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Judges chapter 20, a very interesting chapter, a very long chapter, a very interesting story. It's not really a pleasant chapter. And the title of my sermon tonight is battling for Belial, battling for Belial. So if we look there at verse number three, we're going to kind of see why was there this battle? I mean there was a great battle in this story, we learned a lot about this battle. Why was there this battle? Well, if we look back at verse three, the Bible reads, Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Misbe, then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness? And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to Allah. And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me, and my concubine have they forced that she is dead. And I took my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel. So you see, if you go back one chapter, and we're not going to read the story, it's a gruesome chapter. It's a horrible chapter of the Bible. In my opinion, it's probably one of the hardest chapters of the Bible to read. It's just so discouraging, it's so vile a thing that happens. But we see that because of their lewdness, and because of their folly, this great battle comes out of it. And the Bible is talking about these men that have done this wicked thing, it calls them sons of Belial in chapter 19. And it says that these sons of Belial are sons of Satan. We can see that throughout the whole Bible. But turn if you would meet a Romans chapter one, Romans chapter one. The Bible makes it clear that there's very wicked and evil people in this world. And you know, the world today, they want to tell you that all the sodomites and all the homos and all those that they would consider gay, to be harmless. You know, they just like men. They're just like everybody else, but they're just kind of like men. That's the only difference. That's the only way that they're different from normal. They're just normal people, just everyday people, but you know, they're just kind of like men. That's the only difference. While in Romans chapter one, look at verse 28, we're going to see what these people actually like according to the Bible, what these sons of Belial are like. Says in verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind due to those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. So we see a pretty long list. I mean, does this sound like somebody you want to hang out with? Does this sound like somebody that you want to be your next door neighbor? But it says that they're murderers, and you know, these sodomites, they might seem really feminine and consistently and queer, but they're full of murder. They want to murder people, and we see the signs of Belial, they sought out to murder. He said in Judges chapter 20, you know, they came to the door and said they wanted to know the man. Well, it said in chapter 20, he actually wanted, they wanted to kill him. They thought to have slain him, is what the Bible says. And we see what did they do with the concubine? They got the second place prize, they got the woman, but they abused her all night and left her dead. These sons of Belial, these reprobates, they want to commit murder. And you say, well, how are you connecting sons of Belial with these reprobates? Well, the Bible made it very clear in Judges 19 that these sons of Belial, they wanted to know the man. And the Bible says that in Romans chapter 1, it says men with men, and it calls them reprobate and it gives a description of what they're like here in Romans 1. That's why we turned there. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 22. The thing is, is even in Romans chapter 1 in the New Testament, the Bible says these people are worthy of death. And you say, why was it that all these men, you know, gathered together as one? All these Israelites, they came together, they thought this was so bad, this lewdness, this folly. They thought it was so bad that they had to actually come out and go to battle. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 22, we're going to actually look at the law and see why they thought that. Because a lot of people today, you know, they might think of a child molester, they might think of a rapist, they might look down upon, you know, maybe even a sodomite, some people still believe that way, but they would never think they should be put to death. They're just kind of like, well, that's unfortunate, that wasn't great, you know, maybe put them in jail for a year or two and then let them come out. But is that really what the Bible says? Is that what the Bible tells us to do with these type of people? In Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse 23, the Bible says, if a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then he shall bring them both out unto the gate of the city and he shall stone them with stones that they die. The damsel because she cried not being in the city and the man because he had humbled his neighbor's wife. So thou shalt put away evil from among you. But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that lie with her shall die. But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing. There is in the damsel no sin worthy of death, for as when a man riseth against his neighbor and slayeth him, even so is this matter. For he found her in the field and the betrothed damsel cried and there was none to save her. There's actually a lot of things you can learn here from the law. The first is, you know, when the Bible doesn't use this word, I don't really love to use this word, but in modern vernacular we use the word rape. But the Bible would say that is force her. And the Bible is saying when a man would force someone, it's because she didn't cry. You hear all these women, they cry, you know, oh, this man forced me. It's like, well, are you screaming and crying and saying, no, no, or were you just going along with it? That's the difference between being forced and not being forced according to the Bible. They said, look, if you were in the city, I mean, there's no way it would have happened because you would have been kicking and screaming and yelling and somebody would have come and heard and taken care of that. But if you were out somewhere in a remote area or someone took you into a place where no one could hear you, it says even though you're crying, no one was able to rescue you. It says anybody that would force them, look at verse 26 at the end, it says, for as when a man rises against his neighbor and slays him, even so is this matter. The Bible puts forcing a woman in the same category as murder because it's that bad, it's that wicked. And the Bible makes it very clear that a murderer should be put to death. It doesn't, it doesn't kind of make it real vague. It's not just like in one verse. It was interesting as I was kind of studying this, I didn't realize how many times the Bible really says that murderers should be put to death. Turn to Numbers chapter 35, go back just one book in the Bible and I'll read for you. It says in Exodus chapter 21, he that smiteth a man so that he die shall be surely put to death. The Bible says if you smite a man to kill him and he dies, you so surely be put to death, says in Leviticus 24, says that he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. You know the Hindus teach, they have like four different caste systems where they kind of rate the people like the top people are really important and then kind of not as important and less. That the bottom level of Hinduism, they teach that if you would kill a man, that it's no different than just killing an animal. That it's not even a big deal, it's not even like bad, you shouldn't even worry about it. So the Bible says he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. God's not a respecter of persons, you can't, well, this guy was poor and destitute so it wasn't a big deal. You know, or this guy was rich, it's a big deal. No, it's the same across the board in God's law, he's not a respecter of persons, he's just and any man that kills somebody in cold blooded murder, the Bible says shall surely be put to death. In Numbers 35, we see here in verse 16, it says that if he smite him with an instrument of iron so that he die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. Look at verse 17, and if he smite him with the throwing of stone, wherewith he may die and he die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. Says in verse 18, or if he smite him with a hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die and he die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. The Bible is saying over and over, murderer is put to death, murderer is put to death. You say, why was it that all the Israelites were like, man, we got to join ourselves together, we got to find out this lewdness and folly, we got to take care of the situation because the murderers are supposed to be put to death, according to the Bible. Look at verse 21, skip down a little bit, it says, or in Amity, smite him with his hand and let him die. He that smote him shall surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The revenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him. The Bible is saying, look, it doesn't matter if you have the lead pipe, it doesn't matter if you have the stone from the river, it doesn't matter if you have a wood stick, it doesn't matter if you smite him with your hand, it doesn't matter how, if you kill somebody, says the murderer, shall surely be put to death. And look down at verse 31, I think this is a very important verse, it says, moreover, he shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. You know, in today's world, that's not true. Celebrities and rich people, you know, when they commit murder, they oftentimes get off because people take a lot of satisfaction in their lives. People look at these people, you know, like, oh man, I know he killed this guy, but he's so fun, or he's funny, or he's such a good athlete, or he's so cool, or whatever, and they just get off. They don't even go to jail. The Bible's saying we should take no satisfaction in a murderer's life. We should just put him to death. We should have no respect for persons just like the Bible, no matter how unpleasant it may be. And you know, I don't think the death penalty is a fun topic. It's not something super cool. It's unpleasant. It's not something you want to deal with. Nobody wants to just be putting people to death, but that's something that God's called us to, you know, has called righteous government and righteous people to do. That's what a nation should do is put murderers to death. That way you put the evil away from you. You put all this wicked filth, the lewdness, the folly. Go back to Judges chapter 20 where we're reading. Even Jesus, you know, quoted that we shouldn't kill people. He said in Matthew 19, he saith unto them, which? This man asking Jesus Christ about the commandments, and Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Jesus said, look, we shouldn't murder. Jesus confirmed the fact that murder is bad, and in Exodus 20 it says, thou shalt not kill. In Deuteronomy 5 when it was repeated, the 10 commandments, thou shalt not kill. It's a big deal to God. But if we look at Judges 20, it would be my first point, which just comes from the title of the sermon, battling for Belial. So look at verse 11, the Bible reads, so all the men of Israel were gathered against the city knit together as one man, and the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, what wickedness is this that is done among you? Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may have put them to death and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel. But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities under Gibeah to go out to battle against the children of Israel. And you know, it's interesting here that we have just some really wicked people. We have people that the Bible's making very clear, look, they forced a woman and they killed her. They should surely be put to death. I mean, there's so many verses from the Old Testament law and I mean, that's all they really have. They just had the book of Moses. Surely they're going to know, hey, we've got to put these people to death. But what did they do? Did they say, well, we're uncomfortable, we'll just let you do it. No, they went all the way to the other extreme. They said, you know, we're not even going to give you the people, we're going to go out to battle against you, we're going to defend these sons of Belial. We're going to protect these sons of Belial. We're going to go to battle for the sons of Belial. And you say, oh man, why is it there's so many Christians today, they're defending the Sodomites. They're defending the reprobates. They're just trying to harbor all these sodomites and reprobates. Well, there's no new thing under the sun, just like in Judges 20. We see a group of people which, you know, the children of Israel kind of represent Christians in the New Testament. We see, it's kind of like brethren. We see a lot of examples like that. We see a group of people that are supposed to be saved, living for God, loving the Lord. They're the children of Israel, and they're defending the sons of Belial. They're defending these reprobates. It doesn't make any sense. But let's look at verse 20, it says, and the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel put themselves in a raid of fight against them at Gibeah. And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day, twenty and two thousand men. Now, I mean, this story, I mean, it sometimes just racks the brain. You're just like, what's going on? But these men, they go out and they're defending the sons of Belial and they win the first battle. I mean, they slay a bunch of these righteous guys trying to go to battle with them. They win. They're good fighters, according to the Bible. It said that six hundred of them, they could sling a stone at a hairbreadth, meaning if you put like a little tiny hair on the podium and they were just like a really far distance, they could sling that stone so fast, they would just annihilate that hair. I mean, they were experts in war. They were ready men of war. I mean, I wouldn't want to go against some guy like that. I mean, he can just, he can just smite me from a long distance away. He can just come with a stone and just take me out for the fight. But we see that just because they're backslidden, I mean, they're obviously defending these wicked reprobates. They're still mighty. They're still able to render, you know, a lot of strength. And we see there's a lot of Christians out there. They want to defend these sodomites. They want to defend these reprobates and they're coming with power. They're coming with the storm. They're coming and they're going to win some battles. But you know what? They didn't discourage the children of Israel. But we see in the Bible that there's a battle. I mean, this life is a battle. Turn if you want to Isaiah chapter five. I mean, the Bible says in first Timothy chapter one, this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. When Paul is instructing Timothy, a young preacher, he said, look, I want you to have these things I could charge you with so that you can war a good warfare. He knew what he was getting into. It wasn't just, oh, it's just, I'm going to be a pastor and everybody's, it's just love and we're going to go and have Kool-Aid and we're going to have a Sunday brunch after church. No, it's warfare is what the Bible says. Second Corinthians chapter 10 says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. In Timothy two, the Bible says thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The Bible paints a clear picture that we're in a battle, that there's, there's, you know, we're going to war, that we are to be soldiers for Jesus Christ. This isn't just a game. This isn't just, you know, having some fun. This isn't just vanity. No, it's war and there's a lot of battles out there and there's a lot of Christians that are battling for the wrong thing. They're battling for the preacher rapture. I mean, man, think of how much they're just coming with the gates of hell. They're trying to preach so much false doctrine. They're just defending this wicked stuff and they know it's wrong. I mean, they knew that these sons of Belial were wrong, but they're still defending it anyways. What about the nation of Israel? They're just wanting to defend the Jews and you know, I talked about the preacher rapture. They're just awaiting the antichrist. We see that they're defending the Belial. They're battling for Belial. Think about it. What's the preacher rapture going to do? It's going to confuse people to believe on the antichrist. They're battling for Belial. What about the, you know, the nation of Israel? The Bible says, they say they're Jews, but are not, which do lie in the synagogue of Satan. Sounds like they're battling for Belial. They don't want to, you know, point you to Christ. They want to point you to the synagogue of Satan. What about the King James Bible? I mean, how many people are attacking God's word? They're wanting you to get some other Bible that was written by who? By Satan. They're wanting, yea, half God said. I mean, every single one of these modern perversions, you look at the footnotes and they're just like, well, it doesn't say this in originals. Oh, this Bible ad here. I was trying to talk to one of my family members. You know, I went to a church, it was called Trinity Fellowship Church. And I said, hey, you know, this church, it says Trinity in the name and they don't use the King James Bible, they use the NIV. And in first Job 5-7, probably the most clear verse on the Trinity, it's gone. And they pulled out their Bible and it was gone. Just like I said, there's three that testify. It doesn't say, you know, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. But when you looked at the footnote, it had a footnote. And it said, other Bibles add to God's word here. They were trying to condemn the King James Bible by saying it added. They're promoting Satan. They're battling for belittle. What about the death penalty? I mean, it does say that Satan's, you know, he's a murderer from the beginning. But we know that he wants to steal, kill, and destroy. And you know, we should not want to just go out and do cold blooded murder. But the Bible does not say, you know, the death penalty is murder. The death penalty is just, Bibles say it was slaying or, you know, putting the evil away from among you. It's not murder when you're putting someone to death according to God's law. But you know, there's a lot of Christians today, they're not for the death penalty. They would say, well, I know this child in Leicester, that was really bad, but let's just keep him in church. Let's just keep him, let's just give him some counseling, you know, let's just kind of talk through it and try to help him. I mean, can you imagine trying to just keep these people in your church by all means? I mean, they're battling for belittle. What about abortion? I mean, there's so many battles, there's so many fights, where there's Christians who are battling for the wrong reasons. They're battling for the wrong things. You know, a lot of pastors probably wouldn't necessarily jump on board with abortion, but they're fine with birth control. I mean, they're fine with you murdering your baby, you know, before the first trimester. It's fine to kill them seven days after they conceive, but you know, I guess after they've been born, it's a little bit different. No, killing a child in the womb is the same as killing it when it's not in the womb, according to the Bible. What about lastly, the reprobates? I mean, it's this Born This Way Ministries. Bob Gray. I'm sorry, I get so confused. This Johnny Nixon, this Joshua Aiken. I mean, they're battling for belittle. They're trying to bring these sick perverted freaks into the church, and they emphasize the nursery. And you know what? It's real. It's a real threat, because I started going to an independent fundamental Baptist church back home, and this church was weak on the Sodomites. They wanted to bring them into the church. They wanted to love on them. They thought they were great. I knew Sodomites that were coming to the church. I saw them at times, and you know what? Some of them, you know, were family members with the nursery workers. I can't even imagine if this Born This Way Ministries got infected in this church and started convincing them, hey, you know what? You're just a unit. You need to get in there with the kiddos. That's where you're going to really fit in. That's where you're going to really shine. Why don't you get in there with all those kids? You know, it's just insane when you look at this story, because in Judges chapter 19, the Levite, when they were traveling, they were like, why don't we turn into this city? And he said, I'm not going to stay anywhere that's not of the children of the tribes of Israel. He said, I'm not going to turn into one of their cities. Let's turn into the city of Gibeah that's the children of Benjamin. And you would think today, I don't want to drop my kid off into some secular daycare. I don't want to take them to some place where they don't care, is really what it's like. I think sometimes it might even be safer to take them to one of these secular daycares than an independent funnel of Baptist church that's defending these born-of-way ministries that's trying to bring the sodomites into their nursery on purpose. I mean, most daycares have enough common sense to do a background check and say, you know, these freaks, they can't even come near our establishment. They have to stay 600 feet away. They probably have a restraining order. I mean, it's insane when the secular people are safer than the Christians. Than the church. Than the house of God. Than the house of prayer. But we see that there's so many Christians battling for belial today and it's a real thing. There's real Christians going to these churches, taking their children, thinking it's safe. And these predators are trying to come in. They're trying to take these children and I don't even want one kid to ever go through that. To ever ruin their life. The Bible says that would be, I mean, that's a horrible thing. The Bible says in 2 Peter about cursed children. I mean, I can't imagine some of these children that go through such horrible things. That's something you have to carry with you. That's so horrible, so wicked. We shouldn't let any of us come into play. We need to be like the children of Israel that were coming and battling against them. But what side are you on? Because there's a battle today. Are you defending belial or are you on the Lord's side? So we turn to Isaiah 5, I had you turn there. Let's look at verse 16, it says, But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with the cart rope, that say, Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it. Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which justify the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. It says in verse 23, you say, why are these people doing this? Why are they defending the sons of Belial? Why are they defending the wicked people? Why are they calling them good? It says in verse 23, which justify the wicked for reward. Why is it that they're promoting this book? Why is it that they're promoting all their ministries and their teachings for sale? Because they're just trying to call the wicked good and get a reward, trying to get some money. They're trying to teach things that they ought not for filthy, lucre's sake. Where's the motivation? You know, and I think in Judges chapter 20, it might have been a little bit different motivation. It doesn't really matter what the motivation is. There's people battling for Belial, battling for the sons of Satan, battling for wickedness, calling evil good, to call one of these child molesting predators good and want to bring them into the church. I can't even think of anything more wicked. So it says in Psalms 11, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? I mean, imagine you were going, the area I lived in, there was really only one decent church. What if it got infected with this born that way ministries and they started bringing the sodomites into the church and started putting them in the nursery? I couldn't even go to that church anymore. Now I'm not even in church. How am I going to be sent out to go sowing? How am I going to do things for God? How am I going to do, I mean, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? If all the churches just turn into a safe haven for all these sons of Belial, what are we going to do? We need churches that will stand up and preach against the field and they're willing to put the evil away from among them. That's the New Testament application. Obviously, we're not going to start putting people to death. We're not going to go out and try to start a vigilante club. We got soul winning on Tuesday night and we got hudda homo on Thursday night. No, obviously we're not going to do that. That's not righteous. That's not what the Bible says, but we should put the evil away from among us. We shouldn't have it in church. We should get the wicked people out of church. We shouldn't invite them in and try to bring them in. I had you in Isaiah 5, if you could go back just a few chapters to Isaiah 1. Go to Isaiah 1 and we'll look at one verse there in verse 21. It says, how was the faithful city become in Harlot? It was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it. But now, murderers. We see that there's an opposite correlation here. The Bible's saying when a city's full of judgment, when it's having righteous judgment, when it's doing the right thing and it's punishing people justly, there's righteousness. It says righteousness lodged in it. But now what happened? Murderers. When you lose judgment, when you lose God's law, you're just going to have a city filled with murderers. Why do you want to put the murderer to death? Because you don't have murderers running everywhere. I don't want a bunch of murderers everywhere, constantly fearing for my life, constantly having the whole world filled with violence, like in Genesis chapter 6. Let's go to the New Testament. Let's look at Luke chapter 23. You say, well, maybe this is just one isolated story, it's just one little piece. It's a common theme that Christians, so-called, or the men of God, so-called, or people that you know love the Lord, that they're always defending evil, they're always defending wickedness, they're always defending that which is wrong. Luke 23 verse 13, the Bible says, and Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, said unto them, ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverted the people, and behold, I have examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things where have ye accused him. So, nor yet hear it, for I sent you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him and release him, for of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast. And they cried out all at once, saying, away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas, who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder was cast into prison, Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. But they cried, saying, crucify him, crucify him. We see that the people that say they love God, what do they want to do? They want to bring in the murderers, and they want to crucify Christ. Why? Because there's so many people battling for bezial today, it's a battle today, and they always want to battle for the wicked, they always want to battle for the unrighteous, for the murderers. I mean, can you imagine just, you got a murderer and Jesus Christ, and you want the murderer, but that's what people are like. We shouldn't beat a seed. The Bible has constant stories of this. Go to Mark chapter 7, let's go to Mark chapter 7, let's look at another example. I think it's so important to see different examples of this in the Bible, because we see there's a lot of people, they're defending the wrong thing, they're defending wickedness, they're willing to go to battle for something unrighteous. And how much more, if they're willing to go to battle for these sons of Belial, should we be willing to go to battle for Christ, for the Lord, for the one who's righteous, for the one that paid the debt of our sins, who gives us eternal life, who spent three days in hell, we don't ever have to go to hell. Christ went to hell for you. How much more should we be willing to, you know, live for Him, to go to battle for Him? They're going to battle for some child molesting, rapist, murderer, implacable, inventor of evil theme. You know these guys, they're just sitting around, they're just thinking of some awful wicked thing to do to you. They were just sitting there in the city, this Levi's coming in, they're like, oh man, we're going to get this guy. We're going to lie with him. We're going to, we've thought to slay him. They have evil thoughts. They're just coming up constantly with evil themes. These people want to defend them. Look at Mark chapter 7 verse 6, and he answered and said to them, well hath the Zites prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written, this people honored me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups, and many other such things ye do. And he said unto them, full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother, and whoso curses father and mother, let him die the death. But ye say, if a man shall say to his father and mother, it is Corban, that is to say a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be freed, and ye shall suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his mother, making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered, and many such things do ye. So again, we see that the Pharisees, they were unwilling to put someone to death. And you know what, it's unpleasant to have to put someone to death. I think, you know, this example was used because of all the sins in the Bible, in the Old Testament law that had the penalty of the death penalty, I think the rebellious son is probably, in my opinion, just the least. It's probably, you know, the one that's, the one you would think, well, I don't know, I mean, he's just rebellious, so we should really put him to death, just from your own carnal mind or your own carnal nature. It's probably one of the, I mean, for a murderer, sometimes it's pretty easy to be like, yeah, just put him to death. A rapist, you know, one of these wicked sodomites, someone that's a rapist, I mean, that feels a little bit easier. But the rebellious son, and it makes sense, though, I mean, if you got a guy that's unwilling to listen to any authority, he can't hearken unto his father, he can't hearken to his mother, he's just lazy, he's a drunk, he's willing to smite and curse his parents. I mean, what hope does he have as an adult? I mean, this guy needs to be put to death. He's never going to hearken unto any authority structure. He's a dangerous person to be let alone into the world. They need to put him to death. But Jesus Christ used this example to say, look, y'all aren't willing to follow God's law. Y'all just want to keep unto your own tradition. And look at what it says in verse 11, it says, it is Corbin that is to say a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. Why is it that they didn't want to put the kid to death, because they found some kind of profit. They think it was something that was convenient for them. They said, well, maybe you can give us a gift, or maybe you can give us a ransom, or maybe you can give us some money, or maybe by some way, I'll be profited by this guy if he isn't put to death. You know, a lot of times today, they look at the celebrities, they look at the Hollywood actors, they look at the football players, and they say, well, this guy, I mean, he can pay a big ransom. And you know, it's going to contribute a lot to society, let's just, let's just let him off. Wasn't that big a deal? But this, you know, derelict loser in the gutter, who cares if we execute him, there's just no righteous judgment. There's respect of persons. But we see the Bible is very consistent, that these people that don't really ourselves for God, they're either backslidden or they're false prophets or whatever, they're constantly defending evil. They're constantly defending wickedness. They're constantly defending people that should be put to death. So the first point, there's a lot of people battling for Belial. My second point is that we should be battling for bravery, battling for bravery. Go back to Judges 20, we'll look at verse 21, it says, and the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men, and the people of the men of Israel encouraged themselves and set their battle again in a ray in a place where they put themselves in a ray the first day. And the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and asked counsel of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the Lord said, Go up against him. We see in the Bible that when these guys are doing the right thing, when they're going to battle for the Lord, they lose a lot of men. They lose a lot of people. A lot of people suffer, a lot of people are anguished. I mean, I don't want to do the right thing and then lose the battle, but we see these people are willing to put themselves on the line, put their lives on the line to do the right thing. And we need to pray and have battle for bravery, because it's got to be a brave thing to do the right thing, to go against a foe that looks stronger than you. I mean, to think of how many independent Motherland Baptist churches are pre-trib. I mean, they're so much stronger, they've got so many more people. It just looks like, what are we going to do? But you know what, we need to just have confidence in the Lord that we're doing what he said and go out and battle for bravery. We need to battle and do the right thing, even when we lose a battle. Even when it may seem negative. We see they came to the Lord, they prayed. You know what, we can pray and go back to God's Word and say, oh, he still said the same thing. He still said to go out and battle, he said to keep fighting, fight the good faith. You know, there's a cost to doing the right thing. It's going to cost you selfish ambition, it's going to cost you selfish desires, it's going to cost you all your selfish motives. Sometimes you might lose friends, you could lose a job, you could lose your life, you could lose a family member for doing the right thing, for standing up for God's Word, for preaching what the Bible says. You can lose a lot of things in this life. It's going to cost you to do the right thing. It's not easy to do the right thing. If it was easy, everybody would do it. Because everybody just goes through the path of the least resistance. They just want to go with the flow, they want to go with the majority, but it's hard to do the right thing. Go to Luke chapter 14, if you would, we'll look at one verse there, Luke 14. I'll read from you in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, it says, for your glory is not good. You know that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. We need to purge out the old leaven, we need to purge out all the wicked sin, we need to not hold back, we need to get the wicked people out from among us. Look at there in verse, chapter 14 and verse 28, it says, for which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether yet sufficient to finish it? You know what, you look at all the carnal things in your life and you're going to miss out. You're going to miss out on that big house, on that big yard with the huge swimming pool and the horses and the garden and all these things if you live for the Lord. You might miss out on being a millionaire, chasing, you know, oh I want to be a professional athlete and I want to be a movie star and I want to do all these great things. A lot of the carnal desires that people have, you're going to have to give that up if you want to serve God. You can't have it all. You can't have everything. And if you want to do the right thing, a lot of times you have to lay down those selfish ambitions. But we can look at the end of our lives. We can look at things that we've given up and say, you know what, those things really didn't mean anything to me. It was really hard to give up in the moment, but now as I look back, it was so vain. Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher. But sometimes it takes you going through it. It's hard to give something up. It's hard to count the cost. But then you can look back and you can say, oh wow, I'm so glad I gave that up. That is meaningless. Riches, houses, lands, all these things. It doesn't matter. God's going to give me more. If I seek first the kingdom of God, he'll add all these things under me. And if we count the cost, sometimes it seems like a big deal up front. But then later when we look back, we can say, oh man, that was great. And we got to purge out the leaven out of our church. That might not seem great at first. You might be like, man, you're kicking out members? You're kicking out people in the church? What if you're a small church? It's going to be hard. But you know what? In the long run, you're going to look back and be like, I'm glad that person's not in my church. I'm glad I don't have some reprobate, molesting children in my church. I'm glad that I don't have to deal with all these problems with this person, all this fornication rampant in my church, the idolatry, the extortioners. Bible makes it clear in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 that we're supposed to purge out those wicked people from among us. They're not supposed to be dwelling in the house of God. Turn to Ephesians chapter 6. The Bible says in 1st John, and we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. We should not be shocked when the world is defending this filth, when the world is lifting up evil, lifting up sin, lifting up fornication, lifting up homosexuals, lifting up these sodomites, these reprobates. The whole world lieth in wickedness. You know the minority is always doing the right thing. How many men were on the mountain with Jesus? Three. James, Peter, and John. How many were the mighty men with David? Three. It says the three mighty men. Now they had more guys that were in the fight, but when it comes down to it, there's not that many that are going for the battle, that have the bravery to do the big things, to go out and fight against and stand and say, I'll be that man, even if I'm by myself. And then it was just one of us, two of us, three of us. Bible says in Genesis 6, the earth was also corrupt before God, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You know what? It came down, the whole world was corrupt, it was just Noah, it was just one God. If the whole world was corrupt, would God look at you and say, well at least I got this one person. At least I got this one person. That takes a lot of bravery to be the one righteous person in the whole world. And you know, he, he was so righteous, he was able to end up saving his family. He was able to build an ark and carry his family onto the ark. And we don't even know if they even wanted to go. Maybe his wife didn't want to get on the ark. She's like, oh, there's a bunch of animals and there's snakes and there's like skunks and I don't know if I want to get on there. And he just picked her up and grabbed her on the ark, I don't know. Maybe she wanted to go, but we don't know. We know that if one of his sons was wicked, maybe he didn't want to go. But Noah as a leader, Noah had, Noah had bravery to do the right thing and he saved his family. He did the right thing. And the Bible says in Exodus chapter 23, thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. Sometimes you're all alone. Sometimes it's just the one guy. Even we see with Paul and Peter, Peter was in the wrong and Paul by himself had to confront Peter. He's like, even my buddy Barnabas, he, you know, he just jumped on Peter's side. It was just me that I had confronted him about the fact that he was dissembling with the Gentiles. What about Lot? Think about Lot. You know, he actually did stand up at one moment and saved some of his family members. When it came down to the rubber meeting the road and the sons of Belial beset his house, you know, he shut the door behind him. He wasn't going to let the men come in and do such a vile thing under the two angels. But guess what? It wasn't enough. Because it wasn't a lifetime of battle. It was just the one moment. We see as soon as he exits the city, what does his wife do? She turns back and she becomes a pillar of salt. He loses his wife. Why? Because he didn't battle his whole life. He didn't have the bravery to do the right thing at all times. He could only do it in a moment of a reflex where it was just like, whoa, I really can't go down this road. Because he was saved. Think of somebody that, you know, living in this world and they get so close to taking the mark of the beast and then it's just like the reflex. But guess what? They're going to get slain anyways. They're going to be, you know, go through great affliction, great torment because it's a lifetime of battle. What if Lot had decided, you know what, my city's really wicked. I need to get out of here. And he just picked up his wife. She was kicking and screaming and he ran out of there. And the whole way she was looking back. But guess what? As soon as he got out of there, he would have still had his wife. Because she wasn't going to turn to pillar assault any other day. But when it was too late, when he just waited and waited and waited, he wasn't willing to do the right thing. He didn't have enough bravery to battle in the days when he should have. He lost his family. He lost his daughters when he let them get raised in Sodom. The Bible said that they were married. I mean, I guess they married two sodomites. Can you imagine marrying your daughter to a sodomite? Talk about not being brave. You know, there's a lot of things in the Bible that it's hard to do. It's hard to, you know, not spare the rod with your children. It's hard sometimes to, you know, spank your kids. I think with myself, some days I don't get home until really late. And I haven't seen my kids all day and I get there and maybe they're being a brat and they need to be spanked. And I don't want to be the bad parent. I don't want to be the person that has to beat them and, you know, not have a good time with them for the five, ten minutes that I get to see them before I put them to bed. That's not what I want to do. That's really hard. It's really hard to look at your kid that you love and cherish and he's got the smile on his face, but he's being a brat and he needs to be spanked. And you got to do the right thing. Sometimes doing the right thing is really hard. But you know what? I know that I'm going to deliver his soul from hell. That's why I do it. I know that he needs it. I know that I should do the right thing. Who's going to stand in the gap? Aaron stood in the gap for the children of Israel. Jesus stood in the gap for all of humanity. Are you willing to stand in the gap? You know, when you stand in the gap, it's not pleasant. Are you going to just complain and murmur? Are you just going to be on the sidelines? My third point is this. You know, we obviously shouldn't be battling for belial. We should be battling for bravery. But just as bad is battling for the bench. Being on the sidelines. Doing nothing. Look at Ephesians 6 where I had to turn a while ago. It says, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Look, he's saying, man, you need the word of God, you need the armor of God so that you can stand in the evil day. There's going to be evil days. There's going to be wicked days. Judges chapter 19 is not a good day. When you get a concubine's arm in the mail, it's not a good day. It's not a good day when you get her leg. When you get her face. When you get one of her, I mean, you open up your mail, oh, we got a present. It's some concubine's head. But you know what? Life's ugly. There's evil. There's wickedness. And we need to stand against it. We need to do the unpleasant thing. We need to do the right thing. But so many people look at that and they say, oh man, that's just, I don't like it. I'm so uncomfortable. You know, I don't like talking about the death penalty. I'm just going to step aside. I'm just not going to have an opinion. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to let other people decide. I don't want to go to battle. I don't, you know, I don't think it's that clear in the Bible, even though it just says murder should be put to death, murder should surely be put to death, murder should surely be put to death. I don't, I'm not sure what the Bible says. I mean, even though it says it over and over and over, it's just not clear to me. They just don't want to know. They want to be on the sidelines. The Bible says, he that saith unto them, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. The life of a Christian is a daily one. We have to battle daily, but a lot of people get tired of the daily battle. They go to the bench. They go to the sidelines. As in 1st Corinthians, I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily. Sometimes the battle is so hot, so hard, people get worn out and they say, man, I just want to go to the bench. I just want to go to the sidelines. I don't like this constant fight. I don't like the fact that people are having to constantly talk about this born to sleep ministries. They're just video after video and sermon after sermon. Why do we have to keep talking about the reprobates? Why do we have to keep talking about these sons of Belial? Why do we have to talk about murderers? Why do we have to always reach against sin? Why do we need it daily so that we can stand on the day of evil? So that we don't get on the bench. Jesus Christ said this, he said, he that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. There's no neutrality in Christ. There's no neutrality in a battle. When two armies are coming together and they begin to fight, you can't just sit on the sidelines. You either got to get in or get out, but if you get out, guess what? The battle is still going. You can't just put a pause button. You can't just, you know, it's not a video game. You can't just pause and go get a Coke. No, the battle is going to rage on and you can either get in there and be on the Lord's side or you get on the bench, which guess what is the other side. Christ said, look, if you're not gathering with me, you're scatting abroad because guess what happens when you go to the bench? Other people want to go to the bench. Other people want to give up. Other people want to stop coming. When you stop coming to church, other people want to stop coming to church. When you stop going soul winning, other people want to stop going soul winning. When you stop doing the right thing, other people want to stop doing the right thing. When you stop preaching hard against sin, people want to go back to sin. When you stop preaching against the sodomites, people want to go weak on the sodomites. You got to keep battling. You got to keep fighting. It's a warfare. It's a battle of the whole life. If we faint not, Luke 11, he said the same thing. He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. If you're not in the battle, you're on the wrong side. You can't be on the sidelines. It's just a figment of your imagination. Oh, you know what? I know that there's people fighting this, but I don't want to be in the fight. I'm just going to take myself out of it. No, by taking yourself out of it, you're fighting for the sons of Belial. You're battling for Belial. Belial is agreement. And you know what? They're fighting for Belial and you're agreeing with them. Go to Matthew chapter 25, Matthew chapter 25. We see that this is a constant theme throughout the Bible, that you can't be on the sidelines. You can't be neutral. It's heaven or hell. There's not another place to go, no matter what the false prophets say. There is no purgatory. There is no other place that you can wander off to. I heard one of my false preachers that I grew up with, he said that people that lived a pretty good life, they didn't really reject Christ, but they also didn't accept him, that they would just live on the earth anyways, but that they couldn't go into the kingdom of God. It's like, where do you get that? There is no neutrality. You can make something up in your head, but as soon as you decide you're on the bench, you're on the wrong side. You just went over to the enemy's side. Matthew chapter 25 says in verse 27, thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have overseen mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents, from every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Look, God's given everybody talent, God's given everybody ability, God's given everybody ability to go preach the gospel, to do big things for God, but if you don't do it, if you don't do anything for him, he's going to take it from you. There's no neutrality with God. If you just go buried in the sand, he's going to say, you know what, dig it up and give it to the other guy. You don't get anything. He was so afraid to lose it, and he lost it. If you don't go to battle for Christ, you're going to lose everything. You say, oh man, I can't go to this battle against the sodomites. Well, you're going to lose your church to them, and they're going to get in your nursery, and they're going to affect your household. I don't want to take my kids to some nursery where they're welcoming in the sodomites and saying they're trusted. I mean, I can't even think of a more oxymoronical situation. That's so ridiculous. Don't be the person that squanders what God gave you. If he gave you the ability to go soul winning, don't squander. How many people, how many people are Christians and they have the ability to preach the gospel and they never go? Guess what? You're on the wrong side. You're battling for belial when you don't go soul winning, when you have the ability. How about preaching? When you don't preach the word of God, if you could be a great preacher one day and you don't do it, guess what? You're on the wrong side. If you're not loving, if you're not teaching, if you're not compassionate, the Bible said in 1 Corinthians, he'd given first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, miracles, the gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. There's so many gifts that people have, there's so many talents, but if you go bury it, you're on the wrong side. You're not battling for bravery, you're battling for belial. It says in Luke chapter 12, from to whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required. If God's given you a lot, there's a big expectation. What are you doing? Are you battling for belial by doing nothing? Look, you don't even have to be in the battle. You think, oh man, look at those wicked people battling for belial. You on the sideline, you're on the same team, you're on the same company. We need to be on the Lord's side. Go to Exodus chapter 32, that's where we'll finish. To summarize, we need to make sure that, look, there's a lot of people battling for belial. Be not deceived. They're fighting for wickedness. They're fighting for evil. It's a battle. It's really a raging war right now. So we need to be battling for bravery, battling for the bravery to do the right thing. The unpleasant thing. The thing that we know, hey, I don't really in my flesh want to do this, but God said I need to do it. I need to have bravery. I need to go to war. I need to go and do the right thing. And if we're on the bench, if we're battling for that bench, we're battling for the wrong side. We're going to discourage other people. We're not just hurting ourselves, we're hurting others. Exodus chapter 32, look at verse 26, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that day about 3,000 men. You say, Oh, you keep talking about being on the Lord's side. God's all about love. God's all about mercy. God's all about forgiveness. All you can talk about is these sodomites being worthy of death. Well you think you're more compassionate than God. But guess what? In this story, when Moses was saying who's on the Lord's side, it was to put people to death. Who's on the Lord's side tonight? Let's close in prayer. Thank you God for this chapter. Thank you God for your word. It's pleasant words. Even in an uncomfortable topic, even in something that in our flesh may not be fun and exciting, we can know that when we follow your word, we're doing the right thing. And to be on the Lord's side, we have to be following all the commandments, not just the ones we like. I pray that everyone in this room, that we could just continue to pray and battle for bravery to fight against the wiles of the devil, to fight against the gates of hell and all these people that are just trying to bring this wickedness into our world. I pray that you keep us safe and that we would always have the desire to do that which is right. And even if we're not, that we can be encouraged by your word. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.