Christ's Wicked & Wayward Women

You have the title of my sermon today. Christ Wicked! And what? Wayward women.

Did Christ have wayward women in His life? Did He have wicked women in His life?

Oh, I do want to welcome Ms. Jenkins here. Great to have you. Haven't seen her since Alabama.

So what does wayward mean? Well, it means independent, stubborn.

Anybody ever met any stubborn and independent women? I can say what I want. My wife left for a few minutes, but I won't. This is being recorded. Yes, stubborn, independent, and even as one place phrased it, not perfect. And that's true. It combines all of us. So some may say that title is blasphemous, insulting, improper, even unchristian. I'd like to make my point today because it is, should be encouraging to every one of us, women and men too. I'd like you to go with me to Hebrews 4 and verse 15. I'll be reading from the New King James Version. Hebrews 4 and verse 15. I think it's pretty important. He says to us, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin.

I want to look at the part about being tempted. He was tempted by so many of his opponents, yet he didn't lash out. He tried to explain to them the Word of God. He was mocked, made fun of, even before he was taken to Golgotha.

Christ in human form heard a lot. He endured a lot.

He heard so much from the leaders of his society who mocked him for who he was, for who they thought he was.

What he went through most of us cannot imagine.

The expectations he had for himself or what his father actually had for him.

Even though he was holy human and holy God, still we have a high priest that we can go to when we go through things. When people mock us, when people make light of our beliefs, when they say we are narrow-minded people who believe in words from a bunch of men, because that's the way it turns out so many times. Well, he heard it, and he inspired every word of the Old Testament, even the New. I'd like you to go with me to John.

John chapter 8. I covered a little bit of this this morning because it is it is so interesting. John 8 and verse 41. It said, then they said to him, these leaders, the leaders of society, the religious leaders, but we were not born of fornication.

Talking about his mother. Most men will fight if you insult their mothers.

Most men, most young men will be upset even if you use those three words people use.

I guess it's four. I haven't used them in a long time.

But what they were saying here is they were going back 30 years before, 30-some years before, and saying, you don't even know who your daddy is.

Maybe, maybe it was Joseph. Maybe it wasn't.

That's what they're saying, born of fornication. Or if he was, they had sex before marriage.

We were not. You think you're all this. And no telling what other wicked words they said about how wicked Christ's mother was.

How do you think she felt? Had she defended herself?

30 years gone by and people still remember.

I remember being a kid in Indiana, riding a backseat of my parents' station wagon, and the neighbors, this shows how different it was back in the 60s, is they were whispering. I don't figure out what they were whispering. I thought they were talking about me. They didn't. They weren't. They were talking about the neighbors who got a divorce. Divorce. It was like that.

Because marriage was held pretty high back then.

A world of change, hasn't it? But this is what Christ dealt with.

Of course, he could have told those religious leaders who were proud that they were from Judah, the Levites, which would have been the Sadducees. They had to have been from the Levitical priesthood, but the others didn't have to. Pharisees didn't have to be from Levites. So they were proud of being from Judah. But it's amazing. Christ didn't, compared to me, because I would have said, oh yes, tell me about Tamar. You're a great, great, great, great grandmother. Tell me about her. And now she gave herself up for a goat to Judah, because she did. But this was also in Christ's lineage, wasn't it? This was one of those women.

Did they even think about that? No. He didn't remind them.

He used the title of Son of Man in Scripture, which refers to God, to Jesus, to Yahshua, and it came by the flesh, because that's what was promised. That's why he's called the Son of Man.

And it goes all the way back, because Jesus was actually, from Mary's line, was from, was a son of Eve, wasn't he? And he was also, from Mary in Adam and Eve, because he was human. His DNA said that.

I find it interesting if you will go back with me, because we're going to see today, as most of us can attest to in our lives, we're not perfect. We didn't come from perfect backgrounds. As a matter of fact, if you knew everyone in your background, you would probably not want to talk about your background. Okay? My grandfather on my father's side, I did his funeral. He was 94, I think, when he died. And I knew he made whiskey, because the retired sheriff told me he tried to catch him. I don't know how many times. Miss him.

But the sheriff also told me later, because I did work for him, and they eventually became friends.

But he said, yeah, you don't know that much about your grandfather, do you?

No, I know what he's told me. He said, yeah, he robbed a bank. We just couldn't prove it.

He wore a mask, and he was the only man, because he was a big-sized man at that time, 6'1". He came in the bank and robbed it. He said, I tried to catch him. I just couldn't do it.

Of course, my master, my grandfather, about it, he goes, oh, they never caught that guy.

So all of us have maybe skeletons in the closet.

Yeah, see, we've got a mob connection here.

Is that why you leave all the time? You're always on the go.

And you're going to Italy? Okay, that's enough. Sicily, yeah, well, we understand.

Maria Lucas, that is. Maria Lucas, if that is her real name.

Yeah, yeah.

But let's go back to Genesis 3, verse 1. You know the story.

So now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, As God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, Oh, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor you shall you touch it lest you die.

Then the serpent said to her, You will not surely die?

Because the original Hebrew, which I like, it's honestly, You will not die.

Very poignant point to her.

For God knows, in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasing to the eyes, oh yeah, and that a tree desirable to make one wise, she took it. She took that.

That was his seed that he came from.

What was he? You might say one of the first women of his life. Yes, ours too, right?

She desired it. She was independent.

She saw that it was good and she just said, Take it.

And he was there as the word watching her.

Can you imagine him saying, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, no, no, no.

She did it anyway. Matthew chapter one, verse one, in verse five, tells the genealogy of Christ and where he came from as a human.

And it goes all the way back to another woman because it says what?

What? This is verse one, genealogy, Christ. Now, verse five, Salma, Salma begot Boaz by who? Rahab. Rahab. How would you like to say? My great, great grandmother was Rahab.

Wow. Not something everybody would want to brag about.

As a matter of fact, let us go back to Joshua two and read one scripture.

Joshua two.

Verse one.

Now, Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out the two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, especially Jericho, and so they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab. As a matter of fact, the New Living Translation said, they came to a prostitute. Rahab.

Rahab.

I never went that far back in my life. Didn't know, didn't have anybody go, Do you know your great, great grandmother was a harlot? She was a prostitute and a good one.

She had lodged men.

Wow!

Not something we would kind of look at, would it? But isn't it amazing that this is Matthew's telling of the genealogy, the lineage of Jesus the Christ? Far from perfect were these people, and yet they were going to be part of the first perfect person who ever lived, the perfect human who had ever lived, which is telling us what?

We're not going to be perfect until Christ makes us perfect.

But we can actually go from flawed human beings to perfection.

Isn't that what we're asked to do?

You know what he tells us now? Try.

Try.

You're going to slip. You're going to fall.

You're going to be disappointed in yourself.

And I will be disappointed in you, too.

So I find that so very interesting because we know the story of Rahab and how Jericho is conquered.

And that everyone is killed in the city except for her and her family.

And they are brought in with her stock or whatever she had. They are actually brought in to the children of Israel's camp.

Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine living with that baggage?

Now, the two spies would probably say, yes, we made a deal. Why did you make a deal with a prostitute?

Besides, you stayed there. What did you do?

Well, you've got to look human. Just read about the children of Israel.

Nothing you could say would be out of bounds because that's the way they were.

God had to kill thousands of them because they couldn't stop running their minds. Amazing!

The gossip that had to be going on.

The murmuring about her.

Why did they bring her? And they brought her family.

Oh, man! Why did they do that?

You know Moses is getting old.

He's allowing this. Wait a minute. Moses was dead.

Yeah, Joshua.

He's getting old, too.

You know, because her whole family was Canaanites.

Study the Canaanites.

They brought Canaanites into this camp.

Canaanites were idolaters. They followed fertility and occult practices.

As a matter of fact, historians said the name Jericho came from the Hebrew, which are actually J-R-H.

Yeah, however you say that because they didn't have vowels in them.

YAH-MOO-M-N.

Which meant Jericho Moon.

Jericho Moon because they worshiped the moon.

They were cultists who had moon worship.

That's what was conquered.

And it amazing that you go thousands of years forward.

And Jericho in 1945 at the end of the Second World War, Jericho, they brought people in to take account because you know it got turned over to the Brits during the war and they were about to get their freedom in 1948.

But Jericho in 1945 had 3,010 people living in Jericho at the time.

2,570 of those were Muslims who worshiped the crescent moon.

So ever since Joshua was first there, these Canaanites were known as pagans.

Wow. So you're actually bringing pagans into the camp just because you spared their life.

Is that a bribe? See, I bring this up because Israel was known to murmur. What's another word for murmur? Gossip. Gossip. Is that why he hates it so much? Are we guilty of it? We can be. We have to make sure we're not.

It's easy. As my, quote, my mother, just shut up. That's what she would tell me. I would be complaining about something. She said, Chuck, just shut up.

Yes, we think about them and we think about poor Ab. What she had to deal with. All because people couldn't shut up. They wanted to find something wrong with people. They wanted to find a problem. But then, Matthew 1, verse 5. You have it back there? Can you go back there, Dave? Matthew 1, verse 6. Then we go, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth. Ruth!

That's someone else in his lunch.

Who was she? A Moabite! Whoa, wait a minute. What do we know about Moabites? Wow! That was a pagan country founded through incest, wasn't it?

It was Lot. Lot had intercourse with his daughter and brought forth a son and this became Moabites.

Wow! Can you get any more dirt than that on someone?

So you can see if what used to be, I don't know if he'd make the magazine anymore, used to be the National Enquirer. Remember that? The magazine you'd find out when you the trashy stuff we'd find out when you went to check out or whatever. And he would always have and they'd have some crazy story. Well, if Christ came back and they were still there, this is what they would dig up on him. Do you know what his family was like? And they would dig this up.

And the Pharisees were no different.

Let's hope that we can look at the good and not the bad in people and families. They're what we've been called to do. Go with me, if you will, to Genesis 19. We'll go all the way back there. Let's see what God says about it. Genesis 19, verse 36 and 37. Thus both the daughters of Lot were born with children by their father. Incest of the worst kind. Because the girls weren't innocent, all that innocent, were they?

As Britney Spears said, not that innocent. Because they weren't even got their father drunk two days in a row. Wow. Verse 37, The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. And that led to a pretty powerful country.

The Moabites. Did you realize that Moab, the nation, was founded in paganism and idolatry? Yeah. This was Abraham's favorite nephew. Remember? But this is how it degenerated. Degenerated because he couldn't save his own family, his other kids. Remember that? And I'm amazed at that. I don't want to digress off here, but I'm just amazed at Lot was bargained.

And Abraham told the incarnate Christ that, wait a minute, how about if there's just ten? Ten people, will you destroy that city? He went down from fifty. He's like, Monty Hall, let's make a deal. And he was trying to make a deal. And he got down to ten. Why didn't he say four? He said ten. You think he didn't know? He didn't know about the other daughters that Lot had? Their husbands? Possibly their children?

He thought for sure. Maybe. Maybe. Boy, if there's ten right there, lots. But Lot went over to his son-in-law's house, and what did they do? Ha! You're nuts. You're nuts. Wow. And so, what happens? He takes his daughters out. His wife turned into a pillar of salt. And he takes his daughters. And they, I hate to say this because people will be upset with me, but I'll say it anyway. They rape their father. If you read it. Yes. What a- what- How low can you go? Except this is his genealogy.

We're looking at it here. And you'd say, wait a minute. If God's so in control of everything, and he's like, why didn't he like make everybody just perfect? He didn't. He didn't. He had his reasons. Because how would we all relate to that? How would we then say, well, how can I understand that when nobody in your family for four thousand years ever did anything wrong?

Kind of hard to. Kind of hard to. But imagine the cultural shock of Naomi going over to Moab. Because their chief god was Kimos. C-H-E-M-O-S-H. Kimos. But they also had all that they looked at too. And then Molech and Astarte. As a matter of fact, I so enter him because you would think, well, wait a minute. When the kings were fighting, and it's actually in second Kings something. I don't know if I gave you that. I don't know if I remember that. 327. 327. Okay, that's off my head. Because the story is that the king of Moab was losing a battle.

And he said, we're going to die here. We got to do something. So we need to sacrifice to Molech. Because Molech accepted human sacrifices. So what did he do? He chose his oldest son. In front of all the men, he chose his oldest son. And burned him and sacrificed him on a wall. This is the culture, the story of Moabites. This is where they came from. This is who they were.

And yet, this was Ruth. Remember who Ruth was? Remember who her great-grandson was? David. King David. Amazing story. So what was Ruth like before Naomi came in? Because you know she was married, right? And her husband died. How did he die?

Don't know. Well, we don't know how they died. But they picked up and they left and went to this country. That was not a good country to go to. Amazing what happened. As a matter of fact, let's go. I want you to get a feel. Now, why am I telling you this? Because with me, I kind of look back on my genealogy. My grandmother did and so forth like that. And we had some scoundrels back on my mother's side, too, in case my mother's watching this.

But it kind of made me feel like, well, you know, hey, maybe I'm not so bad. Maybe I didn't come from such bad DNA as this is going. But let's go, go if you will, because we need to see what the wicked wayward women in Christ's life go with me to numbers. Many of you may know that story. I'll just cover a short bit of it. Numbers 25. We'll go through 1 through 5. Now, Israel remained in the Casey Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.

You remember Balaam? And God said, they like asked him, oh, go curse this nation because they're going to overcome me. And he would go, and God said, you can't curse him. You had to bless him. And so he had to bless him three times. And he was so upset because he was doing it for the money.

And so Balaam was upset. Well, then Balaam finds a way to do it. He said, well, I can't curse them, but I can tell you what you can go do. And if you do it, God will curse them. And you know what happened? God cursed them. And you know what Balaam told them to do? Bring all your wild women. Bring those wicked women over and set up a place outside of their camp.

And all these men, especially some of the leaders, and they were, some of the young leaders, they'll come over there, and they'll get with your women because you have some hot-looking women. And so here we have the story. And the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. They invited the people to the sacrifices of the gods because that was part of the fertility rights that they do.

They turned this thing into an orgy. Sorry, that's the way it was. And these men licked it up. Sacrifices of gods, and the people ate. Oh, you have food with it, and we're going to sacrifice this food. We're going to bring all this, and we're going to have all this stuff, and bow down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Baal-Appeor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. Then the Lord said to Moses, Take all the leaders of the people, and hang the offenders before the Lord, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.

So Moses said to the judges of Israel, Every one of you, kill his men who were joined to Baal-Appeor, all because of these Moabite women. And yet, that is part of his genealogy. Amazing. Do you think she ever heard about that?

Do you think when Ruth came back into and was living there with Naomi, do you think any of the men or women there reminded her of the history of the Moabites? I believe they did. Do you think any of the men, you remember how he said, Don't go over to these other men, but stay around my men. In case you know what they were going to say. Man, you know Moabite women, they're loose.

Boy, yeah, they're very, very open to things. Imagine living in that. But she did. And Christ did, didn't he? He lived in that. So the lesson for us is Christ came from imperfection and became perfect. What does he want us to do? He knows we're not perfect. He knows your great-great-grandfather's second cousin's best friend or whatever.

He knows these things, but he's called you anyway. Why? He calls the weak and the base, he says, so that no man should glory. Because it's he that does it to you. It's him who does it in your life. This is what he does. This is why he's calling the weak and the base. It's an incredible thing. Now, some of us, we don't like being called weak and base.

I don't see Bill Gates waiting to come in here. I don't see Elon Musk. I don't see some of these rich. I don't see the greats. Waiting to go, oh, let me learn. Let me learn. No, he's choosing this. This is just a testing ground. As I can say about pro football, this is preseason. The season's in the kingdom of God. When we take the field, begin to lead the whole entire world under Christ's direction. This is what it's about. He knew that. Knows the beginning from the end. So as a human, Christ had baggage. It was used against him. Just the same as it will be used against us. So may already begin. You weak-minded people called Christians. Yes. Stories far from over for us. This is where we get to be like Christ. Like you go to Matthew 5, verse 48. In fact, I'll put it. Have him put it up here because I love this, the way it's phrased in the amplified version. Amplified version, you therefore will be perfect. You know what I'm saying? Will be. It's not you are. It's you will be. You will become perfect. If you let him guide you. You have what did we hear about? Belief. But more than belief, faith. Faith. In Christ. It says growing into spiritual maturity, both in mind and character. Isn't that not what we're doing now? This week we're going to be growing in some character because something's going to come in and upset our apple cart. You're saying goes. It's not everything's not going to go right. God gets to see how we handle it. With righteousness. Or with condemnation. To everything. Actively integrating Godly values into our daily life. As our Heavenly Father is perfect. We've been given the model. We know God in heaven is perfect. The Father is perfect. As a matter of fact, before he can even come down, at the end of Revelation, this whole world's got to be purified. It's going to be burnt up, so when he comes back, it's all spirit. He's so perfect. But then, because we may not be able to relate to that, he sent his Son down. He sent his Son down as God in the flesh to show that it can be done. And the perfection is something he wants us to strive for. What's the old saying? You can never hit a star if you aim at the moon. How about ours? What are we looking for? Well, I just had four sins today. I think that's pretty good. Because yesterday I had eight. I'm gaining. No. We have the model. The model of perfection in Jesus Christ. That's why it's so important to read the Gospels, to see how he handled it. So that we can know how to handle these things. We can know how to answer for them. Have a last scripture. We can go to it. 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. 1. You know Corinthians had their problems. They lived in a wicked society. They didn't have porn sites, but they had everything but that at their time. They had porn that they formed in and carried around. Put it in their pockets, carried it in their purses. Yeah. Go to Pompeii. Right? You can see how that was. You saw it? Go to Pompeii. They actually had drawings. They had good artists there, too. They were more detailed. More detailed than you want. This is how Corinth was. So let's read as he's talking to them, trying to encourage you. 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put the shame to wise. Foolish? I'll take that. I'll take it. Because I made some foolish mistakes. Foolish decisions. And he still may be the reason he called me. Why? Because if I never made any mistakes, why do I need a God? If I never made any mistakes and everything went right in my life, why do I need to read some book? Tell me how to live. I'm already living well. No. That's his purpose.

And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put the shame to things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen. Hmm. I don't see anybody knocking you down wanting to put you on TV because of your wisdom. Because of your religion. Doesn't happen, does it? No. Because they wouldn't give very good ratings. Oh, what day do you keep? Oh, well, I keep the Sabbath. Same one Jesus Christ gave. Oh, you're a Jew. No? No, I'm not Jewish. What? Then your cult. Well, depends on your definition of a cult. Read the definition of a cult. You'll find out. We are one. Because we're not like the rest of the world. That's why God did this. That's why He does this thing. Things which are despised, God has chosen. And the things which are not. To bring to nothing the things that are. It's His choice. So Christ had a background. On His mother's side. You know, on His father's side, they're perfect. Perfect! And yet, God chose, had to be one of the most perfect women in the entire world. When He chose Mary as His mother. Do you see anything? I mean, she had to endure rumors, murmuring, and lies. But, who would you pick? You had the entire world. So they thought at least 10 million women in the world would be young enough to have a child at that time. Out of 10 million women in the world, God chose Mary. Do you think she wasn't something special? And contrary to what you believe, she wasn't Catholic. And she doesn't, she's not a saint. She's not going to be held at once. She was a saint in that way. But she did follow Christ later. But imagine, imagine God chose her. She was doing exactly what was in her background. Why did He do it? To confound the mighty. We wouldn't do it that way, would we? Probably wouldn't. We could do anything in the world. How about, let's leave that Rahab prostitute thing out. Let's do that. Oh, Moabites, no, let's do something else. Not only did it, He inspired it so we could read all about it, which I've done here today, because of beauty. And then, if it's not even better because of the wicked and wayward women in Christ's background and in His life, how do you like the guys looking at Him when He came up and they found Him talking to a woman, the woman at the well in John 4? You know they didn't want anything. A Samaritan! Oh, that's bad. Five husbands, one you're shacking up with now. And then, one of His greatest followers, Mary Magdalene. Remember her? How many demons? Seven. You're hanging out with this woman who said, Seven demons and she's touching you. Oh, man! What are you doing? Why? Why did He do it? He saw Mary Magdalene's heart, and He said, That one's for me. I want her in my kingdom. The same way He's looked at all of you, and He says, I want you in my kingdom.