The Evil Within

Romans 1:18–32 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Intro

In the book of Romans it tells us Romans 1:18

Romans 1:18 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

People who by their actions suppress the truth of God for lies made by man or the evil that comes from within. what happens then when we do what is right in our eyes and then start to base our lives off of the evil that tends to capture the hearts of man?

Imagine a town where the leaders decided that traffic laws were too restrictive. So they removed all stop signs, traffic lights, speed limits, and road rules. “From now on,” they said, “just drive however you think is best.”

At first, people were thrilled. No waiting at red lights, no speeding tickets, no rules! But very soon, chaos broke out. Cars were crashing into each other at intersections. Pedestrians didn’t know when it was safe to cross. Road rage skyrocketed. People got hurt— so basically Saskatoon

Eventually, the people realized: freedom without boundaries isn’t freedom—it’s destruction. The human heart, left to itself, will always choose self over sacrifice, comfort over conviction, and chaos over Christ.

That’s why we need more than rules—we need a righteous King.

People left to their own devices will choose the evil heart over God. The end of the book of Judges does not end well, it is not a very happy ending. We see the result of generations that have lived their lives for what is right in their own eyes.

HBI - Godly People need to act in Godly ways, not dominated by sinful self interest but motivated to glorify the Lord in all that we do. Our own worst enemy is not the evils without but the sin within.

Chapter 19

Judges 19:1 ESV

1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel,

The book begins and ends the same way, though God was supposed to be their king, but they where following what felt right to their own heat we will also see is that God never forgot about them

The Levite of Ephraim

The Levite from Ephraim who had a Concubine form Bethlehem. But His wife was unfaithful and left to go back to her fathers house.

a CONCUBINE WAS LIKE A SECONDARY WIFE. We need to remember that these are things the Lord never condoned, and often the polygamy going on caused nothing but problems for people. it seemed she may have been unhappy with her secondary wife role. He only went to go get her after 4 months of being gone.

He went to go bring her back with a servant and some donkeys by speaking kindly to her.

The Father in law

The father in law seemed to want to get on the Levites good side so offered hospitality. He wanted Him to stay for a while. Through all the attempts to get the Levite to stay, the concubine is not present. Maybe she didn't even want to go back with Him.

He left with her and went by Jerusalem. At the time it was not an Israelite city so Levite did not want to stop there. So they stopped in a place called Gibeah which belonged to the tribe of Benjamin.

An elderly man from the same place originally took them in.  He was an old farmer from the hill country of Ephraim, also temporarily staying in Gibeah, who offered them to stay in his house. What happened at the old man’s house was a retelling of the story of Sodom in Genesis 19. 

Another Sodom

They where confronted by wicked men that wanted to sleep with the Levite.

Evils - the men wanted to have sex with another man, the home owner offering his daughter and he mans concubine, the rape of the concubine. He is doing what is right in his own eyes, both acts that he was going to do where evil

 Both Lot and the old man were so callous that they did not consider the violation of their daughters and the concubine an “outrageous thing. This just goes to Shows the spiritual disintegration of the people.

There is no protest from the Levite. He even went to bed after the pack of men took his concubine and raped her.

He commanded her to get up in the morning but realized she was dead.

the final violation of her person hood by denying her burial by being hacked into pieces. Sacrificed like Jepthahs daughter. Maybe she was alive but unconscious when this all went down,

Dominated by Self Interest and declining morals - Make sure we do not become like this, we seem to be doing a good job though.

Godly people need to act in Godly ways. The problem with seeking the desires of the heart is the told to follow our hearts, to trust in our hearts, but the heart is a sinful thing. And when we become dominated by self interest. When we start to become dominated by self interest we get what authors sometimes call “the cannanization” of a culture. Morals start to slide and we become stuck in a pit of depravity. Then soon no one is doing what is right in the eyes of God.

Self interest is like a cancer. We become programmed by the world these days to function more along the lines of expediency and what is better and faster and easier for us. There is much God can do through us if we let Him, but How can he if we are self interested. God doesn't need to use us, he doesn't have to use us. But he wants to use us for His glory if we allow Him to.

When God uses the likes of you and me to show His love and His light we can fail, but we need to make sure that we are striving to follow the morals of the word of God.

Call to War

After the terrible thing that happened in Gibeah (Judges 19), all the Israelite tribes—from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south—gathered at Mizpah. There were 400,000 armed soldiers, and they came together as one people before the Lord.

The leaders asked, “How did this awful thing happen?”

So the Levite, whose concubine was abused and murdered, told them everything: “My concubine and I were staying in Gibeah, in Benjamin’s territory. Some evil men surrounded the house, planning to kill me, but instead they abused her all night, and she died. I cut her body into pieces and sent them to the tribes to show how outrageous this was.”

He said, “We can’t ignore this. This calls for action.”

He lied, they didnt say they wanted to Kill him, just rape him. They didnt take his wife, he essentially shoved her out the door. We again see

So all the tribes agreed: “None of us will go home until we bring justice.” They decided to go to Gibeah and punish those responsible. They also assigned men to gather food supplies for the troops.

When they sent men to confront the tribe of Benjamin, asking them to hand over the wicked men in Gibeah, Benjamin refused. Instead, the Benjaminites gathered their own army—26,000 warriors, plus 700 elite soldiers from Gibeah—all expert fighters, including left-handed slingers who could hit a target with deadly accuracy.

They Misuse God’s Name

All the eleven tribes were united in their decision to fight against the Benjamites for what they did against the Levite and his concubine. The war didn’t seem to be fair: 400,000 Israelites against 26,000 Benjamites. But the Benjamites were more skilled in war, soundly defeating the Israelites in two battles. So the Israelites wept and fasted and offered sacrifices to the LORD, asking the LORD if they should again fight another battle. After the LORD told them that they would be victorious in the third battle, they finally defeated the Benjamites. Only 600 men escaped from the battle, hiding in a rock in the wilderness. The Israelites killed all the men and beasts, and set on fire all their cities.

They worshiped other gods, and made carved images of them. They misused the name of God, and tried to manipulate God. They had outward prayers and sacrifices, but only because they wanted to do what they wanted to do. Their sacrifices meant nothing to God because their hearts were unrepentant. They violated the Sabbath because they were idolaters.

they had no authority from God to completely destroy their own brothers. They committed adultery left and right, even taking pagan women as wives and concubines. They stole each other’s properties. They lied against each other. The Levite lied to the Israelites, claiming that the leaders of Gibeah, not the worthless rabble, led the assault against him and his concubine.

Yet God’s grace is still imparted on the people even though they have sinned. God will forgive us and show us grace and mercy when we make foolish mistakes like this but we need to come to Him. Their is no sin so great that his mercy is not greater still. A self interested person will attempt to take advantage of this but the man of God will Humbly accept that He has failed and strive to be God Centered.

Judges 21

more chaos followed the defeat of Benjamin. The Israelite's regretted the thought that one of their own tribes might completely disappear. So they decided to provide wives for the 600 Benjamite men who survived. But how did Israel provide these wives?

It was another horrific, wicked scheme by Israel. At Mizpah before the war, the men of Israel made a vow, Judges 21:1 

Judges 21:1 ESV

1 Now the men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah, “No one of us shall give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin.”

This vow that did not come from God was going to come back to bite them.

So where would 600 women come from? They said from the clan of Jabesh-gilead, because they did not send men in the war against Benjamin. So they attacked Jabesh-gilead, killed all its inhabitants, and took 400 women from the city. But from where would the 200 more women needed come? Again, they devise another wicked plan. They commanded the 200 Benjamites still without wives to go to Shiloh during a festival, and take a woman each for their wife. So they did

Godly men need to act in Godly ways. If we use our faith to justify our actions and they go against the moral law of God then it is wrong. What we must do then is glorify the lord God in all that we do.

therefore it is not outsiders, or the gov’t or the evils of the world that is our enemy, they can only destroy our bodies. Rather our own worst enemy is the evil within. so what do we do then when the world comes against us, when people do evil to us? to we become like the world or do we strive to be more like God.

I read a quote about this that sums this up well.

Judges/Ruth, Revised Edition Contemporary Significance

No book in the Old Testament offers the modern church as telling a mirror as this book. From the jealousies of the Ephraimites to the religious pragmatism of the Danites, from the paganism of Gideon to the self-centeredness of Samson, and from the unmanliness of Barak to the violence against women by the men of Gibeah, all the marks of Canaanite degeneracy are evident in the church and its leaders today. This book is a wake-up call for a church moribund in its own selfish pursuits. Instead of heeding the call of truly godly leaders and letting Jesus Christ be Lord of the church, everywhere congregations and their leaders do what is right in their own eyes

So then we end with the question, what is right in God’s eyes? If we are not following the evil within, then how do we strive to follow God?

What is right in God’s Eyes?

There are many things that we are to do that is right in God’s eyes but it is what we can learn from this is what we are going to focus on.

Love the Lord your God and worship Him alone

There are many things that we can worship instead of God. Money, power, drugs. Anything that has come between us and God and pulls our focus and attention of of God on to self centerdness becomes an idol of worship for us.

Honor His Holy Name

This is something that comes up often in the Bible. To do what is right in God’s eyes means that we are going to be honoring the the Lord’s name as Holy. Isaiah 42:8 “8 I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.” God will not share His glory with another.

and yet we see artists, celebrities many people that upon being noticed for some great thing that they have done thank God first, but then for the rest of their lives there is no sign that anything has changed.

First and foremost we must come to the realization that God’s Glory comes first. His Holy name must be upheld.

Striving to live a Holy life for God

There is much that is involved in this. But knowing God is a holy powerful God. Knowing God is outside of time, Knowing God created the universe and everything in it and knowing God’s plans for the world will come to pass and knowing this great God loves us and cherishes us we must live our lives for Him.

Loving those around us with the love of God.

Loving others and putting them first, If self centerdness is a sin, then we must strive to Love God and share His love with those around us. Hospitality is a good way of doing this. Sharing love by opening your homes to each other and those around you.

I have seen you guys do this well, and I appreciate it so much. But it is a good reminder that the somewhat lost art of hospitality needs to be continued. There is much to be said about the ability to share the gospel with neighbors through prayer and the breaking of bread together.

Speaking truth

The last one that I want to go through is speaking truth, sharing the message o the gospel. Jesus died for our sins so that we may be set free. We are called to give our lives to Jesus and live for Him instead of giving our lives to the world. When we do this we must speak the truth of the gospel.

No matter what happens, no matter who comes against us we must speak truth. We are one day here going to lose our charitable status, things are going to get harder in NA as the body of Christ. Yes we can fight for our freedoms but our ultimate goal is not that, though it may not be wrong in itself. Because Jesus died for our sin, because He is lord of our lives above all we speak the truth of the gospel.

It is not the enemies outside we must fight against, but the evil within.