Those of you that were here some time ago now, I guess it was a year or so ago when I preached through the book of Isaiah. I hope you will remember a word that we confronted in that book. It was a Hebrew word, Mishpat. It truly is one of the great words of the Old Testament. I rank it up there with Chesed, which is mercy, loving kindness, with Kedosh, Kedosh, holiness, righteousness. Mishpat is right up there as one of the most important words in the Old Testament. Unfortunately, it's not as well known as some of the other Hebrew words to testify how important it is. It's found over four hundred and twenty times in the Old Testament. A lot of times the first time it appears in the Old Testament very significant. It comes to the point in Genesis chapter eighteen, where God selected Abraham. Remember, he chose Abraham. He called Abraham and he was going to make out of Abraham a people. And he says out of Abraham and his descendants, I have chosen them that they may follow my ways by doing justice and mishpat. By doing righteousness and mishpat justice. We frequently define the word mishpat as justice, but justice doesn't do mishpat justice. It's much bigger than it does mean justice, but it means much, much more than than just justice throughout the first five books of the Bible. We call it the Pentateuch, the books of Moses. The the word Mishpat refers to the summary of God's law. The summary of God's law is is right, it is Mishpat. Mishpat was, if you will, and this is a good definition, I'm going to write it down, was the code of conduct for a society according to the standard and design of God. Did you get that? The code of conduct for a society according to the standard and design of God. This is how God wants you to live. This is how God has designed life. That's Mishpat. It's fair, it's good, that's Mishpat. Mishpat was how Israel was supposed to live when they entered into the land that the Lord was going to give them. If you have your Bibles, I'd like you to look at Leviticus 18 for a moment. Leviticus 18. Mishpat would be a way of living that would set Israel apart from all the other nations. They would be different because they followed Mishpat. They followed God's way of living, God's design for life. Leviticus 18, verse three. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt. Now, remember, this is given to Israel. They've come out of Egypt. They've not yet even gone into the promised land. This is the law. This is this is the teaching you shall not do is what was done in the land of Egypt, where you live. Nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan, where I'm bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform my judgments, my mishpat, my way of living and keep my statutes to live according to them. I am the Lord. So you shall keep my statutes and my mishpat by which a man may live if he does them. I am the Lord. As Moses stands before the children of Israel, giving to them and summarizing to them the law that God had given him. He said in Deuteronomy four eight. What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments. Mishpat as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today. Mishpat described or you could even say prescribed how you treat your neighbor. You don't steal from your neighbor. That's not God's intention. That's not God's design. Thou shalt not steal. God's way of living is you don't steal from your neighbor. You love your neighbor. Mishpat was how you were to treat a widow or an orphan. You don't take advantage of a woman because she's lost her husband. That is unrighteous. God does not like that. You treat the orphans fairly. You don't. You don't overwork them in the fields and not pay them just because they don't have parents. You treat the orphans fairly. That's mishpat. You treat your wife right. That's mishpat. You treat the foreigner among you. Fairly, remember, you were a foreigner at one time, and when a foreigner comes in your land, you be gracious and kind to the foreigner. That's Mishpat. Mishpat was how you treated criminals as well. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. God established a law. His standard was the punishment should fit the crime. That was revolutionary in the ancient world. You could commit some little sin or something against the king and be, you know, just flailed alive. God says not to be that way. I for an eye tooth for a tooth. This is how it should be. This is my standard of living. Mishpat was how kings should reign. They should reign fairly, justly, righteously. Mishpat was how judges should judge. That's why bribes were so evil, because Proverbs 1723 says a bribe perverts Mishpat. This is not fair. It's not right. It's not good. This is how Samuel described David, 2 Samuel 8, 15. David reigned over all Israel, and David administered Mishpat and righteousness for all of his people. He was a good king. He was fair. He was administrating God's judgments. Listen to what else David has to say in the Psalms about Mishpat. David says in Psalm 19, 9, The judgments, the mishpat of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. In Psalm 37, 28, he says the Lord loves mishpat. He loves justice and righteousness. What is good? He says in Psalm 89, verse 14, righteousness and justice, righteousness and mishpat are the foundation of God's throne. That's the foundation of God's throne. His son, Solomon, concludes Ecclesiastes with this admonition and warning, he says at the very end of the book, this is a summary. Fear God and keep his commandments. The last verse is because God will bring every act to mishpot everything which is hidden, whether good or evil. Every act, Solomon says, will be weighed according to every act will be weighed according to what God has designed and what God has said is the standard of what is right and what is wrong. So fear God and keep his commandments because every act will be determined good or evil according to God's righteous standard. Well, by the time of the prophets, God sent the prophets to Israel because They failed to keep Mishpat. They were not set apart from the nations. They behaved exactly the way the other nations behaved. And God sent the prophets to call them back to his standard of living. The book of Isaiah opens up in Isaiah 117. Learn to do good. Seek Mishpat. Reprove the ruthless. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow. Prophet goes on to say in chapter five. By way of condemnation, verse seven. For the vineyard of the Lord of the host is the house of Israel and the men of Judah, his delightful plant. And God has looked at now as a vine keeper. And he comes and he looks to his plant Judah in Israel. He's looking for fruit. It says he looked for mishpat, but instead he found bloodshed. He looked for righteousness, but behold, he heard cries of distress. Israel was condemned because mishpot was not found in their midst. They had not kept the standards of God. They had not lived any differently than the nations around them, which set the tone for the prophets to announce that one day there would come a ruler who would establish mishpot. Listen to a very familiar verse Isaiah chapter nine verse six. We read this verse all the time at Christmastime for a child will be born to us a son will be given to us and the government will rest upon his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, but verse seven says there will be no end to the increase of his government and on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with Mishpat and righteousness. He's going to establish a kingdom with justice. He's going to establish a society that is going to function in accord to God's design and God's purposes. Listen to Isaiah forty two one. Isaiah forty two verse one. Behold, my servant whom I uphold. my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth Mishpat to the nations. He will bring forth nations that will be ordered by God's standard. Verse four says he will not be disheartened or crushed until he is established Mishpat in all the earth. We know that this servant This child is going to be given this servant of the Lord is none other than Jesus Christ and the prophets tell us that his primary purpose in coming would be to establish mish pot on the earth. God's standard of righteousness. God's way of living. This brings us precisely to our study tonight, because on Wednesday nights we've been studying the commands of Jesus Christ. These very commands were studying tonight are the demands necessary in establishing. He is demanding of his followers that which Israel failed to produce. He is commanding of Christians to live out God's order and design for society for life. And when you turn to Matthew, chapter five, this is. I think very important, because I think in Matthew, chapter five. The issue that Jesus preeminently addresses to his followers is this idea of establishing justice, what is right in the eyes of God. So when you come to. Matthew five verse thirteen like Israel. Jesus says you are the salt of the earth. Verse fourteen you are the light of the world. Jesus says his followers are going to be distinguished from the world. You're going to be the salt of the earth and light of the world. Remember Israel in Leviticus 18. You are not to do as the Egyptians did, and you're not to do what the Canaanites have done. You are to live according to Mishpat. You are to live according to my standards. And Jesus says to his followers, you are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth, and you are going to live differently than the world around you. And I think when we come to verse 17, This speaks specifically to the whole concept of Mishpat. Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I didn't come to abolish it, but to fulfill it. Jesus is saying, I have not come to overthrow God's order of society and to abrogate it and start some new order. I have come to fulfill what God desired, what God intended with his law. He is going to establish a community of people. in which the full intentions of God's law will be carried out, and that community of people is the church. The Church of Jesus Christ will be a community of people whose lives will be patterned according to the standards that God loves, which is mishpot. That's what the church is. So, when we read these commands, Jesus said, this is what my followers are doing. You are seeing this is Miss Potts. This is justice. This is the standards that God loves and he expects them to be lived out in the church. In the body of Christ. The sermon on the Mount. Jesus, in essence, declares that he's going to establish a community of people that doesn't just keep the letter of the law, but will fulfill the intent of the law. That's why he said, You've heard it said, Thou shalt not kill. Well, I mean, somebody could theoretically not kill anybody and well, it kept the law. But Jesus, that wasn't the intent of the law wasn't to just keep you from killing your neighbor. The intent of the law was you love your neighbor. I say to you, if you are filled with rage and hatred towards your brother, you've broken the law. When you look back at the law of God, one of the areas, one of the very big areas that Israel was to be distinguished from the pagan nations would be in the matter of their sexual conduct. They were going to be different from the world around them because of their sexual ethics and practice. If you've been reading with us through the Bible in a year. You would have read, especially in the book of Leviticus, some fairly graphic commands regarding Israel's sexual practices. And our. Sometimes famed puritanical beliefs, we all can't believe that's in the Bible. I took you back a moment ago to Leviticus 18. verses three through five. Where God said that his justice, his mishpot would be the standard that would set them apart from the nations. Did you know that the entire chapter of Leviticus, chapter eighteen, that begins that way that says, you know, you're not going to be like Egyptians and you're not going to be like the Canines. Did you know the entire chapter of Leviticus eighteen is devoted to mishpot as it relates to sexual ethics. The entire chapter. It's in Leviticus chapter eighteen. We find it was never God's design for there to be any sexual intercourse among blood relatives. You don't have sexual relations with blood relatives. That's not why God designed sex and this is a very good point to say. This is not because all sex is bad. God created sex and he created sex for a purpose and to be practiced in certain places and confines, but to practice it outside of mishpot of what God's design is, is to be is to pervert his design and his sin. And he says in Leviticus 18, you are not to have sexual relationships with anyone who is a blood relative. In Leviticus 18, he states that you're not to have sexual relationships with a married woman. That is outside of God's design, that's outside of Mishpat. If someone is married, it's off limits. In Leviticus 18, verse 22, we find it was never God's design for there to be sexual intercourse between two males. That's called homosexuality. And God decrees, declares that is not why I created sex. That's outside of the bounds. That is a perversion of why of what I have created this activity for. You are not to have a male lie with another male. That is a perversion. Leviticus 18, verse 23. It is stated that it was never God's design for there to be sexual intercourse with animals. That is not why God created sex. He created it and he set bounds for it. He had designs and purposes for it. But to have sexual relationships with an animal is way outside of the bounds for which God created sex. And he says that is a perversion. Now, why? Do you think God had to spell this out in the law? You know, again, oh, God, why are you saying this is so embarrassing? You know why God had to spell this out to the children of Israel? Because the Bible tells us in Leviticus chapter 18, it was these practices that the nations were doing. This is what they were doing. Look with me in Leviticus 18. Look at verse 24. As he sums up all these parameters of sexual intercourse of what you're not to do to go outside of the bounds, verse 24 says, Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all these, the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. I mean, these we read these things and you should be, oh, that's awful. and yet it was practiced among the Egyptians and the Canaanites. Do not defile yourselves for by all these the nations which I'm casting out before you have become defiled. Look at verse twenty-five for the land has become defiled. Therefore, I have visited its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants and in verse twenty seven reiterates for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations and the land has become defiled. God. Visited these nations with judgments because they were sexually perverted. Remember Solomon's warning. Keep God and fear his commandments because every act is going to be measured against mesh mishpot God's standard. That means it's not just for Christians It's not just for the Jews, it's for all humanity. God has designs and purposes and all acts are going to be judged according to his standards. You can change the laws, but you can't change God's law. You can redefine marriage, but you cannot redefine God's standard for marriage and all acts are going to be judged according to his design and his purpose. And God judged these nations because of their sexual perversity. Now, as you read through the Old Testament, he's read through Joshua and you see the conquest of the land as Israel goes into the land of Canaan and begins to take. Possession of the land, they get into some battles, Joshua, confronts these nations and when you read through the book of Joshua, you read some very graphic language. The children of Israel utterly annihilated these nations. They killed every man, woman, and child, and in some places, even the livestock. I mean, utterly destroyed everything. There were a few conquests of nations, which I thought were very interesting, where only the men and any of the women who were not virgins were destroyed. The livestock was kept, but in a vast majority of the cases, the entire inhabitants would have been snuffed out in the Texas so that there were not any breath among them anymore. They're gone. They're annihilated. You know what that tells me, though, is I see these. The judgment of God corresponded to the sexual perversity in the culture. The militaristic atheist wrote in his book, God delusion. How awful the God of Israel is because he ordered and orchestrated the killing of women and children. I want you to know something less blasphemy. Don't ever stand in judgment over God's actions. I am convinced that when he ordered the and wiped out entire nations, including women and children and even animals. It was because of gross sexual perversity that infected every layer of society. That's exactly what he says in Leviticus. I am going to spew these people out of the land because they are grossly perverted in their sexual practices. And in some of those cases, the culture was so infected with sexual perversity. It wasn't just the men and the women, but the children themselves were morally perverse. And even the livestock was infected and it was all annihilated. I believe that we can witness a progression in sexual depravity. It is a progression you will see, and I believe you are seeing in our own society. When you look at society in general, I'm speaking now very generally. But when you look at society at humanity in groups, generally speaking, men are perceived as being morally corrupt. They are. the instigators, if you will, of moral perversity. I mean that just generally speaking, men being frank here, men are seen as morally corrupt. In our own society, it is men that start up and finance and drive the pornography industry. That's men. Generally speaking, in a society, men are pictured as morally corrupt. Again, generally speaking, when you look at a society, women are generally perceived to be the moral moorings of a society that is generally speaking, women often maintain some sense of sexual decency in a society. Generally speaking. But as you watch sexual perversion progress, you see it go from being not just a male thing, but it begins to infect the female population, if you will. And as this society progresses in sexual depravity, even the women themselves become corrupt. Listen to Romans one twenty six. As Paul describes a depraved society, he says this Romans one twenty six, even their women. I thought the word there is interesting. He's looking at them as a group. Even their women exchange the natural function for that which is against nature. When the moral moorings of a society. are corrupted, you know that society is in danger. I believe our society has already reached that point of saturation of moral perversity. Our women, who were once the moral fiber of our country, our women have become corrupt. It's no longer the men that are instigating the moral perversity. It's no longer the men that are just the predators. Now, the women are as morally perverse often as the men. Once a society reaches that point of depravity, the unholy progression of sexual perversity begins to invade the next level of society, which is children. And I believe that is what we are witnessing today in our society. Is it a coincidence that after the sexual revolution of the 60s that today pedophilia is of epidemic proportions in our society? Almost daily you will read the newspaper of someone being convicted for crimes of pedophilia. As a church, as a school, do you know that we have to take measures We have to sometimes take drastic measures to weed out and protect our children from sexual predators. Is that not alarming to us? Our nation is slipping into the abyss of moral depravity. It's happening right before our very eyes. Sin is never satisfied and it always goes to a deeper level of perversity. If left unchecked. I find it very interesting that God told Abraham. It would be four hundred years before his descendants would take the promised land. You know why he said, because the sin of the Amorites is not yet completed. meaning the Amorites probably didn't start out to be morally perverse. It was going to take some time, and the only thing God had to do to let them sink into perversity was nothing. The only thing God has to do to let America sink into a moral abyss is nothing. It progresses. Today, with the advent of Internet and cable and satellite TV, our children are participating in sexual perversities unimagined only a generation ago. I read in the paper of sexual activity between fourth and fifth graders. In my generation. It is happening before our eyes. We are. We are not talking. Oh, how could a God kill innocent little children? That's the issue. God doesn't kill innocent children. If you look at our society, there's only one level to go, if breaches haven't already been made before, every level of sexual perversity has been reached. the animal kingdom is infected. I stand here today to tell you that Jesus is establishing a different society. What Jesus demands of his followers is in stark contrast to the world around us. He demands sexual purity. The church is to be a bastion of moral purity. He begins in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. In verse 17, he said, You've heard it said, You shall not commit adultery. I say to you that everyone who looks upon a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. You look back at the law. One of the defining features that set Israel apart from the nation would be its sexual ethics. And it is no different in the New Testament. What will set the church apart from the world is its sexual ethics, its sexual code of conduct. Sexual purity will be the defining mark of the believer, separating them from the world. That means a Christian man, a Christian woman, a Christian teen, a Christian child will be sexually pure if you're going to follow Jesus Christ. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 4, if you will. Ephesians 4. Verse seventeen, you know, as you study this, you see how the Bible fits together. You see what Jesus says because I didn't come to abolish the law. I came to fulfill it. It's being fulfilled right now in my church, in my body, the church. Israel, you need to walk differently, you're not going to practice the thing that the Egyptians and the Canaanites practice Ephesians four seventeen, therefore, I say, and I affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the nations also walk of the Gentiles. in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart. And they have become callous and have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with lust, greediness. But you didn't learn Christ this way. You're different. You're going to live differently in this man. Paul will say in first Corinthians chapter six that the kingdom of Christ will specifically exclude all fornicators. He says in first Corinthians six do not be deceived. It's interesting that he will say that numerous times. on this subject matter of sexual immorality. Do not be deceived. Let no one deceive you. Meaning, there's going to be some mentality in the church that you can think you're a part of the church. You're a Christian and you're participating in sexual immorality and I'm fine. And he keeps saying, don't be deceived. Don't be deceived on this. Let no one deceive you about this. Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals shall inherit the kingdom of God. And I believe. In Ephesians, Chapter five, with full knowledge and understanding of the judgment, the history of the judgment upon the nations in the Old Testament, listen to what Paul warns in in Ephesians five verse three. Again, Paul is a Jew, he knew the Old Testament scriptures, I know he had in mind what was what the acts of judgment of God from Sodom and Gomorrah to the conquest all throughout Israel's history. Do not let immorality or any impurity or lust or greed even be named among you as a proper among saints. There must be no filthiness and for silly talk, of course, just the first five for this, you know, with certainty. That no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an adulterer has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. The God of the Old Testament, Mr. Dawkins, is the same God of the New Testament. He hasn't changed. And he is a God who has established a sexual code of conduct of which all even Mr. Dawkins is going to be held accountable to. And he will judge if you break mishpots. He will judge and has judged nations that slip into moral perversion, no run into moral perversion, he destroys nations and people for sexual immorality. Here's the glory of the gospel, though. The glory of the gospel is that God has redeemed sexually immoral people who were devoted to destruction and he's taken them out of the world. Listen to First Corinthians six after he says that there's not going to be adulterers and adulterers and homosexuals will not inherit. This is what he says in First Corinthians six eleven and such were some of you. He has taken morally perverse people and he has washed them. He has sanctified them. He has justified them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit. If you are a Christian and you are participating in sexual activities outside of God's purpose and God's plan, you need to immediately repent, confess your sins, and come back into God's design. First John one nine applies to the white line as much as to the adultery or the homosexual homosexuality. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us all of our sins or, as our brother said, you receive a pardon. Unfortunately, there is great confusion in the church today. There's confusion in people's minds. They think they can live like the world. They think they can live as David talked about having the the. Mishpat of the world, having the world sexual ethics when they want to, but still call themselves a Christian and say, oh, yeah, I'm a Christian when it's convenient for me to be a Christian and you can't do that, there's a lot of confusion. It's very clear cut. There's there's not a lot of gray areas in this matter. And to help the confusion. Second Timothy 219 says, Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness. The apostles understood Jesus on this matter implicitly. And as the gospel progressed out of Judaism and went into the nations, the church found itself in in pagan. Nations in which the sexual standards were grossly perverted from God's intentional design and the apostles interpreted Jesus commands very clearly to the church. Do not practice what they do. It's because of these things, the son that God brings wrath upon the sons of disobedience. I happen to just think about Pompeii, the destruction of Pompeii. Archaeologists have shown that that city was rife with sexual immorality. I mean, it was what it was known for. And it wasn't long after Paul would have uttered these words to the Corinthians that the wrath of God will be visited on the sons of disobedience within 20 years. Within twenty years, this cesspool of sexual immorality would be vaporized, would be scalded to death with volcano lava. Amazing. The warning is there for us, brothers and sisters. I am very concerned with our nation and the society and the corruption that is going on among even our young people. would have mercy on this nation. All that the church would wake up and and again commit itself to live according to Mishpat according to God's standard for sexual activity. Our God in heaven, we are sinners. We're not prudes. We're not raising our noses and saying, oh, look at the world are so bad. We are acknowledging that we are sinful. Lord, in many ways, I feel like we're a lot. We're very oppressed because of the sensuality around us because of the sin around us. We are being lured and tempted, and our spirits are vexed within us. Our young people who have Hormones raging and Satan's trying to capitalize on that trying to steal our young people the internet has invaded our home Satellite TV now it is so it's everywhere around us. Oh God if you do not preserve a remnant, we will not be saved if you do not Deliver her children from this evil. We will have no remnant in this nation And I pray, Lord, that you will deliver our young people. I pray that you would deliver family's father. Do not lead us into temptation. Deliver us from the evil that is pervading our society. I pray that the church will listen to this clarion call of moral purity. I pray where necessary, there will be repentance and confession, be cleansed, washed from the sin, and begin to live the way Christ taught you to live. Lord, thank you for the forgiveness of sins. Thank you for the power of the blood of Christ that cleanses us clean of even the deepest, most vile sinners. What encouraging words were written to the Corinthians. Such were some of you. You were like this. You were participating in these sinful activities, but God saved you. And I know that that is a testimony of many that are here. Lord, we pray that we'll take this seriously and that we will order our steps rightly. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.