would invite you to turn to Judges chapter 19 this evening. I'll be reading the entire chapter. Now it came about in those days when there was no king in Israel that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim who took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah. But his concubine played the harlot against him, and she went away from him to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah, and was there for a period of four months. Then her husband arose and went after her to speak tenderly to her in order to bring her back, taking with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. So she brought him into her father's house And when the girl's father saw him, he was glad to meet him. His father-in-law, the girl's father, detained him. And he remained with him three days. So they ate and drank and lodged there. Now on the fourth day, they got up early in the morning, and he prepared to go. And the girl's father said to his son-in-law, sustain yourself with a piece of bread, and afterward you may go. So both of them sat down and ate and drank together. And the girl's father said to the man, please be willing to spend the night and let your heart be merry. Then the man arose to go, but his father-in-law urged him so that he spent the night there again. On the fifth day, he arose to go early in the morning. And the girl's father said, please sustain yourself and wait until afternoon. So both of them ate. When the man arose to go along with his concubine and servant, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, Behold now, the day has drawn to a close. Please spend the night. Lo, the day is coming to an end. Spend the night here, that your heart may be merry. Then tomorrow you may arise early for your journey, so that you may go home. But the man was not willing to spend the night, So he arose and departed and came to a place opposite Jebus, that is, Jerusalem. And there were with him a pair of saddled donkeys, his concubine also was with him. When they were near Jebus, the day was almost gone, and the servant said to his master, Please come and let us turn aside into this city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it. However, his master said to him, We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners who are not of the sons of Israel, but we will go on as far as Gibeah. He said to his servant, Come and let us approach one of these places, and we will spend the night in Gibeah, or Ramah. So they passed along and went their way, and the sun set on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. They turned aside there in order to enter and lodge in Gibeah. When they entered, they sat down in the open square of the city, for no one took them into his house to spend the night. Then behold, an old man was coming out of the field from his work at evening. Now the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was staying in Gibeah, but the men of the place were Benjamites. And he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city, and the old man said, Where are you going, and where do you come from? He said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem and Judah to the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, for I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem and Judah, but I am now going to my house, and no man will take me into his house. Yet there is both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and also bread and wine for me, your maidservant, and the young man who is with your servants. There is no lack of anything. The old man said, Peace to you, only let me take care of all your needs. However, do not spend the night in the open square. So he took them into his house and gave the donkeys fodder, and they washed their feet and ate and drank. While they were celebrating, behold, the men of the city, certain worthless fellows, surrounded the house, pounding the door, and they spoke to the owner of the house, the old man, saying, Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may have relations with him. Then the man, the owner of the house, went out to them and said to them, No, my fellows, please do not act so wickedly. Since this man has come into my house, do not commit this act of folly. Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Please let me bring them out that you may ravish them and do to them whatever you wish. But do not commit such an act of folly against this man. But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them. And they raped her and abused her all night until morning. Then let her go at the approach of dawn. As the day began to dawn, the woman came and fell down at the doorway of the man's house where her master was until full daylight. When her master arose in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, then behold, his concubine was lying at the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, get up and let us go, but there was no answer. Then he placed her on the donkey and the man arose and went to his home. When he entered his house, he took a knife and laid hold of his concubine and cut her in 12 pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel. All who saw it said, nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, take counsel and speak up. Let's ask God's blessing. O Lord, as we now stand before the text of your word, we do ask and beseech you for your spirit to help us, and to speak through this word to our hearts. O Lord, guide our thoughts, govern our speech, that we might be pleasing in your sight. In Jesus' name, Amen. Every word of God is flawless, and he is a shield to those who put their trust in him. So says Proverbs 30 verse 5. All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be fully equipped for every good work. That's what Paul told Timothy. You may wonder why begin a sermon on Judges 19 with these quotes about Scripture. Well, call it a friendly reminder or call it a necessary introduction to one of the most disturbing portions of Holy Scripture. As you look at the unsettling contents of Judges 19, you must keep in mind that this is the very Word of God, given for His own glory and given for the good of His people. Unnerving though it is, we need to know what Judges 19 tells us. And yet such texts are routinely avoided or simply skipped over. The material is too salacious. We'd rather not look at such passages. They don't produce warm, fuzzy, devotional feelings in our hearts, but instead they bring forth a feeling of disgust, of abhorrence, even of revulsion. We instinctively pull away from such passages, preferring not to think much about their contents. And yet for us to do so leaves us ignorant, ill-equipped, and unprepared for every good work. And so, people of God, summon your courage. Let's look Judges 19 in the eye as we examine, first, deviancy in Israel, then at the obvious comparisons, and finally, conclusions drawn for modern Christians. From the opening verses in this chapter, we sense a familiar feel, a deliberate connection to what has gone before in chapters 17 and 18. There is that refrain again, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. That was the case with Micah and his lucky Levite and the ruthless tribe of Dan. Such will be the case with the characters in this new storyline that we encounter tonight. We also remember that once again the story involves a Levite from the hill country of Ephraim. It's not the same Levite, it's a different Levite, but it's a Levite from the same geographic location. Sounds familiar. And then there is the fact that, historically speaking, these two stories take place at roughly the same time. It is early in the period of the Judges. So this Levite in our story tonight from the hill country of Ephraim took to himself a concubine. Not a full-fledged wife, but instead a concubine. Already we see that he is operating outside of God's creation ordinance. for the Lord instituted marriage between one man and one woman to be a lifelong covenantal commitment. The early chapters of Genesis simply do not allow for a concubine, a half-time wife, so to speak. Even though such was the common practice among people in the Old Testament era. This Levite's concubine proved unfaithful. She played the harlot against him, and then she ran away to her father's house in Bethlehem of Judah. After four months apart, the husband arose and went after her. He wanted to sweet-talk her. The Hebrew says, to talk to her heart. He wanted to woo her back. And so he came, and when this son-in-law arrived at the house, the girl's father, the father-in-law, was delighted to meet him. For three days they ate and drank together. When the fourth day arrived, the Levite was ready to leave, and he tried But his father-in-law insisted on still more hospitality. And so they sat down and ate and drank again. The same thing happened on the fifth day. And once again, the father-in-law said, no, stay, eat and drink. By mid-afternoon, the Levite had finally had enough. and so he took his concubine and together they left sometime around dinner they passed by the city of Jerusalem and the servant suggested that they should stop and spend the night with the Jebusites but this Levite was scornful of the suggestion we're not going to stay with a bunch of foreigners we'll make some more miles yet tonight we'll go to Gibeah or to Ramah and stay with some good healthy Israelites and so they journeyed on until the sun sets by that time they were near Gibeah a good Israelite town filled with Benjamites well the first hint of trouble came as the Levite waited for an invitation that would never come. None of the regular citizens of the town would invite him to stay in their homes, even though this Levite had all of the supplies that he and his group needed and would not be an imposition on anyone. Finally, as they waited, an old man, originally from the hill country of Ephraim, came trudging into town from his work in the fields. Observing the strangers, he invited them to come stay with him for the night, ominously insisting that they must not spend the night in the city square. Well, while they were celebrating over dinner, A loud banging interrupted their conversation. Out in the darkness, the men of Gibeah had assembled for an evil purpose. They demanded that the stranger be given to them so they might have homosexual relations with him. The old man intervened. pleading with the Gibeonites not to commit such a great evil. He offered his own virgin daughter and the Levites concubine to these perverts of Gibeon. Thus the poor girl was thrown to the wolves and they abused her through the night. As morning dawned And as her abusers let her go, the woman staggered towards the old man's house. She fell down with her outstretched hands on the threshold, and there she died. Next morning, the Levite came out. He saw her lying there. on the ground he ordered her to get up let's go and then he realized that she was dead he loaded her dead body on his donkey took her home and carved her into pieces and then he packaged the twelve pieces and sent one to each of the tribes as a shocking call to justice. Now as we ponder the sobering information of this chapter, we begin to see some obvious comparisons. Some of the comparisons are within the chapter itself. These are internal comparisons. And then some of them are external, they relate to other parts of scripture. Certain of these comparisons are so overt that we couldn't miss them if we tried. But others are far more subtle and may require some background knowledge. One of the comparisons within the chapter itself is the comparison between the hospitable and the inhospitable. This story has two characters in it who show hospitality to this traveling Levite. The concubine's father is the first and the old man from the hill country of Ephraim is the second. As we read, you probably noticed that each of them went out of their way to force hospitality on the Levite and his company. In fact, this father-in-law becomes almost obnoxious in his insistence. Now, three days is understandable, but the fourth day to insist, and then the fifth day to say, no, stay another day. It seems over the top. It is hospitality in the extreme. The old man of Gibeah is also quite forceful in offering hospitality. He insists that they did not need to provide for themselves. He would give them everything they lacked. Only do not spend the night in the square. So you have these two ultra, extremely hospitable people, and then you've got the men of Gibeah. They won't take this Levite into their homes, they won't give him meal and a rest, and then when he is finally taken into the home of this Ephraimite, the men of Gibeah surround the house and extend the worst inhospitality they could offer. By demanding that the man be brought to them for their perverse pleasures, they are showing extreme ultra-inhospitality. And so we see the difference between those who will extend themselves and be selfless in their service, and those who are only selfishly craving their own desires and their own wicked pleasures. Another comparison that you might notice is between the Levite's behavior early in the chapter and then how he acts at the end of the chapter. At the beginning he misses his concubine so much that he will overlook her offenses and her sins and he'll travel to her father's house to woo her back he seems tender and genuinely affectionate towards her but then when the homosexual mom is demanding satisfaction this man throws his concubine to the dog He shows a callousness and a carelessness which is hard to imagine. And then as he sees her lying there so pitifully on the threshold with her hands outstretched as if to beg and plead for protection, he says, get up, let's go. What kind of a hard-hearted man is that who can't even notice that this woman he supposedly loved is lying dead on the ground. You don't see him rushing out at first light to see how is she? Did she survive? Can I protect her? But he is cold and heartless towards her. And so his behavior has gone from being tender and affectionate to being cruel and cold. The most obvious comparison of all though is between the men of Gibeah and those of Sodom in Genesis 19. As we read this account you certainly heard the echoes of Lot in Sodom. As the men of Sodom surround Lot's house and demand the angels be brought out for the same wicked purposes, Lot also offers his daughters as satisfaction. The whole scene is Sodom being replayed. And yet, this is really much worse than Sodom. Gibeah is New Sodom, but Sodom even worse. Consider that the men of Old Sodom were Canaanites, they were pagans. These inhabitants of Gibeah, the men of New Sodom, are all card-carrying Israelites. This is part of the covenant nation. This is God's holy people who lived under his holy law. This was God's heritage. His treasured possession. A people that he had chosen out for himself. These are people who had lived under God's law and who knew that God's law prohibited all sorts of sexual immorality. And so these people of Gibeah, these descendants of the tribe of Benjamin are worse than the worst of the Canaanites. Another way that new Sodom is worse than old Sodom is what happens to the sacrificial girl. Although Lot had offered his two daughters to the mob of angry homosexuals in Old Sodom, the text indicates that those girls never fell into the hands of those abusers. But in New Sodom there is no such restraint. The concubine is seized and thrown out and then is raped and abused throughout the night even to the point of death. The outcome of New Sodom is much more grisly than what happened in Old Sodom. Gibeah has become worse than Sodom. So what conclusions can modern-day Christians draw from these repulsive events of this chapter. How does this passage apply to us today? Let me offer several suggestions for your consideration. First of all, I think this shows us, once again, where idolatry leads. How it leads to sexual immorality, to degradation. and to death. Worshipping other gods always takes you down the broad road that inevitably leads to destruction. When Israel had turned its back on the Lord their God and decided to follow the Baals, to worship the Asherahs, Israel was scooping burning coals into their lap and they set themselves ablaze. Do not forget that Baal and Asherah came as a pair. Baal worship was fertility religion and fertility religion historically has led to sexual immorality, to cult prostitution, to homosexuality and ultimately to death all in the name of religious experience there is a clear connection between Israel worshiping the Baals and those homosexual men of Gibeah demanding access to the Levites And what happened that night to the concubine was the direct result of the idolatry of God's people. Now you may step back and say, well, isn't that interesting historical data? Surely that was bad back then, but we have no such things in our day, do we? Oh, yes we do. Do you ever stop and wonder why sexual immorality is so pervasive in our culture? Do you wonder why you can hardly turn on the television or go to the movie store or even stand in line at the checkout without being bombarded by flesh, flesh, flesh? Does it ever strike you as odd that homosexuality is out of the closet and seeking to gain control of our culture? Why is sexual immorality so rampant? Dr. Peter Jones traces it all back to New Age religion, which is fertility religion. And as New Age religion has spread through the West, It has reintroduced the worship of a goddess who is a sex goddess. New Age religion is sexual immorality and fertility religion. And he says, as the New Age agenda advances through our culture, part of its attraction and appeal is all of the debauchery and immorality that surrounds it. And I think it only makes sense. How many people in our day are actually going to buy into these weird old religions of ancient Greece and Rome and say, oh, boy, that's really a good thing to follow because it intellectually satisfies me. You see, the hook is not some sort of intellectual wisdom The hook is all of the immorality that goes with it. And as it drags people along, they get wrapped up in this fertility religion without even knowing that that is what is happening to them. We as Christians living in our century must be on the alert against fertility religions that are being pawned off on us in our culture. Well, a second conclusion. We are reminded from this chapter once again that scripture presents homosexuality as sinful and depraved, not as a normal alternative lifestyle. I wish I didn't have to say such things. I wish this was broadly, widely assumed. But more and more, People have been sold the idea that homosexuality is normal and it's alternative and there is nothing bad about it. But as you look at these verses and you see these men of Gibeah doing what they're doing, how can that be considered as normal? How can that be viewed as anything good or commendable. We need to come back again and again to the fact that God has made the human race male and female. And heterosexual marriage is God's choice. It is his will. Homosexuality is a perversion. and it must never be accepted as a good thing or even as a neutral thing. Though we also see from this chapter that when God's people refuse to submit to their true King, to Christ, and when God's people will not obey his word, almost anything can happen and will happen. the people of Israel had deviated from God and his word there was no king in Israel because they had rejected Jehovah their true king and when you stop obeying Christ anything goes and sooner or later everything will go disobedience to Christ leads us into some very unsavory places And there is no guarantee that just because we are professing Christians and members of a church that we will be immune to the cesspools of sin. We must honor our King and we must hold fast to his word and we must obey him. When God's people do submit their hearts to Christ, when they do take his word seriously, when they do desire to put into practice everything that he has commanded, when they become real disciples of Christ. He doesn't lead them into these sorts of dens of iniquity, but he leads us to places that are pleasant and good, He fills our lives with joy and peace and blessing and the more we obey and honor His word, the more He discloses Himself to us. So disobey Christ, repudiate His word, reject His kingly claim, guess where you're headed? New Sodom. But when you rejoice in your King, and when you hold fast to His Word, He will take you to New Jerusalem. One last conclusion. I think that this passage tonight reminds us of the need for spiritual accountability. As those gruesome packages arrived in the tribes, and as word spread around, people began saying, Consider this. Take counsel. Speak up. Nothing like this has ever been done in Israel. It's not even been mentioned in Israel. Take notice, O Israel. And what we're going to see in the next chapter is spiritual accountability for a tribe that has gone off the deep end. And we need spiritual accountability in our lives. Every single one of us does. We need to have brothers and sisters who will hold us to the truth and demand and require that we keep our vows and that we obey our King. None of us is an independent agent, free to do whatever is right in our own eyes. We need to come around each other and say, remember brother, remember sister, we do have a King in Israel and His name is Jesus. And so spiritual accountability is oh so important for the people of God. Let's pray. Oh Lord our God, thank you for Judges 19 and for the difficult story that we have just considered. Teach our hearts to honor, obey, and love King Jesus. and not to follow after false gods, not to follow wicked ways or even our own sinful desires. For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.