Yoked to Sexual Sin (Numbers 25:1-6) [2025-6-22]

All right. Good morning, everybody.

As you find your seat, if you would open your Bibles to the

Book of Numbers, Chapter 25. We've been going through numbers

Numbers 25 · chapter mention

for several months now and we've just recently finished a study

on the the prophet Balaam. We've been looking at him for

the past several weeks. And this morning we're going to

be changing stories, and we'll be in Numbers 25 for the next

two weeks at minimum. This morning I was going to do

the whole chapter, but it was just way too much material.

And so this morning we're going to look at verses one to six.

So let's read the text. Open sent a word of prayer.

The title of the sermon this morning is this Yoked to Sexual

Sin. And so let's read the text and

we will jump into the sermon after praying #25 beginning in

verse one. While Israel lived in Shateem,

the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.

These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and

the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the

Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, Take

all the chiefs of the people, and hang them in the sun before

the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from

Israel. And Moses said to the judges of

Israel, Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked

themselves to bail a pure. And behold, one of the people of

Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family in

the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation

of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the

entrance of the tent of meeting. And we'll stop right there if

you will pray with me. Lord, I pray this morning as we

get to a sensitive subject. God, would you help me to live

in the tension. Help us all to live in the

tension of your abundant grace. That there is grace upon grace

for your children, even those who have fallen into sin or

sexual sin, and help us to live in that.

That side of the tension with the other side of our holiness

matters. And that we must strive for

holiness. God help us to live in that

tension this morning. Help me God, to present both

sides of that as I work my way through this text.

As we all work our way through this text, I pray this in Jesus

name, Amen. Gordon Wenham, who is a

commentator, writes this. The Bible startles its readers

by the way it juxtaposes the brightest of revelations and the

darkest of sins. The law giving at Sinai was

followed by the making of the golden calf, the ordination of

Aaron by the disobedience of his sons, the covenant with David by

the Bathsheba affair, Palm Sunday by Good Friday.

Here we have another classic example of this pattern.

The wonderful prophecies of Balaam are succeeded by the

great apostasy at Piore. In this way, Scripture tries to

bring home to us the full wonder of God's grace and face of man's

incorrigible propensity to sin. End Quote.

Over the past few weeks, we've looked at these 4 prophecies of

Balaam where God is blessing his people.

And these four blessings are followed up by Israel yoking

himself to their sexual sin and their idolatry.

So this morning we're going to look at this the first part of

the story, the 1st 6 verses, and we'll hopefully get to the next

part that the, the, the remaining of it next week.

I've been going through, I've been weaving together exposition

and application. But this morning I'm going to

give exposition first and then I'll give application at the end

this morning. So let's start looking at our

exposition of the text, looking at it verse by verse.

Let's start in verse one. While Israel lived in shateen,

the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.

Now before we look at our text this morning, I I think it would

be beneficial for us to jump ahead in the book of Numbers for

a brief moment. And why is because often the

narrator of narrative does not give us details that you wish

were there and we have to look at other places for them.

And, and the reason for this is that the narrator gives us

pieces of information that shed light on this story.

Last week we saw that after Balaam had given his four

prophecies and he had blessed the people of Israel four times,

Balak went home and Balaam went home.

The only problem is that Balaam didn't actually go home.

In Numbers 3116. This is what Moses says, Behold,

these being the Midianites, on Balaam's advice, cause the

people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord

in the incident of Peor. And so the plague came against

the congregation of the Lord. So all the way in #31 we're told

that Balaam gives advice, and then Revelation 214 explains

what that advice was. Jesus says you have some there

who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put

a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they

might eat food, sacrificed idols, and practice sexual

immorality. Now here's what this means.

It appears that since Balaam was not able to curse Israel through

the front door, he found a back door instead.

He taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons

of Israel, a stumbling block in the form of Moabite women.

Balaam couldn't curse God's people.

He couldn't he he didn't get paid.

But he found a different way. He found a way to make them

stumble. The narrator says that while

Israel was living in Shateem, the people, which is really the

men, began to whore with the daughters of Moab.

Now translations here vary That word whore can mean play.

The harlots translated that way can mean to indulge in sexual

immorality. It can mean to begin to

prostitute themselves. But the basic idea is that the

men began to commit sexual immorality with the Moabite

women. That's what's going on here.

Look at verse 2. These invited the people to the

sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to

their gods. Now as bad as the sexual

immorality was, it actually got worse.

These Moabite women would invite the Israelite men to the

sacrifices of their gods. And the Israelite men, when they

would go to these sacrifices, they would actually eat the food

that was sacrificed to the gods. They would even bow down to the

gods with the women. Now God had previously warned

them about this in Exodus 3415 to 16.

God says this lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of

the land. And when they whore after their

gods and sacrifice to their gods, you are invited.

You eat of a sacrifice you take of their daughters for your sons

and their daughters whore after their gods, and make your sons

whore after their gods. God warned them this would

happen. God warned them not to do this,

and yet they did it anyway. Even Solomon and all his wisdom,

the wisest man living at the time, and all his wisdom, when

he was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods.

Now why would these men do this? Because their desire for sexual

gratification was greater than their desire for God's

glorification. Look at verse 3.

So Israel yoked himself to bail a peor, and the anger of the

Lord was kindled against Israel. Israel yoked himself to bail a

peor. Now what does that mean?

Well, on the front of your bulletin is a yoke.

If you are a farmer and you need to plow the ground, you often

will plow the ground with two oxen.

Now oxen will not just naturally walk together side by side,

right? You put two oxen together and

they'll just go off and do their own thing.

They won't walk. So farmers will use what's known

as a yoke. There's a cross beam and then

there's two holes for the animals heads.

And this, this yoke would keep the animals together so that

they walk in tandem. So they plow a straight line and

this, this yoke. The narrator uses this imagery

there, says that Israel willingly yoked himself to Baal,

a pure. Now this is the first mention of

Baal in the Hebrew Bible, but it certainly will not be the last.

We will see Baal come up over and over again.

This is the Canaanite fertility God.

Baal is the Canaanite fertility God.

And as a result of this yoki look at God's response to this.

The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

Think about that. God has just spent the past two

chapters blessing His people, but now His anger is kindled

towards them because of their immorality and their idolatry.

Look at verse four and the Lord said to Moses, take all the

chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord,

that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.

If we are wondering how angry is God, verse 4 answers that

question for us. The Lord gives Moses

instructions. He says take all the chiefs or

the leaders of the people and hang them in the sun before the

Lord. But I want to make 4 notes about

this punishment #1 why the chiefs?

Why the leaders? Well, there's actually two

options here. A Them might refer to the

offenders. When it says hang them, who is

the them? Them might refer to the

offenders. So the way to read this would be

take all the chiefs of the people and hang the offenders in

the sun. That's one way to read it.

Or B them may refer to the chiefs, meaning Moses was to

hang all the chiefs of the people.

Either is possible, and there's really no good way to discern

which is objectively correct. But most commentators think it's

B that's the take the chiefs and hang the chiefs because that's

that's the closest antecedent. That would seem to make sense,

but then you got to wonder why? Why, why?

Why are they to hang only the chiefs?

How do we understand this? Well, first, Peter 417 says that

judgement begins with the household of God.

And I assume that a judgement begins with the household of

God. I assume that in that household

it also begins with the leaders. James 31 says teachers will be

judged with greater strictness, and that's true of teachers.

I assume that's also true of leaders as well.

The leaders will be judged with greater strictness #2 He says to

hang them. Hang them is probably not a good

translation. Probably the better translation

is impale them. That's what it probably

literally means it it literally translates as disfigure them and

probably through impaling. This is a brutal punishment #3

He says do it in the sun. Why?

Why does he say that? Meaning, this is not to be done

behind closed doors. This is not to be done Outback.

This is to be done in the sun. This is to be done for all to

see. God wanted all of Israel to see

the punishment for this egregious sin.

And #4 he says, hang them in the sun before the Lord.

Why did you say before the Lord? This is a reminder that their

sin is against God. They sinned before the Lord.

Now they will be judged before the Lord.

And I want you to notice the reason for such a harsh

punishment. It sounds punitive, but it's not

primarily punitive. It's propitiatory that the

fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.

We call this the doctrine of propitiation.

You may have seen that term before.

Israel has angered a holy and righteous God, and this anger

will not go away on its own. You ever been angry?

And if enough time passes, it just goes away, right?

You get angry at something and you get distracted.

You get busy and you just kind of forget you're angry.

You get busy doing something else.

That's not how it works with God.

God's anger doesn't go away. He doesn't get distracted.

He doesn't forget, He doesn't get busy.

God's anger must be dealt with. It has to be dealt with.

Look at verse 5. And Moses said to the judges of

Israel, each of you kill those of his men who have yoked

themselves to bail of peor. Now there's two ways to

understand verse 5. Verse 5A.

If the them in verse 4 refers to the offenders, then chiefs in

verse 4 and judges in verse 5 are the same people.

They're one in the same. Moses is telling the judges to

kill the offenders. Or B.

If the them in verse 4 refers to the chiefs, then it appears that

Moses fails to carry out God's command.

In verse 4, it appears that Moses alters God's command to

only kill the offenders. It's hard to know either way.

Here's what we do know. Moses has the leadership of

Israel get involved in the judgement of Israel.

Moses says the leaders are to get involved in the judgement of

Israel. Now this is similar to what he

did in Exodus 32 when they built the golden calf.

Remember when Moses went up the mountain to get the 10

commandments and when he came down they had built a golden

calf. And then Moses said this who was

on the Lord's side, Come to me. And all the sons of Levi's

gathered to him. And he said to them, pull out

your sword on on each side. Put put your sword on each side

of you and each of you go kill his brother and his companion

and his neighbor. And the Levites went up and down

the line, killing those who had built this golden calf.

Now, whether the judges actually do this or not, whether they

actually carry out this command or not is debatable.

Because later we're going to see that a plague comes, kills

24,000. You kind of wonder, was the

plague in addition to this, or did the plague happen because

they refused to actually do this?

We don't know. Look at verse 6 and behold, one

of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his

family in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole

congregation of the people of Israel while they were weeping

in the entrance of the tent of meeting.

The narrator now makes a hard pivot.

He makes a hard pivot to a new story, and he does this by

saying this and behold, meaning something shocking is about to

happen. One of the Israelite men brought

a Midianite woman to his family. So he's he's married, he's

married, he's got kids. He goes and finds a mini night

woman and he brings her to his own family.

And notice he doesn't do this in secret.

He did it in the sight of Moses. He did it in the sight of the

whole congregation in broad daylight.

And to make matters worse, he does this while Moses and the

people are weeping over their sin and weeping over their

judgment. This man can hear the weeping of

his people, and he does it anyway.

This is a very, very low point in Israel's history, but like

always, God will raise up a deliverer, which we will get to

next week. We'll stop there with our

exposition of the text application.

I have 10 truths. This is why I could not do the

whole chapter. I have 10 truths from these 6

verses #1 God's blessing comes from divine grace, not human

merit. God's blessing comes from divine

grace, not human merit. Numbers 25 is a crazy story.

There's no way around it is a crazy story.

But you know, what is the craziest part of this story, to

me at least, is the juxtaposition of the previous

two chapters and chapter 25. It's the juxtaposition of it.

Balak hires Balaam to curse Israel and rather than curse

them, he spends 2 whole chapters blessing the people of God.

And here's the thing. It's not as though God doesn't

know what's coming next. It's not as though God bless

them. And then they did this and he's

like, oh man, why did I bless? Maybe I should have listened to

Balak. It's not as though God didn't

know what's coming next. He knew good and well God knows

the future. God knows that his people are

about to engage in this egregious sin.

And yet God tells Balaam, bless them.

Why? Because God's blessing comes

from divine grace, not human merit.

God created Adam and Eve knowing they would disobey him.

God raised up. David to be king to replace

Saul, knowing that he would kill a man and commit adultery.

Jesus chose Peter as his disciple, knowing that he would

deny him three times. And friend, God chose you and

me, knowing every single sin we would ever commit.

If there is one thing that we learned from the scriptures, it

is this. God doesn't bless us because of

our merit, but because of His grace. 2 If Satan can't get us

through the front door, he will attempt to use the back door.

If Satan can't get us through the front door, he will attempt

to use the back door. Balaam and Balak couldn't curse

Israel through the front door. So what did they do?

They found a back door. Balaam got Balak to put a

stumbling block to the people of Israel.

And how did he do it? Through Moabite women.

You see, Satan is a master at finding our weaknesses, and he's

been around for a very long time.

He is very clever. He is a master at finding our

weaknesses and exploiting them. He will try one method, and if

he is not successful, he will try another and another, and yet

another. He will keep going until he

finds a stumbling block that works.

I remember several years back when we were getting broken into

what seemed like almost every month.

There was a time when we got broken into.

Like it felt like every month we would secure up 1 area only to

find out that we needed to secure up another area.

We got to a point where we realized we can't have any easy

access points because if we do, people will find it.

They will find the access point and they will enter through it.

That's just how it is. And that's how it is with Satan

too. Listen to me when I say this.

There cannot be any unlocked back doors in your life because

Satan will find them. He will use them, he will

exploit them #3 Pornography is a God and one of the most worship

gods in our culture. Pornography is a God and it is

one of the most worship gods in our culture.

As bad as the sexual sin was in this story, what made it worse

is that it led to their idolatry.

The men were invited to the sacrifices of to bail.

Not only did they go to the sacrifices, but they actually

ate the food that was sacrificed to the idol to bail.

They even bowed down to bail. Now, I think it can be easy to

read this story. Maybe you read, just read the

story. Maybe you're listening right

now. It can be easy to think.

Listen brother, I know that I have sin in my life.

I know maybe I even have sexual sin in my life.

I've never bowed down to a false God.

And yet how many men and even women all across the world bow

down in front of their computer screen or their phone screen?

I want to be clear here, pornography and, and I want to

be clear if you say, when I say pornography, I'm using the way

my wife defines it because you might think like, oh, it's only

like that hardcore stuff. I mean, anything, any images

that 'd be hardcore. Pornography is a God and it is

one of the most worshipped gods in our culture.

I was looking up statistics on pornography.

I was going to give statistics and to be honest, I, I chose not

to because the numbers are all over the place.

They're so they vary so much. You kind of wonder what's true.

I don't, I mean, I don't even know what's true, right?

I hear this, I hear that. I have no idea.

It's hard to know what's true. It's hard to know what's

accurate. So I, I'm not a big fan of

speaking anecdotally as evidence, but I think in this

case it maybe has merit. I'll speak anecdotally for my 22

years of being a Christian, and especially the past 14 years of

being a pastor. I've never met a man who did not

struggle with pornography at some point in his life.

Never I've had. Several women confess to me that

they struggle with pornography at some point in their life.

Several, not like one or two. I've had several women confess

this to me. I've even had married couples

confess to me to watching pornography in their marriage

together. Here's why this is such a

dangerous God in our culture, because next week we're going to

see that this sexual sin killed 24,000 of the Israelites.

And yet every day pornography spiritually kills 24,000,000

Americans. Every single day.

And that's being conservative. Your computer screen, your phone

screen is the 21st century temple of this world.

Do you hear me when I say that your computer screen, your phone

screen is the temple of this world?

That's the modern day temple. Brothers and sisters, be careful

who you bow down to. 4 You cannot kill desire with effort

alone. You must kill desire with

desire. You cannot kill desire with

effort alone. You must kill desire with

desire. It's tragic how many of God's

men had a weakness for women, right Started with Adam start in

the garden. Adam listening to his wife

rather than listening to the voice of God.

David's weakness was women, so was Samson's, so was Solomon's,

so was these Israelite men. You kind of wonder, why did so

many of God's men fall into sexual sin?

Like, why? I think it's very simple because

God has made certain desires very strong.

God has made certain desires very strong.

I mean, why do we struggle with being overweight?

Is it not that God has made desire for food and comfort very

strong? Do we not love our food?

Do we not love our comfort? Why do we struggle with sexual

sin? Because God has made the desire

for physical pleasure very strong.

And this is so important that we get this You cannot kill desire

with effort alone. It won't work.

Effort alone will never be strong enough to kill desire.

It'll never be strong enough to put these desires down.

If you try to manpower this, willpower this, you won't.

Your willpower is not strong enough.

We all know this. The Apostle Paul writes in

Colossians 223. These have indeed an appearance

of wisdom and promoting self-made religion and

asceticism and severity of the body.

Here it is. But they are of no value and

stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Effort alone is of no value and stopping the indulgence of the

flesh. We must kill desire with desire.

The only way to kill a strong desire is to have an even

stronger desire. It's the only way to do it.

Your desire for the holiness without which no one will see

the Lord must be stronger then your desire for 5 minutes of

gratification. 5 There is no dating and idol, there's only

being yoked to it. There is no dating and idol,

there's only being yoked to it. It's no secret that the younger

generation is putting off marriage.

No offense to anybody. In the 1950's, the average age

that men got married was 22 and women 20.

You realize that in the 1950's, the average age in America that

men got married was 22, and the average age for women was 2075.

Years later, those numbers are now 30 and 28 respectively, and

they are climbing. Sometimes I'll see a couple and

they tell me they've been together for seven years.

They're like, oh, we've been together for seven years.

I assume they're married. Like you've been together for

seven years. You must be married.

Who dates for seven years. And then I quickly realized

that, oh, they're not married, they're dating.

You see, the benefit of dating is that you're not yoked.

You date someone, you're not yoked to them.

Or in the South, we call it hitched.

There's no formal commitment. You can back out whenever you

want, no harm, no foul. I mean, there's consequences,

but it's not sin. It's not sin to break up.

It is a sin to get a divorce. It's not a sin to break up.

Here's why this matters. I wonder how many of these men

who went to the temple of Baal, ate of Baal's food, and bowed

down to Baal thought of themselves as simply going

through the motions. I imagine that's how they

justified it. They thought, well, we have

these women. We like these women.

We think they're better looking than our Jewish women.

Or we think that they have some, you know, or maybe they're just

different, right? Sometimes it doesn't matter if

they're better looking. You just want something

different. We want something different.

And this is just a necessary step in order to keep the

relations open with these women, right?

I really like her. She invited me to her feast.

All right, all right, All right. And yet that's not the

perspective of God's word, the narrator says.

So Israel yoked himself to the Bale of Peor yoked himself.

He doesn't even say they yoked himself to the women.

Did you notice that? Even though that's true, he says

they yoked themselves to the Bale of pure.

What we learn is that there is no dating and idol, and there is

no dating God either. There is either being yoked to

God or being yoked to an idol. I've talked to people through

the years and they have defended that they're not walking away

from the faith. They're not walking away from

God, right? They say, look, I'm just

exploring this new relationship with the lost person.

I'm still a Christian. I'm still a Christian.

I'm not walking away from the faith.

I'm not walking around Christian, you know, I'm just

exploring this new relationship with the lost person.

Or someone takes a job and they say, look, I'm not giving up on

the church. I'm not giving up on

Christianity. I'm just taking this job, even

though this job is going to take me away from church and I'm

going to miss church every single Sunday.

I'm just, it's just the necessary step for me, OK?

It's part of my career, right? I've talked to people about

that. Hear me when I say this,

brothers and sisters, there is no such thing as dating and

idol. There is only being yoked to it.

You're either yoked to God or you're yoked to an idol.

There's no middle ground. Number six, God is angry with

our sexual sin. God is angry with our sexual

sin. Now I want to be clear that if

we are in Christ, God is not angry with us.

Period. Let me be very clear on that.

If we are in Christ, God is not angry with us, period.

God is for us. God delights in US, but that

doesn't mean that God doesn't get angry with us for our sexual

sin, the text says. And the anger of the Lord was

kindled against Israel. Now here's why I think this

point needs to be made. I think it can be.

You go to a lot of churches and this point will not be made

because there's a fear of the church walking away feeling

condemned. But here's why this point has to

be made, because everything in the world, everything outside

there, everything is attempting to minimize this set.

Minimize it. I mean, how many songs are

written today containing lyrics about sexual immorality?

How many? There's a song I heard on the

radio recently. I didn't realize it's actually

an old song. I thought it was new, but it's

actually old. I was singing it and I I didn't

know what they were saying because I couldn't understand

it. And I kept singing it.

And then I realized what I was singing was promiscuous boy and

promiscuous girl. And then after I heard it, I was

like, Oh my gosh, why am I singing?

How many songs are written today around the theme of sexual

immorality? How many movies today don't have

a sex scene or an implied 1? Not among married couples?

How many advertisements are centred around some sexual theme

or some sexual innuendo? You see, it permeates all of our

culture. It permeates all of society.

It's everywhere. Again, statistics vary greatly,

I understand that, but almost everyone I looked up said this

one that somewhere around 90% of people have had sex before they

were married, 90%. The average age now today of

people having their first sexual encounter is 17.

That's Abraham and 10 months 17. And when you are surrounded by

this much of A prevailing culture, it is all too easy to

become desensitized to it, isn't it?

We just get desensitized to it. We forget that God is angry with

our sexual sin. When you read the story, it's

clear that God is not just a little bit angry, He's angry

enough to have these people impaled.

He's angry enough to put 24,000 of them to death.

You see, we need stories like this.

We need stories like this to remind us My holiness matters.

It matters #7 Jesus was hanged in the sun before the Lord for

my sexual sin and for your sexual sin.

Jesus was hanged in the sun before the Lord for my sexual

sin and for your sexual sin. And if you're there and you're

saying, look brother, I've never committed any sexual sin, OK?

Just substitute idolatry in that sentence.

Let me tell you out the word sexual sin.

Just substitute idolatry there. As stunning as verses one to

three are, verse 4 is equally stunning, is it not?

If not more, we read verses one to three and it just kind of

stuns us. And then you read verse 4 and

it's even more stunning. God commands Moses to hang,

probably impale either the leaders of the people or the

perpetrators of this sin. And he tells Moses, do it in the

sun, meaning in the sight before all of the people.

I got exposed to sexual sin at an early age, maybe around 5th

grade. I was maybe around 1111 years

old. For the next 15 years of my

life, I engaged in more sexual sin than I care to recount.

One thought that I've had at least 100 times in my Christian

life is this. Why wasn't I punished?

More Why don't I have leprosy? Why is it?

One of my. Children died because I deserve.

It. I.

Deserve it, I can scarcely even think.

About it sometimes without tears coming to my eyes.

And I always come back. To the same answer.

Because Jesus was. Hanged in the sun before the

Lord, for my sexual sin, and for yours for yours.

That's the only answer I come up with. #8 The greatest problem

facing our world is that there. Is a holy and righteous.

God who is angry with sinners the greatest problem facing our

world is that there is a holy and righteous God who is angry

with sinners the world kind of. Feels like it's falling apart.

Doesn't it? Especially if you watch the

news, which. I I don't think it's.

A good thing to do, but if you ask people what?

Is the greatest problem if? You were to go walk out on the

streets and ask people what is the greatest problem facing our

world right now? You probably get a myriad of

answers. Some people might say war.

War is the greatest problem facing our world right now.

War with Russia and Ukraine, War with Israel and Palestine, war

with Israel and Iran. Some people might.

Say climate change. There's melting ice caps, global

warming, stronger storms. Some people might say AI.

We don't even know the threats of AI.

Maybe it's going to kill us all. Some people will say pandemics.

COVID you thought COVID was? Bad the.

Next one will be even worse. Food supply.

Overpopulation, economic instability, and on and on and

on and on. But here is the objective

correct answer. There is an objective correct

answer, and here it is. The greatest problem facing our

world is that there is a holy and righteous God who is angry

with sinners. The reason that God said.

To hang these men in the sun was not primarily to punish them for

their sin, though that was part of it.

That wasn't the primary reason to do it.

The reason was that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away

from Israel. Neither war nor climate.

Change, nor AI, nor pandemics, or food supply or economic

instability compare to this central and universal problem

facing all of us there. Is a holy and righteous.

God who is angry with sinners, and something must be done about

it. Something must.

Be done about it. And Jesus did.

He did something about it. There is only one way.

For God not. To be angry with us.

There's only one way and it was. Read in our benediction

recently. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,

and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all those who take refuge in him #9 We all have a

corporate responsibility when there is sin in the

congregation. We all have a.

Corporate responsibility. When there is sin in the

congregation, it's interesting that later in the story we're

going to see that the Lord put 24,000 men to death through a

plague. But before he did this, he.

Commands Moses. To either hang all the chiefs,

or to hang, or to have the chiefs hang all the

perpetrators. And then Moses commands the

judges, who may or may not be the same people as the chiefs.

Moses commands them to personally kill all the men who

have yoked themselves to bail. Now why did God do it this way?

He did it this way to teach the people that we all have a

corporate responsibility when there is sin in the

congregation. Now this was.

Not an anomaly. In Deuteronomy 13-6 and nine,

God says that if one of your family members, your brother,

your son, your daughter, or even your wife tries to get you to

serve other gods, God says this. You shall kill him.

Your hand shall be the first against him to put him to death.

Think about that. It's not God's job.

To deal with this sin, it's not even moses's job to deal with

this sin. It is the people's job to deal

with this sin we all have a corporate responsibility when

there is sin in the congregation.

Last point #10 Shame is a. Tool like a.

Hammer. It can be used for destruction.

It can also be used to build supporting structures.

Shame is a. Tool like a hammer it.

Can be used for destruction. It can also be used to build

supporting structures. I did a Friday night series on

Shame a few years back and I realized as I was teaching on

shame that it's a very tricky subject.

It's a lot more tricky than I thought it was at first.

Shame is a lot like a hammer. A hammer can be used for

destruction. It can also be used to build

supporting structures. It is a dangerous place to be

when we have lost all shame. That's a dangerous place to be.

And that's what happens in verse 6.

This man who brought this Midianite woman to his family,

he has lost all sense of shame. Not only does he bring a woman

to his family, he brings a foreign woman, a foreign

idolatrous woman, to his family. Not only does he do it in broad

daylight, but he does it in front of Moses, in front of the

congregation, while they are weeping.

He's lost all. Sense of shame now while it's

true that shame can be very. Dangerous in the Christian life.

It can be. Shame can kill.

A person spiritually. Shame.

Can also be very useful. I want.

To be clear, that shame. Will not 'cause us to obey for

the right reasons. Shame is not a tool that will

get you to obey for the right reasons, but it may serve as a

bridge to the right reasons. What do I mean by that?

One of the. Motivations for obedience There

are many motivations for obedience the Bible gives us

like over 50 one of the. Motivations for obedience.

Is this thought I? Would be.

Ashamed for my church family to know that I did this.

I would be horrified if you knew that I was doing.

This that is not a. Bad motivation.

That's a good motivation. Don't tell yourself there's no

shame. There is shame, Paul.

Says you. Should be ashamed.

There is no. Condemnation, I pray.

That if any of you have sexual sin in your life and I know why

are. You harping on this because

that's what the text is about if.

Any of you have sexual? Sin in your life, kill it, you

won't go. To heaven if you don't.

Kill it. Not perfectly.

Nobody kills their sin perfectly.

There are no people in heaven addicted to pornography.

Hear me when I say. That you must put it to death.

Let's pray.