A Moral Mirror

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 99
• Hymn — O Worship the King (#219)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Heidelberg Catechism — Lord's Day 15, Questions 37–39
• Hymn — Jesus, Lover of My Soul (#450)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Judges 19
• Sermon
• Hymn — Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (#300)
• Benediction — 1 Peter 5:10

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Sermon Title: A Moral Mirror

Scripture: Judges 19

I. The Moral Mirror Reveals the Fruit of Sin Against Neighbor

A. The fruit of sin includes a mixed bag of behavior

1. The Levite pursues his concubine with kindness, going to "speak to her heart" (Judges 19:3), showing some tenderness amid relational fracture
2. Two contrasting examples of hospitality — the father-in-law's lavish welcome and the old man's care for travelers — stand against the horrors of the men of Gibeah
3. The same characters display both goodness and wickedness: the old man offers sacrificial hospitality, then suggests throwing out his own daughter; the Levite woos his wife back, then shoves her out the door
4. Sin makes a complex, contradictory mess of human behavior; as James 3:9–10 says, from the same mouth come blessing and cursing
5. Even our righteous deeds are as filthy garments (Isaiah 64:6)

B. The fruit of sin includes a lack of love for neighbor

1. Chapters 17–18 showed sinful worship as a symptom of the lack of love for God; chapter 19 shows sin against one another as a symptom of the lack of love for neighbor
2. Horizontal love is grounded in vertical love — when we go astray toward God, we go astray toward one another
3. The concubine is treated throughout as property, not a person — kept in the background, used as a solution to the threat of the wicked men, left for dead on the threshold while her husband sleeps
4. Nearly every commandment governing love of neighbor — from "do not murder" to "do not covet" — is broken across the chapter
5. Jesus summarized the second table of the law as "Love your neighbor as yourself"; the disciples received a new commandment to love one another (John 13:34)
6. Application: We may not commit these gross sins, but do we love our neighbor in our thoughts, words, tone, patience toward spouse and children, and freedom from jealousy and covetousness?

C. The fruit of sin includes a removal of restraint

1. The horrors at Gibeah echo Genesis 19 — Lot protecting the angels from the men of Sodom — with many shared details
2. In Genesis 19 God mercifully restrained the men of Sodom with blindness; here among God's own people in Gibeah, no such restraining mercy comes — the sin of Sodom has come to Benjamin
3. Paul in Romans 1 teaches that God at times gives people over to their sin, removing his restraining mercy so that sin intensifies along with judgment
4. God's gracious providence always holds us back from the worst we are capable of, but persistent, unrepentant hardness of heart invites the danger that God will give us up to our disordered loves and lusts
5. C. S. Lewis: there are two kinds of people — those who say to God "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says in the end, "Thy will be done"
6. Call to repentance: confess sin to the One who is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)

II. The Moral Mirror Reveals the Root of Sin Against Neighbor

A. The root of sin is the self-rule of man

1. The opening refrain frames the whole narrative: "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25)
2. The original sin was man acting as his own authority against God — a rebel placing himself on his own throne
3. The old man's tragic words in Judges 19:24 — "do with them what seems good to you" — echo the cry of every sinful age and culture, because they first echo the cry of the sinful heart
4. Sin is man's declaration of independence from God (Chuck Colson: sin is essentially rebellion against the rule of God)
5. All the faculties of man — reasoning, willing, desiring — work together to fuel rebellion against God's rule
6. The father-in-law's repeated refrain, "strengthen your heart / let your heart be merry," draws the reader's attention to the heart as the seat and soil of sin
7. Proverbs 4:23: "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life"

B. The root of sin is remedied by the sovereign rule of God in Christ

1. The passage drives toward a theological answer: self-rule is confronted and overcome by the kingly rule of God in Christ
2. The coming king of Israel is a marker pointing to Christ, the true and everlasting King
3. Christ demonstrates his kingship in every dimension of his ministry: calming storms and casting out demons (power), teaching with authority (command), healing the sick (compassion), dying and rising (victory over sin and death)
4. Hebrews 1:8: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness"
5. Revelation 17:14: the Lamb will conquer all his enemies, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called, chosen, and faithful
6. The believer's heart is not its own master — it is deceptive (Jeremiah 17:9), unreliable, and prone to wander into paths that promise pleasure but are empty
7. Application: Bring your heart often and repeatedly before the throne of Christ — "by thine own eternal Spirit, rule in all our hearts alone" (Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus)