All right, we're here in Genesis chapter 34, and the name of the sermon is The Murder of
Sheshin.
The Murder of Sheshin.
And we're going to look at three points here from Genesis chapter 34, and the first point
we see is deception.
We see deception.
Notice what it says in verse 13.
Verse 13.
Let me try turning this down one second.
Verse number 13, the Bible says, And the sons of Jacob answered Shesham and Hamar his father
deceitfully.
And so the first thing we see here in this chapter is we see deceit.
Now, if you remember from last week, what we talked about is that Dinah is willingly
in a fornicating relationship with Shesham.
And they are basically this, we assume Shesham is an unbeliever, he's not saved, and yet
the daughter of Jacob is allowed to just go out and do whatever she wants, and then she
ends up fornicating with this person and having a relationship with Shesham after she hangs
out with the daughters of the land.
And it says, instead, because he had defiled Dinah, their sister.
And so they answered deceitfully, and they feel justified because they say, well, you
know what?
Dinah is no longer a virgin, but, you know, keep in mind, and we're going to see that
in the sermon, this is a willing relationship.
It's not just his fault, she's choosing to do this too.
It says here in verse 14, and they said unto them, we cannot do this thing to give our
sister to one that is uncircumcised, for that will reproach unto us.
But in this we will consent unto you, if you will be as we be, that every male be circumcised,
then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and
we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
And what they claim is, you know what, if you get circumcised, then you know what, we'll
allow her to marry you, and then basically our people will marry with your people.
Now, they're lying when they state this, but here's what you have to understand, Shesham,
Hamor, this group of people are unbelievers.
They don't believe in the true Lord.
And even suggesting, well, you know what, if you get circumcised, we'll marry you, well,
getting circumcised doesn't guarantee salvation, right?
That's not salvation, them getting circumcised, they would have to actually hear the true
gospel and get saved.
So what they're even suggesting would be wrong, but they're also lying about this.
They're saying if you get circumcised, then we'll marry you, but if not, we have a different
religion and you must get circumcised first.
Verse 17, but if you will not hearken unto us to be circumcised, then will we take our
daughter and we will be gone.
And their words pleased Hamor and Shesham, Hamor's son, 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.
I said last week, this is a willing relationship between Shesham and between Dinah.
And I think this verse is a good proof.
It says about Shesham, he was more honorable than all the house of his father.
Now look, if he had forced her against her will, I don't think the Bible would say that
he was honorable, right?
This is a willing relationship.
Why does it say more honorable?
Well, the reason why is he had the bleak, you know what, if I have slept with her and
she's no longer a virgin because of me, then I should marry her.
And that is the honorable thing to do rather than just sleeping with her and moving on
to some other woman.
Now, of course, though, this is an unbeliever.
So he needs to get saved if they're going to get married, because I would presume Dinah
is saved and I presume Shesham is unsaved and then the saved should not be marrying
the unsaved.
But he is doing the honorable thing because he says, well, you know what?
I slept with her, then I should marry her rather than just, you know, sleeping with
her and then just leaving her and going to somebody else.
Go to Genesis chapter 27, Genesis 27, Genesis 27.
Genesis chapter 27.
Now, here's the thing about this.
The first thing we see in this chapter is deception.
And you know what, obviously the sons of Jacob are the ones making this choice.
Let me say this also.
When it says the sons of Jacob in verse 13, it didn't tell us which sons it's referring
to.
I'm sure Simeon and Levi were two of them, but it could have been more than just the
two of them.
They are the ones that are responsible for the murder.
The sons of Jacob, how many of the sons?
We don't really know.
I would presume Simeon and Levi were two of them.
But you have to understand, you know what, you reap what you sow.
And Jacob was a man who did use deceit early in his life.
And guess what?
That sin passes on to his sons.
Look, you know what?
You can say all you want, you know, do as I say, right?
And not as I do, you know, telling your kids, do what I tell you, but don't follow my actions.
But the reality is kids are going to follow what their parents do.
And so if kids see mom and dad reading the Bible, they're going to read the Bible.
If they see you not reading the Bible, but saying, hey, we need to read the Bible.
They're probably not going to read the Bible because they're going to do what their parents
do by and large.
And Jacob was a man who used to see.
And there's the law of reaping what you've sown, but also just the fact that his children
are aware of the fact that he was a deceptive person at times.
So they take on the same thing.
It says in Genesis 27 verse 12, my father peradventure will feel me and I will see I
shall seem to him as a deceiver and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing.
Now, this was in the mind of Jacob's mom that suggested this, but he willingly chose to
do it.
And basically he deceives to get what he wants.
What did you see the sons of Jacob doing?
They deceive to get what they want.
Look, if your kids see you telling a lie to get what you want, guess what they're going
to end up doing?
They're going to tell lies when they want something, right?
That's just the way it is because it's going to pass down to your kids.
And this is exactly what you see in the story.
Go to Genesis 31, Genesis 31, Genesis 31 verse 7, Genesis 31 verse 7.
This is Jacob speaking.
And your father hath deceived me and changed my wages 10 times, but God suffered him not
to hurt me.
And you know what Jacob says is true here.
I'm assuming the 10 times is probably literal.
Maybe it's figurative.
I'm sure it could really be either way, but he was deceived by Laban and he said, God
suffered him not to hurt me.
And that is also true.
I wonder whether Jacob thought the law of reaping what you've sown was over at this
point, but I don't think it was because in Genesis 34, then you see the fact that you
know what?
He sowed deception and then he's going to reap something even worse in the same area,
right?
Go to Genesis 34, Genesis 34, Genesis 34 verse 20.
And you know what?
This is one of the things, I mean, this is really one of the major sins you see that
your kids do at a young age.
Lying is something that kids will do at a young age sometimes.
Now sometimes it can be tough when you're quizzing your kids because what I've noticed
is sometimes your kids can be confused on what you're asking or they don't know how
to answer you.
And you know, I do believe that if your kids willingly tell a lie that they should be spanked
and disciplined for doing that.
And the thing is, if you don't discipline them for that, then it's going to continue,
right?
And sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not your kids are lying or confused, but the
bottom line is if you allow them to lie at a young age, then it's just going to become
natural for them.
And you want to end that at a very young age of life.
Genesis 34 verse 20,
Now, I'll be honest, if I was, I feel like if I was one of the men
in this society, a grown man in a culture that does not practice circumcision, all you
got to do is get circumcised.
I'd be like, no, I don't want to do it, right?
I mean, this is a culture that does not practice this and it would seem like an embarrassment
I would think as an adult, but you know, it said, let their women will marry our men.
So, you know, I guess they decided to do this.
And so all the men of that society get circumcised.
And on the Hamir and on the Shesham his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of
a city and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.
Once again, being circumcised has nothing to do with salvation.
It was something they were supposed to do in Old Testament Israel, but that wasn't approved
of somebody being saved.
You could be saved without being circumcised and these people we would presume do not believe
on the Lord and they're getting circumcised.
That's not getting them saved though.
And just the idea in the society, well, you know what?
We'll just marry them if they get circumcised, even though they're lying about that, just
the idea will marry unbelievers if they just simply do that.
But they're being deceptive here in this story.
Point number one, we see deception and point two, then we actually see murder taking place.
Verse 25, and it came to pass on the third day when they were sore that two of the sons
of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man as sword and came upon the city
boldly and slew all the males.
Now this story, you know, honestly, when I used to read it, I almost kind of found it,
it's sort of like a humorous type of story, but then when you actually understand what's
going on in Genesis 34, this is actually just cold blooded murder.
I mean, especially, you know what, Shesham is one person.
All these other people have nothing to do with that, and they're just slaughtering all
of them.
They've done absolutely nothing wrong, and I mean, they're murdering these people, and
these people are dying and basically going straight to hell because we presume they don't
believe.
It's like, why don't you just give them the gospel, right?
Instead of just going there and just murdering them when they haven't even done anything,
and they basically lie, and they get them all to be circumcised, and then they're not
able to defend themselves, and they just go and they kill all of them.
Go to 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
Now let me say this, just on a side point on the topic of circumcision.
Now when it comes to the Old Testament, they practiced circumcision.
That was a requirement for them to do.
It started with Abraham, all of his house, and it got passed down.
When it comes to the New Testament, it's really just your optional choice.
It's one of those things that as a parent, you have that choice to do what you want with
your kids.
I would certainly not say that it's a sin, but I would certainly not say it's required
either.
Some people believe it has health benefits, some don't, but here's the thing.
If you do choose to make that option to circumcise your kids, you should circumcise them at eight
days as the Bible has in the Old Testament, and there's a reason why God kicked that amount.
Now I've actually read articles that explain why it's the healthiest thing for a child
at the age of eight days old.
I think they have the highest amount of vitamin K and various different things, but the thing
is whether you choose to do that or not, and we as parents have made the choice not to
do that with our kids, I would just say that if you make the choice to circumcise your
kids, the best time would be at eight days like you see in Old Testament Israel.
Here in First Corinthians 10, this is what the Bible says in verse eight, neither let
us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day, three and 20,000.
Now, when it says fell in one day, that means they died.
That is a terminology often in the Bible for they fell or falling often means to die, and
so 23,000 people were killed for the sin of fornication.
Obviously, it's a big sin in God's eyes.
23,000 people killed in one day for the sin of fornication, but here's the thing about
this.
There is not a death penalty for fornication in the Bible.
It is a sin, and obviously God can choose to judge people in a very strong way for committing
that sin, but it's not the same thing as adultery, right, where there is the death penalty in
the law.
It's definitely a sin.
It's wrong, but regardless, it would be up to God how he would judge sins.
Right now, if you lived in a perfect nation following the laws of God, certain sins such
as murder, adultery, rape, and other things like that, they would be the death penalty,
right?
Now, no culture is really following the Bible in 2022, but here's the thing about this.
If you're living in a society where basically the government is not enforcing what the Bible
says on certain laws, you have to leave it in God's hands if he's going to deal with
that or not.
You can't just take the law in your own hands.
So let's say, for example, somebody committed adultery in 2022, it would be wrong as a Christian
to go and murder that person and say, well, you know, I'm just doing what the Bible says.
It's like, no, you're actually not doing what the Bible says.
You say, what's the proof of that?
Well, the proof is the fact that Jesus didn't put people to death in the New Testament because
he didn't take the law into his own hands.
Right?
Now, the Bible does say here in 1 Corinthians 10 that the sin of fornication, 23,000 people
died in one day.
So that is a lot of people that God chose to kill in one day for that sin.
But here's the thing.
God chose to do that.
Right?
It would be up to God how he would deal with it.
If you go to Romans 13, Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13.
And you know what?
I would just say this.
When it comes to living in a country, you know, governments are not going to follow
what the Bible says.
They might follow some laws, but by and large, they're really not going to follow what the
Bible says.
It's a vain life to just spend your life trying to just implement the laws into the political
system.
And if you actually try to do that, you're just going to go to jail and waste your time
there rather than just like serving God on the outside.
Of course, it's a travesty to things that are going on in today's world, especially
with young kids and the governments just don't do anything about that no matter what country
you live in.
They get away with it.
There's no strong punishment.
But at the end of the day, it's in God's hands how he's going to deal with that.
Now, I will say this, though.
If I was a parent and something happened to my child or you're a parent and something
happened to your child, I would not hold it against you if you just took penance into
your own hands.
But I would say the best thing to do, and I don't know how I'd react in a situation
like that, but the best thing to do is to leave it up to God in those situations.
The Bible says in Romans 13, verse one, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,
for there is no power but of God.
The powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisted the power resisted the ordinance of God, and they that resist
shall receive themselves damnation.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?
Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise at the same.
Free is the minister of God to be for good, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid,
for he beareth not the sword of aim.
Free is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
The Bible says that one of the jobs of a government is to basically implement punishment according
to committing sins and what the proper punishment is.
In a perfect system, what they would implement is this book.
They would implement the laws that the Bible says.
The Old Testament laws, none of them went away out of existence that were moral laws.
Thou shalt not kill should have the same punishment in 2022 as it did during the Old
Testament.
Thou shalt not commit adultery should have the same punishment in 2022 as it did in the
Old Testament.
However, in most countries, it's just not the same punishment.
The countries are not following what the Bible says.
What the Bible says is there are higher powers, there are powers that be, there are governing
powers, and we are subject underneath them.
But in general, the government is actually there to help you.
Now they don't do things perfectly, but there are laws against murder.
Now are they a perfect law against murder?
Well, no, they're not exactly what the Bible says, but it's better to have some law against
murder than no law.
And to the best of our ability, we should try to follow what the government says, even
if it's not exactly like the Bible says, even if it's not what we believe in, unless the
government's asking us to commit sins.
Turn to Genesis 49, Genesis 49, Genesis chapter 49.
But when it comes to the sons of Jacob, this isn't really even just taking the law into
their own hands because there's no death penalty for what took place.
They choose to kill these people, but I mean, Dinah was a willing participant in it.
So why don't you kill Dinah also?
I mean, it doesn't make any sense just to kill Shechem and then all those men.
Why wouldn't you kill Dinah also?
Because she was willingly participating in it.
Genesis 49, verse five, here's what it says about Simeon and Levi, who were the two main
people responsible for this, Simeon and Levi are brethren, instruments of cruelty are in
their habitations.
O my soul, come not thou into their secret, out of their assembly.
Mine honor be not thou united, for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will
they digged down a wall.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, in their wrath for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
If there's any question about if what they did was right or wrong, I think the answer
is right there in Genesis chapter 49.
Now, if you read Genesis 34, I think it's very clear that they were wrong for what they
did, and Jacob certainly thinks they're wrong.
But if you say, well, you know, I don't know which side's correct.
Well, Genesis 49, when this is prophesied, speaks about the anger of Simeon and Levi
and what they did.
Go back to Genesis 34, Genesis 34, Genesis 34, Genesis chapter 34, verse 26.
And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out
of Shechem's house and went out.
And if Dinah is in Shechem's house, I would say the implication is that she's living with
him at this point.
She's either over there hanging out, or most likely, in my opinion, she's probably living
with him.
Seems to me that's where she's decided now she's living with, you know, I don't know
what exactly her age is, but she hangs out with the daughters of the land, and now she's
living with some guy, and she's fornicating with him, and they're planning to get married,
and then all of a sudden the brothers of Dinah end up just killing Hamor, Shechem, and all
of them.
Once again, if she's living with this guy and willingly committing fornication, and
you've determined that he deserves the death penalty for his sin, why don't you kill your
sister Dinah?
Because she's doing the exact same thing.
She's willingly living with this guy.
She willingly committed fornication.
This is like the opposite of the situation with Jesus, where they bring the woman and
not the man, right?
And they're like, well, it's only the woman who's responsible.
Here's the opposite situation.
Only the guy's responsible in this story, according to Simeon and Levi.
It's like, well, why don't you kill your sister?
She also committed that action.
I mean, both sides are wrong in this situation.
Both sides willingly do this.
Now, here's the thing about this.
Put your place yourself in this story.
Imagine you live during this time period and Dinah has her brothers kill the person she
wants to marry.
Right?
I mean, it doesn't really mention Dinah after this, but I would presume Dinah hated her
brothers after this.
Doesn't that make sense?
I mean, imagine if you're engaged to someone.
You're about to get married.
You're planning your wedding.
You're planning out the flowers and all the colors and the venue, and then all of a sudden
you find out, it's like, oh, man, my brothers just murdered my fiance.
Right?
I seriously doubt that she forgave them after this.
Right?
I mean, it's just like, you know, it's like, it's interesting because they lie to get what
they want.
They don't even care what Dinah wants.
Now, this is a bad situation because she's involved with an unbeliever, so this is a
losing situation.
You're not supposed to marry an unbeliever, but the Bible also states that if you fornicate
with someone, that really should be the person that you end up with because of the fact there's
that bond that you've made, something that's meant to be in marriage.
I would say the best thing to do in this case would have been try to get Shesham saved and
if he gets saved, they can get married because obviously Dinah and Shesham want to get married,
but we would presume that he's unsaved.
Obviously they committed a big sin, but the Bible does say he was more honorable than
the rest of his house.
He really wanted to marry Dinah, so he probably would have listened if they had said, you
know what, in this we will consent.
We cannot let you marry her, not because you haven't been circumcised, but because you
believe in a false god.
Let us explain to you what the way to heaven is and you know what, if you believe it, then
you can marry her.
If not, then that's what they should have done, right?
But instead they just decide they're so mad that they're going to just kill him.
And then Dinah probably never forgives her brothers after this because she actually wanted
to marry this person.
This situation does not benefit Jacob, does not benefit Dinah.
It certainly doesn't benefit all those people that you killed and sent to hell, especially
when all of them were innocent except Shesham.
All of them were innocent except Shesham and maybe his father were innocent and you killed
them.
And so look, what Simeon and Levi did in this story is extremely wicked.
They didn't care about what Dinah wanted, they didn't care what their father wanted,
they didn't care about those other people, they only cared about their selves.
And then realistically, I would assume Dinah pretty much hated her brothers, you know,
for at least a long time after this because she wanted to marry this guy, right?
Let's see, verse 27, and you know, but the thing about this is maybe you say, well, brother
Seki, I don't think the solution of trying to get him saved and marrying him is the best
one.
Well, here's the thing.
Once sin gets involved in situations, it's kind of complicated to figure out what the
best way out is because it's like a lose-lose situation in any direction.
What if he hears the gospel and doesn't get saved?
It's like she's already living with him.
Well, it's sort of better to get married than live with him.
So it's like, it's a lose-lose situation any way you go about it, but it really all
started with the fact that Jacob and his wife just didn't take responsibility for their
daughter enough.
Like we talked about last week, making sure that your kids do not become friends with
unsafe people and the friends of the world, right, get all these worldly things inside
of them.
Verse 27, the sons of Jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had
defiled their sister.
They took their sheep and their oxen and their asses and that which was in the city
and that which is in the field and all their wealth and all their little ones and their
wives took the captive and spoiled even all that was in the house.
So they kill these people and steal all of their stuff.
I mean, what they're doing is wicked, right?
They kill all these men.
I mean, they're killing men and a lot of these men are going to be married, already married
to other women.
It's like you're destroying homes and just killing them senselessly.
They've done absolutely nothing to deserve this.
You're murdering them and then just destroying those homes and then just taking everything
that they have.
It's no wonder Jacob's really upset with them afterwards because the reputation you're going
to get and you could reap what you've sown as a culture.
What they did was an extremely wicked thing.
And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants
of the land, among the Cainites and the Perizzites and I being few in number, they shall gather
themselves together against me and slay me and I shall be destroyed.
I am my house.
Go to Deuteronomy 32, Deuteronomy 32, Deuteronomy chapter 32.
And in Deuteronomy 32 is what the Bible says in verse 35, to me belongeth vengeance and
recompense.
The Bible says vengeance belongs to God.
And you know what?
In life, you know, I would obviously hope nobody would go down this road of wanting
to murder people or murder people to get revenge or whatever.
But the bottom line is, you know, in any situation you are in life, you know what?
Vengeance belongs onto God and we can leave it in God's hands.
And the way you have to look at this is the fact that if you feel you deserve vengeance
and you leave it in God's hands and there is no vengeance, obviously God determined
that you either don't deserve vengeance or he allows it to take place.
And you've got to just accept that, right?
For them taking into their own hands, it's like they obviously don't believe in the idea
that vengeance is going to belong unto God.
They obviously don't believe that God is going to kill these people, but they feel justified
in what they're doing.
They say we're going to take vengeance into our own hands.
Obviously they believe they did what was right, they think it's okay.
They felt like it's okay to kill all of these men because of what they did, but yet you
know what?
When we put vengeance into our own hands, we always have a very biased outlook on stuff.
Because an unbiased outlook with no attachment to either side, it's like if you're going
to kill Shesham, then you kill Dinah.
But see, the thing is when you're involved in a situation and you're in that situation,
you always are going to side with what you want for yourself.
This is why you need to leave vengeance to God because God is actually going to deal
with things properly, whereas we as people are biased.
If you get into a disagreement with someone or an argument with someone and then let's
say a third party comes in to judge the situation, like the Bible speaks about in church, in
major situations, if there's two people that dispute about something, there could be a
third party to judge that situation.
And hopefully this doesn't take place at church, it's in a major situation, this could be what
takes place.
The reason why there's a third party is because both sides are going to be biased in the situation.
I mean imagine a boxing match that goes to decision.
Isn't it often true that both sides think they won?
No matter what took place, both sides are going to say, I won the fight, right?
Because they're like, I wasn't getting hurt at all.
He was really close to getting knocked out.
Both sides feel that way.
But then that's why they have judges that look at it and it's like, you got outstruck
350 to 11.
It's like you didn't win the fight.
But we have a tendency to side with ourselves in situations.
We tend to be biased, but with God, he's going to deal with things properly.
Go in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 5.
1 Corinthians 5.
You say, Brother Succy, are you saying that you feel bad for Shechem?
Well, in a sense I do because I would feel bad for any unsafe person that dies and goes
to hell.
I don't want to see unsafe people die and go to hell.
But in a sense, I don't really feel bad for him because the thing is sin has consequences.
And obviously, even though God did not, you know, ordain this to take place and tell them
to kill Hamer and Shechem and all of them, he allowed it to take place.
It's not like he spared Shechem.
See when you're serving God, safety is of the Lord and then God's hand of protection
can be upon you to help you in dangerous situations.
But if you commit sin, then you don't necessarily have God's hand of protection to save you.
So do I think he deserved to die for what he did?
I don't.
It says he was more honorable, so the Bible says him wanting to get married was the proper
thing.
At the same time, though, sin has consequences.
And you would oftentimes in life go bring up situations, and oftentimes the answer is,
well, sin has consequences.
And people would be horrified if you say that, but that's just the truth, right?
You know, for example, if somebody's driving drunk and they crash and die, of course I
don't want them to crash and die.
Of course if they're unsaved, I don't want them to die and go to hell.
But at the same time, and people would be very angry about this, you reap what you sow.
I mean, sin has consequences.
Do I want it to take place?
No, but you play around with sin, it could happen.
Look, if somebody overdoses on drugs and dies, I don't want that to take place.
But at the same time, I wouldn't call it a travesty because when you sin, things can
take place, right?
And, you know, sometimes in life, you know, you'll see this where no matter how anybody
dies, they'll say it's travesty.
Well, I mean, it kind of depends on how they die.
If somebody's driving in a car and they get killed because somebody who's drunk crashes
into them or just a fluke car accident, that's a travesty.
But if someone is willingly just doing drugs and then driving where they can't see the
road, it's like, well, things take place when you play around with sin.
People would be very angry about that statement, but that is the truth.
First Corinthians 5, what does the Bible say, though, about the sin of fornication that
we looked at?
First Corinthians 5 verse 16, in your glorying, verse 6, is not good.
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out there for the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened for
even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
First Corinthians 5 is the famous chapter that is actually not in most Baptist Bibles.
Most Baptist Bibles go from First Corinthians 4 to First Corinthians 6.
You say, why?
Because they don't believe in church discipline.
Most churches do not practice any form of church discipline, and yet the Bible speaks
about it in First Corinthians chapter 5.
And then it says this in verse 8, Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth.
I wrote unto you an epistle not to keep company, or not to company with fornicators.
What is fornication?
Well, fornication is sleeping with someone that you're not married to.
And the Bible says it's a big sin.
Now, here's the thing.
When it comes to this world, all manner of sins are being committed in this world, right?
The Bible says, Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous,
or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world.
To completely avoid the sin of fornication, or people that are guilty of it, you'd have
to leave the world, because you go to the grocery store, you go to the restaurant, you
go to wherever, and you know what, there's gonna be people that are guilty of the sins
that are being mentioned here, right?
I mean, later on, it's gonna mention drunkards.
It's like, look, we go soul winning, we run into drunks every single time we go soul winning.
We go soul winning in these neighborhoods over there, I promise you, you're gonna run
into people that are just completely drunk out of their minds, right?
We must needs go out of the world to avoid all of these sins, but what the Bible's stating
is inside the local church, there are sins that are not acceptable.
One of the sins is fornication that's mentioned.
So what that means is, if somebody is in, let's say there's a guy living with a girl
at a church, and they're not married, it's like that's a sin that would not be acceptable
to our church.
Now, if somebody's in that situation, most likely, especially if they're new to our church,
they are not aware of what the Bible teaches about that.
What that means is, I would talk to them, I would just show them what the Bible says,
I would say that, you know what, they have a chance to make a choice, I'd give them a
time period.
The Bible says, he gave her space to repent of her fornication in the book of Revelation,
but eventually a decision has to be made by the person because they can't just openly
continue that relationship according to what the Bible says.
And that is a big cultural problem here in the Philippines.
It is something that our churches have encountered where it's like people that are guilty of
that, they've got to make a choice.
The Bible also says, with the covetous.
Now we've never kicked anybody out or warned people for being covetous.
And obviously this would have to be pretty extreme because I think all of us are probably
guilty of being covetous to some level of degree.
I would say that if somebody is just always about money, money, money, that's all they
talk about.
They go soul winning with you and they're talking about money in between every single
door.
The problem with that is, it ends up just infiltrating the church where everybody's
all about money.
And look, that's not the end pursuit of our lives.
Money is an important part of our lives.
We have to work to pay the bills, but at the end of the day, that can't be the major focus
of your life.
The Bible also says, or extortioners, which is also related to money because it's basically
stealing by force.
Then it says, or with idolaters.
Idolaters would obviously be someone who has idols.
So this is one that we could certainly encounter.
Let's say we get somebody saved who's Catholic and they start coming to church.
There's a good chance they will still have idols.
So let's say, for example, you know, we hang out at their house or whatever and there's
like this giant statue of, you know, Jesus or Mary.
This is very possible for a saved person to have a big statue and they have not gotten
rid of it because they spent a lot of money on it.
They haven't yet gotten rid of it or whatever.
Well, here's the thing.
If somebody's new, it's like, you know what, they would get a chance.
I'd show them what the Bible says.
I'd explain this is a major sin.
It's right at the beginning of the Ten Commandments, having no gods and then no graven image, the
first two commandments.
But then eventually they would have to make a choice.
They couldn't just come to church for a year with this idol that's obvious to everybody
sticking out of their purse.
It's like, well, eventually they'd have to make a choice.
Then it says this in verse 11, but now I've written on you not to keep company if any
man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or
a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat.
But what about you do to judge them also that are without?
Do not you judge them that are within, but then that are without, God judge it.
Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
So we see that fornication is mentioned in a list of sins that is very serious to God.
Now you say, Brother Stuckey, why is it that we would kick people out for committing certain
sins or basically tell them that they're not welcome unless they get these things right?
Because we have to teach the young kids that are church right and wrong.
Regardless of what anyone in this room has done in the past, what matters is the kids
that we're training up.
But we have young kids at this church.
I got saved as an 18 year old in college, but there's a lot of things I did in my first
18 years, and I was not considered a bad kid by the world standards, but at the same time,
I don't want my kids doing all the same things I did when I was a teenager, right?
I don't want my kids, you know, just listening to the music I listen to or watching the things
I watched, right?
And so there's certain things that we need to teach our kids at a young age of certain
things that are appropriate and certain things that are not appropriate, and it's not just
the fact that something's a sin, they need to know some things are major sins.
Some things are things that are just not acceptable, they need to realize the dangers of these
things.
Turn your Bible to Genesis 34, Genesis 34, Genesis 34.
So the court occasion is obviously a major sin.
But what Jacob should have done, I don't know if we use this expression here in the Philippines,
but in America, you say taking the bull by its horns.
Is that an expression you guys use or you're looking at me like, no.
Like a bull is obviously a very strong animal.
It's like get control of that bull, right?
Just take control of the situation is what the expression basically means.
But obviously it would have been heartbreaking to find out his daughter is living with an
unsaved guy.
That would be horrible, right?
I assume Dinah was saved.
The Bible does not explicitly state, but I would assume Dinah was probably saved, right?
What he should have done though is take the bull by his horns, and what I mean by that
is he should have said, hey, this is a terrible situation.
Obviously he's emotional, but he should have controlled his emotions, played the man, and
he told his sons, hey, you know what, you stay out of this situation and just tried
to get Shesham saved.
That's what he should have done.
I mean, he could have sat down Shesham and said, you know what, I'm not happy about this
situation.
But then he said, you know what, if you're going to marry my daughter, there's something
you must believe and I must talk to you about.
And then Shesham probably would have been worried and he would have been shocked when
he says, do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
Probably would have been shocked by that, right?
That would obviously be a horrible situation to be in, and I'm not saying I would have
the emotional strength in that situation.
But just thinking about my daughter, Christabelle, if 20 years from now that was a situation,
what I should do in that situation is just say, okay, it's a horrible situation, but
let's try to fix the damage that has been done.
You cannot permanently fix the damage, but you know what, an unsafe person that fornicates
with somebody else, they could listen to the gospel and get saved.
And if Jacob says, you cannot marry my daughter unless, then he would have listened to the
gospel for hours.
And so there could have been a good chance for him to get saved, but that's not what
Jacob did.
Whatever one, we see deception, point two, we see murder, point three, we see excuses.
Jacob basically says, what are you, what did you do?
Why did you do that?
They said, should he deal with her sister as within harlot?
This is an excuse and it's a bad excuse.
You say why?
Because you don't marry a harlot.
He didn't treat her like a harlot.
He said he wanted to marry her.
If it was in harlot, he would have slept with her and not asked to marry her.
This is an excuse and it's a bad excuse.
He got two people willingly committing fornication.
He didn't just sleep with her to file her and just, it's not like he said, you know
what, I love you Dinah, I want to spend forever with you, sleep with her and then just do
away with her and just move on to the next person.
That's not what you see.
It says he was more honorable than the rest of his house.
He knew that what I did, you know what, he probably knew it was wrong, but he chose to
do it and he did the honorable thing and said, you know what, I'm going to ask this girl
to marry me.
He didn't treat her as a harlot.
They're lying.
And here's the thing, you got an unsafe person who commits fornication, big sin.
You know what a bigger sin is?
Murder.
It's like they're making excuses, in my opinion, there's no question because murder has a definite
death penalty attached to it and they didn't just murder one person, they murdered innocent
people and a lot of people.
They make an excuse, this is just a dumb excuse, didn't treat her as an harlot because
he asked to marry her.
Anyway, honestly, if they could have just gotten him saved, that would have been the
best thing to do.
If he got saved, it's a situation where there really is no good answer, is he going to decide
to serve God?
You really don't know, but if he gets saved, it's like, you know what, it's the best situation,
then she can marry her.
Go to Genesis chapter three, Genesis three.
Now, here's the thing, let's say that their accusation is actually true.
Let's say he just slept with her, one night stand and then just discarded her, which is
not the case because she's living with him, they're still together and he wants to marry
her.
I could understand them being very angry about that if they saw their daughter crying and
being upset.
This guy told me he loved me, he was going to marry me and then you know what, and they're
guys that will do this.
They'll pretend to love a woman just so they can sleep with them and then they just discard
them.
Obviously, that would have been a major sin, but they would have still not been justified
to commit murder.
I mean, it's a big sin, but she would have still been willingly involved in that sin.
Now, the honorable thing is to marry her, but that's what he wanted to do.
He was going to marry her.
We tend to make excuses for our problems and mistakes in our sins.
This is just natural that, you know what, when you do something wrong, instead of taking
blame for it, you just blame somebody else.
And you know what, this is something that certainly starts at a young age with kids.
I see it in my kids when they accidentally do something, they accidentally knock over
a cop, which we've all done before, and just naturally there's like an excuse, well, you
know, somebody shouldn't have put the cop there, right, or whatever the excuse is.
We as adults do the same thing, don't we?
It's like we cause an accident and our first reaction is to get upset.
And even though we're 95% at fault for that, we just want to blame somebody else.
This would not have happened if you had not done this, right?
We see this all the way back to Genesis chapter three and verse seven, starting in verse seven.
This is obviously when they eat the forbidden fruit.
Verse seven, the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they
showed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
Now let me say this in verse eight, it says they hear the voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, and the way I read that, I believe God is actually
in there in the garden walking.
I don't believe that they're hearing a voice from heaven, I believe God is actually there.
Now the question is, if God's there, then, you know, is it God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost?
Oh, it would be God the Son, because you do see God the Son making appearances in the
Old Testament.
No man can see the Father and live, the Bible says, but you do see appearances of the Lord
Jesus Christ or the Son of God in the Old Testament.
And so we see here that he's walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and
his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden.
So they're hiding themselves from his presence because they hear him walking and they don't
want to be seen not wearing any clothes, kind of similar to when Peter was fishing
naked where obviously he had some clothes on, but he's embarrassed and he doesn't want
to be naked or partially naked in the presence of Jesus Christ.
And so here they're hiding and the Lord God called on to Adam and said unto him, where
art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I
hid myself.
Now remember this, before this they were naked and they were not ashamed.
And obviously these are adults, but it also kind of gives us a template with children
in hearing the gospel.
A young child takes a shower, you give them a bath, you give them a shower and they run
out of that shower just naked and they think nothing of it.
That's the way a two year old, a three year old, a four year old is, they run around naked
and they feel no shame for us.
Now obviously we would not do that as adults because there's a shame to, you know, it's
not right.
But with kids, they're completely innocent to that.
But eventually they're going to reach an age where they realize that's wrong and that really
is kind of giving us a template.
That's when they are at the point where they really need to make sure they're hearing the
gospel and believe the gospel because that's when they could be held responsible.
I'm not saying it's right at that age they know that that's a sin, but it's giving us
a template.
Around that age, they're old enough to comprehend these things.
They're old enough to comprehend the gospel.
I believe we should try to start giving them the gospel even earlier, but not necessarily
trying to force them to pray.
If you can tell, they don't fully understand things, but teaching them things.
But once they're at this age, they're getting to that age, they can have comprehension.
And so they understand that they're naked and they hide themselves.
And he said, who told me that thou was naked?
Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said, notice this, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me.
First thing we see Adam doing is blaming God, right?
He's like, I mean, because what God says is, you know, who told me that you were naked?
Did you eat of the tree I told you not to eat of?
Well the woman whom thou gavest to be with me.
I mean, the first thing is blaming God.
That is the worst thing to do is to blame God, but that's what Adam does, right?
She gave me of the tree and I did eat.
Now he's blaming his wife.
Now is what he's saying true?
Yeah, it's true that yes, God gave him that woman to marry.
It's true that his wife gave him of the tree, but it's also true I did eat.
You know what the proper response is?
Yes, I disobeyed, I messed up, I'm sorry, right?
That's the proper response.
But isn't it true that all of us naturally have a response like Adam?
We don't like taking responsibility for our actions.
You know, when we come to God in prayer, we should come with an honest heart,
a sincere heart and say, you know what, God, I messed up.
Regardless of whether it's a small sin or a big sin, regardless of whether other people
are responsible as well and just say, you know what, God, I messed up.
No excuses, I chose to do this, right?
And that's how we're going to get forgiveness.
Same thing with our kids.
When our kids come to us and they mess up and they sincerely say, I'm sorry,
it's like you forgive them, you say, I love you.
But what if they come to you and just make excuses?
It's kind of like, well, that's not a sincere apology, right?
And this is the way Adam is here.
You say, well, brother, that's the way men are, they don't want to take responsibility.
Well, let's see what the wife says here.
And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that thou hast done?
And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me.
So she's blaming the serpents, right?
So it's not just men that struggle with this, it's not just women that struggle with this,
all of us do.
All of us naturally like to pass the blame on to other people.
The serpent beguiled me.
Now, is that true?
Yes, however, you still chose to eat.
And I did eat is also true as well.
And you know, with the story of Simeon and Levi,
it's like, you know what?
Yeah, what Chesham did was wrong,
being in a fornicating relationship with her sister,
but they should have kept in mind,
their sister was also at fault.
They should have kept in mind that, you know what?
Honestly, if we were so concerned as brothers,
we should have stepped in before nature seemed to place.
Right, I mean, we should have been paying attention earlier
and said, hey, dad, I don't think that we should allow,
you should allow your daughter to be daughters in the land.
I heard the language they were using.
I heard the stuff they were talking about.
I think there's safety issues.
I mean, if they were so concerned about their sister,
they should have stepped in before anything happened.
But here's the thing, they weren't because of the fact
their sister didn't want her fiance to be killed.
If they were so concerned about her,
then they would have tried to give them the gospel
and get him saved.
But obviously they only cared about themselves.
What we see here in this chapter is deceit.
We see murder and we see excuses.
And honestly, it's a sad situation
because a bunch of unsafe people that were innocent
were murdered, right?
Obviously, unsafe people that die unsaved,
they deserve to go to hell
like we all deserve to go to hell, but you know what?
Honestly, why didn't you just try to give them the gospel
and get them saved?
That would have been the best thing.
Let's close the word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today
and getting to see Genesis chapter 34.
Help us to learn lessons from this chapter
and from all the Bible, God,
and we just pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.