In his sermon, Scott Brown discusses the intricate laws of Deuteronomy 22, emphasizing their significance for the protection of the family. He outlines seven key points about these laws, highlighting their role as deterrents against the dissolution of family structures and as beacons of light illustrating the importance of purity and marriage. Brown draws parallels between Moses' and Jesus' teachings, showing how both expand on the Ten Commandments to offer deeper insights into God's expectations for His people. The sermon also addresses the modern misinterpretations of these laws, cautioning against the dangers of spiritual idolatry and emphasizing the necessity of repentance and reformation. Brown calls for a renewed understanding of these laws as protective, reformative, and ultimately as pictures of the Gospel. He concludes by highlighting the need to confront the residual paganism in our lives and to recognize the spiritual implications of physical adultery.

I'll start the reading at verse 9. You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together. You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself.

If any man takes a wife and goes into her and detests her and charges her with shameful conduct and brings a bad name on her and says, Look, I took this woman and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin. Then the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the evidence of the young woman's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. And the young woman's father shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man his wife and he detests her. Now he has charged her with shameful conduct, saying, I found your daughter was not a virgin. And yet these are the evidences of my daughter's virginity.

And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. Then the elders of the city shall take that man and punish him. And they shall fine him 100 shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife, and he cannot divorce her all his days. But if the thing is true, and evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, then he shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel to play the harlot in her father's house So you shall put away the evil from among you.

If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die. The woman that lay, the man that lay with the woman and the woman, so you shall put away the evil from Israel. If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife. So you shall put away the evil from among you. But if a man finds a patrolled 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 patrolled young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her. If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin who is not betrothed, then he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out.

Then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days. A man shall not take his father's wife, nor uncover his father's bed." Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, please bless the preaching of your Word. Please be with Scott as he unfolds your Word.

Teach us and help us to learn a holy hatred for sin. Amen. Twice this week, or twice last week, I was speaking to different people in the community and they were telling me that they had heard that in our church we're preaching a false gospel that man is saved by the keeping of law. And this should be very, very disturbing, particularly when you understand what we have been saying here in our church, on the one hand, but also the terrifying results of preaching a false gospel. We just, you know, have exited the book of Galatians where we read, God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We've just read, let him be accursed who thinks that he can be saved by the keeping of any law. And so it just makes me think how important it is that we're all very, very clear regarding what scripture says. Now, we have been studying the laws of God in the book of Deuteronomy. And as you know, as you've been tracking with us, Deuteronomy brings to us three speeches of Moses in the last month of his life, in which he, in the first speech, he casts a vision for God's protection of his people. In the second speech, he gives the Ten Commandments and spends the rest of that speech explaining them in detail, the same way that Jesus did in his own ministry, as he said, you've heard that it was said of old, well, here's what this means.

Moses is doing the same thing regarding the Ten Commandments there. Now, I think that God has confronted us many times through these laws. He's upset us. He's made us wonder what can this possibly mean for us today. And So we, like anyone who reads the law of God, feel like we're reading something that's very different, because we are reading something very different.

My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. So when you read the law and are upset, it should just help you know who You are. You're a sinner. You don't think right.

Your brain has been pickled. It's been fried. It's been soaking in juice. That's all bad for you. So when we read the law, we're always upset and disturbed by it.

These laws here are just of that exact same category. Now, I want to spend a little bit of time just speaking in general about these laws in particular, and then set the context again for where we are in Deuteronomy chapter 22, and then actually dive into the text and take it piece by piece. So I want to give you, you know, before we ingest these particular laws, I'd like to give you seven notes about the significance of these laws right here because these are incredibly significant laws. And I hope that they'll provide some clarity about the focus, the laser beam focus of these laws. These laws all have to do with one thing and this one thing is of enormous significance.

And the first note I want to bring, the first of seven, is that these laws are for the protection of the family. You know, How important is the dissolution of the family today? And these laws are so important because they're a roadblock against those things that would destroy marriage and children. And for those of us who are watching the destruction of the family through legal means, through laws about divorce, through social means, through means of the media and the internet, this diabolical force to destroy marriage and family and children. We who are watching these things recognize that these laws, they stand like a roadblock.

They're standing right in the middle of the lane of the freeway, and all the traffic is coming against you. And it's a roadblock to stop it, to stop the destruction of the family. The family is a basic building block of society. Divorce, premarital sex is one of the most common and powerful ways of destroying it. Adultery will destroy your family.

It will destroy your economic well-being. It has enormous significance to it. And really, I think what this passage implies is that a culture of pre-marital sex and adultery is the beginning of the dissolution of society. And so these laws are for the protection of the family. They are deterrents.

They are roadblocks. And Moses is highlighting the importance of this thing called the family. It's important to have roadblocks. It's important to have deterrents. Deterrents matter.

It's important. There's a funny story in our family. Many years ago, my daughter Blair was about four years old, and all the cousins were squirting their uncle with a hose, and they were chasing him around. He finally cornered my little daughter Blair, and he said, because she was one of the chief hosemeisters. And he said to her, if you do that again, I'm going to hang you up on that clothesline by your toes.

And she looked around for a second. She looked at her aunt Darla and said, if he does, would you get me down? You know, deterrents are good. Sometimes though, deterrents don't work if you're highly motivated and you want something so bad. But These laws are deterrents for the protection of the family.

Number two, these laws are a beacon of light. They're a beacon of light to illustrate the beauty and the importance of the purity of marriage and the threats that can so destroy it. And these laws make it clear that getting married is not the beginning of the matter. It matters what you do in your sexual life way before you're married. This is about the exposition of adultery.

But notice that he isn't just talking about what happens in a classic textbook case of adultery. He talks about what's happened before you're married. It matters. It matters what you do before you're married. And these laws are a beacon of light.

Each one of these laws is for love. They are love preserving. They are joy enhancing. They are peace producing. They're patience generating laws, they are kindness flourishing, their goodness fostering, their faithfulness building, their gentleness growing, their self-control sweetening.

All of them promote hope, all of them promote love, Every one of them. When God says, when God says that a crime of adultery is so heinous that one should be stoned for it, we should know how upsetting that is to us. At the same time, it's a law of love. And if we understand that God is giving us a beacon of light to shine down upon us what's good and what's right. Now, all of the examples in this text, they're gut wrenching, they're tormenting, they're heartbreaking, they're home wrecking, they're emotion damaging things that happen in people's lives.

And all who have participated in these things at any level, all the way from the lust in the heart to fornication, knows that these things are not good. They do not help. Everybody knows that. The third note about these laws is that these laws clarify the heart of God about marriage. They broaden the definition of adultery in the same way that Jesus did.

Moses gave the law, the seventh commandment, and now he's explaining it in more detail. This is exactly what Jesus did. Moses is just like Jesus. That's why in Acts chapter 3 verse 22 we read, for Moses truly said to the fathers, the Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren, like me. Jesus will do the same thing I'm doing, is what is said there in Peter's sermon and in the book of Acts.

Jesus is a prophet like Moses, not exactly like Moses. There are many dissimilarities, but the similarities, though, are clear, particularly in the way that they handle the law. As you've heard me say many times, Deuteronomy was the book that Jesus loved. He quoted from Deuteronomy more than any other Old Testament book. He loved to go to Deuteronomy to talk about all, to explain all manner of maladies and human sins to help people understand the will of God.

That's why Jesus in Matthew 5 said, you have heard that it was it was said of those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." So these laws clarify God's heart regarding purity and marriage. They help us stay in the sweet spot of blessing that God has provided for his people. Number four, the fourth note about the significance of these laws is that these laws are meant for the reformation of God's people. These laws are meant for the reformation of God's people.

Reformation always starts the same way. It starts with repentance. Reformation begins by saying, Oh God, be merciful to me a sinner." And you know, I know that many here are praying for a mighty reformation to sweep our land, but it always begins the same way. It begins with a heart that says, oh Lord, how far I have drifted in my thinking and my life. Everything in my life needs such help.

And that's the beginning of a Reformation. You know, this is why Deuteronomy was not only the book that Jesus loved, it was also the book that grieved Josiah. When Josiah's men broke into the place where they found the lost book of the law, what was the first thing that they did? They read it and they tore their clothes. They repented, they grieved, They saw the gigantic mismatch between their lives and what God was calling for.

And they tore their clothes in mourning, in grief and repentance. You know, the Lord Jesus said, blessed are you who mourn. Blessed are those who mourn for their sins. That's the beginning of our Reformation. And not only was it the book that Josiah grieved over, it was also the book that Josiah acted on.

And he came and he dealt with the paganism that had so enwrapped every part of the lives of the people of Israel, and we read that they took a stand for the covenant. And Josiah and those around him, they burned the articles of Baal, and They went through the temple and they found the idols and articles dedicated to Baal and they destroyed them and they removed them from the city. And they got rid of the priests because the paganism had invaded everything. Pagan ideas, pagan ways, pagan thought processes. And a reformation ensued because of the repentance.

And these laws are meant for the repentance and the reformation of God's people. Deuteronomy is so helpful to us today because they show us what would happen in a society where there was true repentance and reformation. It gives you a picture of what it would be like if there was a reformation that went deep and how your life and your culture would change if people would heed the word of God. Next, it puts a marker. It puts a marker on our residual paganism.

I just want to say that again. It puts a marker on our residual paganism. There are things left over there. We are being sanctified. There's this progressive sanctification.

There are two kinds of sanctification. There's the one-time, eternal sanctification by the blood of Jesus. And then there is also progressive sanctification that takes place through the washing of the water of the Word, and it happens over time. But the truth is, will we ever recover from this residual paganism? No, I don't think we ever will.

Thank God for heaven. Thank the Lord Jesus Christ for making a home for us in which all our tears will be wiped away and we will be completely free. But These laws here, these laws on the seriousness of premarital sexual activity and adultery, they put a marker on our paganism. I believe that the reason that it bothers us so much to read this is because we're still just a little bit too pagan. Well, God assigns very serious punishments and judgments about it.

For us in modern America it's nothing. And here there's accountability. Here there's actually a public element to it that involves not only just what happens between two consenting adults in a private bedroom, but it comes to the elders and then it comes to the whole city because it has implications in all of society. It should terrify a society that has set aside the law of God regarding sexual promiscuity in any manner because the judgments are so great against that society, and there are many, many terrifying judgments that God promises for those that break these kinds of commands. And These laws are also meant for love, for the refreshment of God's people.

And then finally, number seven, These laws are pictures of the Gospel. They illustrate God's exclusive call to sinners. And they have a double meaning for playing the harlot in your Father's house. Anytime marriage is spoken of, there's a double meaning in Scripture. This is true in the Old and the New Testament.

You cannot just talk about your marriage because it has implications beyond. It has implications of Christ's love for the Church. It has implications of spiritual idolatry and harlotry. And the truth is that when we play the harlot in this world, we are playing the harlot in our Father's house. This is my Father's world.

He caused me to be born. He gave me a life. He put a name on me. He gave me a certain way about me. And this is my Father's world.

It's His. I'm owned by Him. He owns everything. And so whenever we talk about physical adultery, we have to be reminded and also humbled at our spiritual adultery, how we play. There are many ways you play the harlot in your Father's house.

By loving things that are unworthy and unworkable. By clinging to things that are sinful and don't satisfy. And that will destroy your soul. There is spiritual harlotry in us as we live in our Father's house, this world that God has placed us in. So these laws are pictures of the Gospel for the exclusivity of our devotion to God.

And also the terrible consequences if we would spurn the voice of God and not hear Him crying out to us as sinners saying, repent, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden." If we keep pressing that down, if we keep kicking that in the head, think of the terrible disaster. So this passage is just as much a gospel passage as any other, because it speaks of the purity of a bride and God's desire to purify his bride. And he will purify his bride through his blood. He will take all the idolaters and homosexuals and perverts and everything, all of us, all of us here, such were some of you. And he will cleanse us by His blood in all of our spiritual and physical adulteries.

I would not ask for a raise of hands for anyone who has participated in any of these things that are in this text. The truth is that every single hand would have to go up because of Jesus' interpretation of these laws. There isn't anyone in this room who can stand above these things here. And so, they take us on a straight line to the cross, to the blood shed for our sins. So those are seven notes about these laws before we enter into them.

So we're in Deuteronomy 22 now, right? And in the first eight verses of chapter 22, Moses is expounding on, Thou shalt not murder. Then, verse 9, he begins to expound on, thou shalt not commit adultery. And the rest of the chapter from nine to 30 continues with this emphasis. And it rolls on as well into the next chapter.

And we'll deal with that next week. And Moses begins this section by bringing three illustrations. First, of mixing different kinds of seeds. Second, of mingling different kinds of threads. And third, of yoking different kinds of animals.

And all of these are designed to set the stage for Moses detailing several particular situations where marriage is defiled. And he's illustrating the utter foolishness of this. You don't throw out different kinds of seeds together. It's insane. Nobody does that.

It doesn't work. And then he talks about plowing an ox in a donkey. That is so stupid. Nobody would do that. It doesn't work.

And then he talks about the mixed thread, about putting threads in garments that one would cause the other to rot. It's something that you just wouldn't do. It's harmful. It's on the level of stupidity. It's kind of like such saying, there's certain things you just don't do.

You don't step on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Chip. And you don't lick frozen poles and You don't put diesel in gasoline pickup trucks. And you don't bring a knife to a gunfight.

You will die. It will not go well with you if you do that. So that's what he's saying. So he gives these three illustrations. And then he drops in and says, now, make tassels on your clothing in verse 12.

What's that all about? He's saying, no, don't do something so stupid, but do something smart. Do something wonderful and wise. Follow the Word of God. Have these tassels to remind you that God's Word is wonderful and perfect and it's helpful and it's all you need.

So that's what the tassels is all about. Then he gives this next illustration, the very first of a number of illustrations that describe the various ways that the seventh commandment can be violated. And the first one is when a woman is accused of playing the harlot in her father's house and what should be done in that situation. And what's so striking about this first illustration from verse 9 to verse 21 is the seriousness with which God regards issues of premarital sex. And he calls it shameful.

He says it gives a bad name. He says, in verse 21, it's disgraceful. And He says, you shall put away the evil from among you. And it positions the father in the central role of ultimate responsibility in protecting the virginity of his daughter. Now, that's one of the most terrifying things for men.

Men today are so insensitive to the vulnerabilities of their daughters. Men in this text are ultimately responsible for the virginity of their daughters. And they need to have proof of it if she's ever accused that she has been violated before marriage. Now, what does that? This means a lot for fathers.

This is a fatherhood text in many ways. And it positions the father as the active protector, the knowledgeable party in his daughter's virginity. And a daughter gives up liberty in order to communicate and verify the sacredness of her purity. And it involves the elders and it speaks of how it's a threat to society. And the dire consequences are explained if it's true.

But the bottom line is this. The responsibility lands somewhere. It lands on the doorstep of a father's house. So fathers, let this terrify you. Let this ratchet up your vigilance in understanding how you protect your daughter's purity.

You live in a world where almost no father protects the purity of his daughter. Almost nobody does. And this sounds so strange here, but this is what's right. What your friends are doing is wrong, it's sinful, it's destroying the next generation of daughters, brothers. Would you lose a friend over it?

Lose one. Lose a hundred friends over it. Because the purity of a daughter is of enormous importance. He calls this an outrageous immorality in verse... An outrageous thing in verse 21.

Sex out of wedlock is outrageous in God's eyes. And so, you know, the theme of this whole section is, you shall put away the evil from among you. So that's the first illustration. Now the second one is in verse 22. And this brings us to a whole other range of situations that Moses is using to explain the seventh commandment.

Verse 22. The situation is adultery. This is textbook adultery. Because what we'll find is adultery is more than just textbook adultery. Jesus told us it's way beyond textbook adultery.

So if a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die. The man that lay with the woman and the woman, so you shall put away the evil from Israel." So here the sacredness of marriage is upheld and in this one verse is an explanation of very straightforward adultery. And she is found lying. They're found lying here. So they're actually caught in the act.

The Lord Jesus Himself explains this verse in John chapter 8, 1-11, when the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the very act, just this exact same situation. Jesus is taking from this and pulling from it and then giving a sense of it. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives early in the morning and He came again into the temple. And all the people came to Him and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery.

And when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say?' This they said, testing him, that they might have something of which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger, as though he did not hear. So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.

And he stooped down and rode on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?

She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more." Now what Jesus is doing here, he is not releasing this woman from the law at all. Not for one second. He's not set aside this law for an instant.

He wrote that law. Every word of God is a word of Jesus Christ. Every word of the Old Testament is a word of Jesus. So, what did He mean by that? Well, Jesus does not dismiss it, but He upholds the letter of it.

He appeals to the law of witnesses. Where are the witnesses? And none came up at all. He appeals to their neglecting. Another important matter in the law.

Where is the man? Where is the man? He's not there. He's appealing to the law. He's short-circuiting right back to Deuteronomy chapter 22.

Where is the man? He has to be involved in this. Why did the scribes and Pharisees bring him? The Pharisees and the scribes were not following the instructions of the law. They had no witness, they had no man, and there was no one there to cast the first stone.

The law said that the law of witnesses was that the witness had to cast the first stone. But there was no one there to cast the first stone. They had broken the law in many, many ways, and Jesus was making that clear to them. The Pharisees had disregarded key components to the law that Jesus upheld with that woman caught in adultery. It's so commonly preached that this is about God just has mercy on everybody.

Well, God has enormous mercy. God was extending His mercy through the law. There's mercy in the law. It requires witnesses. It requires participants.

It requires elders and the community. It requires lots of things. That's the mercy that is in the law. We're not vigilantes that just do whatever we want on our own behalf. But there's more.

And Jesus is upholding all of that. And here is a protection against perjury and forcing the accuser to cast the first stone. And all of those who had a conscience would not participate, and no one did. And so the Lord Jesus says, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. Jesus said, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that through the world, that through him might be saved.

And he who believes in him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Well, there's a parallel passage of this in Leviticus chapter 18 where every imaginable kind of relationship that might be covered under this is listed. Near of kin, your mother, your father's wife, your sister, your son's daughter, your father's sister, your mother's sister, your father's brother, your daughter-in-law, your brother's wife. And he says there in Leviticus 18 that it is an abomination. He says, do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for by all these things The nations are defiled.

This defiles nations. Adultery defiles whole nations. All the no-fault divorce laws, all the flim-flammy garbage that our country has flipped over the wall from a legislative standpoint is despicable. You know what? Nations are defiled by this.

And we have justices and lawmakers who are defiling our nation. You just need to understand what this really is. Their idea about what happens with consenting adults is despicable. It's a doctrine of demons. It's wrong.

He says, you've defiled the land. Don't defile the land. Lest the land vomit you out. Lest the land vomit you out? If you allow this, the land will vomit you?

What are the national implications? What are the global implications of a culture that sets adultery aside? The land will vomit you out. You'll defile it so much. He says, those who commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

Their abominable customs is what Moses calls them in Leviticus 19, verse 30. That's why we read in Proverbs 22, 14, the mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit. He who is abhorred by the Lord will fall there. That is such a terrifying text. Every time our family reads that, we gasp.

It takes your breath away to think, He who is abored by the Lord will fall there. The judgment of God, the vomiting out, the defiling of the land, that's what this is all about. These are family wrecking, culture destroying forces at work. You know, Think of the poverty and the depression and the suicide that comes from this. Think of the millions of people in America who are medicating themselves to oblivion because of these sins, because they're so overtaken by grief and sorrow, the broken relationships, the hatreds, the loneliness, just the abject spiritual poverty that happens when you look, when you sin in this way and you look in the mirror and what you see is a monster because you've defiled yourself.

And this is the most, let me just suggest for your consideration, this is the most serious of the sexual sins because the severity of the punishment is greater in this one. Notice, you see it's all one sin. It's all a violating of the seventh commandment. But there are various punishments for different kinds. Some have more extreme punishments assigned to them than others.

So there's some kind of gradiation in terms of the punishment. There's no glory here for anyone. For the harlot is a deep pit and a seductress is a narrow well. The unfaithful will be uprooted if you forsake the companion of your youth and forget the covenant of her God for her house leads down to death." Wow, okay. So that's the first instance.

It's textbook adultery, right, in verse 22. Now we move to the next example in verses 23 through 24. This is fornication with someone who is betrothed. Now, for I believe it's the second time in Deuteronomy the term betrothed has appeared. We learned of it, I believe, first, we'll have to check that, in Chapter 20, where one who is betrothed should not go out to war because he might get killed and somebody else might marry his wife.

So if you're betrothed to be married, don't go to war because you need to go be a husband. That's the idea in Deuteronomy 20. Now, here the term appears again in a different kind of context. But The term betrothed, I believe it's not just a cultural relativistic, here's how they did it then type of term. I don't believe that because there are specific things assigned to it.

It's assigned to this category of betrothal. I believe it's way more serious than most people think it is because of the things that are said about it very specifically in Scripture. There are some who say, no, Betrothal was just a cultural thing. We don't do that today. I think that's actually contrary to the commands and the principles that are attached to the word.

And there are various words that are important. And I believe that the word betrothal is an important word Because it indicates a period of time when a couple has committed to marriage and there's no turning back. You know, we live in a culture where you can turn back up until the second you stand on that altar. Just last year there was a situation where they went to the altar, they took their vows, they went down, she said, I just made the biggest mistake of my life, I want to annul this right now. They didn't quite understand the idea of betrothal, But this is fornication with someone who is betrothed, in verses 23 and 24.

If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, so that's the condition that he's talking about. And a man finds her in the city and lies with her, so it's in the city. And then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones. The young woman, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he humbled his neighbor's wife. So you shall put away the evil from among you." Now the sin here is, I mean it's various sins stacked upon one another.

It was pre-marital sex but it was more than that. It was also harming a neighbor's wife. That was one of the sins. And it was also, it was fornication, but with a betrothed woman that heightens, I think, the seriousness of it. The setting is in the city.

There are witnesses, and it's not so easy to do things in a corner in a city. And so she must have consented, because if she had cried out somebody in the city, would have known. And how often have women cried out in the city and no one has rescued them? How many times has someone been murdered and no one comes to their aid? Here's a damsel in distress and nobody is there to hear to...

She doesn't cry out, but if she had cried out, somebody would have been there. Hopefully. Hopefully she didn't live in a place like America where people just say, hey, lock their doors and stay inside, because they don't want to get involved. But she was in the city, and the sin of the woman was her silence. Her silence implied her consent.

Now, fathers and mothers, let me just look you in the eye and encourage you to do something with your daughters. Teach your daughters how to cry out. Teach them to cry out. I'll just tell you, everybody doesn't have to do this, but here's what we did in our family. Girls, if somebody jumps in your car while you're driving, Crash the car as fast as you can and run like the wind.

Just crash it. Gas it and slam into the nearest wall and run. Send the guy through the windshield and get out of there. That's one way of crying out. We also said God has given you two feet and legs for a purpose.

Kick. He's given you hands. Kick, bite, gouge, hit. Take any object you can and throw it. Whatever is close, just start throwing everything you can and run like the wind.

Okay? That's how we trained our daughters to deal with this. Cry out in the city. Teach your daughters to cry out. You do not want girls who just are going to float along and accept everything that comes over the wall.

Absolutely not. We need women with spine. We need women who will be women, who will cry out in the city or in the country, and who will do what they have to do to protect their purity. So her sin was a sin of silence, but she was betrothed. And it's interesting that immorality during betrothal carries the same kind of punishment as with adultery.

That's a theme, by the way. If you study the term betrothal, you'll find that that's true. It is of the same commitment as marriage, But it's before the actual union of the marriage Some people think well when I'm engaged it doesn't really matter you know we can do whatever we want not true That's not how the Bible has it you cannot do everything you want to do It's a time of betrothal, but it's very serious and it cannot be broken. It's like marriage, but not exactly like marriage, in the sense that all of things have not come to pass. So she's betrothed.

The sin of the man is that She was considered a man's wife. Verse 24, look at it. Because he humbled his neighbor's wife. God thinks that she's a wife when she's betrothed. I hope that we're being instructed by this as fathers and mothers and children here.

I mean, as elders here, I just want you to know we're going to advocate that you understand betrothal in this way, that you think about this term in this way. No, you don't have to, but we're just going to encourage you to really consider this. That betrothal is not some kind of throwaway deal where when you're five feet from the altar you can reverse your vow. No. You enter into betrothal with all the seriousness of marriage and you're called a wife.

Because he humbled his neighbor's wife. Now he did not love his neighbor. Whenever there's a sexual sin, there's someone who does not love his neighbor. You're always dealing with someone's daughter, someone's sister. You're always dealing with someone's niece.

And you're not loving your neighbor. Young men, young men, if you think it's a small thing to put your hand on someone's daughter, or someone's sister, or someone's niece, think again. It's not love. It's not love to do that. And those who lust after and then carry it out physically are not loving their neighbor as themselves.

And then there's the public nature of this punishment. It's at the gate of the city. Now in the previous situation it was on her father's doorstep, but here there's a difference. And the woman is punished because of her consent. And the man is punished because of his lack of love for his neighbor.

So let me just try to say this in a very succinct way regarding betrothal before we leave the subject. Moses is saying that where there is a betrothal, there is a marriage, but yet without the union of marriage. And then the third situation is a situation of adulterous rape. In verse 25 to 27 we see this, But if a man finds a betrothed woman in the countryside, so now the setting has changed. 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 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 in this matter." So he's comparing this with the other laws of capital punishment, and he says this. And verse 27 haunts me. It haunts me for the daughters of Zion. It haunts me for the neglective fathers who are willing to send their daughters into places where they're so vulnerable.

Verse 27 has haunted me for a decade. And here's what it says. For he found her in the countryside, and the betrothed young woman cried out. But there was no one to save her. There was no one to save her.

And that, brothers, is a picture of an unprotected daughter. There was a negligence. There was something not covered. There was something not cared for in the protection of this daughter. And there was no one there to save her.

So this heartbreaking situation where a girl finds herself in a place of vulnerability and she's unprotected and there are no men in her life and she's passed out of the protective headship of her father. But there was no one there to save her. Now the biblical doctrine of the protection of women is ignored or maybe just not understood. But the way that God has arranged His kingdom is that there would be for daughters, from the cradle to the grave, protection. He first brings them into their father's house and their father is their head and their protector and her shepherd and he cares for her and He nourishes her and protects her as a daughter.

He is the responsible party when she is in his house. And then the Bible says that Daughters are given in marriage. Sons leave, daughters are given. Those are two different things. Those are two different ways.

Daughters are placed from one protective headship into another. And I believe it seamlessly. Fathers give their daughters seamlessly, without any break in protection, without any break in headship and authority and care. And they seamlessly give their daughters into the protective head of someone who will also provide, hopefully, even better help and protection than he provided. And then if her protective head dies, then the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ has responsibility to take care of widows.

And they are in the family of the Church, and they're cared for there. And if there are situations that happen where there's a threat of lack of protection, they're provided for. We see a beautiful example of this of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The last thing that Jesus does with his family, he does on the cross. Do you know what it is?

He's on the cross, and he turns to the Apostle John, and he says to John, Behold your mother. And he turns to his mother, and he says, Behold your son. And on the cross, Jesus takes his dear mother, who apparently was going to be, I believe, without protection, and he places her under the protective care of the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus left. This is the biblical doctrine of the protection of daughters. God thinks highly of women.

He wants them cared for. And how tragic, how sad and heartbreaking it is when fathers don't do that, when they abuse their daughters and they're mean to their daughters, when they don't care for them, they leave them out and they rot. These are great sins against daughters. But one great sin is when your daughter is in the country and there's no one there to save her. That's also a sin against a daughter.

And we ought to know better than to send our daughters places where there's no one there to save them. You may apply it differently than I do in my family, and that's fine. But you at least had better grapple with this and figure out how you're going to apply it. I'm just trying to hack it out. I'm just trying to apply these things in my own family, in my own life.

I'm trying to take them seriously. And I know. I don't apply them perfectly. And there are all kinds of gaps and blind spots in the way I apply everything. But let's don't say, well, because you apply it differently, it doesn't matter to me.

No, it matters. But let it not be of the men of this church that there's a single daughter in this church or there's someone there and there's no one there to save her. And then there's the next situation in verses 28 and 29. This is fornication. You might call this textbook fornication again.

And it's the seduction of an unbetrothed single girl and this is the common kind that we find so lightly regarded. The Bible calls this fornication there are many many references in the New and the Old Testament, particularly in the New Testament, in the use of this term fornication. And Paul says in 1 Timothy that the law is good to confront fornication. He says in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 8, he says, we know the law is good if one uses it lawfully. And then he uses it lawfully and he confronts fornication.

The law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, and for the ungodly and the profane, for the murders of fathers and the murders of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators. The law is good to confront fornicators, and that's what this law is good for. It's a proper use of the law to confront fornication. He says, for fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, the law can speak to it. Anything that's not according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

And then he says the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart. That's the purpose of it. So this is about fornication. Paul tells Timothy to use the law to confront fornication and sodomy and all kinds of other things. And then again we find the importance of fornication in the eyes of God is strikingly different than the way that we think about it naturally.

And we live in a society where almost no one believes that anyone is obligated to marry if they fornicate. And, well, somebody, it might have been Dan, I can't remember who said it on the Tuesday morning when he met discussing this. He said, he said this, shotgun weddings are a category. You know, they're, they're to be considered. You know, 150 years ago they were common.

Today they, you know, if you fornicate, you just, everybody just runs the other direction. Not so here. You're married. You get married. There's responsibility.

You deal with a woman that way, she's yours. And you can't walk away from her. That's how God thinks about it. We think, no, I can walk away from anybody I want. Nope, not true.

And the land will vomit you out of its mouth if you do. And there will be terrible judgments, both temporally and if you don't repent, eternally. So here is this striking difference in the way that we think and the way that God thinks. And If he marries her, he must pay a bride price. He's responsible for the welfare of the woman.

If the father won't allow it, he has to pay it anyway. The father might say, you're not marrying my daughter. And he has a right to say that. He has a right to say, I'm sorry, you violated my daughter, but you're not marrying her. Pay me.

Pay me. Now that's a little counter-cultural. When was the last time that ever happened in America? I don't think I've ever heard of that happening. But what's the principle?

I mean, what's the principle here? The principle is that there is responsibility. Hey, responsibility, our whole world system, which lies in the power of the evil one, tries to take away all responsibility. You know, in just a few days, we're going to celebrate the day when the FDA approved the pill 50 years ago, which just released people from the visible consequences of fornication. And it created a culture of fornication.

You know, where almost no one in America goes to the marriage altar of virgin. Almost no one. I don't know what the number is. I've heard 95%. I've heard 98%.

I don't know what the number is. Whatever. It's a lot. And it doesn't even matter if you take a chastity vow or go through true love waits or some of these foolish programs that do nothing because they don't deal with the right issue. What is it?

88% of those who take a chastity vow at true love weights don't keep it. OK. So these words run so squarely on a collision course with our culture. They are so upsetting. They are so weird.

How could you apply this today? We'll talk about that later when we get to the applications. We need to apply these things, though. The pagan ideas that have driven this kind of a culture, They're the chief drivers of single motherhood and poverty and fatherlessness and diseases and psychological problems and drug habits and suicides. That's what you get.

That's how the land vomits you out. That's how you're defiled. There's vomit everywhere. Nobody can stay together anymore. There are vast millions of fatherless children in this country.

Some of you are those fatherless children. You were, but Jesus Christ reached into your life and He made you a son or a daughter. But you had no father. You had been vomited all over by this, all these things. And you carry the scars, you carry them to the grave.

But Jesus Christ, though, will heal those scars one day at a time, through His love, through His mercies. And when the devil tries to destroy you again, The Lord Jesus is still there with His Word and with His Spirit to comfort you and to tell you that He's put your sins as far as the east is from the west, that He's made them white as snow, that His blood has washed you and no one can snatch you from his hand. Almost every high school student in America was required to read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. How many of you at least had it on your reading list as a high school student? Maybe you didn't read it.

It was on my reading list, but I didn't read it. But the bad guys are those who make a big deal out of fornication. Those are the bad guys. The bad guys are the ones that made the fornicator wear a scarlet letter around her neck. Those are the bad guys.

God does way more than make you wear a scarlet letter. Way more. It's so offensive to have to put a scarlet letter. God says it's worthy of stoning. I wish I'd known that when I was in high school.

I was a believer in high school. But God's view is far, far worse than the people of the Scarlet Letter tried to present to us. God thinks much more harshly against it. So this passage, it attacks all of our cultural assumptions. It attacks the idea that there are no boundaries with love.

It attacks the idea that we have in our mind that no one has a right to judge us. Don't judge me. You have no right to judge me. This says, no, that's not true. The elders and the people have a right to judge you, and the land will vomit you out of its mouth.

Institutions are bad. They have no right to speak publicly about private sins. There's no authority over me. If no one knows, it does not matter. Now, that's the way that people think about fornication.

But I just want us to be kind of stricken with a sense of the difference between this residual paganism that we spoke about at the beginning and how it's still in us, it's still in us. Paul says to the Ephesians, but fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness, let it not be even named among you, as becomeeth the saints. He says to the Colossian church, mortify or kill therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry." He calls it idolatry. It is idolatry. It's spiritual idolatry.

It's playing the harlot in your father's house, your father's world in which he's placed you. Nevertheless, avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Paul says to the licentious Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, I have a couple of dozen New Testament references on fornication that maybe we'll deal with at another time. And then the fifth situation, the last in the chapter, but not the last of the story of Moses expounding on the seventh commandment, his immorality with a mother or a stepmother in verse 30. A man shall not take his father's wife nor uncover his father's bed.

This situation involves dishonoring a father, exposing a father's nakedness, you know, uncovering a father's garment. This is the terminology of Scripture. It's possible that a father has died in this situation. We don't know. And so that's the last situation, Six situations that explain the seventh commandment.

And then we'll go on to more of them next week. But let's get to some application. In difficult passages like this, I pray that these will be so used of the Lord to shepherd us as a flock. This is a wicked and perverse generation that we live in. And you know, it's how much better is it to be transformed by the washing of the water of the Word?

How much better it is to have God's thoughts rather than ours? I know this will work for blessing. I know your happiness is at stake here. And so, even though this is such a heavy message, and it's, you know, how can you, I struggled, how do you talk about this without such a spirit of heaviness. And I'm praying that God will help us not to end there, but we'll see the beauty and the glory, the purity of His commandments, how wonderful He is.

That we wouldn't leave so heavy with it, but we would leave with just such a renewed sense of the beauty of God's kind intentions that are in His will toward us, and how His ways are pleasant ways and all His paths are peace. That's where I pray we'll end up. How can we get there from now to the time we end? That's what I'm praying now. So these applications, let's first of all, let's understand with clarity now the Christian posture toward paganism.

Let's understand the Christian posture toward paganism. Let's understand the Christian posture toward paganism. Let's don't lie to ourselves about this happy kind of Felicity we can have with everybody in the world is not going to be. And let's be clear on this implication of our local church life here at Hope Baptist. God has designed Christianity to abandon paganism and destroy it in our midst.

That's what He's called us to do. And one way you do that is you protect the purity of your sons and daughters before marriage. You do it by active protection, but you do it by having a marriage, having a real marriage. You do it by loving one another. If you want to protect your children from impurity, be pure yourself.

Stop all imbibing of any impurity as a couple and love one another and grow and be kind and tender-hearted and forgiving one another. Help your children understand the antithesis that God has for his people in marriage and that purity is so important. And embrace the cultural contradictions that Christianity implies. The paganism of our culture is so exposed in this passage, it's breathtaking to think of it. How contrary it is.

Exhibit A. Exhibit A on how contrary this is. How many fathers in our evangelical culture actively protect their daughters for genity? You know, I know a lot of guys. I don't know very many.

I don't know very many who have taken distinctive action. They're just flowing along down the river. They're doing whatever their buddies are doing. What's happening on these college campuses will destroy the lives of your children. You just have to understand that.

Last year I read a book called Unprotected, which was written by someone in the social services counseling department at a university. And her proposition was the sexual environment on these college campuses is intentionally hidden from parents, and every son or daughter is being destroyed there. She's not a believer. These girls are being absolutely destroyed. And there's a book about this thing she writes about.

Well, most guys think that's the track to success for your daughter. Go get her an accounting degree or something. She'll be able to hold her head up. She'll be able to be somebody and do something. That's what all my old friends are doing.

So Moses is explaining the home-wracking marriage-destroying influences. And we need to just be very clear about this. The devil wants to destroy marriage for obvious reasons. This is a picture of the gospel. So understand the Christian posture toward paganism.

And let's don't be like those who are afraid to take culture-defying steps to protect the procurity of our daughters. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to defy this culture? Defy it, brothers. Please, please don't play games with this.

This is very, very dangerous stuff. Number two, I would just encourage us as a church to, as much as is appropriate regarding the various ages of the children here. Use these situations to teach your children about sexuality. This is a good text for teaching children about matters that are difficult to talk about. Your sons and your daughters need to understand the categories and things like that.

This text has a lot of different categories in it. And so it's a fantastic text to take your children to. You don't want them to learn it on the street. You want them to learn it from God. And it's an excellent springboard for conversation, you know, for teenage and some pre-teenage children to speak of the sanctity of marriage, the importance of protecting virginity, and various kinds of damaging situations that they might encounter, and the sharp distinction there is in the values of this world and these things.

Scripture always handles lurid details really beautifully. It handles them well. Hollywood handles them shamefully and sickeningly. That's not the place to go. Scripture is where you go to teach your children about sexuality and all these matters.

Scripture always presents them in a balanced way. It always gives the right language. The language might make you feel uncomfortable, but it's the language your children need to learn. When they need to learn it is up to you. But this is the right language.

These are the right scenarios that your children need to be reviewing. They need to understand these are the things that happen in the world. Use scripture for its purpose, and that is to bring you up in the training and the admonition of the Lord, and in all matters of godliness. So use these situations here. People often ask me how do you speak the issues of sexuality in an age-integrated church where there are all kinds of little children around?

How do you preach the word with sensitivity to your audience and use the language in the situations of scripture? You know, I've tried to do this. I know that this language is stretching though. It's stretching. But what do you do?

I think we're just obligated to use the words of scripture in a candid but a sensitive way somehow. And I hope I've not overstepped my bounds in that. But I've tried to be regulated by the words here and not to speak in a profane way about them at all. But I understand that I may have offended some of you, and I apologize for that. But we have this text before us, and we believe that we should handle it in as best as we know how.

You may argue that we haven't handled it perfectly, and I can accept that. So use these situations to teach your children. And then thirdly, Use the various principles of interpretation. Is it moral? Is it ceremonial?

Is it judicial? Well, yeah, it's definitely moral. I don't think it's ceremonial. I might have to think that through. It's definitely judicial because there are judicial actions that take place.

And the confession of our church, the Second Lenten Baptist Confession on the judicial laws reads this way. God gave them sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution, in their general equity only being of moral use. In other words, these specific judicial actions, we're not obligated to have those exact laws. But there are implications. It's a general equity, which should instruct us to understand that there are punishments and things like that.

And you might ask yourself, if Christians were in control, should they have these laws? Well, laws are brought about by a judicial process and things like that. Why would you want to go anywhere else but God's law? Do you want to go to Rousseau for your laws? Do you want to go to Desaad?

Oh, let's get one from him. I mean, don't you think it would be far better to get all of your laws from God? I think so. I would rather bet there than, you know, than, you know, Newt Gingrich or, you know, Barack Obama. I'd rather go somewhere else, honestly.

I think all those minds are a downgrade to God's laws. So they are judicial. And we do believe that they've expired, but their general equity is of moral use today. Applying these laws have to also encompass the whole range of understanding of what scripture says. The Westminster Confession speaks of the duties and also the sins that are forbidden in the Seventh Commandment.

And here's what the Westminster Confession says about applying these laws. The duties required in the Seventh Commandment are chastity and body, mind and affections, Words and behavior and the preservation of it in ourselves and others. Watchfulness over the eyes and all the senses. Temperance, keeping of chaste company. Modesty and apparel.

Marriage by those that have not the gift of continency, conjugal love and cohabitation, diligent labor in our callings, shutting all occasions of uncleanness and resisting temptations thereunto. The sins of the seventh commandment, the sins forbidden by the seventh commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts and unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections, all corrupt and filthy communications, or listening unto wanton looks, imprudent or light behavior, immodest apparel, prohibiting of lawful and dispensing with unlawful marriages, allowing tolerating keeping of stews and resorting to them, entangling vows of single life, undue delay of marriage, having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, unjust divorce or desertion, idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company, lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancing, stage plays, and all other provocations to or acts of uncleanness either in ourselves or in others. What does this have to do with the revelation of the heart and the character of God? God desires love and devotion to one person. What is it?

How is it fulfilled in Christ? How does it reveal sin? These are the questions that we have to ask. How will this be used of the Lord to transform me into the image of Christ? And lastly, how do you apply this?

If we walk away like the Pharisees, If we walk away like the Pharisees, if we walk away like the rich young ruler who says I've kept all these laws, we've completely missed the point. We've completely missed the point. And so the last application is this. Let these laws identify the harlotry of our hearts. Our own harlotry in our Father's house.

Harlotry in Scripture represents the relationship of a covenant with God. And Spiritual idolatry and playing the harlot in our Father's houses is, I believe, where all of this discussion has to finally end. What we read in Deuteronomy 22, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel to play the harlot in her father's house, so you shall put away the evil from among you. So let this be a way to seek the Lord for any spiritual harlotry that might exist in us. And that we would see all of these things of physical harlotry in the light of spiritual harlotry.

If you look at Hosea 4, if you look at Ezekiel 16, if you look at Jeremiah chapter 3, you'll know this is the meaning of all physical adultery. It's code for something far greater, the spiritual adultery of the heart, hanging on to idols that never can satisfy and that will constantly beat you to death in this life. You know, it amazes me that we look at the punishments here, the stoning, the stoning for adultery, for fornication? What? How terrible is that?

How could God be so evil to do that? He's a monster God, like Christopher Hitchens says. He's a raging lunatic. You know, that's what the atheists will tell you when they read laws like this. But here's something way more amazing.

That God is far, far more wrathful than that. Because He will throw you into hell for All eternity for one single sin. For one unwashed sin. Anything not covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. One single sin, uncovered, will cast you into hell for all eternity.

Which looks worse? Is it worse to be stoned or is it worse to suffer in eternity? The wrath of God, unrelenting. God's wrath is far, far worse than the stoning of the adulterer. Far worse.

It's nothing in comparison. And whenever you read this law or discuss it with your friends, you should always make it very clear that God's wrath is far more devastating and comprehensive. And that's why the Apostle Paul, when he was speaking to the Corinthians of the cosmic treason that existed in Corinth, He said, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God." And that's the meaning of these laws. That there is an atonement, and only one atonement for sin, And that is the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How thankful, how thankful we can be for God's diverting His wrath to His Son. As we've broken all of these laws. Would you pray with me? Lord, thank you. Thank you for your mercy.

Thank you for exposing us for who we really are and not letting us go through life so stupid and unable to know the truth. But you've shown it to us and you've embraced us as your sons. And now Lord I pray you would help us to live in a manner that's according to all these things that you've given us. Amen.