Judges 18

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 98:1-3
• Hymn — Sing a New Song to Jehovah (Psalm 98C)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Heidelberg Catechism — Lord's Day 14 (Questions 35–36)
• Hymn — I Know Whom I Have Believed (#326)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Judges 18
• Sermon
• Hymn — Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart (#528)
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: The Failure, Foolishness, and Fix of False Religion

Scripture: Judges 18

I. Failure — Repeated Failure to Address False Religion

A. Background: The tribe of Dan, unsettled in their allotted land, sends five spies to seek a new inheritance — acting on their own initiative before seeking God

B. The disordered heart of Dan revealed in Judges 18:1-5

1. Dan seeks an inheritance for itself, not trusting what God had given
2. The spies inquire of the Levite priest only after they have already set out — God is a feature, not the foundation
3. The cliché "ask forgiveness, not permission" is the opposite of true religion; God is honored when we bring our needs to him first

C. The call to repentance ignored — Judges 18:14

1. The five spies, returning with 600 soldiers, report what is in Micah's house: an ephod, household gods, a carved image, and a metal image
2. Their imperative — "Consider what you will do" — is a missed opportunity for repentance and true worship, echoing Joshua's challenge: "Choose this day whom you will serve"
3. Instead of destroying the idols, the Danites take them for use in battle and ultimately establish them as tribal gods

D. The depth of the failure — Judges 18:30-31

1. Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses, becomes priest to Dan — the grandson of Moses serving an idol
2. False religion takes hold rapidly through small compromises, never corrected — like a slow leak that floods a floor or destroys a dam

E. Application: We must guard the worship of God in our own hearts; small compromises unchecked lead to great failure

II. Foolishness — The Inherent Folly of False Religion

A. Micah's words expose the absurdity of idolatry — Judges 18:23-24

1. "You take my gods that I made" — gods he fashioned cannot protect themselves, and he cannot protect them
2. This is the consistent Old Testament critique: the living God exposes the lie of idolatry

B. The Lord's indictment of idolatry in Isaiah 44

1. A man burns half a tree for warmth and food, and makes the other half into a god to whom he prays — the folly is plain

C. Contemporary forms of misplaced religious confidence

1. Superstitious confidence placed in the experience of baptism rather than the God into whose name one is baptized
2. The error that infant baptism itself saves — the mere act rather than the grace it signifies
3. Federal Vision: the teaching that covenant ritual performance secures salvation
4. The broader tendency of subjective religion — the idea that the manner of worship is a matter of personal preference, like choosing a toothbrush
5. Even within Reformed circles, the Regulative Principle — that God alone in his Word determines how he is to be worshiped — is unpopular

D. Application: It is foolishness for anyone other than God himself to set the patterns and practices of worship offered to him

III. Fix — The Remedy for False Religion

A. The refrain of the section identifies both problem and remedy — Judges 18:1

1. "In those days there was no king in Israel" — the absence of a king is the diagnosis; the king is the cure
2. The dilemma itself reveals the remedy, as a diagnosis makes treatment possible

B. The duty of Israel's king: to preserve and promote true religion

1. Deuteronomy 17 commands the king to write and read the law all his life, that he may fear the Lord and lead God's people in godly fear
2. Throughout Kings and Chronicles, each monarch is measured by whether he promoted or perverted true religion
3. Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 29 stands as an example of a king who restored right worship

C. The closing words of the passage look forward — Judges 18:30-31

1. "Until the day of the captivity" and "as long as the house of God was at Shiloh" point toward the coming of the king and the eventual movement of the house of God to Jerusalem under David and Solomon

D. Jesus Christ is the perfect fulfillment of the kingly fix

1. He is the Son of David, the true King who entered Jerusalem to establish his reign
2. He teaches true religion by word and example
3. He frees his people from bondage to false religion by his atoning work
4. He makes true worship possible by the gift of his Spirit
5. To the woman at the well: "The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth" — John 4:23

E. Application: The problem of no king in Israel has been remedied in Christ; consider what king you will follow and in which king you will trust