Amen all right we're in Judges chapter number 20 and let me just give you a
concise history what just took place in judges chapter 19 the famous passage
that we see in judges famous story that we see in judges 19 is the story of the
sons of Belial and how they had committed this horrible crime of raping
a woman and murdering her killing her and she was a concubine of a Levi we see
there in chapter 19 and it's one of the strangest chapters in the Bible is it
not you know you have these wicked people who are of the tribe of Benjamin
specifically of the city called Gibeah and these men who were sodomized or
homosexuals they come to try to basically rape the man but instead the
man gives over his concubine they abused her all the night and they end up
killing her she comes in the morning after they're finished abusing her falls
on the threshold of the house he picks her up she's dead and he basically
divides her body into 12 pieces to send her out to the 12 tribes of Israel as a
basic as a sign to show hey this folly is taking place in Israel he's trying to
rally the troops to come and really put these people to death because of the
crime that's being committed and very strange story but it's during a time in
the history of the children of Israel where they're given over to idolatry and
I don't want to get ahead of myself but this is the main reason why this has
taken place within Israel now let's pick up on verse chapter 20 verse number one
and look what it says it says then all the children of Israel went out and the
congregation was gathered together as one man from Dan even to Beersheba with
the land of Gilead unto the Lord and Mizpah and the chief of all the people
even all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of the people
of God four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword now the children of
Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpah then said
the children of Israel tell us how was this wickedness so they get these body
parts these limbs and automatically for some reason they know that something
horrific has taken place in Israel not necessarily associated with the
dismembering of the body but they somehow understood that the the folly
and the abomination that was taking place was the fact that these sons of
Belial had murdered this woman had abused this woman and they basically
decide to rally together and I want you to notice the phrase you see there is
that they gathered together as one man and this is a great battle strategy when
when they go to war it's a great battle strategy for us as Christians is that
when we go out to war when we're going out to battle we need to be as one man
you cannot have division within a church when you go out to battle you
know you need to be unified endeavoring to keep the spirit of unity and we need
to make sure that we're always on the same page right you know when we go out
there we're going out there to divide are we not we have the Word of God we're
teaching people the way of salvation we're teaching them that's by faith
alone that it's not by the Mormon Jesus that it's not by the Jehovah's Witness
Jesus it's not by any other Jesus but by Jesus Christ we're creating a sword that
divides the beliefs but you know what that's the only kind of division we're
supposed to be doing right when we go out there when we teach our people the
right and wrong way of the doctrine that people teach but within the church we
need to be as one man you know we cannot effectively fight and battle and go to
war if there's division in the church that's why it's important that we're on
the same page and here we see that the eleven tribes they come together they
are rallying together they're teaming up and they're basically saying like what
is this wickedness that's taking place you know whatever differences they had
they put aside and they rallied together for this one battle now keep in mind as
I mentioned in weeks past that judges 17 18 19 20 and 21 are actually a prequel
to judges chapter 1 through 16 so judges 1 through 16 actually takes place after
this judges 17 through 21 takes place prior to all of this happening okay and
I proved that extensively in chapters past but just to reinforce that look at
verse number 28 it says in Phinehas the son of Eliezer the son of Aaron stood
before it in those days saying shall I yet again go out to battle against the
children of Benjamin my brother or shall I cease you see Phinehas the son of
Eliezer was a character that was in the book of Numbers so we know that this man
is probably old already but this is you know coming out of the wilderness going
into the promised land so this is how we know that this is actually taking place
prior to chapters 1 through 16 now because it's so fresh on their mind you
know they still have the law of God they know that what they're doing is wrong
but then banding together as one man is actually an instruction that God gave to
them specifically to weed out the sons of Belial so when they hear the sons of
Belial they know what the Bible says about that in fact let me show you go to
Deuteronomy chapter 13 Deuteronomy 13 go to do not hold your place there in
judges go to Deuteronomy 13 and look what it says because remember who are we
dealing with who are the antagonists of chapters 19 and 20 it's the Benjamite
specifically of this of the city of Gibeah but it's the sons of Belial now
when the Bible talks about the sons of Belial we automatically think of you
know sodomites which is true but sons of Belial are just sons of the devil who
are capable of any type of type of crime they are filled with all
unrighteousness according to Romans 1 now look at look at Deuteronomy 13 and
verse number 12 it says if thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities which the
Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there saying certain men the children of
Belial are gone out from among you and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their
city saying let us go and serve other gods which he have not known then shalt
thou inquire and make search and ask diligently and behold if it be truth and
the things certain that such abomination is wrought among you thou shall surely
smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword destroying it
utterly and of all that is therein and the cattle thereof with the edge of the
sword so what is he saying hey if you find out there's any sons of Belial this
is how you solve it you put them to death now hold on a second says you know
if they're encouraging them to serve other gods in Judges 19 they're not
serving other gods they're committing sodomy well here's the thing here's the
link sodomy is a result of idolatry why because idolatry is when you forsake God
you reject God you have other gods right and the byproduct of that according to
Romans 1 is reparation you know professing themselves to be wise they
became fools the Bible says they worship the creature more than the Creator they
changed the image of the corrupt of the uncorruptible God made like into an
image of corruptible man a four-footed beast and creeping things so when people
reject God in the Old Testament they are serving another God and when they're
serving another God according to the Bible the Bible says that that person
is supposed to be put to death amongst the children of Israel okay now this is
the same thing with us today okay in society today if a person rejects Jesus
Christ who's God right what happens well the Bible tells us they've committed
idolatry because they're not just forsaking God they're actually
worshipping the creature more than the Creator and the creature that it's
talking about there is man human beings right and God gives them over to a
reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient they're they're
filled with all murder now that's not true we just got a story right here of
rape murder sodomy filthiness that's the byproduct of committing idolatry and
look this is what they did the children of Israel they remembered
Deuteronomy 13 that's where because some people will look at it as a man they're
they're a little extreme are they not God said destroy them all destroy the
city destroy the cattle why because if it's the sons of Belial God knows that
they're filled with all unrighteousness including fornication bestiality
therefore the land is polluted it's filled with disease it's filled with
sickness and God wants to quarantine that city that is filled with all
unrighteousness and just destroy it look it's the same thing when they went into
Canyonland right God told the children of Israel when they went into Canyon
land wipe them all out even the animals why because of bestiality all everything
is supposed to be destroyed that's what God told him to do and he's telling him
here hey certain men the children of Belial verse 13 are gone out from among
you and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city saying you know let us go
and serve other gods you say well hold on a second still that's idolatry it's
not reprobation but here's the thing the reason the reason they're dealing with
it the way they would deal with it in Deuteronomy 13 is because they already
let it get that far you see they were supposed to take care of the sons of
Belial when idolatry was taking place right they're supposed to cut the the
rose at the bud right they were supposed to take care of the problem a long time
ago and look the children of Israel were involved in idolatry and the byproduct
of that was that Benjamin the sons of Belial were produced and now they
committed his wicked crime verse 16 says and now shall gather all the spoil
of it into the midst of the street thereof and thou shalt burn it with fire
the city and all the spoil thereof every wit for the Lord thy God and it shall be
a heap forever it shall not be built again what does that sound like sounds
like Sodom and Gomorrah you know it's like it shall not be built again he
wants it destroyed he wants it gone he wants it wiped off from the face of the
earth verse 17 and there shall cleave not of the accursed thing to thine hand
that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show thee
mercy and have compassion upon thee and multiply thee as he hath sworn into thy
fathers God is saying here hey if you show pity to these wicked people I will
not show pity to you he goes you want to evoke my compassion my mercy then you
just destroy everything that's not very popular today you know you know we need
to make sure that we always side with God and what God calls wicked we call
wicked what God hates we hate and we never try to we never try to just blend
the lines between that which God hates and that which God loves we need to make
sure that you that love the Lord are always hating evil and then it says when
thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God to keep all his
commandments which I command thee this day to do that which is right in the
eyes of the Lord thy God how can that be right you're killing all the animals and
all the people hey if God says it's right it's right if you don't do it now
it's wrong you're not doing it it's sin if you don't obey God in that area okay
go back to judges so the thing I want to point out there is that what they're
doing in verses 1 through 4 is exactly what Deuteronomy 13 is talking about
because they're making diligent inquiry they say what's going on what happened
here and look this is a good principle that the Bible teaches us that we're to
make diligent inquiry and a practical application that we can get from this in
context of reprobation is that we don't want to just flippantly call anybody a
reprobate we need to diligently inquire to make sure that someone is a reprobate
because you know hey you know I know there's guys out there they call each
other