Be Angry! Speak Up | Sunday, October 20, 2024

Amen, amen, amen! Praise the Lord! It is so good to see all of you here this morning. You can have a seat. Anthony is reaching back into the worship song archives this morning. Good morning to all of you; I am so glad you are here.

Before we get into the Scriptures, I want to remind you of our Questions Podcast that Pastor Mark and I do every single week. If you look in your bulletin, it shows you the website where you can go for the Questions Podcast. Basically, what that is, is that as I am teaching here on Sunday, or someone else is teaching, or you are going through the Scriptures on your own throughout the week, or you are part of a growth group and you have a question about some of the things you come across in the Scriptures, this is a great way to get your questions answered.

We have had some really good questions lately, so text those to the number 760-814-1223. You can also go to the Questions Podcast website to listen to those. Mark and I do that on Thursdays. There is a bit of the Mark Miles nonsense at the beginning, if you have listened to it. You can skip that if you want, although you will miss out on the really good stuff in the first half of the Questions Podcast. You should check this out.

We are going to be in the Old Testament Book of Judges, in a very strange passage of Scripture. However, I think it is important to begin with a different passage first. If you would, take out your Bibles and open to the New Testament Book of Second Timothy. Open to about the last third of your Bible. As you flip through the Old Testament or the New Testament, you will pass Corinthians, then Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and so forth. Keep going until you get to Second Timothy.

Second Timothy chapter 3 comes right after First Timothy. Amazingly, Second Timothy 3:16 might be a familiar passage. It is something I have shared frequently here at the church. It is a very important verse. Paul says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." All Scripture means all Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. One translation says it is "God-breathed," inspired by God, and useful or profitable for four things: for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.

So that the man or woman of God would be complete or mature, thoroughly equipped for every good work. I think it is important to begin with that passage in Second Timothy this morning because we are going to...

Today, we will look at a passage in Judges chapter 19, which is a head-scratcher. It raises the question: why is this in the Bible? In fact, as I was on a walk with my wife on Friday morning, I shared a summary of the passage we are going to go through this weekend. She asked me, "You are not going to teach that on Sunday, are you? Just skip the passage." Let me tell you, I thought about it. I had scheduled Pastor Garrett to teach this passage, and he asked me this week if he was still teaching it. I said, "No, fine, I'll teach it."

When you look at a passage like this, I would say it is probably the most disturbing passage in the Bible. In fact, it probably needs a disclaimer at the beginning: if you are under 18, maybe you should not be in here this morning. It is a disturbing passage. If it is not the most disturbing, it is certainly in the top three of the most disturbing passages in the Bible.

As you go through this story, and perhaps read through it, I encouraged those who were here last week to read ahead. If you read it this past week or if you have encountered it in your journey through the Bible on your own in the past, you probably came to this passage and thought to yourself, "Why is this in the Bible?"

I believe that the passage we are going to look at, Judges 19, should bother you. It should outrage you and stir a bit of anger within us. If it does not outrage or anger you, what is in this passage might indicate some issues with our own conscience. When we come to this section and go through this story, it should cause us to ask, "Why is this in the Bible?"

There is a simple answer to that question, which I have highlighted over the last several weeks as we have been in this section of Scripture. It is found in Judges 17:6: "In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Why is this crazy, disturbing, sick story in the Bible? Because there was no king in Israel during this time, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. That is the shocking context for this shocking story.

The passage actually opens with part of that statement. Look at Judges 19:1: "And it came to pass in those days when there was no king in Israel."

Assuming you're going to fill in the last part of that, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. This is the framing of Judges 17:6. Those words are also found in Judges 21:25. The very last words of the chapter state, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes."

At this moment in Israel's history, there is no moral compass guiding the people of God, nor is there any moral order or rule for them. How could something so disturbing and atrocious happen? It came to pass that in those days there was no king in Israel. The nation, at this point in their history, is morally unmoored; they have no moral anchor any longer.

Point number one: when you are morally unmoored, your behavior becomes increasingly unhinged. That's what we're seeing. There is an increasing immorality among the people of God at this time. Their behavior is descending towards total chaos and depravity. We've already seen it in the previous chapters. We were introduced to a man named Micah in Judges chapter 17, where we see his covetousness. From his covetousness, he steals from his own mother, and she damns the person who steals this. He then returns the money, and together they begin this idolatrous worship of God, but using idols. They are breaking the first, second, and third commandments of the Ten Commandments.

Next, we are introduced to a Levite and his immoral behavior. In the last chapter, we see the Danites and their wicked behavior. What we observe in this passage, this section of Scripture, is that when you are morally unmoored, your behavior becomes increasingly unhinged. That's what we are witnessing here at this time.

In those days, there was no king in Israel, and we are told there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim. Two chapters ago, we were introduced to a traveling Levite who came to the remote mountains of Ephraim and stayed in the home of Micah. The obvious question is whether this certain Levite in the mountains of Ephraim is the same Levite. There is discussion and disagreement among Bible teachers and commentators; maybe it is, maybe it isn't. We do not know for sure. What we do know is that at this point, the place where the people of Israel would go to worship God was not at the temple.

In Jerusalem, the children of Israel did not actually hold the city at this time, and the temple had not yet been built there. The Tabernacle, where they worshiped, was in Shiloh, which is in the mountains of Ephraim. There would have been Levites present, and it might be the same Levite who was in the household of Micah in chapters 17 and 18. However, it might not be the same individual. If it is the same Levite, whose name was given to us last week as Jonathan, then what takes place in Judges 19 had to precede Judges 18. The timeline can be confusing to wrap your brain around, but when all is said and done, it doesn't much matter whether this is the same Levite or a different one.

All we need to know is that the Levites are the Priestly group in the nation of Israel. They should be expected to be the most moral, the ones who know the law, teach the law, and apply the law. If anyone was to be expected to be moral in Israel during this time, it would be the Priestly tribe of Levi. What we find in this section of Scripture is that the priests were just as far gone as any pagan. Those who should have known and walked in righteousness were far from God.

How did Israel become so immoral? I haven't even told you the story of Judges 19 yet, and it is twisted. You might wonder how they became so morally unhinged. I suggest to you that they didn't wake up one morning completely depraved and immoral. There was a process, a walk down the path toward total moral chaos.

When you not only look at this passage of Scripture but also consider the Bible as a whole and observe culture, you discover that the first step to immorality is a step away from morality. I know there are a lot of terms here, such as immorality, morality, and amorality. But what is amorality? It is the condition of being amoral. In the Greek language, you take the letter A, Alpha, and...

You put it at the beginning of a word to negate something. "Agnostic" is the word for knowledge; "agnosis" means no knowledge or ignorance. "Amoral" means no morals, so a person who is amoral is someone who lacks a moral sense.

There was no king in Israel; there was no ruling governing moral competence. A person who is amoral is unconcerned about whether something is right or wrong. It is often put forward like this: "Well, you do you. I have my opinion about what's right and wrong, and you have your opinion about what's right and wrong." This is pure relativism, an apathy, an indifference towards what is right and wrong.

That was the state of affairs in Israel 3,200 years ago, and frighteningly, we see it in our culture today. The attitude of "Hey, you do you, whatever makes you happy. I have my truth, and you have your truth" is a dangerous shift that takes place in the mind of an individual. When it starts to pervade the whole culture, it should raise warning lights.

The people had departed from having a moral compass, and this is not something unique to Israel 3,200 years ago. In fact, the Apostle Paul in the New Testament highlights this same movement in his letter to the Romans. In Romans chapter 1, beginning at verse 18 through the end of the chapter, Paul describes a person who rejects the belief in God. They say, "I don't want to retain God in my knowledge."

When you reject the moral lawgiver, inevitably, you will reject a moral law. Everything will become relative; there will be no basis or standard upon which you can say that something is right or wrong because it becomes merely your opinion. If there is no moral lawgiver, then eventually, you move down the path of rejecting the moral law. As you continue down that path, there comes a point where God doesn't stand in the way; He allows people to go down that path.

Paul says it like this in Romans 1:28: "Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge..." They reach a point where they say, "I don't want..."

To believe in God, I want to reject the notion that people do not like to retain God in their knowledge. God gave them over to a debased mind to do things that are not fitting. They are filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, and evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful.

Those who know the righteous judgment of God understand that those who practice such things are deserving of death. However, it is not only those who practice these things but also those who approve of them. Paul indicates that a culture, a people, or a nation is ready for judgment and the righteous wrath of God when they practice these things and turn a blind eye to them, saying, "Well, you do you." There is a dangerous thing happening in that culture, and this is where the children of Israel were 3,200 years ago at the time of Judges, chapter 19.

This downward slide that we find in Judges towards total chaos and immorality started with apathetic indifference. What did it look like? A certain Levite took for himself a concubine. Chapter 19, verse 1, asks, "What on earth is a concubine from Bethlehem, Judah?" A concubine is like a wife; one commentator said a concubine was a second-class wife.

Wives, how would you like to be the second-class wife? It’s like having all the benefits of being a wife but none of the responsibilities, and the wife has none of the rights afforded to her. So, it’s a wife, but not fully a wife. What we would say in 2024 is that they were cohabitating. Fifty years ago, or as Dr. Laura would say, they were "shacking up."

So, the Levite shacks up with the girl from Bethlehem in Judah. However, his concubine, in verse 2, played the harlot against him. She went away from him to her father's house in Bethlehem, Judah, and she was there for four months. Eventually, he decided that he wanted to go get her. He turned, arose, and went after her to speak kindly to her and persuade her to come back.

Please, I'll be better. Just come back. There you go; I won't do it again. He had his servant with him and a couple of donkeys. He is presuming she’s going to come back, so he’s got a donkey for her as well. She brought him into her father's house, and when the father of the young woman saw him, he was glad to meet him. It was the first time to meet him, and he said, "Oh, come on in."

Now, his father-in-law, the young woman's father, detained him, and he stayed there with him for three days. They ate, drank, and lodged there.

In the story that we've been seeing over the last several weeks in Judges, we've seen idolatry, covetousness, and Micah dishonoring his mother by stealing from her. We've seen theft and lying, and now we have adultery. If you really add it up, that’s Commandments 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The fourth Commandment is to honor the Sabbath, and they’re probably not doing that, so they’ve broken the Sabbath as well. We’re up to nine Commandments broken in this section of Scripture. This gives you an indication of the moral degradation of the society of the people of God at this time.

You might ask the question, "Can it get any worse?" Yes, it can get really bad.

Let’s see point number three: the inevitable outcome of immorality is immorality descending to increasingly sinful injustice and total moral chaos.

Verse 5 states, "Then it came to pass on the fourth day." The Levite had gone down to get his concubine, and he was invited to stay there for a few days with his father-in-law. It came to pass on the fourth day, when they arose early in the morning, that he stood to depart. However, the young woman's father said to the son-in-law, "Refresh your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward go your way."

It seems like the concubine's family said goodbye in a way that my family does. Maybe you know this goodbye; it takes like 40 minutes to get out the door when you’re leaving a family gathering. The same sort of thing is happening here. They’re trying to leave, but the father-in-law says, "No, stick around. Let’s have a meal together. You don’t want to leave before you have breakfast."

So they sat down, the two of them, and ate and drank together. Then the young woman's father said to him, "Please be content to stay all night; let your heart be merry." The father-in-law liked to party. When the man stood to depart, his father-in-law urged him, so he lodged there again for another night.

They arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart, but the young woman's father said to him, "Please refresh your heart." So they delayed until afternoon.

Both of them ate, so you got the story. It just keeps going, day after day after day. Finally, the Levite, insistent, says they need to leave.

In verse 9, when the man stood to depart, he, his concubine, and his servant were with him. His father-in-law, the young woman's father, said to him, "Look, the day is now drawing toward evening. Please spend the night. See, the day is coming to an end. Lodge here, that your heart may be merry. Tomorrow you can go early so that you may get home." However, the man was not willing to spend another night, so he arose and departed. He came opposite Jabus, which is Jerusalem, about five miles from Bethlehem in Judah.

They were leaving toward the end of the day, with a long journey ahead of them to get back to the mountains of Ephraim. They made it as far as Jabus, which is Jerusalem. He was probably on the Mount of Olives, continuing his way north to go to Ephraim. With him were the two saddled donkeys, and his concubine was also with him. As they were near Jabus, the day was far spent, and the sun was setting.

The servant said to his master, "Come, please let us turn aside into the city of the Jebusites and lodge there." At that time, the people of Israel, the children of God, did not hold Jerusalem; a group of people called the Jebusites held it. The Levite said, "I don't want to stay in a Jebusite city." His master replied, "We will not turn aside into the city of the foreigners who are not the children of Israel. We'll continue on our path to Gaba, a little bit further north from where we are."

He then said to his servant, "Come, let us draw near to one of these places and spend the night, either in Gaba or Rama." These are Jewish towns. They passed by and went on their way, and the sun went down as they were near Gaba, which belongs to the Tribe of Benjamin. They turned aside there to lodge in the town of Gaba.

When the Levite, his concubine, and his servant entered, they sat down in the open square of the town of Gaba, but no one would take them into their house to spend the night. In the culture of the day, they didn't have hotels. As a traveler, when you came into a town or city, you did not want to be outside the city walls on the roads at night; it was a dangerous place to be during that period of time.

They came into the walled city of Gaba, hoping to meet some of the people who lived there. The culture of the Middle East, both today and then, is very geared towards hospitality. You would hope to meet someone who would welcome you into their home and give you a place to stay so you wouldn't have to remain outside.

Out in the open square at night, that's exactly what's happening here. They are waiting for someone, maybe to bring them into their home, but no one would take them in.

Just then, an old man came from his work in the field in the evening. He was also from the mountains of Ephraim, just like this Levite was, and he was staying in Gibeah. He was doing work there, whereas the men of the place were of the Tribe of Benjamin. He raised his eyes and saw this traveler in the open square of the city. He asked the man, "Where are you going, and where are you from?"

The traveler replied, "We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah toward the remote mountains of Ephraim. I'm from there; I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I'm going to the house of the Lord. We're going back to Shiloh, there in the mountains of Bethlehem in Judah. However, there is no one that will take me into his house, although we have both straw and fodder for our donkeys. I don't need any food for my animals; we have bread and wine for ourselves and for the female servant and the young man who is with me. So we have no lack of anything; we just need a place to stay."

The old man said, "Peace be upon you," or "Shalom," as he said to him. "However, let all your needs be my responsibility." This was the hospitable nature of the culture at that time. "Only do not spend the night in the open square."

So he brought him into his house, gave fodder for his donkeys, and they washed their feet. They ate and drank, and as they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city, perverted men, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, "Bring out the man that came to your house, that we may know him carnally."

This situation is disturbing. If you're familiar with the Bible, this might remind you of a story not in the 19th chapter of Judges, but in the 19th chapter of Genesis. It is not in the Jewish town of Gibeah, but in the very pagan and disgusting town of Sodom. This calls to mind what took place there in Sodom.

The Levite didn't want to stay in a town filled with foreigners because something bad might happen there. But surely, in a town of the Tribe of Benjamin, with his own people, nothing bad was going to happen. Until he was in the household of this man, and now all the men of the city, the perverted men, come and pound on the door, demanding that the man be brought out to them. This is a disturbing turn of events.

Immorality is descending into increasing social injustice, and I hate to say it, but it's about to get much worse.

Look at verse 23: the Master of the House went out to them and said, "No, my brethren, I beg you, do not act so wickedly, seeing that this man has come into my house. Do not commit this outrage. Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine. Let me bring them out to you and humble them. Do with them as you please, but to this man, do not do this vile thing."

But the perverted men of Gibeah would not heed him. So the man, the Levite, took his concubine and brought her out to them. They knew her and abused her all night long until morning. When the day was breaking, they let her go. The woman came as the day was dawning and fell down at the door of the man's house, where her master was, until it was light.

When her master arose in the morning, he opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way. There was his concubine, falling at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, "Get up, let's be going," but there was no answer. She was dead. The man lifted her onto his donkey, got up, and went to his place.

What on earth is going on? Maybe you can see why my wife said, "You're not really going to go through this chapter." Why is this in the Bible? David Guik, my friend commenting on this passage in his commentary, says that this passage is so distasteful that one great commentator named F.B. Meyer said you shouldn't even read it. Obviously, I didn't listen to F.B. Meyer. He thought this chapter was so terrible that it shows the depths of the depravity to which man can sink apart from the grace of God.

Point number four: the Bible is sometimes shocking because it wants to shock and shake us up. God allows us to hear texts like this, and this is probably the most disturbing one in all of the Bible. He allows us.

Here to see just how twisted and wicked the human heart can be, we must ask: why does God allow us to see that? We will answer that question in a little bit, but for the moment, let this sink in. The very same thing that invited fiery judgment on the city of Sodom has now taken place among the people of God in Israel. How can this be? The answer is simple: in those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The moral compass is gone; there is nothing fooling the people as it relates to moral governance.

Unfortunately, the story is not over. In verse 29, when the Levite entered into his house in Bethlehem of Judah in the mountains of Ephraim, he took a knife. He laid hold of the body of his concubine and divided her body into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her body throughout the territory of Israel. So it was that all who saw it said, "No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak up."

Now, thankfully, the people were shocked. They were outraged, and they should be. They see this unbelievable moral wickedness, and they are blown away by it. Consider it, confer, and speak up. How should we respond? That is what they are now saying.

Point number five: outrageous immorality demands moral outrage. When something so wicked, so heinous, twisted, and depraved takes place, the right response is to be outraged and angry. That is right. If you're not outraged, if you're not angry, you're wrong. This should anger you. The Levite was outraged, and the nation is now sharing in that outrage.

But here's the devastating reality: it took something utterly twisted and wicked to finally get them to the point where they said, "Oh, maybe we should do something." It wasn't the idolatry; it wasn't the adultery; it wasn't the theft; it wasn't the dishonoring of family or the lying or the covetousness. None of that. It was as if everyone had come to the point where they were comfortable with that.

Guess that's just the way things are, but now something devastating happens, and they feel a moral outrage, which is good. I'm glad there's a moral outrage, and there should be a moral outrage that we share. The nation, though, had become so morally bankrupt and ignored for decades, if not centuries, by this point in their history that their behavior lacked any ethical framework in which they lived any longer.

The question is, what now? What do you do when something outrageous happens? How do you respond when outrageously immoral behavior has manifested and burst onto the scene? Well, here in the text, he called upon the people to consider it, think about what has happened, confer with each other, and then speak up.

What do you do when something outrageous happens? I think you should do what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4: be angry. Be angry! Be outraged by it. This should stir a righteous indignation. We are called to a righteous anger when we see deep moral wickedness. There are wicked things that should anger us; there are evil, horrible things that should stir us to speak up.

But here's the challenge: Paul says to be angry and do not sin. How do we do that? The hard part is that human anger, left unchecked, leads us down a wrong path that often ends in human vengeance, and we add sin to sin. There's a compounding of sin. This is why the illustration is apt; the Bible illustrates sin as being leaven or yeast. Like if you make bread and you put yeast in there, it causes it to rise and spreads. This is what happens with sin: if left unchecked, it just overflows.

So, Israel is prompted to respond, and we're going to see their response in the next chapter. We're not going to get to it today, but unchecked human wrath is going to come forth, and it's going to be a horrible thing that happens in the next chapters, chapters 20 and 21. We are reminded that the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

We are called to be angry at outrageous, immoral evil that takes place in the world, but we've got to try and figure out how we respond. What's the right way to respond to this? Well, it brings us back to how does God respond? That's an important consideration. How does God respond to...

Human depravity and wickedness raise the question: what was God's response to it? He is justified in bringing wrath. Romans chapter 1 states that the wrath of God is poured out on unrighteousness. Romans 1:18 says, "The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." God's wrath is right and justified when moral evil comes forward.

When we examine the depths of human depravity and wickedness, as seen in Judges chapter 19, we discover that the only right response to it is wrath. However, the only right cure for moral evil is the remedy of the Cross of Christ. What is amazing about the Cross of Christ is that it is where the wrath of God meets sin to bring the grace of God to sinners. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us on Calvary's cross and absorbed all of God's wrath upon sin so that God could extend His grace and mercy to sinners like us.

The grace of God transforms sinners into something new. If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; all the old things have passed away; behold, all things become new. The grace of God that comes from the wrath of God on the cross is the only cure for the human depravity and wickedness of sin in this world. All of that comes from the heart. Mark chapter 7 states that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and evil actions. The horror of Judges chapter 19 originated from the depraved hearts of sinful, perverted men mentioned in this passage.

What can be done about this? The only right response is the grace of God in the cross, which brings transformation. Here’s the challenge: when I say that, some of us might think, "Come on, there’s got to be something more than that." I think that too; there has to be something more. Are you really just going to tell me that this is the answer? I will say that this is actually the answer because it is the only answer that changes the depraved heart of man into a new heart through the new birth. This is the only ultimate thing that brings transformation to a society and a people. The cross is the only cure for human depravity, and we are confronted with this truth.

Scriptures reveal a part of us that often struggles to believe, even if you're a Christian today. There is a temptation to think that the gospel cannot possibly be the answer because it just doesn't seem enough. We often feel the need for someone to bear the sword and destroy sinners. That's where my mind goes, but I am constantly reminded in the scriptures that the cross is the only cure for human depravity.

God allows us to see just how twisted and wicked the human heart can be, as illustrated in passages like Judges chapter 19. This serves to remind us that there is only one cure for human depravity and wickedness: the Cross of Christ. Where the gospel goes, it transforms sinners into saints. This is true for every single one of you here who has put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ. Some of you were the kind of people that none of us would have wanted to hang around with before Jesus.

The gospel transforms lives. Paul, in Romans, just before he discusses the wrath of God being revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness, states, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes."

Here’s the challenge: in light of such gross immoral wickedness, I am tempted to be ashamed of the gospel. We say, informed by the scriptures, that the only answer is the power of God through the cross, through the gospel. Yet, people come and ask, "Come on, you actually believe that?" They might label you as one of those evangelicals, a term that has become derisive in our culture.

Interestingly, the term "Christian" was first used as a derisive label against followers of Jesus. Today, when someone says, "Oh, you're one of those evangelicals," I want to encourage you to own it. The word "Evangelical" comes from the Greek word "euangelion," which translates to "gospel." An Evangelical is simply a person who believes that the gospel has the power to transform lives.

So, when someone says, "Oh, you must be one of those evangelicals," respond with confidence: "Yes, I am, and I believe that apart from the gospel, you're going to hell."

I might get offended; I might get canceled, and yet that's the truth. Stories like Judges chapter 19 are shocking. We look at passages like this and think, "How could this be?" These outrageous, immoral things demand moral outrage and reveal to us just how wicked, sinful, and shocking sin is in the world. We see it right here so clearly. This is in the Bible. We ask how this can be in the Bible, but it is there because the Bible is real, and this is how the world is. It accurately portrays the real brokenness of the world that we live in.

The Bible doesn't gloss over human depravity; it doesn't minimize sin in any way. It confronts it head-on while pointing us to the only solution for it: Christ Jesus and the cross. The world is broken, and while better leaders and better laws would be great, they won't fix it. These were the people of God who had God as their King and His immortal law given to them, and they still went down this path.

We often say that if we just had better leaders and better laws, everything would be fixed. I'm here to tell you that's not true. Now, in saying that, on November 5th, you should vote according to values based in the Scriptures. You absolutely should exercise your right to vote. I will vote; I haven't yet, but I got my ballot, and I will vote. You should vote according to biblical values, and would to God that we would see some sort of inclination towards things that are better than they have been going for however long.

However, I guarantee you that whether it's red or blue or right or left, we are still headed down the wrong path. Here is the reality: you will not remain as one nation without the under God. The under God is gone. That is the reality. Our culture does not have God to rule over us because we have said we will not have God rule over us. Therefore, the obvious direction that our culture is going in is toward greater fracture and division, even more fully than it already has.

It doesn't matter who gets elected on November 5th; I guarantee you that what will happen on November 6th will be greater division. Don't think that whoever gets elected is going to say, "Oh yay, everything's great, and now we're all happy and united." No, because you cannot be one nation without the under God. It is not better laws or better leaders that will fix this; it is the truth of God that we need to return to.

The Gospel is powerful, and if we truly believe that, it should compel us to consider it, confer it, and speak up. God, help us to not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.

I am more convinced than ever, and I have been seeing it more frequently: there are three things that, in a revolutionary fashion, transform people—the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the Church of God. The Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the Church of God transform people. I look out here and see individuals who have been totally transformed by these three elements in ways that are absolutely mind-blowing.

Quite consistently over the last several years, I have seen someone come in here and think, "Maybe we wouldn't be friends if it weren't for this church thing." You might wonder if we could still be friends unless God, by His Word, by His Spirit, and through the Church, does some transformation. Then, at one point, that same person says to me, "I think I need to be baptized." You think, "How on Earth did that happen?" The Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the Church of God transform individuals, and individuals transformed by these elements transform societies.

What this culture needs, more than new leaders and new laws, is a move of God's Spirit and a revival. That is what I am praying for—God, do a work in me and in us. What we see here in Judges chapter 19 is just the tip of the iceberg of how depraved the human heart can be when it departs from God. It can get much worse. God, help us. Our hope is the Gospel; own it and be one who speaks forth that good news.

Next week, we will see Israel's response. It is a right response in that they are responding to moral outrage for moral injustice, but it is a wrong response because it moves into the realm of human vengeance. The wrath of man never accomplishes the righteousness of God; it just creates more sinful conditions and problems. God, what we need is...

Gospel helps us to believe that it is actually true. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer?

Lord, I thank You that shocking things are in the Bible because there are shocking things in the world. We are going to see things in the news, and we already have, that are just shocking and devastating, revealing how horrible, twisted, and wicked human hearts can be as affected by sin. What You accomplished on the cross is the only answer. Jesus, You who knew no sin became sin for us, and You absorbed all of the righteous wrath of Heaven upon Yourself so that You could save us by Your grace and transform us by Your Spirit.

Lord, I pray that You would help us to believe again that the gospel is the power, Your power, unto salvation for everyone who trusts and believes in You. Help us not to be ashamed of it, because we are being tempted to be ashamed of the truth of the gospel in our culture today. God, would You stir in our hearts once again a reaffirmation of our belief that the gospel is the answer?

Jesus, I do pray that You would do a work in our culture. God, would You move by Your Spirit to bring about a revival, first in my own heart, first in our own church, and in the other churches that are around us? God, would You do a work and would You move among Your people? We desperately need Your grace by Your Spirit to move in our day. There is only one hope: Jesus, You are our hope. We praise You. Pour out Your Spirit upon Your church, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen."