Respectability Vs. Righteousness

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We are at the

point where we have been focusing our spiritual

discipline. Our spiritual discipline focus for

this six months is fasting. So fasting is a spiritual

discipline. So we're going to back this truck

up just for a second and talk a little bit about

what a spiritual discipline is. A spiritual discipline

is not, for example, something that is forced

on you, something that is required of you, or

something that is scheduled in your life for

you, that's outside your control. And discipline

is something that you choose to do, you choose

when you do it, you choose essentially how you

do it, and you choose then to follow through

on your plans. That's the nature of discipline.

If I say, for example, I'm going to get out of

bed in the morning, the first thing I'm going

to do is do five push -ups, first thing every

morning. And then I get out of bed the next morning

and I don't do those five push -ups, even though

I said I would. And obviously that's not discipline,

right? I didn't choose to do what I said I was

going to do. So spiritual discipline is something

that you can choose to do. You set up the parameters

of it. You decide when you're going to do it,

how you're going to do it, and then you intentionally

follow through with that. So you can see then

how the spiritual discipline has some side effects

that are not necessarily the main thing, but

some side effects. So, for example, the main

thing might be and should be drawing close to

God. We want to know God. We want to know more

about God. We want to experience God firsthand.

We want to let God affect us. All that kind of

thing. You might be fasting. to entreat God to

do something. Like we talked about last week

about Esther and them entreating God to know

that they were right by God so that when she

came before God, if she lost her life, she'd

be right for that. Right? When she came before

the king. And so the side effects can be sometimes

astonishing. So you fast for a couple of weeks,

for example, let's say you fast from sweets.

I'm not going to eat sugar, processed flour,

I'm going to eat sweets for a couple of weeks.

Now, the idea is to draw closer to God, to develop

self -discipline, to be the kind of person God

wants you to be. But the side effect might be

you might lose some weight. Your mind will be

less fogged because there's a thing where sugar

and processed foods... cloud your mind and make

it harder to think clearly. So now you can think

more clearly. Or you might have the effect that

you start getting up before your alarm goes off.

You start thinking in the morning, by the time

your alarm goes off, your mind says, hey, it's

about time for your alarm to go off. You wake

up, look, and sure enough, a minute later, your

alarm goes off. You have side effects that take

place. But here's the problem. This is the lesson

for today, the thing I wanted to hone in on.

We cannot do the fasting. We cannot do the spiritual

discipline of prayer, giving, serving, worship,

Fellowship, these are all certain disciplines

that we do, right? We cannot do those things

for the side effects. So be careful that you

don't say, for example, like, okay, I'm going

to diet and try to get my weight under control,

and then think of that as fasting, as if that

is also going to make you more godly or draw

you closer. That's not how that works, right?

Or if you have, we talk about fasting before

you're fasting. I had a blood test done a couple,

three weeks ago, and you have eight hours of

fasting, right? Well, that eight hours of fasting

before I had my blood test done, they did not

yield me any spiritual fruit whatsoever. I basically

just didn't eat far away from bed. I got up in

the morning, I didn't have breakfast, I went

and had my blood test done. And that's not even

a challenge, really. It might be for somebody,

but for most people, it would not really be a

challenge. And so that is not the spiritual discipline

of fasting. Let's say you're... You go to the

doctor and find out that you're allergic to,

insert whatever, garlic, right? You say, well,

I love garlic in my food, but I'm not going to

eat garlic anymore because when I eat garlic,

I get these allergy symptoms. I get sick or whatever.

Well, giving up garlic is not the circuit for

fasting at that point. And you can see part of

why that is because the situation is forcing

it, right? You don't have any control. There's

no discipline. Every time you eat that garlic,

you get sick. So that's not fasting. Spiritual

discipline is when you set it up, you decide

what you're going to do, you decide how you're

going to do it, and then you follow through.

And yes, there are positive side effects that

happen from fasting, but they are not the goal,

nor do they themselves. If you decide to eat

right for a few months and lose 50 pounds, that

does not make that fasting. All right, so we're

going to pray together, and we're going to pass

it on to one more. Tony Tate, would you lead

us in prayer this time? I haven't got very long

time. Bless you, Father, in whatever that needs

to go. Bless our family, bless the church, and

many others as well, to let the gospel advance

in the kingdom of God. Thank you for everything

you give us in Jesus' name. Amen. so so A tender

whisper. It's who you are. I can hardly think

as lonely. is you Felicia's limping around, but

just for the record, she was safe at first base,

I'm told. So she paid a very dear price for that.

We've got the fun night on Thursday for anybody

who wants to come out and watch, or for the team,

we're playing softball one last time, mixing

up with the other teams, and it's kind of exciting

to finally be done with the season. And then,

of course, it was funny because last week I used

an illustration about how people tend to want

to... prolong things or restart things like that

as soon as it's finishing. And now there is talk

of a fall softball season. So we may be playing

softball, some of us, yet this year. It's been

very fun. And it is hard to let it go. So if

you like to play softball, maybe there's an opportunity

for you. It'll be a shorter season, five, six

weeks. But it could be coming in about a month,

it sounds like. All right. So we have been working

through the book of Judges. And sometimes we

go kind of fast and I understand that. So I'm

going to kind of recap some things just to make

sure everybody's on the same page. So up through

the chapter 18 of the book of Judges, what we

have seen is a repeated theme over and over again,

where it says everyone did what was right in

their own eyes. Now, what we've seen is that

what was right in their own eyes is pretty bad

stuff. Like they have begun to worship idols.

They've added in a lot of false worship. They

worship God incorrectly. They have sinned against

God in a wide variety of ways. And last time,

what we really saw was that it had become so

normal that the behaviors that they had gotten

into were really not even being questioned anymore.

And that's where we take up chapter 18. But before

we get to that, I want to say something about

the story that we're about to read. So are you

familiar at all with the story of Lot and Sodom?

If not, let me give you just a brief synopsis.

So Lot was Abraham's nephew, and Abraham was

promised to have a great nation coming out of

him, but he had had no children. And so Lot was

with Abraham while Abraham was traveling, and

they both became very prosperous. They had a

lot of kids, a lot of shepherds, a lot of sheep,

a lot of good things going on. And so they needed

a park. So Abraham said, Lot, look at the land

wherever you want, and you pick where you want

to go. So Lot chose this beautiful, fertile valley

that was composed then of Sodom and Gomorrah

and the surrounding lands. And that's where he

went. And he continued to prosper there, but

he lived in Sodom. So at a certain point, Sodom

became so sinful that God was going to destroy

Sodom. And Abraham sort of negotiated with God,

said, you know, please don't, please don't do

that. Lot lives there and said, if there were

50 righteous people that lived there, would you

still destroy Sodom? And God said, if there's

50 righteous, I would not destroy Sodom. I would

let it go if there was 50. It kept getting negotiated

down until Abraham said, if there was one righteous

man, would you destroy Sodom? And God said, no,

if there was one righteous man, I would spare

the city for one righteous man. And so what winds

up happening is that's the deal they strike.

And God sends a couple of angels to Sodom. When

the angels arrive in Sodom, they go to Lot's

house. And they're visiting with Lot. And Lot

is the one righteous man in Sodom for which God

would spare that city. And he's living there

with his two virgin daughters. Well, while the

angels are there, the town hears that some strangers

have come. And they come and they're banging

on the door. And they plead with Lot. They tell

Lot, let the men out so that we might have relations

with them. That's kind of disgusting. But that

gives you an idea of how far Sodom had fallen.

So Sodom was populated by Canaanites. You've

heard that term before, Canaanites. Those are

the people that lived in the Promised Land. And

Canaan comes out of the son Ham, who was the

son of Noah. And he was the one who kind of betrayed

Noah. And he was said to be living in a land

and tempting God's people all throughout to do

evil. And so the people of Canaan lived in Sodom.

God hauls by the angels, hauls Lot out. He tells

him, God, go right now, you and all your family.

And they go out, and God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah

with a huge fire, rains down from the sky, destroys

both cities. You know, there's a side story there

where Lot's wife looks back, longing for what

they had when they were living in Sodom, and

she's turned to a pillar of salt. Allegedly,

you can still go there today and see the pillar

of salt, whether that's really the pillar of

salt or not is unknown. So Lot goes into the

hills. So when Lot goes into the hills, some

people think that he and his daughters thought

that all human society was wiped out. But actually,

if you read the story, that cannot be true, because

God shows Lot the other cities where he could

have gone to live, and Lot chooses to not go

to those other cities. Instead, he chooses to

go in the hills. But his daughters then, in desperation,

his virgin daughters, these are the same virgin

daughters that Lot was ready to shove outside

to the crowd. Sodom so that they could have their

way with his virgin daughters instead of the

angels, right? But it doesn't wind up happening.

The angels blind the crowd and then they pull

Lot out. But he was ready to give up his virgin

daughters to the crowd. So they get Lot drunk

while they're staying in the hills. They get

Lot drunk and have babies with Lot, with their

dad, right? Very disgusting. I get all that,

right? And out of that come two peoples. the

Moabites and the Ammonites. So two sons born

to Lot, and they become the Moabites and the

Ammonites. So the Moabites were people that refused

Israelite hospitality when they were coming out

of Egypt, and they became lasting, enduring enemies

of Israel. I'm giving you a lot of background,

so just suck up what you can, okay? And then

in the book of Judges already, we have seen the

Moabite empire basically defeated by the Judges,

okay? Judges 11, there was a super fat king named

Eglon, who was the king of the Moabites. And

Ehud stabbed him with a left -handed dagger and

he killed him. And then after that, they cast

him off. I'm sorry, that's Judges 3. And then

in Judges 11, the Ammonites attacked Gilead over

a land dispute. They said to Jephthah, well,

you know, you cheated us, whatever. And Jephthah

said, no, not actually. And they attacked and

then they were destroyed. And so now. They still

exist as a people around, and they're just tempting

people to worship their false gods. They were

really wicked. They worshiped a god that required

human sacrifice. They worshiped false gods that

allowed them to do all kinds of things that were

evil and nasty. And they're around, and they've

lured the Israelites. And so where we're at right

now, as we go into chapter 19, is the Israelites

have accepted a lot of those wicked things. They

came from the Moabites. They came from the Ammonites.

They came from the Canaanites, right? Who all

come out of essentially where? They come out

of lines of God's people that were wicked by

nature. Ham was wicked, cursed by God, and then

sponsored the Canaanites who filled the land,

filled Sodom and those two cities. Sodom and

Gomorrah were so wicked that God just outright

destroyed them, right? But many Canaanites that

didn't live in those cities still existed and

were still luring the Israelites to do wrong

things. The Moabites... were came out of that

line a lot which was not the chosen line not

the line of jesus not the line of abraham right

and they were wicked and ruled and molested and

ruled over god's people and forced them to follow

false gods and so on and eventually were defeated

by the judges but still exists still tempting

them and i think in numbers 25 for example the

ladies of the mobites um led the men of Israel

to marry them and worship their false gods. And

they tempted them with sex and seduced them and

so on. And so really, we have a wicked people

that surround. And now we have God's people becoming

a wicked people. So we have studied through 17

and 18. We saw that to the point that now people

are not even asking questions. And you're going

to see that a little bit again then in Judges

Judges 19 · chapter mention

chapter 19. Maybe give me a little hoot, a holler,

amen, hallelujah, something. I know it's going

to be hard. So we've got three families traveling

and two families out sick. So the room is a little

thin, but be with me. Come on now. This is Judges

Judges 19 · chapter mention

chapter 19. Thank you. All right. This is God's

word. Whether I get right or wrong, what it says,

it says what it says. You don't have to like

it. I don't have to like it, but it says what

it says. And we do have to adjust to it and let

God speak. Okay. So in Judges chapter 19. So

Judges 19 · chapter mention

what's going to happen here, what we're going

to read today really isn't. It isn't too horrible,

but we can see that it's in the offing of something

that's pretty bad. All right. So 19 says in those

days when there was no king in Israel, reminding

us that the story is continuing for everything

that we've been studying. A Levite who should

have been a priest, a Levite staying in a remote

part of the hill country of Ephraim, acquired

a woman from Bethlehem in Judah as his concubine.

There are so many things wrong with that statement.

First of all, the Levite shouldn't have been

living in Ephraim, right? They're supposed to

be focused around. Shiloh, but he's living off

in the hill country of Ephraim, away from where

they're supposed to be worshiping God. And then,

let's say he's off. So he's on rotation. He serves

the temple. Right now, he's not. Then he has

a woman from Bethlehem in Judah as his concubine,

not his wife. So, FYI, concubines are not biblical.

All throughout biblical history, we've seen people

take wives and also take concubines. They're

not biblical. A concubine is like a wife with

no rights. And that's not biblical, right? And

so he shouldn't have had a concubine at all,

but he has one. Verse two, it says, but she was

unfaithful to him. So in other words, she didn't

stick with him. And she left him for her father's

house in Bethlehem in Judah. She was there for

four months. So she's been gone away from him

for four months. Then her husband got up and

followed her to speak kindly to her. So he doesn't

go after her to punish her. He doesn't go after

her to like... make her a laughingstock in the

middle of town for not being faithful or anything

like that. Right. He goes after her to speak

kindly to her and to bring her back. He had his

servant with him and a pair of donkeys. So she

brought him to her father's house. And when the

girl's father saw him, he gladly welcomed him.

All right. So here's what we have. So we have

a man who takes a woman not to be his wife, but

to be his concubine. So he's not followed godly

principles in taking this woman into his life.

She's got no real rights in his household. And

he goes to her dad's house where she has fled

after for four months. He's been there because

she doesn't like it where she's at. And her dad's

like, oh, I'm so glad to see you. All right.

Now, if you're a dad in the room, you're not

resonating with that response. Right. Exactly.

That's what I'm thinking. Like, I've got an issue

with you. You took this my wife into your house.

You had sex with her. You did not make her your

wife. You're not taking care of her. She doesn't

like it there. And she came home and for four

months I've been hearing and my wife's been hearing,

my kids have been hearing all about the way it

was. And now you come and, hey, welcome. Glad

to meet you. Now, that's not how I would expect

that to go. But again, we're living in a twisted

time with wicked standards. All right. So it

says his father -in -law, the girl's father,

detained him and he stayed with him for three

days. So he's providing him for three days. It

says they ate, they drank, they spent the nights

there. On the fourth day, they got up early in

the morning, prepared to go. So the man is taking

his concubine and they're leaving. Not married,

but they're leaving. But the girl's father said

to his son -in -law, has something to eat. Keep

up your strength and then you can go. So he's

going to give him some extra hospitality. He's

going to entreat him to stay a little while longer.

So that makes him look kind of respectable, right?

He's treating him with a lot of respect. So they

sat down and the two of them ate and drank together.

Then the girl's father said to the man, please

agree to stay overnight and enjoy yourselves.

So he entreats him to stay one more night. Let's

party some more. The man got up to go, but his

father -in -law persuaded him. So he stayed and

spent the night there again. He got up early

in the morning of the fifth day to leave, but

the girl's father said to him, please keep up

your strength. So they wait until late afternoon

and the two of them ate. The man got up to go

with his concubine and his servant. When his

father -in -law, the girl's father said to him,

look, Night is coming. Please spend the night.

See, the day is almost over. Spend the night

here. Enjoy yourself. Then you can go up early

tomorrow for your journey and go home. So he

keeps entreating him to stay a little longer,

stay a little longer. And that kind of hospitality,

that kind of generousness looks good, doesn't

it? Because you want people to give you stuff.

Don't you feel good about people when they give

you stuff? So it seems pretty good. But the man

never said anything about God, never said anything

about the fact that she was a concubine, not

a wife. Never said anything about the fact that

this Levite was not following the rules that

God had laid out. So that takes us through verse

9. We're going to go a little further. 10. But

the man was unwilling to spend the night. He

got up, departed, and arrived opposite Jabez,

that is, Jerusalem. The man had his two saddled

donkeys and his concubine with him. When they

were near Jabez, and the day was almost gone,

the servant said to his master, Please, why not

let us stop at the Jebusite city and spend the

night here? So they want to go in the city, be

safe from wild animals, maybe stay somewhere

warm and comfortable rather than continuing to

travel. But his master replied to him, We will

not stop at a foreign city where there are no

Israelites. Let's move on to Gibeah. Come on,

he said. Let's try to reach one of these places

and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah. So they

continued on their journey. And the sun set as

they neared Gibeah and Benjamin. They stopped

to go in and spend the night in Gibeah. The Levite

went in, sat down in the city square, but no

one took them into their home to spend the night.

In the evening, an old man came in from his work

in the field. So first of all, it was culturally

acceptable for somebody to take him in, but nobody

did. Now this guy comes in, and he's going to

be the one who's like shining character, in a

sense. In the evening, An old man came in from

his work in the field. He was from the hill country

of Ephraim as well, right? So the Levite is from

there and now so is he. But he was residing in

Gibeah where the people were Benjamites. Benjamites,

there we go. When he looked up and saw the traveler

in the city square, the old man asked, where

are you going and where do you come from? He

answered him, we're traveling from Bethlehem

in Judah to the remote hill country of Ephraim

where I am from. I went to Bethlehem and Judah,

and now I'm going to the house of the Lord. No

one has taken me into his home, although there's

straw and feed for the donkeys, and I have bread

and wine for my concubine and the servant with

us. There is nothing we lack. Welcome, said the

old man. I'll take care of everything you need.

Only don't spend the night in the square. So

he brought him to his house and fed the donkeys.

Then they washed their feet and they ate and

they drank. So notice that we remember, don't

forget that we're dealing with a time of wickedness.

Right. So the city does not welcome him in. But

here comes a guy who will. And he does. Right.

And we find out that the guy, the Levite, could

even provide for all of his stuff. He wasn't

asking for any resources. He didn't need anybody

to feed him. He had all the food that he needed.

Anybody to take care of his cattle. He had to

take care of the cow and so on. And yet no one

would be taking him in. We've been hearing this

phrase. In those days, there was no king and

everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

And we see a difference between the father of

the concubine, who probably should have been

mad about what was going on with his daughter,

but he wasn't. And there was no discussion of

God whatsoever. But he's offering a great deal

of hospitality to the city where the man goes,

where nobody wants to offer him hospitality at

all. So this guy keeps entreating him. Let me

give you more. Let me give you more. Let me give

you more. No talk of righteousness, but very

much a respectable hospitality. Where over here,

nobody even cares, right? They don't have to

give him anything, just a roof over his head

and they won't give him anything. Now this man

comes in and he sees him in trouble, basically

sleeping out in the square overnight and he invites

him in. Evil has become ordinary and many people

in this chapter still think that they are respectable.

That dad, he thinks he's respectable because

he keeps offering hospitality, giving. He's not

asking for anything in return. The people, they

think they're respectable, right? They're living

their lives, working, whatever, but they just

let a stranger sleep in the square and they don't

provide him with any hospitality. And now this

guy thinks he's respectable. He brings him into

his house. I want you to see then that sometimes

evil starts with thinking you're doing the right

thing and you just keep going and it's really

not the right thing at all. The relationship

becomes compromised between you and God because

you have a standard and God has a standard and

the standards are not the same. Your family maybe

continues to function, saying we believe in God.

I will never forget back in the day, a long time

ago in the ICE event, we had some evangelists

who came in from out of town and we went around

and talked to people, knocked on doors and talked

to people in the street and whatever. And we've

done a number of things like that. But there

was one girl who was coming to our... This is

a young girl. I think she was 11 or 12 years

old. And she was a professing Christian. Her

mom would not let her get baptized, but she was

a professing Christian. And she was pretty devout.

She was reading her Bible. She was praying. She

was serving in the church. She was doing stuff.

Always had a smile on her face. Joy of the Lord.

And I talked to her about the way it was at home.

And she said, well, we keep our Bibles on our

nightstands. And my mom always encourages us

to read our Bible every night before we go to

bed. And I'm like, well, that's cool. And so

we pray before we eat. That's cool. And I started

thinking in my head, I think, you know, I think

maybe maybe she lives in a Christian household

and there's just something wrong about the way,

you know, they don't understand that they should

be plugging the church. They should be serving

the kingdom. They should be doing these things.

I was thinking about that. Then the ICE event

came up and it and that put me knocking on her

door. So I knocked on her door and her mom was

home and she was not. And the man of the household

was not home as well. And they were not married,

but that's irrelevant in this story. The bottom

line is, she was the only one home. And so I

started talking to her about Jesus. And the truth

is, I had two women with me and they went over

to the side and sat down because the conversation

took like 40 minutes. They went over to the side

and sat down and they were praying. And they

were praying for her. And they were praying for

me. And before we were done, that woman... prayed

to accept Jesus Christ as Lord for the first

time. Now, I had begun to think in hearing the

stories of her household about Bibles on the

nightstand, about praying before meals and no

foul language allowed and being respectful of

your parents. I began to think that that household

maybe had some saved people in it. But when I

talked to her, she was open and honest. She was

very transparent about it, right? She said, I'm

not saved. I know I'm not saved. What does it

actually mean to be saved? And we talked about

it, and she prayed to accept Christ. In this

story, we see hospitality. Everyone seems pleasant.

The customs and appearances. Yet no one is asking,

what does God require? People are clinging to

traditions, and we do that a lot today. When

my parents were young, my dad was 18. He got

my mom pregnant. She was 16, almost 17. And it

was traditional then, very much cultural, that

if you got pregnant, you got married. And so

my parents were like, it's no problem. We want

to get married. We love each other. We'll live

together for the rest of our lives. I was too

young, really, but we want to get married. And

so they could not get married in the church building

because my mom was pregnant with my brother.

And so they got married in my grandparents' living

room. Now, they got married in my grandparents'

living room because, quote, it was the right

thing to do. My dad had got her pregnant, so

it was the right thing to do. They got married

there with my dad's parents there and my mom's

mom was there because it was the right thing

to do. They stayed together for life because

it was the right thing to do. Now, fast forward

40 years. 40 years later in a church in Tennessee,

my mother accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and

Savior. There's a lot of things that people are

doing and trying to be honest. Everybody knows

you should basically be honest. You shouldn't

get caught in a lie, at least. And there's a

lot of things that people are trying to do that

they think are right. And it's hard. And they

get it right sometimes and they don't get it

right sometimes. And in this story, we see people

who think they have a standard. They seem respectable.

Right. They're doing what somebody else might

not do. But the truth is their heart is not necessarily

right. Sometimes would be Christians or people

think they're Christians take on Christian culture,

Christian schools, Christian politics, Christian

families. Right. They automatically produce good

things because they think they are Christians,

but they are not actually right by God. Only

transformed hearts. will produce the righteousness

that God is looking for. And in this story, there

are no transformed hearts. There are hospitable

people, respectable people, people with good

reputations, people that think that they're right,

but their hearts are not transformed. Notice

then that evil often waits quietly until circumstances

reveal that, reveal the truth that we're seeing.

So now go back to the text for a minute. We already

know that the people of Gideon are pretty kind

of like withdrawn from the Levite and his concubine

and servant, right? And now it begins in verse

22 that we see something happen. Verse 22, while

they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden

wicked men of the city surrounded the house and

beat on the door. They said to the old man who

was the owner of the house, bring out the man,

the man, sorry, the man who came to your house

so we can have sex with him. Now, that's this

translation. In the actual Hebrew, it uses a

word that means to know him intimately. Now,

whether that means sex for sure or not, but it

means to know him intimately, not just to talk

to him, not just like a conversation with him,

but to know him intimately. And so in this translation,

it says that we can have sex with him, which

is probably pretty accurate. The owner of the

house went out and said to them, please don't

do this evil. See, they can identify, he's identifying

that that is an evil thing. But now listen to

his logic. He says, please don't do this evil,

my brothers. After all, this man has come into

my house. Don't commit this horrible outrage.

See, he's appealing that they should not take

the man outside and have sex with him because

he took him into his house. Not because it's

wrong. Not because God says it's wrong. Not because

God has destroyed Sodom. You know the story.

So did they. In fact, the people who read this

story in the book of Judges would have known

intimately the story of Sodom and how God had

destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for similar sin

to this. And that's not what he says. Consider

how God treated Sodom after they tried to sleep

with the angels. No, he doesn't say that. He

just says, but I took this man into my house.

We have a custom. I have a responsibility to

provide them with safety. You should leave them

alone and let me provide them with hospitality,

right? Even subtly under the current, he might

be saying, at least wait until the morning when

they leave, right? Because that's what the text

is saying. Don't commit this horrible outrage

because I brought them into my house. Here, let

me bring out my virgin daughter and the man's

concubine now. abuse them and do whatever you

want to them, but don't commit this outrageous

thing against this man. I mean, now if this is

surprising you, I warned you, we are dealing

with a people living in a period of wickedness

that has become so proliferous that everyone

falls to it almost immediately. And even though

the man showed hospitality, showed respect to

a traveler, has been generous, now under pressure

of a mob beating on his door, He offers his own

daughter and the Levite's concubine, which is

not his property. That's not his wife. It's not

his wife with no rights, right? He offers the

daughter and the concubine to be raped all night

so that the man can be spared. But the men would

not listen to him. They're not going to listen.

They want to have relations with the man who's

safely in the house. So the man who was providing

the shelter seized. I'm sorry, the man who is

receiving the shelter, the Levite, seized his

concubine. This is the woman whose father he

just spent the last week with. He snatches her,

probably by the arm or the hair, and he took

her outside to them. And they raped her and abused

her all night until morning. And at daybreak,

they let her go. That morning, the woman made

her way back. And as it was getting light, she

collapsed at the doorway of the man's house where

her master was. That concludes our text for the

day. I know it's a dark text. It's a difficult

text. And I spent many hours processing it mentally

and spiritually this week to get us to where

we are right this second. I submit to you that

for a moment in this story, everything seemed

hopeful. The Levite and his concubine and his

servant are safe in the house. They're being

treated with respect. It sounds like this guy

that has invited them in is a pretty decent dude,

right? He's somewhat respectable. The city appears

peaceful. Nothing terrible is actually happening.

But the evil has been there all along. It simply

hasn't been tested. Extreme situations reveal

while ordinary days conceal. So you can or the

people you know can live fairly normally day

in and day out respectable lives. And then when

real trouble comes, when evil rears its ugly

head, the evil that is in a person or in their

situation or in their household jumps up and

matches the evil. Pressure does not create character.

People do not get better because times get tough.

pressure creates character in any way is after

you come out of the tough times and realize that

you come out of the tough times, you realize,

hey, I can do more than I ever thought I could.

Not during. During, we act out of what is in

our deeper urges. Our character is revealed.

The veneer, that's the surface painting, the

way the surface has been prepared of civilization

is thin when hearts remain unchanged. I've been

with a very nice guy. Seemed like he was friendly.

We could have conversations. I thought we were

pretty much alike. And we went to a restaurant

and ordered a sandwich and it came out wrong.

And apparently that was just too much and put

him over the edge. And suddenly he was not a

nice guy at all. And I realized something about

my friend at that time. And I already knew he

wasn't saved because I tried to talk to him about

Christ and failed. But I realized that he had

a very thin surface coat of goodness. And it

covered every angle. No matter how you looked

at him, he looked good. But then when something

would get beyond him, something would strike

him a little deeply, something would bother him,

there was real evil there to be unleashed. I

felt bad for the people he unleashed it upon

that day to the point that I even said something

and a little bit of it was unleashed upon me.

Many people believe and they say, I'd never do

that. But scripture teaches, Jeremiah 17, 9,

the human heart is desperately wicked. In fact,

it even goes on to say, who can know it? And

what's implied there is that even you cannot

know your heart and what you are capable of when

the situation turns dark. Without God's transforming

grace, no one knows what he is capable of. I've

been asked a number of times, like, if somebody

was coming after your family, would you stand

up? Would you be strong? Would you defeat them?

Would you do whatever you have to take a bullet,

wield a knife? And I pray I would. But I'm a

human being. I want to. I know what I want to

be in the moment of friction. And I just have

to trust God that he will make me in the moment

of friction what I need to be. Because I also

know that in me is a weak man, a sinful man,

a wicked man. Even if right now you can paint

a pretty good picture. of yourself, you have

to realize that if times grow rough, do you know

that there were people who fist fought, literally

fist fought, knocked over carts, threw each other

around in aisles over toilet paper during COVID.

Toilet paper. Because people were worried that

they would not have something to wipe their butt

with if COVID went on for a little while. FYI,

you don't even need toilet paper. It's a luxury.

And they were beating each other up and sending

each other to the hospital. because times had

grown dark, and dark times reveal character.

The truth is that our best is never enough. The

old man is more honorable than the rest, the

Levite is better than some, the father -in -law

seems generous, yet every person in the story

is compromised. No hero appears. The lesson here

is startling. Being better than everyone else

is not enough. God never called his people merely

to be less wicked. He called us to be holy. I

already quoted Jeremiah 17 .9 that says the heart

is deceitful above all things and desperately

wicked. Listen to Romans 3 .9 -12 for a second.

It says, what then? Are we better than they?

In other words, as Christians, are we better

than someone else? Not at all. For we have already

charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under

sin. As it is written, there is none righteous,

not even one. There is none who understands.

There is none who seeks for God. All have turned

aside. Together they have become useless. There

is none who does good. There is not even one.

And so Paul is writing to the church at Rome

that outside the kingdom of God, outside the

righteousness that Jesus Christ will freely provide

to you if you will accept it, there is no righteousness.

Those who do good and who do good under pressure

will still yield under a different pressure or

a deeper pressure because in them there is no

good. Isaiah 64 says it this way. For all of

us have become like one who is unclean and all

our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment

and all of us wither like a leaf and our iniquities

like the wind take us away. That's what's going

on in the passage of scripture that we see today.

It's not a question of whether or not a human

being will yield to doing something that they

should not do. It's not a question of whether

or not a father will make a mistake as a parent

or whether a child will disobey their parents.

It's not a question of whether or not a teacher

will make the wrong decision in the classroom

or whether a doctor will make a mistake on the

job that costs somebody mobility or even their

life. It's not a question of whether or not bad

things will happen when people are left to their

own devices. The question is when. The question

becomes how much pressure does a person need

to endure or what kind of pressure do they need

to endure to bring out of them the wickedness

that resides in every human being? That's the

reality of it. But there is hope. There is hope.

And we're coming to the conclusion already. is

that we need something better than our best,

but there is something better offered. Remember

Sodom. God judged Sodom. He said that people

of Sodom, they will not repent. They are wicked.

And he decided to destroy them. Here, Israel

has become Sodom. And people who read this story

in its original writing, written in the Hebrew,

scratched out on a scroll, told from person to

person, Well, I heard so -and -so say, so -and

-so said, they read this scroll, and so on. They

remembered the story of Sodom. They knew that

the people in this story had become like the

people in Sodom, and there was nothing left keeping

them from deserving a reign of fire. This story

too much echoes that story for them to not have

known that. The difference is not that Israel

is less sinful. That's not why God doesn't rain

down fire and destroy Israel. It's not that God's

being patient and he'll destroy them eventually

when they've proven themselves as too wicked.

Rather, it is God's covenant mercy. God has decided

to make a covenant with certain people on the

earth that the kingdom may advance and that anyone

who would be willing could theoretically enter

that kingdom. and come into a right relationship

with God. Like righteous Lot, who was distressed

by Sodom's wickedness, the New Testament describes

as that righteous man, Lot, who was distressed

daily, vexed daily by the wickedness that surrounded

him. There are still people who are grieved by

sin in the story, yet the nation itself has become

deeply corrupt. God delays judgment because Israel

is his covenant people. not because they deserve

to be preserved. God's mercy is not saying that

these wicked actions are okay. God never says

that that man taking a concubine, a wife of less

rights, that that's okay. Or that men raping

men in the city forcibly is okay. Or that men

raping unto death a concubine, that wife of lesser

rights, is okay. God never says any of those

things okay. God has not changed his position.

God's patience is not saying that people will

be accepted while they do these things. Hear

me today. If you are here today and you are living

in sin and you are doing so intentionally, there

is nothing in scripture that says that God will

accept you under those terms. What they needed

and what we need today is the same. New hearts.

Jeremiah 30. 31, 31 to 33, the prophet Jeremiah

writes it this way, says, Behold, days are coming,

declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant

with the house of Israel and with the house of

Judah. Not like the covenant which I made with

their fathers in the day I took them by the hand

to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant

which they broke, although I was a husband to

them, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant

which I will make with the house of Israel after

those days, declares the Lord. I will put my

law within them and on their heart. I will write

it. And I will be their God and they shall be

my people. That is the very gospel itself. That

is the invitation that is directed at us and

at every human living being. That we might come

to him and receive a new heart. Ezekiel 36 then

says this way. Moreover, I will give you a new

heart, put a new spirit within you. And I will

remove the heart of stone from your flesh and

give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my

spirit within you. And then in the New Testament,

in Hebrews 8, we get this. when I will effect

the new covenant with the house of Israel and

with the house of Judah, not like the covenant

which I made with their fathers on the day when

I took them by the hand to lead them out of the

land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my

covenant, and I did not care for them, says the

Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make

with the house of Israel after those days, says

the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and

I will write them on their hearts. See, the writer

of Hebrews is saying that the covenant with the

church today, with believers today, is the same

renewed covenant that was promised by Jeremiah

and Ezekiel, really by God through them. He says,

and I will be their God and they shall be my

people. And they shall not teach everyone his

fellow citizen and everyone his brother saying,

know the Lord. For all will know me from the

least to the greatest of them. For I will be

merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember

their sins no more. When he set a new covenant,

he has made the first obsolete. But whatever

is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready

to disappear. One more set of verses, 1 Corinthians

1. For the word of the cross is foolishness to

those who are perishing, but to us who are being

saved, it is the power of God. See, in this story,

we have people who are trying to appear respectable.

People who are trying to have a good reputation.

They're trying to follow the cultural laws and

rules and look good to the people around them.

But internally, they're wicked. Paul writes to

the Corinthians that if we were following the

wisdom of the cross to the people around us,

that wisdom is going to seem like foolishness.

So a good reputation or a pure and respectable,

that's not our goal. 19 in that same chapter

says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and

the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where

is the debater of this age? Has not God made

foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in

the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom

did not come to know God, God was well pleased

through the foolishness of the message preached

to save those who believe. Will you believe God

is well pleased through the foolishness of the

message preached? to save you. For indeed, Jews

ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom. But

we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling

block and to Gentiles foolishness. But to those

who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,

the power of God and the wisdom of God, because

the foolishness of God is wiser than men and

the weakness of God is stronger than men. And

what I hear is an entreaty by God to this point.

Please, I'm begging you, stop trying to look

good. You're wasting your effort. To be respectable,

to have a good reputation, that is a waste. Our

hope is not better manners, better traditions,

better politics, better families, better religion.

All these things are quite respectable in society.

But our hope is not even our best effort. Our

hope is Jesus Christ. who gives what sinful hearts

cannot produce, he gives a new heart, a new spirit,

and a new life. There's a story in the New Testament,

I won't go there and read it to you, but I'm

going to recap it for you, about a man named

Nicodemus. He was extremely well respected. He

fasted two days a week. That means for 24 hours,

he would go without any food or drink whatsoever,

no water, two days a week. He memorized whole

books of the Bible, had the book of Genesis,

long book. Word for word, beginning to end, memorized.

And not only the book of Genesis, multiple books.

He was a preacher in high demand. He traveled

all around proselytizing, trying to get people

to believe that the Jewish religion was the only

way. It was the way to the Messiah, the way that

God would make that all people would get saved.

He was in such high demand that he never had

a weekend where he wasn't preaching in a temple

or a synagogue or a small group. And Jesus said

to that man, you must be born again in order

to be saved. You can be as respectable as you

want and you're going to go to hell with a whole

bunch of respectable people. But if you will

be born again, if you will allow Jesus to be

Lord of your life, if you allow Jesus to come

and live in you and lead you and guide you from

this day forward, whether it's a year or 50 or

until Jesus comes again, whatever that looks

like, he'll make you born again. He'll take out

of you your heart of stone and give you a heart

of flesh. So there might be somebody in your

room saying, I really never wanted this. And

right now in this moment, you're going like,

wait a minute, I think I do want this. I think

I need this. I think this is what my life needs

to be like. This is what God's been trying to

do. And I see that now. That's God in the process

of taking out your stone heart, which did not

want to be with God, and giving you a heart of

flesh. I heard people a lot of times say that

the gospel is plan A. And there is no plan B.

But that actually isn't true. The gospel is plan

A. And plan A is you must admit that you need

Jesus, believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,

and commit to follow him for the rest of your

life. That's plan A. That's the simple gospel

of how to get saved. Cry out to the Lord, it

says, in the name of the Lord, in the name of

the Lord Jesus Christ. And he will always answer

and always save you. But there are people who

do not want that. Their heart is hard. They don't

want a relationship with Jesus. They think, well,

I can't trust anyone because I've been betrayed

so much. I can't depend on anyone. I got to learn.

My parents and my situation has taught me to

be dependable, not to depend on anybody. I can't

let anyone in to lead, to guide, to govern my

life. I am the one. Solo mio. I'm doing it. They

don't want Jesus. And that's a heart of stone.

But there is a plan B in which God says that

when the gospel comes, when the truth of Jesus

comes, that people are softened. They go start

thinking, well, maybe this heart of stone has

been a little heavy. Maybe it's been a little

hard. Maybe there's been times where it has not

served me the way it should have. Maybe it's

not what I was made to be. Just that doubt, that

question. And God begins to take out that heart

of stone and put in a heart of flesh. And you

can feel, when you feel, what you will feel is

that you feel you need him. Because that's what

you were created for. And Jesus said to that

very respectable man, you must be born again.

And then a few verses later he says, do not marvel

that I say unto you, you must be born again.

Listen to me. If people who appeared respectable

but had hearts of stone went to heaven, heaven

would not be like heaven anymore. Heaven would

be people throwing other people out the door

to be raped in the street. Because when the pressure

comes, people exhibit that heart of stone. They

exhibit that wickedness. that deceitfulness that

even they do not know. Respectability without

regeneration will always fail to produce righteousness.

A couple of quotes and we'll be through. Socrates,

you might have heard that word. Socrates, a very

wise, long, long time ago philosopher, right?

Socrates. He said this, he said, the way to gain

a good reputation is to endeavor to do what you

desire to appear. Let me say it again. The way

to gain a good reputation. is to endeavor to

be what you desire to appear. In other words,

people have gotten it backwards. People are painting

their houses of their lives, trying to look good

without ever cleaning up what's inside. But if

you clean up what's inside, the outside will

naturally follow. If you get a new heart, you

will become more honest and eventually you will

just become honest. You will walk in the light.

You will be sanctified by God, set apart for

his holy service. You will serve without asking

for anything back. Instead of serving, hoping

that people will praise you, hoping that people

will give to you, hoping people will pat you

on the back or that you'll get an A or the teacher

will be a little bit more gentle with you the

next time you're acting up. You'll serve because

it's who you are. Socrates said, the way to gain

a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you

desire to appear. You can try all day to be what

you really desire to appear, but something's

going to come along and it's going to push you.

And it's going to punch through to that which

you really are, unless you become that which

you really want to be. And what you really want

to be is right by God. You want to be in a relationship

with the Lord that will help you every moment

of every day, when it's hard and when it's easy,

which, by the way, is also when it's hard. William

Shakespeare, whoever he was, said, Reputation

is an idol. So people seek after looking good

to people. Reputation is an idol. Reputation

is an idol and most false imposition. In other

words, people get stuck trying to get good reputation

and it doesn't do them any good whatsoever. He

says, it's oft got without merit. In other words,

a lot of people have a good reputation, even

they don't deserve it. And lost without deserving.

A lot of people who deserve a good reputation.

We'll lose it because of rumor, slander, lies,

cheating, whatever. That has happened to me.

We've served people, done nothing wrong, and

then had them lie about us just to kind of put

distance between us and them. Occasionally it

was so that they wouldn't have to pay back a

debt or so that they wouldn't look bad themselves,

whatever. And when somebody slanders your reputation,

your best defense is to know who you are. To

be who you are. And the only chance of that is

to be right by God. Abraham Lincoln said this,

he said, Character is like a tree, and reputation,

it's shadow. The shadow is what we think of it.

The tree is the real thing. Jesus is inviting

you to get a character of his creation, a heart

of flesh. A leader who will lead you in the right

direction. A servant who will teach you to serve.

A lover who will love as example and then make

you able to love the same way. In 1989, I went

to the theater to see a rom -com. I'm exposing

myself. I love romantic comedy. And a lot of

them I can't watch because I don't watch rated

R movies or a lot of things they show. Things

they say are not good. I won't watch, but there

are occasionally ones. In 1989, I wasn't saved,

and I went to go see a movie. The movie was called

Harry Met Sally. Are you familiar with that movie?

No? It was a very big movie. For a rom -com,

it was one of the most grossingest of all time.

At the end of the movie, it was supposed to end

with them breaking up, and that was it. That

was how the movie was supposed to end. That was

the realistic ending. That was the script. That's

what they had planned. And as they're producing

the movie, it became... obvious that the two

of them breaking up after everybody in the movie

had rooted for them to be together was going

to be a problem. It was going to cause a problem

with the audiences, and it was going to get bad

reviews. Early watchers said, no, we don't want

that. That's not good. And so the two actors

in the movie were Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan,

and they said to Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan,

well, we're cutting the end of the movie. Instead

of them breaking up, we want them to end up together.

But we don't have anybody to write lines, so

take care of it. And so they took care of it.

And Billy Crystal looked deeply into Meg Ryan's

eyes and he says, when you realize you want to

spend the rest of your life with somebody, you

want the rest of your life to start as soon as

possible. And then that line spread throughout

the world and affected people. And now it's spread

to here and affected us. And why do you think

that is? Because when you realize that you want

to spend the rest of your life with Jesus, You're

going to want the rest of your life to start

right away. This concludes the message. It's

a message of a people living in respectable ways

in a very dark time. I'm asking you, are you

somebody like that? It's not good enough. It

wasn't good enough for me when I was 25 years

old. I began to realize I had a house and a job,

a career. I was successful, as some people count

success. I had a beautiful wife, a beautiful

daughter. and one on the way, lots of loans,

paying for everything. Both our cars had loans,

our house had loans. I put the mower on a credit

card, and I realized that that wasn't going to

get it done. Whatever you've managed to collect,

it's not going to get it done. Whatever people

think of you, it's not going to get it done.

There will be no standing before the white throne

of judgment and saying, but everybody loved me.

I did all these good things. Those who make those

pleas, we already know. Jesus will say, get away

from me. I never knew you. I'm asking you. No

matter how respectable or what people think about

you, will you start your life with Jesus today?

When you realize that you want to spend the rest

of your life with somebody, you're going to want

to start it right away. I ask the praise team

to come forward and lead us in our final song.

If you're here today and say, I feel God pulling

on my heart.