Read: Judges 17:6
"In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 17:6)
This particular verse tells us not only the story of Micah and the Levites. It also tells us something about the whole book of Judges by the time they entered the promised land.
They have taken their inheritance by casting lots then occupied the lands that were allotted to them. This was among the times when Israel had no fixed overall leader. There was no fixed focal person who would lead the whole of Israel. As we can see, the judges mentioned in this book are the judges who led in different locations within the land of Israel.
The title for tonight's message is " The Right Kind of Truth. "
So what really is the truth? We cannot tell if something's evil if we don't know who (or what) is the standard of goodness. We cannot know what is accursed without the knowledge of the standard of holiness. We cannot know what is wicked without knowing the standard of righteousness... and that standard is no other than God/Yahweh/Jehovah/Ginoo/Dios (any word that is translated in your dialect or language).
God is the standard of righteousness, the standard of truth, and the standard of goodness.
This verse tells us not only about the life of the Israelites during those times when they do what they think was right in their sight. The way Israel lived in wickedness and chaos also reflects how we lived in ours.
Without God in our lives, our standard of goodness and righteousness will always be crooked. We will come to realize this truth when we hear what most people have to say about their righteousness today.
"Ah. I will go to heaven because I have done and followed these things."
"I regularly go to Church."
"I regularly give money to charity."
"I hurt no one."
Unfortunately, our standards are so low that at times it's so hard for us to realize God's standards. In our very nature, we can never meet God's standard of righteousness no matter how hard we try.
It is said in Romans,
"There is none righteous, no, not one:" (Romans 3:10 KJV)
This verse points not to us but the only one righteous: God. And God's righteousness is the kind of righteousness that man can never attain.
In the Book of Judges, Israel almost unconsciously turned away from God by their continuous interactions with the Canaanites and their pagan gods. They slowly and repeatedly adopted pagan practices until they lose knowledge of the God of their ancestors.
Judges 17:6 somehow shows us the result of being complacent with our relationship with the Lord.
The point is we need to have an intimate relationship with God if we are to live a righteous life. If not, then our life, though being Christians, in pursuit of righteousness will always be crooked.
It says here in Proverbs:
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom and instructions." (Proverbs 1:7)
Meaning to say, fearing God is the right kind of wisdom that is best born in all areas of our life; all walks, and all circumstances.
What does this fear mean?
We can end up saying to ourselves, "I've done something wrong. The Lord will punish me."
But this fear is not about being afraid so we will follow certain things and not follow some. This fear is the holy and healthy kind of revering God. This is like the reverence we give to our parents. We know that something we do will displease our parents and they will get angry so we avoid doing it.
More goes with God, our Heavenly Father. If we have an intimate relationship with God, we will always be compelled to do what will please Him and avoid doing the things that will displease Him. We cannot do it on our own tho. That's why we should find intimacy with God only through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. So through the Holy Spirit, we will get our daily guidance and sanctification from Him. From Jesus Christ alone; and there's no one else through whom we could connect to God but Him. So if we fail to grasp that basic truth in our walk with the Lord, then we are missing something critically important. We will always find ourselves fulfilling our fleshly tendencies of doing things our ways through manners that we think are right, but in God's sight are not.
Without God's guidance through the Holy Spirit, we cannot really comprehend the truth. Our spiritual bodies will not be able to digest the spiritual food that comes from God. We cannot identify what is wrong and what is right; what pleases Him and what displeases Him. Jesus is telling us that many times in our walk with Him, we tend to think that what we knew before was right. But once we perceive God's Word as we fully immerse ourselves in His presence through the Holy Spirit, we will be surprised by what God has been telling us for a long time already. In my case, it's that what I have been sharing before was purely moralistic teachings and prosperity type of gospel. And that is not what God intended to impress in His Word in the first place. We will only become fully aware of the truth once we are fully immersed with our God and His Word through His Holy Spirit.
The Book of Romans says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God" (Romans 10:17)
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the truth is found only in the Bible that you and I are reading, but unfortunately, we are always kind of busy with our personal interests that we end up neglecting these truths. The challenge to all of us is to truly have an intentional heart. we have to commit intentionally. We have to intentionally relate to the Word of God because, without it, we can be easily deceived. We can be easily persuaded by the enemy through the teachings we can hear from people who are not really in finding their teachings in God's Word.
Acts 17:11
Apostle Paul commended Jesus' disciples in Berea, Greece because of their eagerness in receiving God's message from him, and at the same time, examining those teachings through the Scriptures so that they know it's really from God (see Acts 17:11). This is the kind of practice ad attitude whenever we receive teachings from other people, even from our pastors. More than ensuring that what they say is true, it also makes our learnings more personal since we experience God's Word for ourselves. In this way, we will have to ask for His wisdom and personal guidance for us to hear what He has to say. Anyone, even non-Christians or non-believers can read and interpret the Bible just like how we do it right now. But the difference is stated in 1 Corinthians:
"But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory." (1 Corinthians 2:7)
"Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:12-14)
TAKE NOTE: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Meaning to say, we have to be connected with the Lord through the Holy Spirit.
A lot of Christians are easily affected by the truth because they are struck by it. But more Christians are sadly so-called Christians because of their association with the church with the building; with the organization and not with Christ. So, we have to check ourselves. We have to continually remind ourselves that we need God more and more each day. We are nothing without Him and it's all by His grace that we are here, preaching, listening, singing praises to Him, living our life for Him. We have to deny ourselves from our worldly lusts and fleshly desires. Even more, we have to stop relying on ourselves in pleasing God for nothing in anything good we do will pass according to God's righteous standards.
In our Christian living, it's very critical that we know the right kind of truth which is only found in God's Word, and this truth cannot be seen with our bare eyes and intellect. We have to seek God spiritually. We have to understand what God wants us to receive from Him. And we can only have the chance of understanding Him through the Holy Spirit by reading His Word. So we have to stop being complacent in reading His Word and so keeping our hearts guarded with the right kind of truth.
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