I want to bring your attention
to the bulletin on the front cover. It says March 26th. I was wrong. I had changed the
front cover of the bulletin because blowed it says 945. That's right
now. So I was right and I was wrong. Look and open that bulletin up.
On the right-hand side, I want you to look down at the bottom,
the old mountain genius, Brother Scott Richardson wrote something.
He said, two times you ought to pray for your preacher. When
he's right, I did that. And when he's wrong, I did that.
That means all the time. That means all the time. I didn't
know I was gonna live that day, did I? If you will, let's open our
Bibles to Genesis. Genesis, chapter 34. And just as announced, I'm sure
most of y'all seen there in the back, the remodel is finished. It's done two days ahead of schedule. There's nothing to be added to
it and nothing to be removed. It's done. Okay. Well, see, Genesis 34, the title
of this message is defiled, deceived and delivered. This is one of
the darkest chapters in the scripture, I feel. Whenever I read it, it's
heavy. It's dark, and I really have
no desire to read it out loud. As I told you all yesterday,
go home and read this. Don't read it to intellectualize
yourself or spiritualize it, or don't try to get discernment
from it. Just read it to see what it says. This really happened. This was a real life story. It's
a true story, isn't it? We're taught some, of the Lord's
strong warnings from this chapter. There's a lot of warnings we
need. We need to be taught. And people say, well, Kevin,
you ought not talk about those things. Y'all just talk about
grace and love and happiness. How did Noah know to build that
ark? By faith, Noah, being warned
of God, of things not yet seen. Lord told him. Moved with fear.
Lord warned him. He obeyed. Gave him faith. No
faith was obedient, wasn't it? And he prepared the ark to the
saving of his house. I need warned. You need warned. We need warned, don't we? There's
a lot of things people don't know, and there's nobody equipped
to tell us. But God, God sent a man to teach me something,
because I didn't know it. And I've said some things over
the last year or two, and I thought, well, I had no business saying
that. Nobody ever told nobody. Look at me like a mouse doing
a math problem. Oh, nobody ever said that to
him. God never sent a man to preach to him. I should have
known better. Lord gives us warnings. I looked through some of these
names and we'll see this play out. I'm gonna say Dina, it's
Dinah probably, but I'm gonna do my best to say Dinah. I'll
probably go back to saying Dinah. But Dinah, names means justice. Justice, she's justified. That's
who she is. Simeon, hearing. Those that hear, get that? Levi, that's the tribe of the
priest, wasn't it? Attached after the same heart
of God. Give them pastors after my own
heart. They're attached to me, I'm attached
to you through them. So let's read this. Genesis 34, verse
one. And Dinah, the daughter of Leah. Did that say daughter
of Jacob? You reckon we can learn something from that? You women
know how to deal with daughters. There used to be a TV show in
this nation called Father Knows Best and do the poor pulpits
on this world. I can't say that anymore. Fathers
have abandoned the word of God to the point where there's no
sound instruction. And I hear instruction all over
this county and this place that's horrible. And it's against the
word of God. They don't know those things.
But Dinah was close to mommy. Mommy had talked to her, hadn't
she? Verse one, Dinah, the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto
Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. Has anything changed
in our day? Dinah was about 15 years old.
She wanted to go see what the other girls was doing around
town. is having a dance or a party or something. I don't think they
was going to the County Board of Supervisors meeting, was they?
You reckon that was what? No, I'd have interest in those
things, I don't. Going out to be with them. She's
about 15 years old in this world, just teaming with life. It's
up for grabs. Let's go see what they got to
offer out there. I wanna see what's going on.
And she was defiled. Verse two says, and when Shechem,
the son of Hamor, Hivite, prince of the country, saw her. He took
her and he lay with her and he defiled her. She was defiled. Marriage is honorable in all
things, the Hebrew writer told us, and the bed is undefiled. They weren't married. She was
defiled. Dina was defiled. You know what we would call that
in our day? Statutory rape. She consented. This is important, you get this.
She consented, but she wasn't old enough to know any better.
She wasn't equipped to handle the pressure. She wasn't equipped
to handle all that allurement of this prince of the country,
this little rich fellow, this handsome and young. This is us,
do you know that? We're willingly defiled in our
old man by this world. And Satan defiled the mother
of us all, didn't he? We'll see it later on, adding
just a little bit to God's word. Misusing God's word. Handling
it to say, we'll learn next hour, keep our tongues. And I need
to keep my tongue too. This needs to be said, premarital,
premarital sex is wrong. We ain't got a whole lot of young
people in this congregation, but it needs said, and it ain't
never too late to say it. Even if you're old, say it, premarital
sex is wrong. And people are always amazed
that when they live in direct opposition to what the Lord says,
things turn south. They're like, well, what happened?
I can't believe this didn't turn out the way I thought it was
going to. God says so? What's wrong with us? Cheekum
was the ruler's son. He was the rich kid in town.
His daddy was in charge, and he was going to inherit the place.
You ever work for the son of a boss? My boss is a boss's son,
and that makes for a real long day, that fellow from my neck
of the woods wrote. He was a smooth talker, just
like his father. He's rich, likely handsome. He's a little bit older
than Donna, and he's seen a little bit more of the world than she
had, had some more experiences, and he's just as dangerous as
any other boy that age. I'm in awe that I'm so slow to
learn and we are so slow to learn from our forefathers and learn
from the mistakes of others. I'm in awe of it. We're supposed
to be bound to what God said, aren't we? It confounds me. It's because we don't know the
Word of God. We err because we don't know the Word. That's what
the Lord said, wasn't it? You do err. You don't know the scriptures.
You don't know the Word of God. Verse 3 said, His soul clave unto Dinah,
the daughter of Jacob. and he loved the damsel and he
spake kindly to the damsel. When? After the fact. After the
fact, didn't he? Robert Hawker, and this is what
I gotta say, I read a lot of commentaries on this chapter. Few men have preached from it.
Few men that I'd listen to have preached, very few. And I've
read most of the commentaries and most of them's wrong. Surely a man didn't err. Yeah, most of them missed the
mark. They missed it. Jacob was in the right and these
boys was in the wrong. You watch and see what this word says.
It ain't right. There's one commentator that
did a good job on these first nine verses, Robert Hawker. I'm
gonna read you his whole commentary. I'm gonna read you his whole
commentary on these first nine verses. You ready? This was lust,
not love. That's it. That's all he had
to say about it. And he's right. It's short and
sweet, and he didn't do no preaching of the gospel in it, but he's
right. Verse four says, and Shechem spake unto his father Hamor,
saying, Get me this damsel to wife. Get me. That's an attitude
of the sons of Adam, isn't it? Get me this, get me that. Get
me saved. Huh? How about it? Get me this
damsel to wife. Get me good things. Get me heaven.
Get me out from underneath this law. That what man says? I don't want, you want to be
underneath the law? You want to be a slave? I have no desire
to do that. I drive a car. If I got me a,
it don't matter if it's a Yugo or a Porsche, Bob, I don't want
a speed limit. Do you? Get that traffic out
of my way. I want to drive however fast
I feel like driving. Slow, fast, it don't make a difference. Get
me, get me. Well, Haymore's attempt is against
the word of God. You know that? Turn over Deuteronomy
7. This'll be the only time we turn. Deuteronomy 7. Numbers, Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy
seven. Paul had told us in the New Testament
said, be not unequally yoked with unbelievers for what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light
with darkness. Did I heed that? Nope. Did I know better? Yep. Did I hate it? No. Was God
faithful? Did He bless me in spite of myself?
He sure did. Does that mean we ought to encourage
people to tempt God? Absolutely not. Not try it our own way, not do
the best we think, do what God says. Believe Christ, love Him,
that's what we looked at Wednesday morning, love Him, and then obey
His commandments. Not obey His commandments so He'll love you,
love Him, and then do what He says. He's wise, He's right,
isn't He? Look here at Deuteronomy 7, we
read this verse here often, verse 7. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than
any people, for you were the fewest of people. We need that
in context, don't we? Do you know what the context
of that is? Look up in verse 3. Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them, thy daughter shall not give unto his son, nor his
daughter shalt thou take unto thy son, because, four, they
will turn away thy son from following me. The good apple ain't gonna
make that whole barrel of bad ones good. You understand that?
For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they
may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord
be kindled against you, not against them, against you, and destroy
these suddenly. But thus shall you deal with
them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their images
and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with
fire. What you're preaching is wrong. What you believe is wrong.
We can do that kindly, we don't have to be mean about it, but
it ain't right. Don't entertain them unbelievers,
don't date them, don't marry them. Verse six, for thou art
a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people
that are upon the face of the earth. Well, Lord, there ain't
nobody else around. How are we gonna be a people? And there
ain't gonna be no more people if I don't find some people.
We gotta do something, don't we, Lord? Verse seven, the Lord
did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were
more in number than any people. Not because you had 12 children apiece,
for you were the fewest of all people. That's why he set his
love upon us. We were the weakest. We were
the ones that had the most need. He said, now do what I say. You
marry who I tell you to marry. He loves us, he's right. Now
back in our text, we're gotten back to Jacob. of this defilement. Genesis 34 verse five. And Jacob
heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were
with his cattle in the field. And Jacob held his peace until
they were come. We'll see us next hour in Psalm 39. But I was done with silence.
I held my peace even from good. Even from saying something good.
I didn't say nothing bad. I didn't say nothing good. And
my sorrow was stirred. inside him and just burn up.
Was Jacob here waiting on the Lord? Was he holding his tongue
in wisdom? We'll see soon that wasn't the
case. He's a chicken. He's a coward. You understand
that? The man who had just built that altar, we looked at last
time, to the Lord that rules. The Lord God Almighty rules in
Israel, rules for Israel, and rules by Israel. Now he's quiet
at the very time he should not be. He held his tongue. Isn't that horrible? This whole
situation is just horrible. Why are they here? Why are they
in this land? Jacob had a fear of his brother
and he had a heavy limp, didn't he? I didn't write that down
until this morning. I couldn't hardly walk up here.
I got a heavy limp today. I don't want to walk a thousand
miles. Did you know that? It hurts. Lord said, go to Bethel. He said, well, I tell you what,
man, my hip's hurting. And the Lord gave me this limp,
didn't he? And so instead of going to Bethel,
it must be okay for me to neglect Bethel, the house of God, and
stay here. Right? Well, I just, I'm hurting.
Ow. Of course it's okay. God made
me that way, just like Jonah on his way to Tarsus. Well, if
the Lord didn't want me going to Tarsus, he wouldn't have had a ticket
there for me. Buddy. I know there's some around this
country that have physical trouble, but like that man lowered through
the roof by his friends, they get someone to bring them. There's
a need. We'll take a roof off this place
and lower me. I have a need to be there. Jacob still, he was
saved. Lord dealt with him. Lord wrestled
with him. Lord taught him. He didn't have a need yet. Not
truly, not fully. Lord had to teach him. Jacob,
your daughter's defiled, not a word. Verse six, and Hamor. The father of Shechem went out
unto Jacob to commune with him. My friend Darwin's preached since
he called Hamor old smoothie. So I didn't watch it. He didn't
bring an army with him, did he? He didn't bring his armed guards
with him. He didn't come with threats. He didn't come with violence.
He came to commune. How pious, how churchy. He's a businessman, isn't he?
Well, let's come and break bread together. I bet his octaves were
all up, messed up, and goofy voice. Jacob was willing to hear
this man out. Jacob was willing to commune
with him. But the sons of Jacob, they were a little more in tuned.
God taught them something, look here in verse 7. And the sons
of Jacob came out of the field when they had heard it, and the
men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because they had
wrought folly in Israel in line with Jacob's daughter, which
thing ought not to have been done. It ought not to have been
done, that's mad about it. Rightfully so, wasn't it? Now Hamor speaks to the sons
of Jacob, verse eight. And Hamor communed with them,
he spoke to all of them, saying, the soul of my son Shechem longeth
for your daughter. I pray you, give her him to wife. Notice how the talk of love came
after the act. They're covering up at defilement. Oh, that's
water under the bridge. We don't need to talk about that.
He loves her. Oh, this is lovey, isn't it? Don't talk about sin. We're here for the good times.
We're here for coloring books. We're here for pageantry and
shows and bake sales and everything else. Sin was committed. It's
got to be dealt with, don't it? If Shechem loved Dinah, he would
not have defiled her. He would have honored her. God says so. If he loved her,
he would not have defiled her. He would have honored her. He
loved himself. Verse 9 says, and you make marriages with us,
and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto
you, and ye shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before
you. Dwell and trade therein, and get you possessions therein.
This is going to be great. You're really going to increase.
There's going to be a gain to you. We'll just, you can marry
our daughters and we'll marry your daughters and everybody's
just going to live happy together. The land's big. You just stay
here and set up shop and business is going to be booming. We're
going to have cookouts together and we're going to watch our
children grow up. Don't just rest here for a couple of years
because that limp, you put down roots. That sounds good, don't
it? But they ain't in Bethel. They
ain't in the house of God. How come Dina was in that area?
These things come to pass? Why was she there when this happened?
A little bit of disobedience. That crushed me. What folly is
going to come to my lineage because of my great disobedience? A little
bit of neglect, and God will bring it to your living room.
He's done it, hasn't he? Oh, what a shame. Don't you just
cry out to God for salvation and mercy? Lord, be with me. You read these things. Christ
has saved his people from our sin, but we don't condone rebellious
behavior, do we? We don't do it. Self-righteous
see that, and they say, well, you're given a license to sin.
The child of God says, I have no desire to sin. I do all the
things I wish to did, and I don't do what I wish to did. Here's
a compromise. See if it jumps out to you. These
sons of Jacob got a hold of this real quick. They saw through
it. I see through some things, too. You do. Look here, verse
11. And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren,
let me find grace in your eyes. That sounds good, don't it? And
what ye shall say unto me I'll give it. Ask me never so much
dowry and a gift. And I will give you according
as ye shall say unto me, but give me the damsel to wife."
Oh, let me have grace in your eyes. Grace. The prayer of the
Pharisee in that temple sounded so good at a glance, didn't it?
Oh God, I thank you. You've made me good. Look at
all things. I do this and I do that. Oh,
grace is spoken of here, isn't it? Does that say grace? It says
grace, don't it? But it's not in knowledge and
it's not in understanding. You can't buy it. You can't trade
for grace. You can't buy grace. Men in our
day, they preach and they use the word grace. And then they
tell you, you must do something. God saved his people in the blood
of Christ, nothing in them. He was gracious to them while
they hated him. That's when he saved them. And
then he comes to them while they still hate him. And he shows them what
they are and shows them who he is. And he gives them a new heart
and they love him. They can't keep from it. Mankind says, what's quid pro
quo? You give me grace, I'll give you whatever you ask. This
for that. Paul said he is proud knowing
nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof
cometh envy and strife and railings and evil surmises, perverse disputings
of men, corrupt minds, and the destitute of truth supposing
to gain is godliness. That's what they're saying. We're
going to get a whole bunch out of this and we talked it to death. We
had a big word salad of churchy words. That turns me out so bad. I'm telling you, I avoid conversations
of such talking. I don't want nothing to do with
it. If you have questions, we'll
learn next hour. My pastor told me and his pastor told him and
on down the line, you sit and be quiet and listen. You want
to learn something? You got a bunch of questions,
sit down and hush. You can't learn nothing when you're talking.
Well, I learned this and I learned that. You ain't learned nothing.
Hush. Be instructed by God. That's how he's going to teach
his people. That's how God's going to teach. And Paul said, but godliness
with contentment is great gain. That's what gain is. These boys
of Jacob, they saw through this. They heard the words that came
out of the heart of those God-hating rebels that happened to come
out of their mouth. Can't fake it. You can have some words that
sound like grace. They say some gracey things,
but the heart's deceitful, isn't it? Physically, I can see through
the intentions of a young boy. How? I was a young boy. Can you? Were you a young boy? I got a
good handle on what young boys do. I used to be one. Still one
back on this side. Ain't nothing different. Women
may have some secondary experiences, but I have firsthand experience.
I had the mind of a young child. I know what that boy was thinking.
Spiritually, so it is in our day. That's why these men, sin
of God, warn people. In Paul's day and in our day,
withdraw yourself. I see it. You may not see it.
I see it. Wolf, leave them alone. Mark
them. I know their tactics. Mark them
and leave them alone. Would it have been better if
she listened to them, her brothers beforehand? You think? You think
it'd be better for people in our day to listen to God's men
that tell them that, to leave them alone? I'd hope so. Now this is what the sons of
Jacob is going to do. It's wrong. You get that? They're going to
be deceitful. I'll not do it. Verse 13. And
the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully.
They answered him deceitfully and said, because he had defiled
Dinah their sister. And they said unto him, we cannot
do this thing to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised.
That's a reproach unto us. It says approach unto God. though
it should be to them. But in this, what we consent
to, here's what we'll do. We'll give you some options. If you
will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised, then
we will give our daughters to you. We'll take your daughters
to us. We'll dwell with you and we'll become one people. We'll
all be together. But if you will not hearken unto us to be circumcised,
then we will take our daughter and we will be gone. We'll hightail
it out here and we're heading to Bethlehem. There's the deceit. What a shame
to use the things of God to cause an unbeliever to stumble. They're
setting them up, setting them up for failure. That's what we're
told in Leviticus 19. Thou shalt not curse the deaf
nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but thou shalt fear
God. That's what they ought to do.
They should have broke down and prayed to God, didn't they? But they thought
we've got them. We'll go through with this, but every male you
got has got to be circumcised. The whole lot of you, the whole
outfit. And they're going to say no, right? These are grownups. This ain't the eighth day. They
never want babies they ain't going to remember. You're grownups.
And these boys of Jacob's going to be the ones that do it. You want to think that one over.
You don't rush into that, do you? Just like you don't rush
into having a spiritual event. And you think, Oh, I've heard
10 minutes of preaching. I'm saved now forever. Uh, Lord
asked that fellow, he said, you make me whole. He said, would
you be made whole? That's heavy stuff, isn't it? These boys of
Jacob, they said, we got them. They're going to say no, and
this will be over and we can get out of town. We can move
on. We can get out of here. If they
do it, if they, they knew what, what this token was of circumcision,
right? It's just a token. It's a picture
of what the Lord does in the heart. And if they do it outwardly,
so we didn't mean outwardly, we meant the Lord's got to save
everybody. And if the Lord saves everybody, then we really are
one people. And that would solve everything, wouldn't it? The Lord said in
Genesis 17, you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and
it shall be of a token of a covenant. It's not the covenant. Baptism
don't save nobody. It's just a token. It just shows
what's already been done, isn't it? They knew that. Well, it's backfired. They said,
we got to make it away. They probably ain't going to
go for it, especially everybody, right? Verse 18. And these words pleased
Hamor and Shechem Hamor's son. You ever said something like,
we're going to do this. And people said, okay. Oh man. And the young man deferred not
to do the thing. because he had delight in Jacob's daughter,
and he was more honorable than all the house of his father.
He's at least gonna stand up and do what he thought was right.
Now, though it is an undesirable agreement, an agreement was reached,
wasn't it? Here's the sales pitch. Look
at verse 20. And Hamor and Shechem, his son,
came into the gate of their city and communed with the men of
their city, saying, these men are peaceable with us, Y'all
think these are mean fellas? No, these are good people. They're
good people. Therefore, let them dwell in
the land, and trade therein for the land, and behold, it's large
enough for them. Let us take their daughters to
us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. This will
be good. Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell
with us. This is gonna work out great,
but they got one condition, to be one people. If every male
among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. Whoa, pump the
brakes, buddy. Hold on now, Sheikahm. Hold on,
Hamor. What y'all talking about? But he sweetens the deal, don't
he? He takes everything that was said and he adds a little
bit to it. Has that happened before? Just like that serpent
in the garden added a little bit to the word of God. Shall
not their cattle, verse 23, shall not their cattle and their substance
and every beast of theirs be ours? We're going to do this,
they're going to fall right in and we got them. We got them. Only let us consent unto them
and they will dwell with us. We can suffer a little temporary
discomfort and we can give them our daughters and we'll have
all their possessions. That's the desires of the world,
to have the daughters of the sons of Jacob, to have his sons
and daughters, to defile them, to use them, to spool them of
our goods and to fleece them. to sift us as wheat. That's what
it wants. Verse 24. And unto Hamor and
unto Shechem his son Harkon, all that went out of the gate
of his city. And every male was circumcised,
all that went out of the gate of his city. Those boys of Jacob,
being deceitful, they were the ones that circumcised these men.
And I'd put a paycheck on it. They didn't do it skillfully.
They didn't do it in a sanitary manner, and they weren't gentle.
How do I know that? Verse 25. And it came to pass
on the third day that when they were sore, Everybody there was
disabled. Every man, every male in that
city. This wasn't a little gathering
on the side of the town. This was a city. They had gates, bunch
of folks. They were sore. They couldn't
do nothing. They were as dead men. You get
that? But it was the third day, wasn't
it? The third day is that day of resurrection. That is what
the work of circumcision in the heart is all about. The Lord
died for us. He rose for us. He gave us a
new life. That's what that represents.
Verse 25, and it came to pass in the third day when they were
sore that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's
brethren, took each man his sword and came upon the city boldly
and slew all the males. And they slew Hamor and Shechem
his son with the edge of the sword and took Dinah out of the
Shechem's house and went out. And the sons of Jacob came upon
the slain and spoiled the city because they had defiled their
sister. And they took their sheep and their oxen and their asses
that was in the city And that which was in the field, and all
their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives, took they
captive. And spoiled even that was in the house." Dina was still
with those men, wasn't she? She was still in the world this
whole time. Willingly, I'm sure. And what happened? Two of her
elder brothers, two of those six born before she was born
to Leah, they came in with a sword and they killed every man. Remember
what their names were? Simeon the Hearing, Levi, the
preacher, those that hear and those that preach, they come
in with what? Carrying a sword, the sword of
the spirit, which is the word of God. Donna was willfully defiled
just as we are, just as we didn't know no different. We come into
this world, speaking lies, this world's great. She had an eye
for the good things of life. And people fake humility and
say, well, I don't want nice things. I just, I've got everything
I need. Lying? You might be lying. You're lying to yourself. Money
can't buy happiness, but it can sure buy comfort, can't it? She had an eye for this good
life, just like we do. She was redeemed by her brothers,
just like we are. By our elder brother, isn't it?
And what does the Lord use in this? He says, the greater works
you're going to do. What are we, what are we supposed to do?
God, if God showed up right now and said, I'm going to give you
something to do, I want you to change oil on that Hyundai out
there. Would you go change oil on that Hyundai? Buddy, we'd
be elbow deep in grease before the Crow, crow, do it right then. The Lord gave us something to
do. He said, go in all the world and preach the gospel. And you
walk in this world and act like people that know me, and have
a little joy, a little pep in your step, because I've done
something for you, and be merciful to other people, be loving to
other people. And that's what I'm going to use to draw people in
to hear the preaching of the gospel. Because you've got some brethren
down there. You've got some sisters that's defiled in that city.
And he said, well, now, where'd you at? She's got what she had
coming to her. Let's get on. We're good. We're fine. No, go
into all the world. With what? The Spirit of God,
with the Word of God, the sword. Tell them what God says. He gave
us that to do. I think we ought to, do you want
to halfway do it? You want to act like we're going
to do it? You want to talk about doing it? You want to do it? I want to get after it,
don't you? That evil world, it's going to
be slain by the Lord's anointed and His Word, isn't it? Verse
30, and Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have troubled me
to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among
the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I, being few in number, they
shall gather themselves together against me and slay me. I shall
be destroyed, I and my house." In the Hebrew original, it's
all in the perfect tense. And so he's saying, I'm slain,
I stink, I'm destroyed, and you are too, because you're part
of my house. We're dead. We're dead. What'd you do? What'd you
do? We're dead. Later on, a few more
chapters, he's going to curse them. These ones that were despised,
that come in to rescue their daughter, their sister. These
ones that come in slew with the sword. They were despised. They were made a curse. Get that? They did it anyway, didn't they?
They bear the brunt of picturing the gospel. Did they cave in
and say, you're right, we'll give her back, we're sorry. No,
they didn't either. Look here in verse 31. And they said, should
he deal with our sisters as an harlot? Should he deal with our sister
as a harlot? She ain't a harlot anymore, she's saved by grace.
Her older brother's coming, God, we're not. That's what we still
see ourselves as, isn't it? What are we in the eyes of God?
Harmless, perfect, holy, undefiled. Isn't that what he said? That's
what we are now, isn't it? These two brothers, they said,
whoa, so he deal with our sisters as a harlot? We gonna treat her
like she's a whore? Leave her to her own devices?
No, we're going to go down there with her and go get her and bring
her home. At what cost? I don't care. She's
the Lord, we're going to go get her. Here's what one of the old
writers said, my brother Gil wrote this, they tactfully insinuate
as if Jacob had not regarded the honor of his daughter and
family and they showed his resentment at the wicked behavior of Shechem
as he ought to have done. They were so disrespectful to
their father. You better bet they were. He said, they're going
to kill me. What God promised him, the Messiah
is coming through you. This one, is that us too? Have
we built an altar to God and said, we're going to worship
him. God's with us. And then turn and just be so
scared. That's it. It's all over. God's going to kill me. Right? The Lord's going to use in this
generation, those that hear and those that preach to call out
his people. And you know what? You're going
to be cursed, and you're going to be yelled at, and you're going
to be looked down upon, and they're going to use good common sense
to shame you. That's exactly right. And you
know what I say? I'll go send me. How about you? Leave me, follow me, or get out
of my way. Lord's got a people in this town. We ain't going
to leave her there to herself, are we? He didn't leave us by
ourselves, did he? He didn't leave us to our own
devices, defiled, laid in that field, covering our own blood.
No, he come and covered us, didn't he? That's what he's done. I
have a desire to do that for my brother. Do you? Let's get
after it, huh? Wouldn't that be good? Let's
pray together. Father, thank you for this word.
Our sin's dark. what we are and our desires and
our actions, and they're horrible, Lord. We know that. Forgive us
for what we are. Put a new spirit in us and a
desire to believe Christ and serve our brethren in this generation,
to cover their sin and lift them up and point them towards our
Lord that did the same for us. Make that desire in us, Lord,
and give us the strength to do so. Call out your people from
this wicked city, from this wicked earth, as you've promised you
will. Use us, Lord, to do so. We're
thankful for this. We're thankful for your mercies
and your grace, unmerited grace to us. so undeserving. Thank you for our brethren, Lord.
Thank you for those that you've used in generations before to
preach to us and support them, that work and labor. Lord, we pray for those young
ones now that you're raising. The harvest is great, Lord. We
ask you to raise up laborers for the harvest. Raise up men in this country
after your own heart and have a revival. Save the lot of them,
Lord. Thank you for this hour. Forgive
us everything we are. For your Son's sake only, Lord,
we ask. Amen.