in a world of conflicting values, when questions are more common than answers. God's Word provides everything we need to live a God-centered, truth-driven life. Now, here's the Word for Life broadcast, brought to you by Brookside Baptist Church. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Word for Life broadcast, a ministry of Brookside Baptist Church. My name is Scott Sander, member of the pastoral staff, and I'm joined by our senior pastor, Pastor Ken Keltner. It is Christmas coming up very soon. We're going to have our Christmas Eve services on Sunday. If you don't have a church home, we'd love for you to join us in Brookfield, Wisconsin. We'll have our normal services at 9 and 1015. There will be no adult Sunday school that morning, though, or no staff nursery. And please join us back again in the afternoon for a four o'clock candlelight service. It's a little depressing that it's getting dark enough that we can have a candlelight service at 4 p.m. but it'll be a great time of rejoicing as we celebrate the birth of our Lord. And then on New Year's Eve, we'll have our services as well with Sunday school. And please join us back in the evening on New Year's Eve as we'll have some refreshments, some fun, a godly film, and we'll celebrate communion. as we ring in the new year. So we're glad you're joining us today in our broadcast, even though we're going through a section of scripture that kind of gives people the heebie-jeebies sometimes as they read through it, Ken. Yeah, if you haven't read Judges 19, I don't know of any Bible teacher who jumps up and down about this section of Scripture. I mean, someone said it's the sewer of Scripture. If you haven't read it, you're going to be unprepared for and stunned by the violence in the second episode that takes place here in the last five chapters, chapters 17 and 18. That was the first episode. Now we're into the second episode. And what we're going to see is what any group of people can see in their land, not only back in Israel's day, but in the 21st century even, a total stair-stepping down into depravity. As you're listening today, I trust you know the Lord and that you would consider yourself to be a God-fearing American. and it has to be concerning to us what we see taking place today, but chapter 19 is going to center around three particular statements and we're going to look at the first one here this morning. Permissiveness leads to depravity. We find that in verses 1-9. We are permissive today because everything has been redefined. It used to be that sin was sin, but not today, for it's no longer vogue for one to refer to something as bad or good or even sinful. Permissiveness will always put the holiness of God on the back burner and lead us down the road to depravity. It comes slowly and we see it in our texts. sexual permissiveness leads to immorality. Why don't you read the first two verses for us? And it came to pass in those days when there was no king in Israel that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim. He took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem and Judah. But the concubine played the harlot against him and went away from him to her father's house at Bethlehem and Judah and was there four whole months. So, what happens is, you know, we can try to rationalize our thinking. We've seen this in this text, and I guess the statement could be, well, what I'm involved in isn't as bad as what others possibly do. We rationalize that, well, what I do isn't as bad. I still remember the Chuck E. Cheese shooting back in Denver, Colorado, and it was around Christmas time. And they caught the 18 or 19-year-old fella, and Nathan Dunlap, I still remember his name, and he was tried, he was convicted, and he was given the death penalty. He's probably still on death row now, even today. And he was interviewed by the news station, and the question was asked to him, what's gonna happen to you, Nathan, when you die? And then they took a break, and I thought, I wanna hear this. Well, then they came back, built it up again, and he said, I'm going to go live with God in heaven. And then they took another break. Well, man, they had me, there was no way I was even turning the channel. I wanted to, okay, I mean, is he a believer? He could have come to Christ there, okay. And they came back and, well, you killed people. I mean, why do you think you would be living with God one day? And the answer came out, I'm not as bad as most of the guys on death row. I mean, it's just a complete rationalization of why I should be accepted. You know, I've gotten away from God's Word being the foundation for what is right and wrong. That is what has taken place today, we've gotten away from that. And so, you introduced for us in those first two verses, a second Levite now. The first Levite was self-promoting with his own religious activity. Now we're in the second episode, this next story, the next act. This Levite is introduced to us and he's immoral because he has at least two wives. The moment we see the word concubine, we can expect trouble. From Abraham to Jacob to Solomon, the practice of polygamy always brought heartache and pain without exception. A concubine is a second-class wife, a man's mistress, yet not totally regarded as immoral. For whatever reason, it could be permissible in their eyes. So we're told here, even in verse 3, that this Levite is both the husband, and in verse 27, the master of this woman. Again, we've emphasized Genesis 1-11 as a great foundation. Listen to what God said in Genesis 2-24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, singular, and they shall be one flesh. God made it very clear that marriage is to be between one man and one woman. That's under huge attack today. There's one flesh, not multiple fleshes or the same flesh. Yeah, same sex flesh, yeah. Many, however, followed their cultural society norm and had multiple wives and concubines, and it, my friend, don't be confused, it was a problem. That is not what God intended. And so, this Levite descends into the immoral pagan culture and he takes a concubine. I mean, if you think about it, Scott, the Levites, they were actually charged with the spiritual leadership of the nation. I mean, that's a high responsibility. I mean, nothing breaks my heart than when I hear about a Bible-believing church whose pastor has gone off into some sort of sexual sin. I mean, you are to be the one to be leading the church in direction of God's word and what pleases God. And the Levites were set apart as wholly they were not to adopt the world's culture. Instead of the Levite becoming part of the solution, he becomes the big part of the problem. Friends, when we lose our distinctiveness for Christ, we too become part of the problem of our day. And I'm speaking here of spiritual leaders. We sin, and we become part of the big problem. And verse 2 tells us, "...but his concubine played the part of the harlot against him, and went away from him to her father's house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there for whole months." If the Hebrew word here is taken at face value, she seems simply to have abandoned her husband, perhaps because she was tired of being treated as a secondary wife, and she returned to her father's home. For a woman in Israel to divorce a man, she may have been designated a prostitute simply because she walked out on her husband. On the other hand, These are strange and evil times, and we should not be surprised if when she returned home, her father sent her out as a prostitute to possibly raise some money. Anyhow, for her to leave her husband is absolutely impermissible. So, right away, we see in this Lebite's home, it is dysfunctional. What should he do? he should confess his sin and just have one wife, but his permissive spirit leads him to feed his lustful appetite and ignore God's clear teaching. Can I just say that if you ignore righteousness long enough and accept the culture of the day, it will eventually lead to depravity. You will start to become calloused to sin. You'll begin to be apathetic. You'll find your attendance at church won't be as regular. Your Bible reading will almost be non-existent. And it goes back to this whole idea, this interwoven humanism of our day. Man does right in his own eyes and is permissive with everyone else as well. Can I tell you, it's just not the USA that's rife with sexual sins, but the church within the United States has become permissive and tolerant of it as well. The world has gone wild with just, let's say, distinctive sex, and our hope for victory is to be anchored in the truth of God's word, but unfortunately today, truth isn't of supreme importance anymore. it has been substituted with tolerance. It's not about truth. You remember Pilate even, he kind of mockingly asked Jesus, well, what is truth? That would be an argument that people probably on the street could have with one another, well, what is truth? Yeah, or what's your truth? Yeah, that's what it goes back to, what's your truth? Sensual permissiveness leads to indulgence, and we see that in verses 3-9. I'm going to let you read that section for yourself, but the Levite's permissiveness excuses him of the hard task, and her father seems very excited to see him. Her father, probably an older man, is extremely hospitable as this Levite now has come after his concubine and he's there for five days. He's probably so appreciative that the father to the Levite for not having her stoned and causing her to be a disgrace to the family. And so the father appears to be ensuring that the Levite will not press charges and is relieved that he has simply come to take her home again. But I do need to say, let's look at the end of verse 4, where we read, So they ate, and they drank, and they lodged there. What a unique party for a man who has an unfaithful wife and a dad who has a wayward daughter. They both ought to be totally on their faces toward God, crying out for forgiveness and help, not having a party. Both the father and the husband treat this woman as an object. One wants to avoid disgrace and the other wants to secure bedroom privileges. Anonymity here in this text is meant to suggest that these men and women stand for all their, quote, type in Israel. I mean, this is how the Levites were living. This is how the fathers were thinking. This is how women, unfortunately, were being treated. And it's a dark picture and it will get even darker. It was permissive. It was sensual. It was a sexual society. Scott, I ask you again, does this sound familiar? It does. And it's just the application of this verse that keeps popping up, especially in these chapters. There was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That's just what all these folks are doing here. I mean, the permissiveness of the day was like a neon sign. Do your own thing. Eat, drink, be merry. Hey, for this is the good life. I mean, that's a common expression we hear today. Hey, how you doing? Just living the good life. Living a good life. Oh, my heart breaks. Are you truly living the good life? The good life is only going to come through Christ. I mean, it's almost like that neon sign, hey, you're the boss here, partner. If it feels right, do it. And that's what we see taking place not only in our text, but it is like on the front page of the newspapers in the 21st century today. I know it's a tough passage, folks. Trust you'll come back and join us as we'll be coming back together on Christmas Day, Monday the 25th. I trust you have a wonderful time with your family, and let's again give thanks for all the Lord Jesus has done for us. We hope you enjoyed today's program. If you have a question we can answer, or would like information on the Word for Life, would like to donate to continue to produce this broadcast, or need resources for your Christian walk, contact us at Brookside Baptist Church, 4470 North Pilgrim Road, Brookfield, Wisconsin, 53005. You can also visit us at brooksidebc.org. That's brooksidebc.org. or call us at 262-783-6180. That's 262-783-6180. Thanks for listening today, and please tune in again as we bring the Word of God to your life.