If you would take your Bibles please and head over to Leviticus Chapter 20. Okay. I'm just going to read the first portion of it, Leviticus Chapter 20 verses 1 through 5. And the Word of God says, "Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'You shall say to the sons of Israel, 'Any man from the sons of Israel or from the alien sojourning in Israel who gives any of his offspring to Molech shall surely be put to death.

The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will also set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile my sanctuary and to profane my holy name. If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man when he gives any of his offspring to Molech, so as not to put him to death, then I myself will set my face against that man and against his family.

I will cut him off from among their people, both him and all those who play harlot after him by playing the harlot after Molech.'" So today we're in our continuing study of Leviticus and at Chapter 20 there is an incredible like intensity of the tone as we start this chapter.

By way of quick review, in Leviticus Chapter 18, much of the command was concerning the holiness of the people and God going over various sexual perversions, calling the people to purity, to abstain from everything from the list of incest, homosexuality, bestiality, and all the other types of sexual perversions there were.

And then in Chapter 19, which was the last time, we talked about a holiness that perhaps we might not be readily thinking about. We talked about the holiness that really comes from personal and national moral qualities, namely to have actual mercy, to have a kind of characteristic where you care beyond yourself but you're actually seeking the benefit of the people around you, being both equitable, kind and merciful.

In Chapter 20, what's really interesting is that most of the sins or most of the prohibitions that you see in this chapter were already seen in Chapter 18, 19. It's just that it's actually reiterating them with the emphasis on the consequences, on the punishments for those sins. And that's why already as you notice when we read, there was an incredible intensity to the section where God says, "You must execute judgment on this individual.

If you do not, I will." It's pretty intense, amazingly intense. So as you take a look at this first section, we look at this first verse or first section of the passage that we're studying and there's a lot going on there. So I'm going to read it for us one more time.

It says again, "But the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'You shall also say to the sons of Israel, 'Any man from the sons of Israel or from the alien sojourning in Israel who gives any of his offering to Molech shall surely be put to death.'" And we're going to notice that that phrase has appeared many times.

"The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will also set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people because he has given some of his offering to Molech so as to defile my sanctuary, to profane my holy name. If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man when he gives any of his offering to Molech so as not to put him to death, then I myself will set my face against that man and against his family and will cut him off from among their people, both him and all those who play the harlot after him." They're playing the harlot after Molech.

Okay? The reason why I read that again is because that pattern of defining the sin and then requiring the community of God to recognize it and actually carry out the judgment and then really giving the warning of what that would entail for the community is then now going to be repeated through the rest of the chapter.

So here are first several observations. So what we notice is that infant sacrifice and idol worship was heinous in the eyes of God and must be punished. The blank there for you is simply "must be punished." The idea and running theme of the chapter emphasizes this necessity of judgment, okay?

That is absolutely necessary. Now this kind of thing is not something brand new to us, but there's such a crucial emphasis seen in the chapter. What I mean by that is that phrase "must surely be put to death" and that theme is repeated 11 times in this section. What's more, there is that accentuation of the need and necessity for judgment.

Why? Because he says, "Oh, you know what? That's what happened. My fault." Okay? It's because he says that if the community does not, you know, have concern for this man but rather is in neglect and they do not carry out the judgment, then God Himself would perform that judgment on him and his whole family.

Right? So then it now gets even worse because the judgment is beyond just that one individual. And so there is something, again, really interesting about that because then that means the burden of the sin is actually shared by the family who are presumably in the closest proximity to be able to turn the culprit around.

Right? There's already just an assumption that the individuals who are going to be sharing the responsibility for that person to turn around is actually the family. I do believe this is actually in tune with the New Testament, is it not? That those of you who are spiritual, those of you who are close, those of you who are more mature in the faith, that you should first give attention to yourself and then seek, pursue to turn an individual around from their sin.

And that we have that concept here. Now, we have to say definitely there's a caveat, right? Here it's not talking about just turning that person around. What's emphatic is here it is the responsibility of the community to execute the individual, to take stones in their hands and to throw it to crush the person to death.

I mean, just take a moment to think about how intense that is. And if you were receiving these words from a scary mountain, because the context is they're at Mount Sinai, okay? The mountain was on fire, it was covered in smoke, it was like a volcano, there was thunder and lightning and God spoke from the mountain, gave words through Moses to the people.

And he says, "Because of certain sins, there's going to be death and I want you to carry it out." Now, obviously God is not calling us to like vigilante ministry where it's our job to go slap the guy or punish the guy who's sinning, right? That's obviously not the case.

The New Testament teaches us that vengeance is in God's hands, that the anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. However, what's very clear is God does expect the community to be able to discern what is right, what is wrong, and then to be able to enforce it within their own community.

And so, the next point is, sorry, he places the responsibility, okay? He places the responsibility of punishing any man guilty of infant sacrifice or adultery upon the hands of the people while he still enacts his own judgment as well. In this section, God says, "The people of the land shall stone him." God could have instantaneously and immediately, miraculously judged the individual by taking away his breath, but he says he wants the community to do it.

But what's more, he says that he too will enact that judgment by saying he's going to set his face against him. Here's an interesting passage from a previous section of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 18. God clearly said and taught the nation, "You are to perform my judgments and keep my statues to live in accordance with them.

I am the Lord your God." So here's a moment for us to pause and to think about this, that for us in our Christian maturity, God does absolutely expect every single one of us as a believer to have that moral standard according to and accurately to God's standard. And it is for us, by the renewing of our minds to exercise the discretion.

Is this pleasing to God, yes or no? And then God has taught us, "You speak the truth in love." And then God has taught us, "You go to restore the individual." And so here's another passage for you from Herod's chapter 5 verse 14 that talks about maturity, "But solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." That we have to have both our assessment of certain circumstances, the actions of ourselves and of the people around us to be able to have that discretion.

Is this wise according to the eyes of God? And your responsibility is all the more implicit in this passage because what you notice is that this chapter as you read it is not written to would-be or potential sinners like chapter 18. What I mean is chapter 18 is like, "No, you shall not do this." But here he's talking to the community.

Such a person must die. That's a very different audience. Chapter 18 is like, "You need to be pure. You cannot cross these family boundaries. You cannot cross these polygamy boundaries." But here it's more so that individual needs to be judged so that there be no sin in your midst.

It's a really interesting thought. And this very much correlates to what we find in the New Testament when it comes to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. It's a lengthy passage but I'd like us to read it together so please turn there in your Bibles. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Okay. So I don't have it on the screen but please look on your Bibles.

And I'm going to start reading from verse 1 so please listen and follow along. It says, "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, an immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles that someone has his father's wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

For I on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has committed this as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled and I wish you in the spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with old leaven nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people. I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetous and swindlers or with idolaters. For then you would have to go out of the world. But actually I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves." Pretty intense, really intense. That's an incredible passage that really kind of sobers you up like, whoa, right?

But it was the exact same sentiment that Apostle Paul had the same expectation as the Lord towards his community. And the sentiment isn't so much that, "Hey, you've got to be so righteous you have a zero tolerance policy." Right? That's not what he was saying. But what he was saying is, "You don't care enough.

Perhaps you're arrogant. Perhaps you're self-preserving. Perhaps you are thinking more so of your own comfort that you did not go to speak to this person. You kept your distance. You said, 'Yeah, he's that, but I'm not, so I'm okay.' But so long as you're okay, is it okay?" And the answer is, "Absolutely not." And as a matter of fact, if we're so concerned with ourselves, he actually says, "You are boastful.

You are arrogant." And in my mind, arrogant people and boastful people are the most cowardice because they have so much to lose. And that's the scenario. Sometimes we don't want to get involved with the sins of other people because we fear losing something in that. We have an automatic self-defensive, self-preserving mentality when it comes to getting involved with other people's trouble.

And maybe we were taught. I was taught all the time. It's like, something's going down and your parents go, "No, no, just go, go, go." And they rush you out of there. They say, "Don't even look," or whatever. "Don't get involved." Well, maybe when you are just trying to survive, maybe when you're in a certain environment where, again, you have no business getting involved, but when it comes to the church and the community of God, when it comes to your people, God says, "You need to care actually all the more." Or do you despise that individual that you're not seeking to restore him?

That's the mentality here. So the emphasis is pretty clear, right? That we talked about, A, we all need to have the discernment to be able to say, "Hey, by conviction of the Word of God accurately, very accurately, this is against His will." But also to have that desire to pursue the individual and say, "I'm willing to get involved here.

I'm willing to get involved." So the emphasis is there. Now, we ask the question then, the reason why this is so intense and the reason why the judgment is so intense, why? We have to ask the question, "My goodness, earlier there were different kinds of laws pertaining to equity and fairness and balance, and then some of these sins that we see within the passage, we're going to read it in a little bit, but you're going to notice like, 'Hey, yeah, I can see why it's so bad, but others of them, not so much.'" There's a question of why is it so intense?

Why is the judgment elevated and escalated? And the reason why is because, A, or one, the sin that God is talking about here has direct offense to God's holy name. That's the rationale that God gives for many of these instances. He says, "When you do this, you defile my sanctuary and you profane my holy name." So there's an element here, it's God takes what we do as a community very personally, right?

Like he takes it personally, like, "Oh," it's like you did it directly to him, and an individual might be like, "Oh, no, no, no, no, I wasn't straight up trying to rebel against you," but God takes it that way. Why? Is because when the people of God, especially pertaining to the sins of worshiping Moloch, and later on it talks about going to mediums and spirits, and later on it's going to talk about sexual perversions, God says, "What you do in that moment is rebel against my very presence," because right now they're in the context where God in the book of Exodus, it's a carry-on, right?

God in the book of Exodus met them, revealed his glory, covered in the cloud, and then said, "I want you to build a tabernacle." Why? Exodus 25.8 says, "Let them construct a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them." God's intention was that his very presence would be seen, evidenced, experienced, and enjoyed amongst the people of God.

In the Old Testament, it's covered, the glory is covered, right? But nonetheless, the intention of God is revealed. And so, when the people of God persist in these idolatries, when the people of God go to Moloch, when the people of God go to mediums, when the people of God go to perversions of sexuality, what they do is they strive against God's intention to be one with his people.

And we're going to talk more about that in a little bit, but just keep that in mind, that the reason why the punishment is escalated to capital punishment is because God has taken it personally as a rejection of his intent to be one with his people. Okay? All right.

So more on that later to come. Number three. Oh, here we go. The sin of turning to mediums and spirits. Take a look at the text here, and in verse six through eight, the word of God says, "As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.

You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my statutes and practice them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you." What's more, in verse 27, way down at the end of the chapter, he talks about the same concept and he says, "Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death.

They shall be stoned with stones. Their blood guiltiness is upon them." Okay? As we take a look at that, the simple truths are there that both the conjurer, okay, the person who is the medium, and the person who uses their services are guilty and therefore punishable by death. They're worthy of capital punishment is what the Lord says.

So here's another instance where we ask, like, "Oh, we get it?" Because God is spirit, he does not condone any consulting with demons, any consulting with other spirits, fake spirits, whatever it may be. But there's that question again. Why is it so severe? What are they doing? Why do people seek mediums, you know?

And to tell you truthfully, it's not so far-fetched from when people seek mediums and spirits and superstitious stuff and even in our day. Here's kind of a running list, right? The medium literally is just an intermediary, okay, meaning he's a channeler. He communicates on behalf of the people, okay, to dead spirits.

He's like the mediator, right? And when you think about that, then the people are going to that medium so that they could seek future knowledge. Many people try to consult spirits, especially ancient spirits, so that they could predict the future. They can talk about what can I expect in terms of the success of my endeavor, the business, all that kind of stuff.

The next one, we have that people have this practice of seeking blessing from their ancestors. You know, the idea of like, "Oh, Father, look down on us, have grace," right? As they look to their ancestors who are before them, "You know what it means to suffer. You've gone before us.

Bless our path." There are individuals who seek protection from these spirits, right? To say that they have a shroud of, you know, even this mentality that there's just this like entire mass of people who've gone before us and died, who are watching over our steps, and in specific cases when they intervene into our lives to protect us from danger and make sure we don't suffer too much.

And then lastly, there are many individuals who look fondly at these mediums, or not fondly, but try to pursue it and then look fondly at this practice because they want to regain what was lost, right? Individuals who clung so tightly to their family, and when the patriarch or matriarch or whoever is the leader leaves, they want to cling back and regain that power that they had or whatever it may be, and that's why they look to these things.

But if you think about it then, when you take a look at those things that I highlighted, future blessings, you know, seeking the blessings and protection, what we can conclude is it looks like the people are looking for a deliverer, looking for life solutions, looking for a rest from suffering, looking for a savior, a deliverer from their hard times, looking for a God, right?

So all coming back and connecting it to this, we said God takes it very personally when people consult Moloch, when people consult mediums. Absolutely so, because when we think about what they're seeking, they're seeking another person who will provide what God only provides, and that's why God sees the sin of seeking those things from mediums as adultery, as adultery.

God sees the sin of offering anything to Moloch, let alone precious babies, but anything to Moloch as absolute harlotry, absolute harlotry. And so for us, we take a moment to think about this, and there's some applications for us. Now, we may not be specifically going to Moloch, and we may not be going to mediums.

However, the pursuit can be something we sympathize with, right? The pursuit of the deliverer, the mediator, the savior, the provider, the help, the rest, the replacement God. That is something that many people actually have a very difficult time with, and we have to see that the way God does.

We have to make sure we understand God's heart. He desires to dwell with us. He desires to be one with us. He has made in his first steps. He's shown himself. He's come down. And then, to have the people say, "We've already got somebody else." Of course God is going to take that person.

Of course he's going to be offended. Of course he's going to be livid, and then he's going to judge. I created you for me. And they're in a context right now, in the context of the scene where they're at, where they're covenanting. I want to be your God. You're going to be my people, and we're going to have this relationship.

But that's what the people are sinning against, and that's why it's so severe. So I just want to make sure that we kind of feel the brunt of that, because the terminology then that God uses is not simply, "You're making a mistake," which sometimes we downplay. We're not simply doing what everybody else does, going through life, making our mistakes, and then maturing as we go.

But God says, "I see it like wicked flirtation with the gross world. I see it like unfaithfulness, hearts of cheaters, seeking approval, affection from the basings of this life. And what's worse, God will call it prostitution." And he calls it, "You are whoring yourself after Mullen, seeking his blessing.

You sacrifice your babies." An ultimate last-ditch effort to be blessed by Mullen. That's horrendous. It is detestable. And at this point now, I want to say a couple other things about this, because there is an element of we have to understand the heart of God. It almost seems a bit of a dangerous area that I'm going into now, but I'm going to ask the question, have you ever wondered how sad God was during this time?

Have you ever wondered in our day, when we come to church and it's just like, we have certain moments where we're like, "Oh man, I hit a plateau. I'm apathetic. I honestly don't really care that much. And it's just hard for me to get excited." Have you ever in those moments, took a moment to ask, "How sad is God?" Now God is almighty.

God is infinite. God is not a God that's like us, insecure and wondering, "Oh my goodness, what's going to happen in the future?" That's not God. But God is grieved when the ones he loves reject him, feel apathetic towards him, and does not reciprocate the kind of love he shows.

I feel like just in this chapter, when you read the law, you can hear God's heart. Why? Because he says certain things which perhaps come off with high emotion. Oh, I think I went a little too far ahead. Here, Leviticus chapter 20, verse 7. You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.

When you read it, did you read it like, "I am the Lord your God. Obey!" Right? Or did you read it like, "Do not chase after the idols. I'm the Lord your God." Right? Did you read it like, "Consecrate yourself. You shall keep my statutes and practice them, because I'm the one who sanctifies you." And then take a look at this next passage.

He says, "You are therefore to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them, so the land of which I am bringing you to will not spew you out. Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nations, which I will drive out before you." Right? I'm going to drive out the people before you.

"For they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. Hence I said to you, you are to possess their land, and I myself will give it to you to possess it. A land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God." Right? Do you think he's saying, "I'm going to bless you with this wonderful land.

I'm the Lord your God!" Right? That's not the tone, I think. He says, "I separated you from the peoples. You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal, the unclean, between the unclean bird and the clean bird. You shall not make yourself detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.

Thus, you are to be holy to me." Why? "Because I am, so I the holy, sorry, I the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from the peoples to be mine." That's incredible. God saw his people, the whole congregation of people, as a precious possession for him.

And his love is being poured out in every single fashion to protect them, guard them, lead them, and then ultimately sanctify them. He says, "I'm the one who's going to bless you. I'm the one who's going to deliver you. I'm the one who's going to cause you to prosper." And you look to Molech asking him to bless you?

You go to your mediums asking them to deliver you? Is it not appropriate for God to feel sad? Rejected? You know what's really crazy? Is that the sacrifice to Molech and the horrible practice of sacrificing infants to babies and the idol worship of this unreal God clearly was existence in this time.

Yes, already people were practicing them. At this time, it was about 1445 BC, and king after king after king, the vast majority of them practiced idol worship to Molech. Did you know even King Solomon near the latter half of his reign, he set up a high place where the sacrifice to Molech was happening?

Did you know kings like Ahaz and Manasseh and all these people, they all sacrificed to Molech? That's over 900 years. From this time to then when King Josiah reformed that and said, "Dude, get rid of that high place." That's 900 years of unfaithfulness, rejection. That's wild to think about.

Have we ever considered how God feels about that? Because to tell you truthfully, I felt so rebuked because there was a sentiment when I read through the passages initially. I said, "Oh man, clearly this chapter is all about death. You deserve to die." And then when I read like, "Oh, when a man sleeps with just a woman who happens to be on her cycle or like an individual uncovers the body of somebody and then he says, "They all deserve to die." As a matter of fact, burn both of them, right?

And you're just like, "What's going on?" But then once I started thinking, "How does God feel though?" It really challenged my sense of, "This is inappropriate." It really challenged my sense of what is appropriate judgment and not. And as we get into that question of what is appropriate and not, I want us to think about this, the heart of idolatry and what God is actually judging.

I want us to remember, lest we be like, "Well, I don't really go and worship Molech. I don't go and worship ancestors. That's like, you know, ancestors before us, but we've completely let go of that, right?" Remember that Molech is not real. Mediums are not real. Idols are not real.

Do you know what they are? They're created by you and I. Let me repeat that. Idols are not real. They're not real things. They're created by you and me. They're created by people. Remember that these things are created representations of our hopes and dreams, the Israelites' hopes and dreams.

Molech is their created solution to their problems that they see in their time. Molech is their wishes and desires carved into wood. Molech is their ultimate human attempt to acquire blessings on their terms. It doesn't have to be Molech. Throughout generations and generations, there were always something. Egyptians, powerful nations, mediums, alliances with superpowers, asterisk poles, whatever it may be, they found a replacement for God.

And that's the conviction for us today in this passage. I am willing to bet most of us struggle with these, you know, perhaps unnamed idols, which we turn to as our dreams, hopes, solutions, wishes, desires, and blessings. And they become to us a replacement for God. And that is what God is judging.

That idolatrous heart to seek the blessing outside of our Creator. That idolatrous heart to seek that rest, satisfaction. God wants to be our all in all. And yet so many times we reject Him and replace Him with something else. That's what God is judging, and that's why it's so intense.

And one might say, "Wait a minute. That's every sin." Bingo. And that is why every sin is worthy of death. And that is why every sin is so destructive. And that is why God and before the Lord, there is no diminished small mistake of sins. And there are no such things as, "Ah, everybody does it, so let's bypass this." Every single sin before the Holy God is idolatrous.

It is. And so I wanted to make sure that we understand that today. Now going through the rest of the passage, we're going to speed up a little bit and take bigger chunks. And what's really interesting then is we see that that selfish heart, the heart seeking, right? The heart lusting after that satisfaction, the fulfillment, and the hopes.

Most often it will present itself with sexual lust. And that's what we were learning back in chapter 18, right? We were learning that when a heart is selfish, maybe you're selfish with your time, you're kind of selfish with your authority, you're selfish with your powers, meaning you use it for yourself, right?

You use all the privileges you have for yourself. What you will find is that the way then it will typically express itself is through sexual lust. And so in the next sections we have lots of sins against family and crossing immoral lines of sexuality. Now before we read the entire section, I want to say this.

When we read the law of God, we are going to see his heart is kind of what we were looking at earlier, but we're also going to see God's value system, right? When you look at the law of the land, you are going to understand that land's values, what they really treasure.

Case example, America. We value money and success. And that's why if an individual is guilty of the felony of laundering money, you know, if they're guilty of taking finances and putting it into other countries or even actual cash and mishandling currency, did you know that the typical sentence can range from a minimum 10 years to a maximum of 20, 30, 40 years, depending on how big the infraction, some people have mounted like multiple lifetime sentences, right?

But did you know that in America, the average person who is guilty of rape, convicted and tried and guilty, typically only serves six years. The average sentence that's give out is about nine years. Now the thing about it is you're just like, what? But there's a sense to which, yeah, the voice or the value, so to speak.

And so that law of the land kind of shows you what are certain things that the people are like, this is unacceptable, right? It kind of shows. Well, when we look at this, then we have the majority of this chapter and then now repeating chapter 18 and other sections, you know, it's going to come up again, talking about these infractions, perversions of sexuality and against the family as well.

So that's kind of intro to this next section. First, there is sin of cursing the parents in verse nine and verse, oh, it's up there. Verse nine reads, if there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother.

His blood guiltiness is upon him. Moving forward, the next section is verse 10 to verse 16. I apologize, that's kind of small. And it says, if there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, so there's adultery, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

If there is a man who lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them shall surely be put to death. Their blood guiltiness is upon them. If there is a man who lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death.

They have committed incest. Their blood guiltiness is upon them. If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood guiltiness is upon them. If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is immorality.

Both he and they shall be burned with fire so that there will be no immorality in your midst. If there is a man who lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death. You shall also kill the animal. If there is a woman who approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal, and they shall surely be put to death.

Their blood guiltiness is upon them. So within that passage, there's a lot going on there. Okay, there's a lot going on there. But we saw everything that, again, was repeated in the chapter 18, so I'm not going to go over each one. But there was everything from adultery to incest, homosexuality, polygamy, bestiality.

And sometimes when we read this in our modern day, we're like, "My goodness, where is the self-control?" You know? "My goodness, this is like rampant sin. There's no restraint." But in thinking about this, it's kind of like, "Wow, this has existed from long, long ago, and this is also existent today." Why are these sexual perversions also punishable by death?

We mentioned this earlier, and we're going to say it again. Sexual perversions destroy God's highly precious possession. Earlier, we made the mention that the laws signify, at least point to us, what does He value. And what He clearly values is the relationship, the purity of the relationships that we have.

God absolutely cares for the vertical relationships. God actually values the horizontal relationships. On all dimensions, God cares for the relational value that exists in all of us. Why? Because those relationships really mark us as bearing the image of God. And so with that said, when we think about these sins where there is no care for these relational values and relational purity, as a matter of fact, there's a selfishness of going to even the cost of breaking friendships, even breaking the boundaries of family, breaking the boundaries of what's natural, breaking the boundaries even of human to animal.

Here I just want to move a little bit quickly and say this. In this moment then, one of the convictions we're going to have is the sins that we sometimes presume to be individual and private, the sins that we presume are unseen and therefore does not hurt anybody, is actually destructive relationally.

Is destructive, absolutely destructive on multiple levels. Perhaps our rationale says certain things like, "Oh, but I need to escape. The week was so hard. I need the rest." No one's going to know and no one's going to care. But those we know are all lies of the devil. Rather, we recognize that within this context, what's going to happen when an individual pursues daughter-in-law, individual pursues a friend's wife, individual pursues boundaries that are not meant to be crossed, even if those sins are private, we're going to end up deeply hurting the ones we love.

We're going to cheat people of their dignity. We're going to sin against their character, and ultimately we are going to break the relational bonds that God has ordained. So when we think about this then, we recognize that God absolutely takes these sins very seriously, even if this world, this current generation, would be like, "Dude, that's me and my body.

That's me and my relationship. If we're consenting, what's the big deal?" But God says no. He takes these absolutely seriously, and in every one of those sections throughout this chapter, he's called it for what it is. He's called looking at people's nakedness a disgrace. He's called it abhorrent. He's called it for what it is, sin.

So moving quickly, I'm just going to pass this section here and go to some application. Earlier, we talked about how we really want to see the heart of God, and I asked an interesting question that perhaps sometimes we should think about even more regularly. How does God feel about all this?

Is he in our radar? Are we acknowledging him? But here now, we should definitely think about our theology of what is sin and how does it affect us. Application one, we have to make sure that we see every sin as a destroyer of our relationship on every dimension. On every dimension.

We have to remember that the severity of sin is in the context of God's covenant relationship. We have to remember that our sins even against each other are on the context of family relationships. We're absolutely brothers and sisters in Christ. We're co-heirs, right? We're in the household of God.

And so that's why I believe when God gives the punishment within this chapter, it fits the bill. God regularly in the scriptures gives punishment that is what's what we call just desserts, right? So people are like, "Oh, I'm so hungry. How come you don't give us food?" And then God says, "Okay." And then he just shoves them with the food in their mouth, right?

When they start complaining like, "Oh, we don't have this king." He's like, "You want that king? Okay." They get a king and they abuse him, exploit them, and press them, right? There are some just desserts. Well, likewise, when there is a breaking of the covenant, God says that I'm going to cut you off from me and I'm going to cut you off from the people, right?

And in that way, God addresses that element of the relational consequence of the sins we commit. And then secondly, as a second application, I just want to make mention of the fact that for us, when we think about sometimes the more predominant sins that affect us in our day, yeah, there's materialism.

Yes, there's trying to, you know, not be honest, dishonest game. There's greed, right? But for this generation, there is a prevalence of sexual immorality that is attacking every single one of us. And with that said, I want us to make sure how the... Like, at least see how these various passages in both chapter 18, 19, and now 20 is highlighting for us that sexual sin is almost a surmounting fruit of the general selfishness that exists within us.

And so the general worldliness that we exhibit in our life, that's going to feed our sexual perversions. There's a passage in scripture, 1 John chapter 2, it's up there for us now. He says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts." Here's the thing. I really feel like, you know, the fight against sexuality, or sexual immorality-wise, many people feel like they're powerless and losing.

And to me, that's so unfortunate. But the way I see it is, if you're at a point where the lust, the passions are strong, like, you're probably at a point where that- let's describe sexual immorality as, like, an incredibly buff monster, or a guy who's been working out. Our selfishness, earlier what I mentioned, of our time, our self-interest with our thoughts, our expectations of people serving us, our self-interest with our powers and resources, that's like making that monster work out, you know, lift heavy, eat protein, and all that kind of stuff.

We're drinking the shake of our other selfishness. And by the time we're facing sexual- temptations of sexual immorality, we're absolutely going to lose. Because the scripture, when it talks about sexual lust, it talks about it in a way where it reminds me, in Romans chapter 1, that there is these passions, these lusts that are degrading.

And even though they see the power of God, even though they see God as creation, that lust is so strong, it's just plowing through that and saying, "I don't care, I want what I want." And if that's what God says, then I'll give you over to your lust, right?

The New Testament calls these passions epithumia, which is cravings, it's a hunger, it's a yearning. And if it's been fed by selfishness, it's going to be so wrong and so strong, and that's why so many people feel like, "I don't have the power to combat it." So as a practical challenge to every single one of us, because the chapter had so much to say about sexual lust, in the discussion we're going to revisit just, "Has there been any progress?" From chapter 18 to chapter 20, has there been any progress or movement, forward thinking?

Has there been a strengthening of your soul? And I want to say, don't just think about fighting sexual immorality head on, but think about the totality of your life. Are you orienting your life on feeding yourself? And the monster of sexual immorality is going to be so strong, of course you're going to lose.

You know, I remember a time, you know, earlier on when I was, you know, like one of my first sermons I gave, I remember using how I love cars as an example. And I did, I love cars. And so because I did that, I had some friends buy me subscriptions to car magazines for like birthdays and stuff.

They gift me with it, right? It's like $30 for a one-year annual subscription. I get it, I'm like, "Cool!" You know, I'm like reading through it, only to realize this is filling the picture of the kingdom of Mark. Because in order to have Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Bugattis, and all this kind of stuff, you know what you got to have?

You got to have millions. You got to have millions, and you got to own stuff. You know what else you got to have? You got to have mansions to store your cars. So if you have millions, you have mansions, and you have cars, guess what else fills that scene?

I mean, do they have middle-aged, graying guys laying on the hood of the car saying like, "Hey, hey, hey, behind this car." No, what do they have? A woman in bikini laying on the top of the hood. I remember thinking, "This is feeding my flesh." I remember thinking, "It's just a car magazine.

I'm getting rid of every single one of these things. Please don't buy me car magazines, okay? I'm trying to get rid of it all." Why? Because it's filling the picture of the kingdom of Mark, and in the kingdom of Mark, I'm going to have my way. That's why sometimes fighting sexual morality seems so tough, because you're going against the kingdom.

Do you see what I'm saying? You have to fight selfishness at its core towards idolatry, towards the pursuit of all the things we talked about, the safety, the deliverer, the medium, whatever it may be, that we dare not go against the Lord. A way of conclusion, I know I went a little long already, but I want to conclude by reading again the section where God is reiterating His exhortation to be faithful to His command.

And this is what He says, "You are therefore to keep all My statutes and My ordinances and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out. Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation, which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them.

Hence I said to you, you are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean animal, and between the unclean bird and the clean, and you shall not make yourself testable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.

Thus, you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine." What's really interesting is thinking about the context again. In context, they're standing on dirt, looking at desert in front of a mountain, not in a land flowing with milk and honey.

What they need now most of all is to trust God's loving word. You will be Mine, and that trust is going to cause them to be faithful. That's the same for you and me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much, God. Surprising Lord, we feel like just looking at your law, we saw your heart, Lord, that through your law, you are sparing your people, protecting your people.

And likewise, as you are a good Father, we recognize, Lord, you're showing us, Lord, both the principles, the commands, but also the reason why. And I pray, Father God, that we would understand it, and what's more, Lord, that we would respond with love, with trust, and I desire, Father God, to follow you.

I pray for any individual here who feels far from you, Lord, today, God, that they would recognize, Lord, that your ultimate intent in sanctifying these people, Lord, is to be one with them, and God, that you are on a mission to cause us to be perfected in Christ. And so, Lord, that too, Father, we trust and desire all the more, Father God, to draw near to you.

We thank you again for your word today. It's in Christ's name.