Corruption and the Need for a King (Part 2: Moral Corruption)

Kid’s, ages 1-5th grade can be dismissed to their class… and I will just say to the parents, the subject matter today may not be appropriate for most children under 5th grade. So you may want to send them even if they don’t normally go.

You can open your Bibles to Judges 19.

We are in the LAST sermon in our study through the book of Judges called “Rebellion and Rescue.”

And I wouldn’t exactly say that this series has been a JOY to preach: there’s some hard stuff here.

But it HAS been a joy to see God working in our hearts to teach us how to get “unstuck” during those times when sin is gripping our hearts and keeping us from taking our next step forward in following him.

We when we talk about the PATHWAY of a disciple here at Oak Hill… we acknowledge that there are times when we get STUCK in our walk with Christ… when we stall out in growing in him and being sent out as his witness...

And during this series, the Spirit has been leading us to “seek God’s merciful rescue to to break the cycles of our rebellious sin.”

And today we are going to see just how deep into the cycles of sin God’s people can go… and just how merciful the Lord is to rescue them out of it.

I’m going to be honest: The subject matter of these chapters we are turning to is difficult...

Anyone who thinks the Bible is “nice” or “safe for the whole family,” has never read Judges 19-21.

If this were a book or a podcast, it would be rated explicit.

If it were made into a movie, there would be no way to make it that it wouldn’t be rated R.

These chapters are violent and perverse and honestly… kind of hard to read.

But they don’t come from a tabloid magazine. They don’t come from the cheap novel section of Barnes and Noble. They don’t come from the 5 O-Clock Nightly News.

They come from the Word of God.

They are part Holy Scripture that that was breathed out by God and is profitable for us.

And so we don’t turn our eyes. We read them. And we interpret them. And we see what they have to say to us today.

Because they represent a problem that we still have today: the morally corrupt culture our world can all too easily creep into the culture of our church.

It’s been said that the theme of the book of Judges is the Canaanization of Israel… and you could say that the theme of 21st Century Christianity is the Americanization of the Church… and not in a good way.

It’s hard to go a month without hearing about some abuse scandal that a church or Christian organization was covering up but now was brought into the light.

It’s fairly common to hear about Christians who are one way on Sunday morning… but the rest of the week, their lives look just like anyone else who doesn’t know Jesus.

It’s not irregular to hear that from the viewpoint of the rest of the world, Christians are sheltered off, holier-than-thou, and unapproachable… all the while not really different in their character or morality… the word that is often used is “hypocrite.”

And there comes a time when a so-called “church” has allowed the culture to so creep into its core that it can no longer be truthfully called a church.

There can come a time when compromise is so prevalent they no longer serve or represent the Kingdom of the King who saved them.

That’s where we find God’s people at the end of the book of Judges…

Israel had been set apart as God’s chosen people… as his holy nation...

He was their KING and they were to be his SERVANTS.

But the summary statement hanging over these final chapters and really over the whole period of Judges is this: “In those days, there was no King in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

These final chapters, chapters 17-21, form the epilogue of the book… and they show us the need for the people of God to recognize their King: the Lord himself.

Otherwise they will fall into religious corruption (which we looked at last week) and moral corruption (which we will look at this week).

Here is our Big Idea for today:

Big Idea: Follow King Jesus away from moral corruption that creeps from the culture into the church.

You are going to want to follow along in your Bible this week… we have a lot of ground to cover, so I’m going to explain as we go, pause for some application, and then move on.

Like I said, we are in the Epilogue of the book… we are no longer talking about the Judges themselves… instead, this is a sample of what life was like during the time of the Judges.

This section is like when you go out for ice cream at Maplehoffe’s or Down on the Farm and you get a sample to see if you will like it...

Only this would be a sample of a disgusting flavor.

This section a sample of what happens when everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes and forsaking God as King.

And it’s meant to leave a disgusting flavor in your mouth toward sin.

Read and Explain 19:1-21

1) Corrupt Versions of Hospitality (19:1-21)

Explain: We don’t often think of a lack of hospitality as a major sign of moral corruption. But it was massively important in the ancient Near-East and it is massively important to the Lord’s heart… and so to neglect hospitality is to neglect the very nature of God’s law… the very nature of God himself.

In this chapter, the concubine's father is set forward (somewhat unexpectedly) as a GOOD example of hospitality...

And yet the way it is written causes us to feel a little skeptical about the whole situation...

We aren’t told his motives, but the whole feel (especially after all we have read in the book) leaves us expecting something sinister to happen.

And we find out what that sinister thing is as the Levite leaves this father’s house.

As he travels, the Levite would expect a lack of welcome at a place like Jebus.

That was a town of hostile Gentiles… a place where worldly corruption could be assumed.

But he does NOT expect the same response in a town of his own countrymen… in a city full of God's people.

And yet, reading this book, WE have come to expect it. This is the time of the Judges. This is the time where everyone in Israel does what is right in his own eyes.

And so Gibeah shows a depraved lack of hospitality.

They are WORSE in some respects to their Canaanite counterparts.

There is a lot of ink spilled in this chapter to show the moral corruption of lacking hospitality.

The lack of hospitality in Gibeah requires a sojourner… someone who is from the Levite’s hometown… to make up for the city’s failure.

Apply: God cares deeply about hospitality because it is a part of his very nature.

We live in a cold and dark and hostile world.

In our society, rugged individualism is the corrupt value of the day: every man for himself.

And that sets a lot of people up for failure and sin. That value of our culture is CONTRARY to God’s nature.

Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord is described as a REFUGE for his people.

He has many laws directing Israel to be a refuge for the weak and vulnerable.

Ultimately, as the Son of God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus, he gave us the invitation: abide in me.

Jesus is the strong refuge, providing protection from sin without and sin within.

And his church is directed in the New Testament to show the same type of radical hospitality that Israel showed and that Christ himself fulfilled:

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:7 ESV)

The church is called to provide a counter-cultural safe-haven from the horrors of this world.

Hospitality is one of the most basic expressions of Christian love.

And when a church forsakes hospitality, you can be sure that other types of moral corruption are sure to follow.

Apply: Is your home and your life opened as a safe haven for others from the corruption of this world?

Is your home and your life a place that the people around you (Christians and non-Christians alike) would naturally run when the dangers of the dark night are approaching?

Is your home and your life a refuge that points people to the refuge they can find in Jesus?

If you want to grow in that area, first look to Christ.

Learn what it means to abide in him… and he will abide in you… and through you he will show hospitality to others.

If you need practical help in that, I have a number of resources: Bible passages you can study, books and articles that you can read to grow in that.

Is your home a welcoming save have from the corruption of this world, or is it a place where people would actually FIND the corruption of this world?

Transition: Not only was Gibeah not a place of refuge: it was a place of danger. It was a place you did not want to spend the night on the streets.

Read 19:22-28

Four Types of Moral Corruption that Can Creep Into the Church… Corrupt versions of hospitality...

2) Corrupt Versions of Sexuality (19:22-28)

Explain: God cares about sexuality for the same reason that he cares about hospitality - he designed it as a reflection of his heart.

Sexuality is an expression of profound intimacy… it was created by God because “it is not good for a man to be alone.”

Here's the problem: the worldly sexual perversions that we see all throughout this book with concubines and prostitutes and rapes and abuse -

ALL of it distorts something that God created and intended to be very beautiful: the sexual union between one biologically male husband and one biologically female wife.

Later in the Bible, in the book of Ephesians, we learn that the marriage union was intended by God, from the beginning, to be a magnificent, mysterious portrait of Christ's love for his people, the church...

And sexual intimacy is one of the deepest, most binding forms of intimacy that is reserved exclusively for that union.

And when the church perverts that union in any way, they pervert the very gospel they are called to carry.

In both the Old and New Testament, God vigorously defends his design for human sexuality...

And He uses his unique and particular design for marital intimacy, in both testaments, as a picture of his love and care for his people.

And he uses language like “adultery” to describe their caving into moral corruption and idolatry.

And so it’s no wonder why the enemy draws people into corrupt versions of sexuality… if he can corrupt us there, he can corrupt our very understanding of God.

That is what has happened to Israel during the time of the Judges. In this chapter we scrape the bottom of the trenches of sexual perversion.

Marital unfaithfulness, Homosexual practice, prostitution and sex slavery, sexual abuse and rape, resulting ultimately in death (which later is characterized by a word used for murder).

It doesn't get more perverse than this.

If this were a movie, most of us would have probably turned it off by now.

But this is God's word… we don’t get to just turn it off and go build a Thomas Kincade puzzle...

The Lord included this chapter in Holy Scripture so that our stomachs would churn at the perversity of sin and we would be motivated to fight it.

Apply: And you may say, "I don’t even want to think about it. That’s why I go to church… to be GET AWAY from those types of things. There’s enough of it in the world… do we REALLY have to talk about it in the church?"

YES. Because too many churches have assumed that the sexual perversion of the culture would never enter their church.

They think, “All that stuff is ‘out there,’ outside the city gates... not inside the church walls.

And especially in the past 60 years, churches have failed to be deeply accountable and set up proper safeguards that honor the beauty of God-ordained sexuality.

Too often we use kinder terms than rape and abuse in order to minimize or hide the perversity of sexual sin.

Too often churches have heard a confession and told the abused to stay quiet because their attacker has “repented.”

Too many church leaders over the years have hidden behind their doors and ignored sexual abuse in their churches, or even worse, at times participated in it themselves.

And it’s not just a problem in today’s church: It was a problem in the New Testament church.

1 Corinthians 5:1–2 is one example: Paul writes,

"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you." (1 Corinthians 5:1–2 ESV)

Corrupt sexuality was a problem in Israel, it was a problem in the early church (especially at Corinth), and it continues to be a potential threat for any church today.

The question is, "Will we deal with it if and when the time comes? Will we call it for what it is? Will we stand up and defend the weak? Will we speak up for the abused?”

And you have the commitment from your leaders: yes we will.

This is not a place where abusers can hide… we will not turn our eyes and shut our doors and pretend like it doesn’t exist.

We will not overlook it. We will not sweep it under the rug. We will not use “nicer” language to dress sin up.

And we will not assume that sexual sin could never happen here.

We will take the necessary steps to remove the evil of sexual immorality from our midst.

Apply: But here’s the thing: we need to be vigilant before it ever gets there. Let's confess and repent of all sexual immorality: whether it's adultery or fornication or pornography (which is proven to lead to more and more intense perversions). And let's seek the beauty of God's design for sexuality.

Paul called the church to deal with their sexual immorality problem through church discipline… “Let him who has done this be removed from among you.” Interestingly enough, the Levite makes a similar plea for discipline to the nation of Israel...

Read 19:29-20:48

Four Types of Moral Corruption that Can Creep Into the Church

1) Corrupt Versions of Hospitality

2) Corrupt Versions of Sexuality Third:

3) Corrupt Versions of Discipline and Mercy (19:29-20:48)

On the one hand, the Israelites have a very justified and RIGHT outrage against sin.

They are ready to discipline the guilty party.

But they are un-calculated in the way they go about it.

The Levite gives a PARTIAL explanation of their wrong (conveniently leaving out any wrongdoing of his own), and they respond in defense of the Levite, not of the Lord's glory.

They are not seeking the Lord, but their own sense of justice.

We can clearly see their heart when they fail to inquire of the Lord about how they should handle Gibeah.

Their mind is made up.

And when their attempt at diplomacy with Benjamin doesn't work, and they turn their rage toward the entire tribe, nearly annihilating them from their land.

Not only that, they don’t ask him about the validity of this battle until they were met with some defeat.

And then when they finally DO inquire of him, he answers them and wins their victory for them, but in the process they devote their OWN people to destruction.

Remember where this book started: they were supposed to devote the CANAANITES to destruction, but are unwilling to do so.

Now they are nearly devoting their OWN PEOPLE to destruction.

This was granted by the Lord for the purposes of his discipline, but this was not the mission he had for his people.

On the other hand, the tribe of Benjamin unjustifiably sides with their depraved kinsman. They want to defend the indefensible.

They do exactly what the church in Corinth did (that we read about earlier): they arrogantly tolerate sin that even the pagans would not speak of.

They wear their tolerance as a badge of honor and are willing to fight to the death to maintain it.

Ultimately, both in Israel and in the Church, discipline was the correct response: but it needed to be done with the right goal - the glory of God.

It struck me this week that Israel was seeking to discipline Gibeah. They were taking sin seriously and enacting consequences when repentance didn’t take place.

Now it looks much different this side of the cross, but God’s people ARE called to discipline those who are part of the people of God who will not repent of their sin.

Church discipline is taught right in 1 Cor. 6 that we read earlier, the process is given in Matt 18, it’s taught in Galatians 6 and a number of other places.

It involves the uncomfortable confronting of sin in one another’s lives and speaking truth to one another to see them restored through repentance.

It involves diligently pursuing the sinner until all signs point to a rejection of the Lord, and then putting them out of the church.

And church Discipline and accountability are King Jesus' way of leading his church away from moral corruption and toward his perfect purposes.

One of our goals for this series was to grow in our practice of Gospel Accountability.

Gospel Accountability exists as the early stages of church discipline.

We confess and confront sin before it gains a foothold in our lives.

And if it DOES get a foothold, we deal with it publicly… so that God can be seen as righteous and just… but also as TRULY merciful in rescuing people from their sin.

The whole goal of church discipline and accountability is restoration: that we may GAIN a brother.

Church discipline and accountability must be aimed at the glory of God in the gospel, not the vengeance of man.

Our accountability of others, our desire to make sin public and see wrongs righted, must be aimed at restoring the people of God to a proper fear of God.

Apply: Have you ever sought to hold someone accountable because YOU were hurt… and really you were defending yourself instead of the glory of God?

If you are seeking your own purposes and glory, the discipline will fail.

If you seek the Lord, he can have his way in his time. Accountability and discipline needs to come with a deep seeking the Lord: a weeping and fasting and petitioning.

On the other hand, the Benjaminites strongly reflect our culture of extreme tolerance and corrupt mercy.

The idea of holding sin accountable flies in the face of a society that says, "Do whatever is right in your own eyes."

And if we aren't careful, we will aid and abed sin in the name of mercy. That’s corrupt mercy.

Apply: Are you tolerating sin in your own life or someone else's life in the name of mercy?

Mercy doesn't mean that you don't call out sin: it means that you call the to the powerful transformation of the gospel.

That’s the merciful thing you can do: to hold up the severity of their sin… let them feel the weight of it… and then show them that they can only have that weight removed through the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf… and he is EAGER to do it.

THAT is Gospel Accountability.

Transition: The problem with Israel is that their understanding of discipline and mercy is all out of alignment. And that’s because their idea of sin and the Lord’s authority is out of alignment. They still do whatever is right in their own eyes because they do not recognize the Lord as King in Israel. And so we get to the last chapter in the book of Judges:

Read Judges 21

4) Corrupt Versions of Repentance (21:1-25)

Explain: We’ve seen this all over the book of Judges… most of the opportunities that Israel had to cry out to God were really just about their REGRET over the consequences of their sin… rather than genuine repentance. And this chapter is no different.

Their weeping is not over sin. It's over the loss of a tribe. In the words of Daniel Block, it is "sentimental" in nature.

Not only that, their complaint is against the Lord. They blame him for cutting off Benjamin.

And so their solution is to find a loophole to their vow. They are trying to “right their wrongs” by doing more wrong.

They act wickedly against others of their kinsman and to STEAL wives for the tribe of Benjamin.

And you know the old adage, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

They do not take responsibility for their own actions against Benjamin, and their "repentance" becomes an opportunity for an act of deeper sin.

Apply: That's what happens when everyone does what is right in his own eyes. Even repentance becomes corrupt.

Repentance that is grounded in worldly grief will just lead you deeper into cycles of sin.

One of our goals for this series was to learn patterns of genuine confession and repentance.

In a study in the book of Judges, that means doing the exact opposite of the Nation of Israel in most cases.

And here in the close of the book, we see that their version of "repentance" was, once again, really just "regret."

Repentance is not TRUE repentance when the motivation is to escape the bad consequences of our actions...

Blame-shifting is not true repentance...

Coming up with our own solutions to minimize the consequences of our actions is not true repentance.

Genuine repentance means we accept the responsibility for our sin… we confess it unequivocally... and we throw ourselves at his mercy.

It means we TRUST GOD to pick up the pieces and to provide the rescue that we need.

And he will.

When we humble ourselves and repent, he is SUPREMELY merciful.

“let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:7–8, ESV)

God has been supremely merciful throughout this book of Judges... and he will continue to be merciful to his people throughout the Monarchy... throughout the Divided Kingdom... throughout the exile... all the way to the point where he would send his son to deal with their sin in a way they never could.

His thoughts are so high and his ways so different that he rescues us in a way that we could never imagine: through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.

And the offer of TRUE mercy… free and gracious and perfect… is offered to us today through genuine repentance...

Through admitting our sin and confessing our need for this Savior… and submitting ourselves to this King…

Stop doing what is right in your own eyes, and see the King who DEFINES right and wrong… the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

So as we get to the end of this series, are you ready to seek the Lord's mercy to break the cycles of YOUR rebellious sin? Do you see how destructive, how vile, how offensive it is to the Lord?

And will you truly repent? Will you cry out to the Lord for his rescue? Will you seek him in the day when he may be found?

This week… and this summer… will you seek out true, Gospel-Saturated Accountability in your life: accountability that neither gives license to sin, nor is based in the fear-of-man

Accountability that truly seeks the Lord for his plan of rescue?

If you do, I guarantee you will learn to celebrate the beauty of the merciful gospel that saves you.