamentalism with liberalism it would be like this:
The liberal says the end of religion is to make man happy while he's alive, but the fundamentalist says the end of religion is to make man happy after he dies.
But both camps proclaimed that the end of all of religion is the happiness of man. The liberal says, "By social change and political order we're going to do away with slums, we're going to do away with alcoholism and drug addiction and poverty. We are going to get involved and clean up democracy. And we're going to make HEAVEN ON EARTH! AND MAKE YOU HAPPY WHILE YOU'RE ALIVE. They tried to do it only to be brought to a terrifying shock at World War 1 and utterly staggered by the second World War, because they seemed to be getting nowhere fast. Two of the many and most recent off-shoots of this are called "dominion theology" and the "seven mountain mandate." Both are from the pit of hell.
And then the fundamentalists are now tuning in along this same wavelength of humanism until it says something like this: "You don't want to go to that filthy, nasty, burning hell when there is a beautiful heaven up there! Now come to Jesus so you can go to heaven!" And the appeal is as much to selfishness as a couple of men sitting in a coffee shop planning to rob a bank to get something for nothing.
Oh, but the "best" is yet to come! In the 20" century, we had the Welsh revival, Azusa Street, and then the so-called "latter rain" breakout in 1948 with the big focus on being baptized with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. Now the preaching is like this: It's all about faith. We will give you the best of all worlds! Happiness on earth with prosperity and blessings galore; just name it and claim it, blab it and grab it. Just say a few more "Uh Huhs" and repeat after me. Come join us, give us your money so we can spread this great news. We don't care about the shirt any more, just give us the ten shekels every year, sow your seed, and look at all the rewards you will get. We promise you happiness on earth, happiness in heaven, and when things on earth get really difficult, you will just get raptured to heaven. And people flock by the hundreds of thousands to that message, eager to contribute their 10 shekels. Oh yes, there have been a few good men who came out of that euphoria, but what about the following generations? Again, mostly intellectual assent to some preaching that seems to be scriptural. But what is that message? It is nothing but humanism dressed up in a prettier dress.
Humanism is probably the most deadly and disastrous of all the philosophical stenches that has crept up through the pit of Hell. It has penetrated so much of our religion, and it is in utter and total contrast with Christianity! Unfortunately it's seldom seen for what it is. A little reflection will reveal that humanism actually started with Eve, back in the Garden of Eden.
In Judges 17 we find Micah, who wants to have a little chapel, and he wants to have a priest, and he wants to have prayer, and he wants to have devotion, because "I KNOW THE LORD WILL DO ME GOOD!" THIS IS SELFISHNESS! AND THIS IS SIN! And the modern-day Levite comes along and falls right in with it! because he wants a place! He wants ten shekels and a shirt and his food! And so in order that he can have what he wants, and Micah can have what he wants, THEY SELL OUT GOD for ten shekels and a shirt. THIS IS THE BETRAYAL OF THE AGES! And it is the betrayal in which we live. And GOD will not REVIVE IT. Christianity is in DIRECT AND TOTAL CONTRAST WITH THE HUMANISM that's penetrated our generation in the name of Christ.
It has become so subtle that it goes everywhere. This philosophical theory that the end of all being is the happiness of man has been covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, and all the angels exist for the benefit of man. Everything is for the happiness of man! BUT THIS IS NOT CHRISTIANITY! Didn't God intend to make man happy? Yes. But as a by-product and not a prime-product!
Christianity says, "The end of all being is the glory of God." Humanism says, "The end of all being is the happiness of man."
One was born in Hell, the deification of man. THE OTHER WAS BORN IN HEAVEN, THE GLORIFICATION OF GOD! One is a Levite serving Micah, and the other is a heart that's unworthy serving the living God, because it's the highest honor in the universe.
If I were to say to you, "Come to be saved so you can go to heaven, come to the cross so that you can have joy and victory, come for the fullness of the Spirit so that you can be satisfied," I would be falling into the trap of humanism. That is nothing but a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt.
George Whitfield stood on Boston Commons preaching to twenty thousand people and he said, "If you will not weep for your SINS and your crimes against a Holy God, George Whitfield will weep for you!" That man would put his head back and he would sob like a baby. Why? because they were in danger of Hell? No! because they were MONSTERS OF INIQUITY that didn't even see their sin or care about their crimes. Too many are trembling because they are going to be hurt in Hell. And they have no sense of the enormity of their guilt and crime! and no sense of their insult against God!
No one can receive Christ until they've repented. And no one can repent until they've been convicted. And conviction is the work of the Holy Ghost that helps a sinner to see ... THAT HE IS A CRIMINAL BEFORE GOD AND DESERVES ALL OF GOD'S WRATH AND HE DESERVES THE DEVIL'S HELL FOREVER! because he's seen his crimes. He's not been convinced he's caught, but he's SEEN his CRIMES!
Unlike preaching in our day, John Wesley was a preacher of righteousness that exalted the holiness of God. When he preached for two to three hours in the open air he would exalt the holiness of God, the law of God, the righteousness of God, the justice of God, the wisdom of God, AND THE JUSTICE OF HIS WRATH AND HIS ANGER! Modern-day preachers shun speaking about the judgment and wrath of God.
Wesley would tell sinners of the enormity of their crimes and their open rebellion and THE POWER OF GOD WOULD SO DESCEND UPON THE GATHERING, that on one occasion it is reliably reported that when the people dispersed there were 1800 people LYING ON THE GROUND, UTTERLY UNCONSCIOUS! Because they had a revelation of the holiness of God and in the light of that they'd seen the enormity of their sins. God had so penetrated their minds and hearts that they had FALLEN TO THE GROUND!
Throughout the ages the Lord has had a remnant ... men who have been broken, burdened, bent, and bowed ... men who have prayed, preached, and pleaded with others over the truth of "repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." One such noted revivalist in the 20th century was Leonard Ravenhill. Ravenhill was a real porcupine. I was the porcupine in our New Testament house church in the 1970's. But compared to Ravenhill I was a creampuff. But every local church needs a porcupine or else we get hardened and set in our ways. I want to read a few of the many quotations spoken by Leonard Ravenhill. You can find these and many more on the internet. I quote:
But now we need to get personal. What about you? Why did you become a Christian? There's only one reason for a sinner to repent and it's not because he will go to heaven. It's because Jesus Christ deserves the worship, adoration, love and obedience of our heart. If the only reason we repented was to keep out of Hell, we are just a levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt! that's all! We're trying to serve God because He'll do us good! It's nothing but trying to make a deal or a bargain with God. Lord, if You will just do this for me then I will serve you.
But a repentant heart is a heart that has seen something of the enormity of the crime of denying the just and righteous God the worship and obedience that He deserves! A repentant heart says something like this, "Lord Jesus, I'm going to obey you, and love you, and serve you, and do what you want me to do, as long as I live, simply because YOU ARE WORTHY TO BE LOVED AND OBEYED AND SERVED!" Do you see the difference between a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt or a Micah building a chapel because God will do you good AND someone that repents for the glory of God?
Until we come to the place of union with Christ in death we are defrauding the Son of God of the glory that He could get out of our life. And until we understand the sanctifying work of God by the Holy Ghost taking us into union with Christ in death and burial and resurrection, we have to serve in what we have: human nature, human strength, and human energy. And God will get no glory out of that!
The reason for us to embrace the cross and press through until we know that "I am crucified with Christ," isn't what we're going to get out of it, but what He will get out of it, for the glory of God. THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY THAT JESUS CHRIST WILL GET GLORY OUT OF A LIFE THAT HE'S REDEEMED WITH HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD IS WHEN HE CAN FILL THAT LIFE WITH HIS PRESENCE AND LIVE HIS OWN LIFE THROUGH IT. All we can do is to present our body a living sacrifice and let Him fill us so that He can have the purpose for His coming fulfilled in us and get glory through our life. But so many people are trying to know the fullness of God so that they can use God.
Many people do not enter into the fullness of Christ because they want to become a Levite with ten shekels and a shirt. They've been serving Micah, but they think if they had the power of the Holy Ghost they could serve the tribe of Dan. It will never work. God wants to bring us to the place where, in repentance, we've been pardoned for His glory and we've been brought to the place of death that the fullness of Christ is able to live and walk in us. And everything of self has been replaced by Christ in you, the hope of glory.
It is time to be done, once and for all, with utilitarian Christianity that makes God a means, instead of the glorious END that He is. It's time to tell Micah we're no longer going to be his priest serving for ten shekels and a shirt. It's time to tell the tribe of Dan we're through. And it's time to come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail-pierced Son of God and tell Him that we re going to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him as long as we live BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!
MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!
What is that reward? you and me and every believer who has voluntarily come to the place where everything of our human nature has been consumed by the fire of God. For our God is a consuming fire.
Judges 17
And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah. And he said unto his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it." And his mother said, "Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son." And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his 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: now therefore I will restore it unto thee." Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, [family idols] and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. And Micah said unto him, "Whence comest thou?" And he said unto him, "I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place." And Micah said unto him, "Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals." So the Levite went in. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, "Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest."
This account of Micah, his mother, and the young Levite presents a striking illustration of apostasy and an exaltation of false priests.
The social condition in that period was that every man did as seemed right in his own eyes and there was no king in Israel. Micah was unable to get to Jerusalem because the Amorites had blocked the way (Judges 1:34), but he desired to get along as best he could. So he built a replica of the temple on his own property. He built what he thought would be an appropriate building and he made the instruments of the tabernacle, and the furnishings, including the ephod, but then he also gathered some of the things from the people around him; the teraphim, the images which God had forbidden.
So he took a little bit of the world and a little bit of Judaism, that which had been revealed by God, and he mixed them up, until he had something that he thought might please the Lord. Then he was delighted beyond words when a wandering young preacher came along from Bethlehemjudah. Every Levite was provided for but this young man didn't like his living. He had wanderlust and an itching foot and so he started off to see if he couldn't do better for himself than what was being done. He felt that being a Levite was good but there should be better opportunities associated with it, and so he came to the house of Micah. There he was invited in and asked to become the priest. And Micah made a deal with him; he said "You be my priest, be my father and priest, and I'll give you ten shekels and a shirt." It says a suit but the people of the day wore what might be called a gelabia, a long shirt or gown. And he gave him a change of apparel and his food and ten shekels a year.
This was a pretty good living for him so he decided that he would stay there and enter into the mixture of idolatry and stuff that was in the house of Micah. Although the young man who came to Micah was a Levite and performed religious activities, he was looking for a place - a place which would give him recognition, acceptance, and security, a place where he could shine in terms of those values which were most known to him. His whole business was serving in religious activities, so it had to be a religious job. He was very happy when he found that Micah had an opening. But he had decided that he was worth ten shekels and a shirt, and he was prepared to sell himself to anyone that would give that much. If somebody came along and gave more, he would sell himself to them. But he put a value upon himself and he believed his religious service and activities were just a means to an end, and by the same token, God was a means to an end.
But in Judges 18 the people of Dan came along. The name "Dan" speaks of the judgment of God. The Danites were supposed to have driven out the Amorites but the Amorites were too strong, and they wanted to find someone that was a little easier to displace. They came to Micah's house and the Levite told them to go ahead with their plans. Then the Danites discovered that the people at Laish were peaceful and no one was there to protect them, so they figured that would be a very good place to take some land for themselves. When they came with the men that were sent to conquer this area they figured that since they found the land through the young Levite, it would be a good idea to enlist his assistance.
So they went into the house of Micah and took all the things that he had made, which had cost a good bit of money, because two hundred shekels had been given for one piece of furniture. They just took it all, made it theirs and took the Levite. Rather hard on Micah, but the young Levite was able to adjust himself to this. It was amazing how flexible he was and how easily he could accommodate himself to such changes with a little rationalization along the way. And soon he began to see that it was far more important to serve a tribe than one man's family. He could see the wisdom of this and he could justify it. With no real strain of conscience he could make the adjustment and hold his hand over his mouth while they took the furniture out of the little chapel that Micah had built. But he was a wise man; rather than go along at the front or rear of the Danites, which would put him in a place of danger, he put himself right in the middle so that if Micah sent any of his servants to get him he was safe with soldiers on every side.
How does this apply to our generation? If all we receive from the book of Judges is an historical account, then we totally miss the point.
1 Corinthians 10:11-12, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."
Human nature has never changed; you and I have the same human nature as all of those Israelites in the book of Judges.
Let's think about utilitarian religion, expedient Christianity, and a useful God. In our day the dominant philosophy is pragmatism, which means if it works it's true. If it succeeds it's good. The test of all practices, all principles, all truth, all teaching, is do they work? According to pragmatism, the greatest failures of the ages have been some of the men God has honored most.
For example, in 2 Peter 2:5 Noah is called a preacher of righteousness. He was a terrible failure as a preacher. His wife and three sons and their wives were all he had. Seven converts in 120 years; you wouldn't call that particularly effective. As a ship builder he did quite well, but as a preacher he was a failure.
Then consider another well-known person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He never organized a church or denomination. He did not build a school. He didn't succeed in getting a mission board established. He never had a book printed. He never owned a home. He never had a college degree and never had any preaching credentials. Our Lord preached for three years, healed hundreds of people, and fed thousands of people. The day that He was taken, one man said "If all the others forsake you, I'm willing to die for you." He looked at this one and said "Peter you don't know your own heart. You're going to deny me three times before the cock crows this day." So all men forsook Him and fled. By every standard of our generation or any generation, our Lord was a failure.
The question is, what is the standard of success and by what are we going to judge our lives and our ministry? We must ask our self, "Is God an end or is He a means?" We have to decide very early in our Christian life whether we view God as an end or a means. Our generation is prepared to honor anyone that seems successful. As long as they can get things done, then our generation is prepared to say well done. So we need to ask ourselves at the very outset of our ministry and our walk, are we going to be Levites who serve God for ten shekels and a shirt? Serve men in the name of God rather than serve God? That is the difference, in Ezekiel 44, between the priests who minister to the house and the priests who minister to the Lord.
Many years ago I knew a young man who was an assistant pastor for 15 years in a nearby charismatic church. But he rarely had an opportunity to preach or teach. Moreover he was very evangelical oriented and the senior pastor was not. So he decided to leave that church, take some of the members with him and start his own church where he could be the preacher and call all of the shots. He even persuaded his new flock to build a large church building. When things like that happen, we see another fulfillment of Psalm 106:15, "And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul."
Also many years ago one of my relatives, who was baptized with the Holy Ghost, told me that she and a number of other believers were going to leave their charismatic church and start a new church. She also said that they had hired a man from another state to come and be their pastor. When she told me that, I asked to come to her area, 300 miles from me, and talk with the elders of their new church. She arranged the meeting with five or six of the leaders of their new church. In essence I told them that what they were about to do was not of the Lord. Their response was, "The pastor of the church they just left told them what they were doing was not right; and now I drive 300 miles to tell them that what they are doing was not right. But they said they had prayed about it and believed the Lord told them to do it." I told my relative that their new church would not last one year. Their new church disintegrated in one year.
Now in order to understand the implications of Judges 17 in our day, we have to go back 270 years to a conflict that attacked Christianity. Just after the great revivals in America with Charles Finney, the Spirit of God having been marvelously outpoured onto certain parts of our country, an open attack on our faith came in Europe through the higher critics. Darwin had set forth his theory of evolution, certain philosophers had adapted it to their philosophies, and theologians had applied it to the Scripture. So 1850 marked the opening of a frontal attack upon the Word of God. Satan had always been insidiously attacking it. But now it was open season on the Bible, open season on the Church, and Voltaire declared that he would live to see the Bible become a relic and just have it placed only in museums; that it would be utterly destroyed by the arguments that he was so forcefully presenting against it.
What was the effect of this? The philosophy of the day became humanism, which declares the reason for existence is man's happiness. According to humanism, salvation is simply a matter of getting all the happiness you can out of life. Nietzche, a well-known German philosopher, said that the only true satisfaction in life is power and that power is its own justification. It is therefore up to man to be happy, to become powerful, and become powerful by any means he can use. For it is only in this position of ascendancy that one can be happy. That produced in due course a Hitler who would take the philosophy of Nietzche as his working operating principle and guide and would say to his people that they were destined to rule the world. Therefore, any means that we can use to achieve this is our salvation.
Someone else says, "Well no, the end of being is happiness, but happiness doesn't come from authority over people, happiness comes from sensual experience." That gave rise to the type of existentialism that characterizes most countries today ... which emphasizes that the individual is a free and responsible agent determining his own development through acts of his will. That gave rise to beatniks in America and to the gross sensuality of our country. A beatnik was one with a very unconventional life style, long hair, shabby clothes, and who typically used drugs. Since man is essentially a glandular animal whose highest moments of ecstasy come from the exercise of his glands, salvation is simply to find the most desirable way to gratify this part of a person. So the effect of humanism, that the end of all being is the happiness of man, was to be achieved through sensualism.
John Dewey, an American philosopher who influenced education, was able to persuade the educators that there were no absolute standards. Children shouldn't be brought to any particular standard; the end of education was simply to allow a child to express himself and find his happiness in being what he wants to be. So we had cultural lawlessness, when every man could do as seemed right in his own eyes and we had no God to rule over us. They said that the Bible had been discounted, disallowed and disproved. God had been dethroned, He didn't exist, and He had no personal relationship to individuals. Jesus Christ was either a myth or just a man, so they taught, and therefore the whole end of being was happiness. The individual would establish the standards of his happiness and interpret it.
Now religion still had to exist because there were too many people that made their living at it, so they had to find some way to justify their existence. So back about 1850, the church divided into two groups. One group was the liberals, who accepted the philosophy of humanism and tried to find some relevance by saying something like this to their generation, "We don't know if there's a heaven. We don't know if there's a hell. But we do know that you are going to live for 70 years! We know there's a great deal of benefit from poetry, from high thoughts and noble aspirations. Therefore it's important for you to come to church on Sunday, so that we can read some poetry and give you some little adages and axioms and rules to live by. We can't say anything about what's going to happen when you die, but if you'll come every week and pay and help and stay with us, your trip will be more comfortable. If you come along with us, we'll make you happier while you're alive." And so this became the essence of liberalism. It is simply nothing more than to try and put a little sugar in the bitter coffee of our journey and sweeten it up for a time. This is all that it could say.
Another group of people have taken exception with the liberals - the fundamentalists. They say, "We believe in the inspiration of the Bible! We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ! We believe in hell! We believe in heaven! We believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ!" But remember the atmosphere is that of humanism. And humanism says the chief end of being is the happiness of man. Humanism is like a stench or smell out of a pit; it just permeates every place. Humanism is like an infection, an epidemic, it just goes everywhere.
So it wasn't long until the fundamentalists knew each other because they said "We believe these things!" They were men for the most part that had met God. But it wasn't long afterwards that the second generation said "This is how we become a fundamentalist! Believe in the inspiration of the Bible! Believe in the deity of Christ! Believe in His death, burial, and resurrection! And thereby become a fundamentalist." And so it wasn't long until the whole plan of salvation was to give intellectual assent to a few statements of doctrine. And a person was considered a Christian because he could say "Uh Huh" at four or five places that he was asked. If he knew when to say "Uh Huh", someone would pat him on the back, shake his hand, smile broadly, and say, "Brother, you're saved!" So it came down to the place where salvation was nothing more than an assent to a formula, a sinner's prayer, a "repeat after me" and the end of this was that salvation was the happiness of man, which is humanism. If you were to contrast fundamentalism with liberalism it would be like this:
The liberal says the end of religion is to make man happy while he's alive, but the fundamentalist says the end of religion is to make man happy after he dies.
But both camps proclaimed that the end of all of religion is the happiness of man. The liberal says, "By social change and political order we're going to do away with slums, we're going to do away with alcoholism and drug addiction and poverty. We are going to get involved and clean up democracy. And we're going to make HEAVEN ON EARTH! AND MAKE YOU HAPPY WHILE YOU'RE ALIVE. They tried to do it only to be brought to a terrifying shock at World War 1 and utterly staggered by the second World War, because they seemed to be getting nowhere fast. Two of the many and most recent off-shoots of this are called "dominion theology" and the "seven mountain mandate." Both are from the pit of hell.
And then the fundamentalists are now tuning in along this same wavelength of humanism until it says something like this: "You don't want to go to that filthy, nasty, burning hell when there is a beautiful heaven up there! Now come to Jesus so you can go to heaven!" And the appeal is as much to selfishness as a couple of men sitting in a coffee shop planning to rob a bank to get something for nothing.
Oh, but the "best" is yet to come! In the 20" century, we had the Welsh revival, Azusa Street, and then the so-called "latter rain" breakout in 1948 with the big focus on being baptized with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. Now the preaching is like this: It's all about faith. We will give you the best of all worlds! Happiness on earth with prosperity and blessings galore; just name it and claim it, blab it and grab it. Just say a few more "Uh Huhs" and repeat after me. Come join us, give us your money so we can spread this great news. We don't care about the shirt any more, just give us the ten shekels every year, sow your seed, and look at all the rewards you will get. We promise you happiness on earth, happiness in heaven, and when things on earth get really difficult, you will just get raptured to heaven. And people flock by the hundreds of thousands to that message, eager to contribute their 10 shekels. Oh yes, there have been a few good men who came out of that euphoria, but what about the following generations? Again, mostly intellectual assent to some preaching that seems to be scriptural. But what is that message? It is nothing but humanism dressed up in a prettier dress.
Humanism is probably the most deadly and disastrous of all the philosophical stenches that has crept up through the pit of Hell. It has penetrated so much of our religion, and it is in utter and total contrast with Christianity! Unfortunately it's seldom seen for what it is. A little reflection will reveal that humanism actually started with Eve, back in the Garden of Eden.
In Judges 17 we find Micah, who wants to have a little chapel, and he wants to have a priest, and he wants to have prayer, and he wants to have devotion, because "I KNOW THE LORD WILL DO ME GOOD!" THIS IS SELFISHNESS! AND THIS IS SIN! And the modern-day Levite comes along and falls right in with it! because he wants a place! He wants ten shekels and a shirt and his food! And so in order that he can have what he wants, and Micah can have what he wants, THEY SELL OUT GOD for ten shekels and a shirt. THIS IS THE BETRAYAL OF THE AGES! And it is the betrayal in which we live. And GOD will not REVIVE IT. Christianity is in DIRECT AND TOTAL CONTRAST WITH THE HUMANISM that's penetrated our generation in the name of Christ.
It has become so subtle that it goes everywhere. This philosophical theory that the end of all being is the happiness of man has been covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, and all the angels exist for the benefit of man. Everything is for the happiness of man! BUT THIS IS NOT CHRISTIANITY! Didn't God intend to make man happy? Yes. But as a by-product and not a prime-product!
Christianity says, "The end of all being is the glory of God." Humanism says, "The end of all being is the happiness of man."
One was born in Hell, the deification of man. THE OTHER WAS BORN IN HEAVEN, THE GLORIFICATION OF GOD! One is a Levite serving Micah, and the other is a heart that's unworthy serving the living God, because it's the highest honor in the universe.
If I were to say to you, "Come to be saved so you can go to heaven, come to the cross so that you can have joy and victory, come for the fullness of the Spirit so that you can be satisfied," I would be falling into the trap of humanism. That is nothing but a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt.
George Whitfield stood on Boston Commons preaching to twenty thousand people and he said, "If you will not weep for your SINS and your crimes against a Holy God, George Whitfield will weep for you!" That man would put his head back and he would sob like a baby. Why? because they were in danger of Hell? No! because they were MONSTERS OF INIQUITY that didn't even see their sin or care about their crimes. Too many are trembling because they are going to be hurt in Hell. And they have no sense of the enormity of their guilt and crime! and no sense of their insult against God!
No one can receive Christ until they've repented. And no one can repent until they've been convicted. And conviction is the work of the Holy Ghost that helps a sinner to see ... THAT HE IS A CRIMINAL BEFORE GOD AND DESERVES ALL OF GOD'S WRATH AND HE DESERVES THE DEVIL'S HELL FOREVER! because he's seen his crimes. He's not been convinced he's caught, but he's SEEN his CRIMES!
Unlike preaching in our day, John Wesley was a preacher of righteousness that exalted the holiness of God. When he preached for two to three hours in the open air he would exalt the holiness of God, the law of God, the righteousness of God, the justice of God, the wisdom of God, AND THE JUSTICE OF HIS WRATH AND HIS ANGER! Modern-day preachers shun speaking about the judgment and wrath of God.
Romans 11:22, "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."
Wesley would tell sinners of the enormity of their crimes and their open rebellion and THE POWER OF GOD WOULD SO DESCEND UPON THE GATHERING, that on one occasion it is reliably reported that when the people dispersed there were 1800 people LYING ON THE GROUND, UTTERLY UNCONSCIOUS! Because they had a revelation of the holiness of God and in the light of that they'd seen the enormity of their sins. God had so penetrated their minds and hearts that they had FALLEN TO THE GROUND!
Throughout the ages the Lord has had a remnant ... men who have been broken, burdened, bent, and bowed ... men who have prayed, preached, and pleaded with others over the truth of "repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." One such noted revivalist in the 20th century was Leonard Ravenhill. Ravenhill was a real porcupine. I was the porcupine in our New Testament house church in the 1970's. But compared to Ravenhill I was a creampuff. But every local church needs a porcupine or else we get hardened and set in our ways. I want to read a few of the many quotations spoken by Leonard Ravenhill. You can find these and many more on the internet. I quote:
I'm sick to death of the so-called Christianity of our day. When do people come out of the sanctuary awed and can't speak for an hour because God has been in glory there? Dear God, as soon as they get out, they're talking football, or sports or something or there's going to be a big sale downtown or somewhere. We are not caught up into eternity!When did you last tip-toe out of the sanctuary? When you couldn't say a word to anybody because you were so overwhelmed with the glory of God?"The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.I'd rather have ten people that want God than 10,000 people who want to play church. I want to see the glory of God come so our young people don't have to be told to go (to church), (but when) they just long to get to the sanctuary where God is.
The sinner's prayer has sent more people to hell than all the taverns in America.Wet-eyed preachers never produce dry sermons.We're so far removed from God's way of doing things - we think a man is a good man if he can draw a crowd these days. Do you know what Finney did? Finney preached sometimes, and the whole congregation got up and walked out on him. That's a good meeting! He sent them out horrified!If there's no brokenness in the pulpit, why should there be any brokenness in the pew?Christians don't tell lies, they just go to church and sing them. How many times have you stood and sang, "Take my life and let it be" and haven't given Him a scrap?We hear (about) many (who) go to a conference or a meeting and say "Boy, wasn't that good? weren't we challenged?" The question isn't "weren't you challenged?" The question is, "Were you changed?"
But now we need to get personal. What about you? Why did you become a Christian? There's only one reason for a sinner to repent and it's not because he will go to heaven. It's because Jesus Christ deserves the worship, adoration, love and obedience of our heart. If the only reason we repented was to keep out of Hell, we are just a levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt! that's all! We're trying to serve God because He'll do us good! It's nothing but trying to make a deal or a bargain with God. Lord, if You will just do this for me then I will serve you.
But a repentant heart is a heart that has seen something of the enormity of the crime of denying the just and righteous God the worship and obedience that He deserves! A repentant heart says something like this, "Lord Jesus, I'm going to obey you, and love you, and serve you, and do what you want me to do, as long as I live, simply because YOU ARE WORTHY TO BE LOVED AND OBEYED AND SERVED!" Do you see the difference between a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt or a Micah building a chapel because God will do you good AND someone that repents for the glory of God?
Until we come to the place of union with Christ in death we are defrauding the Son of God of the glory that He could get out of our life. And until we understand the sanctifying work of God by the Holy Ghost taking us into union with Christ in death and burial and resurrection, we have to serve in what we have: human nature, human strength, and human energy. And God will get no glory out of that!
The reason for us to embrace the cross and press through until we know that "I am crucified with Christ," isn't what we're going to get out of it, but what He will get out of it, for the glory of God. THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY THAT JESUS CHRIST WILL GET GLORY OUT OF A LIFE THAT HE'S REDEEMED WITH HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD IS WHEN HE CAN FILL THAT LIFE WITH HIS PRESENCE AND LIVE HIS OWN LIFE THROUGH IT. All we can do is to present our body a living sacrifice and let Him fill us so that He can have the purpose for His coming fulfilled in us and get glory through our life. But so many people are trying to know the fullness of God so that they can use God.
Many people do not enter into the fullness of Christ because they want to become a Levite with ten shekels and a shirt. They've been serving Micah, but they think if they had the power of the Holy Ghost they could serve the tribe of Dan. It will never work. God wants to bring us to the place where, in repentance, we've been pardoned for His glory and we've been brought to the place of death that the fullness of Christ is able to live and walk in us. And everything of self has been replaced by Christ in you, the hope of glory.
It is time to be done, once and for all, with utilitarian Christianity that makes God a means, instead of the glorious END that He is. It's time to tell Micah we're no longer going to be his priest serving for ten shekels and a shirt. It's time to tell the tribe of Dan we're through. And it's time to come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail-pierced Son of God and tell Him that we re going to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him as long as we live BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!
MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!
What is that reward? you and me and every believer who has voluntarily come to the place where everything of our human nature has been consumed by the fire of God. For our God is a consuming fire.
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