Well, I invite you to turn to the second book of the Bible tonight, the book of Exodus, and we are reading from verses 16 to the end of the chapter, Exodus chapter 22, verses 16 to the end of the chapter. This is the word of the Lord tonight. As we continue our study in the book of Exodus, this is God's word, beginning at verse 16 of chapter 22. If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride bride price for her and make her his wife if her father utterly refuses to give her to him he shall pay money equal to the bride price for virgins shall not permit a sorceress to live whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death whoever sacrifices to any god other than the lord alone shall be devoted to destruction you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him for you are sojourners in the land of egypt shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child if you do mistreat them and they cry out to me i will surely hear their cry and my wrath will burn and i will kill you with the sword and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless if you lend money to any any of my people with you who is poor you shall not be like a money lender to him and you shall not exact interest from him if you ever take your neighbor's cloak and pledge you shall return it to him before the sun goes down but that is his only covering and it is his cloak for his body and what else shall he sleep and if he cries to me i will hear for i am compassionate you shall not revile god nor curse a ruler of your people you shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses the firstborn of your sons you shall give to me you shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep seven days it shall be with its mother on the eighth day you shall give it to me they shall be consecrated to me therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field, you shall throw it to the dogs. May the Lord bless the hearing tonight of his word. Well, every believer cares a lot about living the Christian life, don't they? And the life that God intends. And I think sometimes we simply struggle with what we are to do now. I said, you've heard the message, we've made professions of faith. And now what does the Christian life look like after that? What are we to be about? You remember this morning that I press a little bit, saying that a lot of people don't want to be pressed beyond certain places. They want to be left alone. Christianity is confined to that hour on Sunday. What does the Christian life living look like? We know that the Lord has a great intention. He gives us chapters and chapters and chapters and books of instruction telling us that all scripture is is profitable for life and godliness he desires that from us where do we go to best discern that that this is why i love reading the old testament because it breaks down this kind of conception here's the old testament what good does this have to do for us i love studying this and i love considering the law of god it's been very helpful for me the law we know is an expression of the holy character of god and it really does help us to learn about him what he's like i mean think about it wasn't it wonderful to read that tonight in the midst of everything that we've been seeing happen in our society a god who cares about justice like this a god who's worried about a poor person going to bed without a cloak on That should have stood out to you when I read that tonight. That's really remarkable, isn't it? And if that's the case, then we should take some serious time to understand his law. To appreciate his law. To take, even though this is a theocracy, even though it's belonged to Israel, and these were laws directly under his government in a sort of church and state same situation, we take the moral principles from this, and we can apply a lot, can't we? In this, we're learning about God, and we're learning how to become like Him. And that's why Exodus has been really, in this particular section, so useful. Here we're studying the civil laws that God put in place to regulate the nation of Israel, and it shows His justice, it shows His perfect, in dealing with messy situations and messy sinners in a sinful situation, His wisdom just shines in this, and put on display is the mind of the Lord, the character of the Lord, the attributes of the Lord, the righteousness of the Lord. He will not let the fatherless and widow be abused. That's another thing that should have stood out. And it makes tonight, I think, enjoyable to study because we have come to see a series of laws that really put on display the goodness of the Lord. What we have tonight are a series of moral cases and laws and situations in which the lord was directing the actions of israel and and this is really important tonight for us to look at to take these moral principles especially those that flow right out of the the 10 words the moral law of god and apply them to what he expects of us to be a holy people as he is holy that's really the intention and the goal so the goal tonight then is to learn to become more like him in the practice of godliness and these are real uh helpful ways in which you can put to practice who you now are in every single way at first glance when i read these tonight you probably thought well they seem somewhat disconnected and they seem like a bunch of disconnected laws and i i have to admit i had a bit of a hard time structuring this. I do see three major categories here to help break this down. The first that I looked at and reflected, I noticed here that he's really protecting the design of marriage right at the beginning. And then secondly, he's setting before them pathways and things to prevent and things to stay away from against that shows how far in wickedness a society can go to stay away from three things that he hates and then he gives us certain things that we can practice that he loves so the first sections are a little challenging a little messy but then we by the end of this it's just so beautiful to see what he's telling us to practice and what to do so here i think it's really important to say tonight up front and we come to some sections that maybe make us a little apprehensive and nervous for our children. I don't want any parents in their homes to reap what they've sown as we considered this morning by not talking to their children about what they should. I mean that for young parents tonight. I mean that for parents of all ages. I don't want you to reap what you sow by being quiet. You have to talk to your children and god will do it if you don't want to do it and that's what this is for so you'll notice his design tonight to protect in his good design to protect the marriage institution for your children and that's right here at the beginning notice here in verse 15 16 if a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her he shall give the bride price for her and make her his wife we tend to read this and there's been a lot of discussion about what exactly is the lord describing here what was going on here and there has been a discussion of things like rape and things like that in looking at verse 16 but this is not dealing with the problem of rape deuteronomy 22 does and i want you to listen to the words if a man finds a betrothed woman young woman in the countryside and the man forces her and lies with her then only the man who lay with her shall die but you shall do nothing to the young woman there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him even so is this matter for he found her in the countryside and the betrothed young woman cried out but there was no one to save her that is rape as we understand it and children should hear exactly the things that the lord wants to teach the lord was so bothered with this that he wanted the offender killed he wanted the offender killed so think about all the problems having to do we've seen in society with rape this is how the lord viewed it this is how the lord viewed it it's as if cain rising up against abel that's how bad it was in his eyes that's not what this is what exodus is describing is a man who is seducing a woman who is open to his advances and she in turn accepts it and you'll notice it says that they lie together guess what that is it's premarital sex it's exactly what it is the Lord wanted this talked about premarital sex as we understand it today and I want to know his will on it I want to understand it I want to know what he thought of it I want to know how he handled it don't you? I say this openly that probably this is one of the most important messages for our young people tonight. It's not anything that any caring parent should do to cover ears. God wants them to know this. God wants them to know this. The reality is that most young people entering into marriage have already done this. As the going statistics go, by the time of 20, 75% of Americans have. By the time of 44, 95. So 95% of people have done this before, making the vow and commitment of marriage. It's not much better among Christians. And what we're finding in the sexual revolution today is Christians have completely compartmentalized things. They come to church, but this is the one area that they think that God is okay with, that God sort of gives a pass on, and that they have the freedom to do this, and still be a Christian. And so long as they're not, and this is what I commonly hear, hurting anyone else. That's the common saying. Who is this hurting? I want us to think about this for a minute and what God did to deal with this problem. The first thing God did was recognize it and openly call it out. He was not bashful. He was not ashamed of this. Consider the scenario. Years ago, I knew a man whose daughter was dating an unbeliever. And the pastor talked with him and he smiled and said, oh, my daughter has her head on her shoulders. She knows what she's doing. So he basically provided no shepherding for his daughter, let the guy have open access into the house whenever he wanted. Lo and behold, the father came crying to the pastor, falling apart when he heard about their involvement. These things always seem to work their ways out. They always seem to be found out. For years, this continued to go on. Five or six years, they dated. And it was openly practiced in the relationship. And then they broke up. Now, I ask the question, did that hurt anyone? Did that hurt anyone? Well, she has now given herself to somebody who is not going to be her husband. she didn't even think of her future husband did that boy show any respect to her really did they consider the harm that they really were risking had a pregnancy happened that a child had been brought into that happens all the time and now the effects upon their future in the mind and the things they are going to struggle with really could be uncalculated their own future marriages are more now damaged than they know. The question is, what did the Lord think of this? What did the Lord think of this? If you lived in the theocracy and you lived in Israel and you were out doing this, the consequence was this. The man had to take it upon himself to marry the woman. Catch that? if you did this, the Lord said there's a big responsibility. You need to get married. And what the Lord was doing here was calling sin, sin. He was leveling consequences upon the premarital sex that was going on. The woman was never to be abused in this. Remember, the culture was different. Today, women throw themselves just as much as the men and the problems just as much in the reverse. But this was nothing casual, and the Lord was actually concerned here about the reputation of the woman you did this you need to marry but here was the caveat now get this the man had to then go to the father and he had to make known what had happened and request the hand of the daughter in marriage the reason having been made known this is what it's saying here compensation then had to be made to the family, most likely to her, because her reputation was now tarnished. The Lord was putting a halt on young men who prey on women and your daughters. This is what he was doing. He's putting a halt on it. In other words, those who were out there in the community, just praying on the women and wanting that without any responsibility. You couldn't just go out and do this in Israel. What I find fascinating here is this. Who did the Lord bring into the equation? The Father. Anytime there was to be a marriage, they had to approach the Father and ask for His blessing. The Father, now listen to this. The Father had the right to refuse it in this scenario. The Father had the right to say no way. And even then, if the father said no, they still had to pay, the man still had to pay the bride price. See how the Lord was teaching responsibility here? Think of it this way. If a man wanted to marry a gal, he was forced to be very careful in the period preceding marriage. In that betrothed period. He had to be very careful of putting himself into situations alone with her that would lead to this because if it happened, the father might shut it down and he'd never get her. And he would still have to pay. Can you imagine if that kind of restraint were enacted today? All the abortions, all the clinics, all the broken homes, all the fatherless children. Think of how much would be avoided. And you see where the slew of our sexual revolution all began. The opening of this door, I mean, when I was in the secular college, listen, you walk in the bathrooms and they offer free, free contraceptives. Maybe our anger tonight at the homosexual agenda should first be met with an anger of our tolerance for allowing this to be practiced and we have been silent. It all started here. It all started here. I apply it today then. Men should respect another man's daughter. Right? Men, you should be thinking if you're dating another man's daughter, that is a man who raised her, who gave a lot of time to train her, who loved her, and you're coming in and you're overtaking, if you're dishonoring her, you're also dishonoring him. If there is a man who comes to one of my daughters and is ungodly and wants to date her or be with her, what do you think my responsibility is as a father? I'm not spending 18 years to train my daughter to say, go ahead, man. This is my duty. I'm working hard with my daughters. I'm not a great parent, but I'm trying. But I know one thing. If these guys come around, I know it's my duty. And I think it's really important to say tonight, fathers have a big role in who their daughters and their sons are seeing. You are to protect them. And if this is going on and you're not stopping it, It's a great offense to the Lord. You should ask them. You should protect your little sheep. Why? Because this is a whole section here on the Lord loving your daughters. He's being a father to them. Isn't this beautiful? He wants to care for them. Sex is designed to be a blessing for marriage relationship, and that's what God intended in Israel. You see it here. So the first concern for the practice of godliness in Israel were a series of laws here, as I titled them, we're dealing with social justice and laws like this, that were designed to keep people sexually pure and protect the marriage institution. And I want to say, look, there's forgiveness for actions. If you're doing that and you're involved in that, there's forgiveness. Stop, go to him. But there are consequences earthly-wise. The Bible's taught us that. But how good is the Lord to say, really want to protect this institution see it protected see what he's doing right out of the gates to protect the marriage institution that's first that's first second uh i see three laws here that are designed to make israel flee those things that god hates and he's really training them and teaching them as to how far gone a society can go in particular sins and how destructive they are to the nation of God's people. And so you have three quick ones given here in 18, 19, and 20. Notice them. You shall not permit a sorceress to live. Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death. Whoever sacrifices to any God other than the Lord alone shall be devoted to destruction. I find it tragic that the Lord would even have to say these things, don't you? You begin with witchcraft and sorcery, which are acts of communicating with the dead and telling people's fortunes and reading signs, which all throughout history was a direct communication with the realm of the dead to find out revelation, to find out some answer, to find out some truth. And direct communication as often was done even with the demonic realm. This is how the Scriptures often portray it. You remember Saul went into the witch at Endor and tried to do this with disastrous results. He then goes on to bestiality and the nations around them were common in doing this. Their gods were claimed to have done this. And then he mentions in close connection with that sacrificing to any other god. This is why when you read the Old Testament, notice how bad it got in Israel. Remember that the Lord could say that they were sacrificing their sons and daughters to other gods? Think about that. Moreover, you took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me and these you sacrificed to them. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter that you've slain my children and offered them up by causing them to pass through the fire? I mean, it's just awful that God's people at one point were sacrificing their children to other gods. I stood back from this and I thought, well, do you see how wicked things can get in a society? We don't think about this. I would imagine it tonight bring some measure of uncomfortability but do you realize all these things are common in our society i'm not speaking of things that are foreign to us magic the wiccan movement is just exploding right now communicating with the dead is huge all this stuff is taken off bestiality you know when some of you remember that in society that was adultery that was the line and notice how the line just keeps getting pushed farther and farther back. And now we've legalized homosexuality. You don't think we're on the path to this? This is next. Just look at what we do with animal rights today. You've blurred distinctions. You've taken out creation norms. You've now said marriage is for a man and a man and a woman for a woman. Why would you not, if you're now worshiping the creature rather than the creator why would when a gorilla get shot and we are an uproar in our society would we not think then that it's wrong for this to occur you've seen all this kind of stuff and it's gone on in a society in which we live and i have to say that in the holy community do you see why discipline was so important even for the church that we um we don't we don't stone sorcerers we don't do those kind of things but we discipline to stop the path from going out of control that's why discipline is so important in the life of the church that's why discipline matters in our lives we need it and so after these hard things i have four um things that are noted here that i believe will encourage you tonight that you could practice uh that really demonstrate and display the righteous character of God. What are they? First, notice what he says here and I have titled it Care for the Weak in verse 21. He says, you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. Think about the first there. A stranger in the land of Egypt You were that, so now strangers are among you. The Lord brings in all sorts of strangers among us. And I believe the gospel shines here so beautifully that the Lord always wanted the strangers among us loved, those who were outsiders, those who were different, those who were distinguished as being different from us and apart from us. If the Lord brings them in, I want them loved, said the Lord. And that was the whole story that the Lord had done for them in Egypt. They were the strangers in the land of Egypt and the Lord came down and befriended them and loved them and cared for them and brought them into His house. Pure and undefiled religion is this. You remember James would talk about showing partiality and that's why when we have different people come in, we don't just honor the rich, do we? We honor the poor. We love the poor. We love the strangers. That was what he wanted them to do with the strangers. And notice then verse 22, and the widows and the fatherless. If you afflict them in my community, think of how important this was. They had no social justice programs. They had no government help. If you afflict them and they cry to me, I will hear that cry. Well, isn't that just an encouragement to continue to pray? All your cries of injustice in this world, the Lord hears. He's listening. And my wrath will become hot. And I'll kill you with the sword. Your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless. Notice that. I love the widows and the fatherless that much. Do we have widows and fatherless in the Escondido URC? Of course we do. We've got a bunch of them. I love them, says the Lord. Care for them. Love them. Widows and orphans get all sorts of special treatment in the Bible. I love reading the Psalms that constantly do this. Psalm 146, he watches over the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and the widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down. He's looking upon in our congregation little widows constantly. Isn't that beautiful? He's looking upon children who don't have fathers constantly. The Lord cares that much. The Lord loves that much. This is the motivation that James gave that pure and undefiled religion is to visit widows and orphans in their distresses because they constantly face Him. Final category here he gives is the poor. And these are all the needy among us. If you lend money, don't be a money lender to the poor. Don't treat them like a... Don't make people have needs. Don't sign contracts with them. Don't treat them that way. Listen, if you're going to take something, you better give it back at night because you know what I'm concerned about, says the Lord? I'm concerned that that poor man may not have a coat on when he goes to bed. This is your God. This is remarkable, isn't it? I love the poor. I'm concerned about them. If you take a cloak as collateral, it better be back that night. Boy, that's checking motivations, isn't it? if your brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you don't give them the things which are needy for the body, what is a prophet? Be merciful as your father is merciful. Well, that came right out of Exodus 22. Second thing, that's the first. What does he say here? To practice for godliness. Care for the weak among you, the poor, the fatherless, the widow, the strangers, the visitors who come in. Love them, shepherd them, help them, care for them. Don't talk to your own group. Be involved. Have them to your homes. Invite them over. Show hospitality. Love them. That's how you're going to really show you're leading a life that is thankful to God. Second, honor authority. You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people. It means in your life, don't take God lightly. He's ruling you. Don't be lived. Don't live your lives as if He doesn't exist. Recognize His authority in your life. Recognize His rule. Acknowledge Him. Acknowledge His majesty, His sovereignty, His glory. Don't disregard Him in the course of your lives. When you step up out of bed, you should acknowledge that He gave you another day of life. that he gave you breath, that he loved you, that he's helped you, that he's encouraged you. You should acknowledge these things from the Lord in prayer. It should be like breathing. Don't take them lightly. Don't be careless and active and cold and hardened to God. Don't blaspheme his name. And then in the next breath he says, Ann, I've put spiritual leaders in your lives. What's your attitude to them? don't curse them don't speak against them that offends me says the lord i hear it don't do that coffee times have been some of the worst for this don't do that so notice how he connects authority this is a way you can really honor me in your life recognize me and pray for and respect the authority structure especially the spiritual authority in your life one of you recently told me that the older generation even when rulers were doing things that they disagreed with, they so feared God, they refused to speak evil against them. It should be practiced among us. You want to love God? You want to practice godliness? Recognize His authority and honor the authority structures He's put in your life. Third, give of your firstfruits. You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe produce and your juices. Your firstborn of your sons you shall give to me or that principle from exodus 12 likewise you shall do with your oxen and your sheep it shall be with its mother seven days in the eighth you shall give it to me put me first remember to give this is this is a way that you say thank you to god put me first in the things that you you spend in what you do the lord wanted his people to be able to express thanksgiving to them and this is why he loaded them with benefits when they came out of egypt to be able to give back and god doesn't need your good your gifts back to him what he's doing with those gifts is using them to bless your neighbor that's what he's doing it's his intention and then finally i say tonight be holy for i am holy says the lord that that's the emphasis in the fourth he gives them one last distinctive you shall be holy to me don't eat anything torn by beasts in the field or you shall throw it to the dogs everything you do i want your actions what you eat everything you do whether you eat or drink it should be for the glory of the lord you're my holy people be distinct be distinct look at the goodness of the lord tonight you see those four tonight help and care for and love the weak isn't that a beautiful thing that's said here think of these four second honor authority structures third give of your first fruits and fourth be holy for he's holy um i said tonight obviously the law was given to show us sin but if we have been forgiven that should be no excuse not to practice godliness in our life if you know the grace of christ this should be your pursuit if you've been brought out of egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and been delivered from slavery and bondage. This is what he is calling you to be as Christians. One of you came up to me this morning and said, Pastor, I was really moved by the sermon because what you essentially said is we're not just Christians on Sunday. We are Christians by virtue of who we are in everything we now do, in every minute that we live. This is now our identity. Amen. And that being the case, Here's ways that you can show that identity in the world, right? Help the weak. Honor authority, the Lord's authority, Him. Don't speak against it. Give of your best to Him and be separate. I think it's a beautiful way to practice godliness and I hope it helps you tonight. What a wonderful God. He cares about your children, cares about your daughters, cares to keep you off of paths that are utterly destructive, Look at where society can go. And he desires to give you a path forward toward godliness. All of scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for life and godliness. And may we pursue that this week to his glory. In Jesus' name. Heavenly Father, thank you for instructing us tonight. Sometimes with things that are challenging. And you know what's best for us. We don't know as parents. We think we do. We don't know. you know and I pray that we would take seriously your will for our life that we would love our children as you want us to shepherd them that lord they would be cautious in the way that they live being trained in holiness and in righteousness that we would stay off paths that can lead to such perversion we've seen it here that we would practice godliness in our lives being holy for you are holy we can't do it apart from our we can't do this in and of ourselves it is a work sanctification of free grace we look to you for help that by your spirit we would put to death the deeds of the body and live and bring great glory in the way that we live this week thank you Lord for instructing us in righteousness and in truth in Jesus name we pray Amen