I'm turning now to the book of Judges, the seventh book of the Old Testament of the Bible, the book of Judges, chapter 17 and verse 6. In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Now, The subject is living and dead faith compared. Do you have faith? Is it living faith? Or is it dead faith? Useless faith? And here's a passage which helps us to see the difference. This is a time in history just before the period of the judges really began. It's recorded at the end of the Book of Judges, which is a kind of appendix, which actually tells us about the circumstances that prevailed in society at the beginning of this period. There'd been a great decline spiritually in Israel. This is about the year 1370 BC. There'd been a great decline, a falling away, much idolatry in the land. The people, by and large, still worshipped as they were intended to worship, following the ancient ceremonial that they were given, but they also, many of them, possessed idols and worshipped them, contrary to the laws of Israel and the rules of their faith and their religion. So it gives us an insight into dead faith, And this is primarily, the subject before us, about a man named Micah. Look back to the first verse of the chapter. 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 cursest and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me. I took it." It's a wealthy family. A son, who is effectively the head of the home now, the son takes eleven hundred shekels of silver from his mother. In modern parlance, that's thousands of pounds. Some experts put it as high as £100,000, though that sounds rather on the high side. It certainly is very difficult to know exactly what was about £30 weight of silver, exactly what that was worth in spending power in those days, but certainly a considerable amount. It was worth, let's say vaguely, thousands. And Micah, an adult man, he stole it from his mother. And here, he returns it to her. So we get an insight into Micah entirely at the beginning of this account. He's a man who has very human appetites. He wants more than he has, even if it's very difficult for him to spend it or use it. He's a liar. He indulges in deceit and theft. He has a dead faith. He believes in the God of Israel at the same time he believes in other gods. And whatever he believes in, it's a dead faith. It has no effect upon his character. It doesn't change him. His faith doesn't stop him being a liar. It doesn't stop him being greedy. It doesn't stop him being a thief. It's a dead faith. has no effect. It doesn't connect him with God. It doesn't secure for him any power in his life or any satisfaction. He's got to get satisfaction even if it involves stealing from his mother, from material things. So we get an insight from the very beginning. He certainly doesn't obey the standards of the one true God who he has been brought up to believe in. But he rejects that. He prefers to put idols, pagan idols, alongside God. And the attraction of those idols for him is that they're gods of convenience. Why an idol? He doesn't represent truth. An idol can't see what you're doing, and you can impute to an idol much lower standards than those of the living God. And pagan religions, they believed in gods of human creation who were rogues. Terrible individuals. In the ancient mythology of pagan religions, the gods did terrible things to each other. There were no moral standards to speak of at all. What convenient gods to have. If I have such gods, then I don't have to adhere. to any standard of decency or morality or anything. I've helped myself to gods of human invention that will let me get away with all kinds of things. Well, what's the good of those gods? Well, no good, but if I imagine it and if I think about it, I convince myself that my misfortunes are due to the fact That the gods, vaguely, this one or that one, are not pleased with me. And if I want good fortune, then I do something to placate them. And I build up a kind of superstitious, but dead, unfulfilling faith. in these gods, represented by idols. And I believe that if I make the idol out of gold rather than out of silver, the god who the idol represents will be that much better pleased with me, and do me good, and will not visit me with misfortune. And so I convince myself of these things. So a rich man, and he was a rich man, was a wealthy landowning family, evidently. He believes that the bigger and the more expensive, the more valuable, the better his gods, the better the gods will treat him. And he believes in all that, even alongside believing in the one invisible God of Israel. One God, a God of kindness, a God of love, a God of holiness, a God of justice, a God who has revealed himself to mankind and described himself in clear, logical ways, ascribing to himself his attributes and his plans for mankind and what he requires of us. So, to the logical and the sane and the clear, he adds the contradictory mumbo-jumbo of the pagan gods. He has dead faith in whatever he believes in, and he must have the pagan gods because they're more convenient. Well, he knew of the curse of his mother, and he says so. In this second verse, he admits it. Well, in the first verse, the 1100 shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursest, So I wonder if it was the fear of the curse that brought him to hand the money back. Mark you. It wasn't that difficult to hand the money back because what could his mother do with it? There they were out on a hillside with a tremendous tract of land, one imagines, and their buildings and their staffs, but they couldn't spend vast sums of money. They could really only make bigger and better gods with it. And what was his mother going to do with it? So if he gave it back to her, it would soon be his. He'd have it back again. That's a convenient repentance. I stole the money, I'll give it back to you. It's staying in the family. It's staying within his reach. So it's not much of a repentance, not much of a climb down, but he hands the money back. And one can only suppose it's because having not a living belief, in the true God, and not walking with him, and not having proved him, and had evidence that he is his God, and answers to prayer, and such things, because he doesn't really know the true God, or appreciate him, you can only think that he has a superstitious, dead belief in these other pagan gods, which makes him frightened of them. So his mother lets out a dramatic curse and calls upon her gods to punish the person who stole the money. And this begins to undermine the superstitious Micah with his dead faith. And he begins to fear and be afraid. And ultimately he thinks it's safer and wiser for him to repent and give the money back. And then the mother is as bad as the son because his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand, and she mentions the name of God. In our translation, it's Lord in capital letters, which reminds us that it's actually translated from the divine initials, the divine name Jehovah. So what the mother says is, I had wholly dedicated this large sum of money to Jehovah, the God of Israel, she says, very splendidly and grandly, to make a graven image. What an extraordinary mix-up. The God of Israel doesn't want graven images. In the second commandment, he forbids graven images of any kind. I had, oh grand language, dedicated all this money to the true God to do something he specifically says he doesn't want and is a sin. So she hasn't got a living faith. She's got a mixed up dead faith which only superficially believes and doesn't follow the small print, actually the big print, the Ten Commandments. So both of them are as bad as each other in spite of their training and their upbringing. So, well, she decides to give the money back to the son, but she's inconsistent even at that. Because we read in verse 4, he restored the money unto his mother, and his mother took 200 shekels of silver. That's less than a fifth of it. I've dedicated all of it, she says, and she gives less than a fifth. These two are a real pair between them. And she took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image, which they shouldn't have had. And they were in the house of Micah. So, you've got some insights into dead faith. Dead faith doesn't stop bad behavior. It doesn't stop character. deterioration. It's a superficial faith, a shallow faith. Dead faith, even if it's in the true God, is so shallow it gets no blessing, no new life, doesn't secure forgiveness, doesn't bring you into contact with God, doesn't get his help, doesn't mean he gives you a changed life. You're incapable of any change. with dead faith, shallow faith. And you're a fearful person, like Micah. He was less afraid of the true God and offending him than he was afraid of all the idols and the idol gods and the pagan gods. And that's what shallow faith is like. People say, I've come to the Lord. I believe in God. I go to church, but they're much more afraid of things that happen to them in life, from day to day, and make much more fuss about material things, afraid of losing any advantage, afraid of losing anything anxious to gain in material life. They're much more interested in that than in serving the Lord and pleasing Him. See, it's a dead faith. I haven't really found Him. They've never walked with Him. They've never proved Him. They've never known Him. It's dead faith. And you see it all reflected in these passages. There's no interaction with God. They've never experienced His touch and His goodness. And they steal their souls from Him, and yet, with dead faith, say they believe in Him. Now that could be you. A dead faith, never been converted, never been changed, never had a new life, never had real communion with God, never had proofs that you're his child, that he's answering your prayers. It's dead faith. Your things you're afraid of and the things that please you are all in this world, in the here and now. And that was exactly the same as these two, mother and son. Well, I look down to verse four. Well, verse five, rather. The man Micah had an house of gods and made an ephod and teraphim and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. Now, this gets worse and worse. In Israel, you weren't allowed to do that. You couldn't just take it upon yourself to consecrate a priest, and a man who wasn't even a Levite, the qualified priests set aside by God, this man seems to do everything just as it pleases him. I will have a priest. There isn't a Levite handy, so I'll have my son. I will conduct the consecration myself, though I am not a priest. I will do everything out of order. The way God has prescribed that these things should be done, I won't take any notice of those. And yet I'll imagine that this is going to do me good. This is how dead faith operates. Dead faith does its own thing. It does things its own way. I'm going to come to God, it says, in my own way. That preacher over there, he says that I've got to come through Christ, and I've got to go on my knees before God and confess my sin, and I've got to be sincere, and I've got to yield my life to him. I'm not going to do that. I think I'm a good person. I'm going to earn my own way. God says, so that preacher says, so the Bible says, God says nobody can earn their way to heaven. Nobody's good enough. Nobody deserves his kindness. But I don't accept that. I'm going to do it my way. Well, that's what Micah and his mother were into. They wrote their own religion as they went along, and yet they claimed to be Israelites. So you can see, dead faith. It doesn't comply with what God says. It doesn't come to God's word and say, God says I must approach him in this manner, and that is how I must do it. Dead faith decides for itself. Once again we ask, why did he pick pagan idols? Well, because with them he didn't have to live a life that would be remotely pleasing to God. Look at verse 6. In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. He wants, dead faith, wants to keep hold of self-determination. I believe in God. I believe even in Christ, it says. I believe in the Christian faith, but I am not going to surrender or give up my own complete right to do what I like in life and to do things my own way from start to finish. You keep your self-determination. You remain captain of your ship. You're not going to give your life over to God. Living faith is quite different, as I shall explain. Living faith bends the knee to Him. And if you are to come to an experience of conversion, and oh, that's what we all need, and you're going to find God, and he's going to change your life, and give you a place in heaven, and forgive all your sins, and make you his own child, you've got to surrender your life to him. Repent of your sin, believe in Christ who purchased salvation for us by dying on the cross of Calvary and taking our punishment on our behalf. and giving him your life. This is the way we have to come. Dead faith doesn't want to come this way. I look at verse seven, just simply drawing attention to some elements in this chapter. And there was a young man out of Bethlehem, Judah, of the family of Judah who was a Levite. Ah, a Levite of the priestly family in those days. And he came into the region of Ephraim, and he lived there from Bethlehem. That's where he'd lived previously. Here's the record. The man departed out of the city from Bethlehem, Judah, to Sodom, where he could find a place. And he came to Mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. And Micah said to him, well, where do you come from? And he said, I'm a Levite of Bethlehem. and I go to live wherever I can find a place." And Michael, who was an opportunist, if ever there was one, immediately says, well, come and live with me. Be to me a father and a priest. I'll give you so much payment every year, clothes to put on, and your food and lodging and provisions. So the Levite accepted a job with Micah. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man. And the young man was unto him as one of his sons. So, verse 12, Micah consecrated the Levite. He's at it again, making up his own religion and his ceremonies. And the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah. And Micah says, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. What an attitude! You see, he hasn't got living faith, he's got dead faith, because he only wants things for himself. Living faith believes in God, I must have his forgiveness, I must be accepted by him, I must become his child and have him allow me to serve him and to please him and go to be with him eternally. Living faith thinks of God. When God looks at me, he sees a rebel and a sinner, and he must condemn me in his righteousness and his holiness. But oh, I wish to be accepted by God, and pardoned and forgiven, and a new person, and with his help, if he'll help me, I shall have a new life, and please him, and live a righteous life, a good life, and a useful life. But false faith, shallow faith says, oh, I'll believe in God if it gets me heaven. It's the best insurance policy. I'll believe in God if it makes me richer. I'll believe in God if it gives me security on earth and safety. I'll believe in God if it gets me healed from my sickness. It's for me, for me. Now, actually, God will do many of these things for people who trust in him. But false faith, shallow faith, trivial faith, Dead faith is just focused on me, like Riker. Ha ha! Now the God of Israel will do me good and I'll be even richer and I'll be secure from any passing enemies or anything of that kind. Because, what's the great secret? I have a Levite to be my priest. Actually, he was a pretty rotten Levite. He wasn't a faithful Levite. Because you know what happened? Micah offers him the job, and then he says, look, this is my house of worship. And he escorts him to his private chapel, which earlier on is mentioned in the text. And he swings open the door, and he says, look at the value of my idols. And the Levite says, It's not in the record. I'm reading this in because it's obviously the case. The Levite says, wonderful, I'm all the more pleased to serve you. What? When he's got a private chapel full of pagan idols? The Levite takes the job. So the Levite's as bad as Micah and as bad as his mother. And he claims to be a Levite, a priest, so to speak, a traveling priest of Israel, and yet he's perfectly happy to function in a house filled with dead faith and dead idols. So, the story proceeds, and things seem to go from bad to worse. But that's dead faith. Doesn't mind, dead faith doesn't mind what's true. Dead faith doesn't say, I must obey the Bible, that's the only truth. Living faith says, there can only be one God, and he will be a God who's revealed himself, not a God we have to invent. And he will be a God of consistency and holiness. And that's the God who I need to seek, who will forgive me. And then I read about this God in the Bible, and I read how Jesus Christ, who is God, the second person in the triune Godhead, has come from heaven to this earth to die for a sinner like me, to go to Calvary's cross so that he could say to his father, put the punishment of so many people upon me, and I will take it. and bear it away. Oh, that's the faith, that's the religion that we need and that we desire and want. But no, dead faith, it isn't bothered about that. It'll believe in all sorts of things at once. It doesn't value the true, the one and only faith. It invents constantly false gods. Now look down at that eighth verse. The man departed out of the city from Bethlehem to sojourn where he could find a place. This is the Levite, and he settles with the first person who'll hire him, regardless of that person's spiritual attitude. Well, what happened to Micah? What's the conclusion of this account? What took place? He's got dead faith, a religion without depth, without the true God, without any obedience to the true God. He's never repented, he's never had a new life, and nor has his mother, and nor has his private chaplain, his Levite priest, so far as we can tell. So, what happened? Well, the tribe of Dan, in another region, was looking for a place to settle, or to settle at least a considerable portion of the tribe of Dan. They wanted a new territory. There was plenty of space around in those days. And they sent out five men, men of war, men of valor, men of military accomplishment, to prospect throughout the entire region where Israel was spread, to see if there was any territory that they could occupy. And these five men happened to pass through the area of Ephraim where Micah lived, and his immediate neighbors, who were probably all his employees. And when they got to Micah's house, surprise, surprise, they heard the accent of this Levite, maybe, as he greeted them. They thought to themselves, well, he doesn't come from around here. This is a Bethlehem accent. He doesn't belong here. So they asked him, well, where are you? What are you doing here? And he told them the whole story. Well, I came here, and it's very good here. This man Micah, who Hires me, he's good to me, he's very wealthy, has many idols, perhaps he showed them. Look at this silver one, this gold one, the wealth in that household. And these five men were very impressed. And the Levite bid them Godspeed, sent them on their way in their search for territory. You wonder if he even told them something about the best place to go. Though the record doesn't say that he did, but one fancies he might have said, oh, I've heard. there is fantastic area up in this region and that would suit you and thousands could settle there and the people who live there well they're not clued up at all and you could quickly overrun them and throw them out. Anyway the spies went further and they got to the city of Laois and I won't go into that but they found a region that was completely unprotected, where people were very very prosperous and they had no relationships with any neighbouring cities or places, evidently no defence force, they dwelt in absolute security, false security as it turned out. So they went back to their home among the Danite tribe, the five spies. This is the place. We'll report back and we'll return, no doubt, with a military force and take this territory. And as they passed back through Micah's household, they engaged the priest and they stole Micah's riches and his images, his idols, and they told the priest, if you know what's good for you, you'll come with us, keep your mouth shut and come with us. and the priest obliged, and so off they went. And when they got back home, the Danites raised a military force of a mere 600 men. That was all it took. That city of Laish was so insecure and so unready for any need to defend themselves. And in the process, before they went off, they went to Micah's house. That was when the thefts took place, took everything of his, actually took his priest. And Micah came after them and gave chase with a little posse that he raised from his neighbours, who he employed, I believe. And he cried out to them. He caught up with these 600 men. He realized at once there were far too many of them. They were men of war. He couldn't engage them. And you see the most pathetic plea from Micah. You've taken my idols. You've taken everything. What have I more? What have I got left? There's nothing left to me. And that was true. Because he had no God. His faith was a dead faith. It didn't bring him into living contact with God. When he was deprived of his idols and his material possessions, and his vaunted priest, he had nothing. Nothing of any value. He was stripped of all those things. Dear friends, what's the position with you? If you have no living faith in God, no real communion with him, What when your youth passes and your youthful energies, if you're young? What when you go through and you get later in life and you maybe lose men and women, lose your coveted beauty? What if you lost your career, your job? What if you lost by bereavement your dearest friends, your husband, your wife? What when you come to the end of life's journey and you lose your strength and your vigour and your capacity to do all the things that you once did? What when you lose your life and it's the end of the journey for you? What have you got as the things that you The only things you have to value, material possessions, material excitements that are short-lived, material things around you that you can see and touch, handle, possess. What have you got? No eternity. No God. no strength of character, no knowledge of what life is all about really, no knowledge of God, you've got nothing. Shallow faith, dead faith, hasn't got you anywhere. You do not know the Lord. So just in closing, I mention one or two things. Living faith, useful faith, Real faith must be in something true, in reality. Don't look like the ancients or some many people still in eastern lands. Don't put your faith in an image that has been made and crafted by human hand with some mythical god of human invention behind it. Something with no power, no sensitivity to you, no ability to get you to heaven or forgive you your sins. Don't put your faith in things like that. Don't even put your faith in the true God, if your faith is going to be shallow, so that you don't repent and ask him for life and give him your life and find him. Don't do that. You want sincere faith. Sincere faith values the truth. Here is a book, a revelation from God, the only book that even claims to be written by God and telling us the way to be saved and to know Him, the one true God, and to live for Him and with Him. Oh, dear friends, let your faith be in truth. Very sad when you read about something like a poor war widow who was told that her husband was known to be not just lost and unaccounted for, but killed and never returning. But the poor soul, and you feel for her, she clenches her fists and she says, no, I don't accept it. He's going to come back through the door. I don't believe it. I don't believe that even any eyewitness saw him dead and gone. He's coming back. And so in sorrow and in anxiety and in anticipation, fierce anticipation, She spends years, perhaps, waking up every day, hoping, hoping that her husband will come through the door. And it's never going to happen, because her faith is in something unreal and vain and impossible. Oh, dear friends, idols are like that. Human ideas are like that. Put your faith in evolution. Put your faith in the fact that there is no God. Put your faith in the idea that this world can solve all your problems and make you happy. Don't put your faith like that poor misguided war widow. And there have been a number, I think, it's very sad. who put their faith in something quite unreal. Put your faith in the true and living God. Put your faith in the one who can save you from your sin, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and died for all repentant sinners. Put your faith exclusively in the true God and in Jesus Christ. Don't, as they say today, try to hedge your bets. That's what Micah did. I believe in the God of Israel, I believe in the pagan gods too. That's dead, shallow faith. Put your faith exclusively in Christ. He alone can save my soul, forgive my sins, bring me into communion with God, take me to heaven. He alone, I'll trust Him, believe in Him, I'll ask Him. Real faith repents of sin. Real faith realizes I cannot deserve God's forgiveness. It must be a free gift. Real faith accepts that I need to be changed and only the hand of God can change me and make me a better person. Real faith wants communion with God, to walk with him. Make sure you've got real faith. I hope I haven't made it too complicated. Make sure with full sincerity of heart, in some quiet place, undistracted, you call upon the Lord, and you say, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Give yourself to him, repent, believe in Christ, and oh, ask him. for that certain transformation of life and experience which makes you his child. That's the only way. That's living faith. Let's pray together. O God, our gracious Heavenly Father, help us this very night, we ask. Look upon us all, O Lord, convince us of our need, grant us deep sincerity and desire, and bring us to Christ, the only Saviour. We ask it in His name. For His sake. Amen.