high above thy father's throne. All thy gracious work completed,
all thy mighty victories Every voice and harp is telling,
Worthy is the Lamb to reign. Thou art worthy, interceding, Please be seated. Turn with me for our call to
worship to Psalm 32. Psalm 32, we'll read the entire
Psalm. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. When I kept silent, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into
the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin
unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin. Selah. For this shall every one that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found Surely
in the floods of the great waters, they shall not come nigh unto
him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou
shalt preserve me from my trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine
eye. Be not as the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with
bit and bridle, lest they come nearer unto thee. Many sorrow
shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy
shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
ye righteous. and shout for joy all ye that
are upright in heart. Let's go to the word of prayer.
Well, Lord God, our gracious Heavenly Father, we come to thee
thanking thee for who you are and what you have done. Father,
we thank you that we are Bless that our transgressions are forgiven
and that our sin is covered. Father, we thank Thee for the
Lord Jesus Christ and all that He has done for His own. Father,
we pray that as we gather together this morning that You would be
with us. Father, that our worship to You
this morning might be acceptable. Father, that You would speak
to us from Your word, from the hymns that we sing, and from
the message that You have given our brother Greg. Father, we
pray that You would be with him, lift him up, O Lord, and speak
to us, point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray for those
in our number that are sick and have physical afflictions. Father, we pray your hand upon
them and that your will may be done and that you might show
mercy unto them. Father, we ask these things in
Christ's precious name. Amen. Number 318 in your hardback,
Tyndall, number 318. Let's stand together. Most gracious Lord, Thou tender
voice like thine, Can peace abhor. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my
Savior, I need thee every hour I need you ? My Savior, I come to Thee ? I
need Thee every hour ? Most Holy One ? Who makes me high and deep
? Thou blessed Son ? I need Thee, oh, I need Thee Please be seated. Whenever a man has been called
to stand and speak for God, he knows that this hour is the
hour that he needs the Lord more than any other hour of his life. I am so keenly aware of that. I hope that you will be not for
me, but for yourself. Because the truth is, regardless
of what trials and troubles you've suffered this week or the week
to come, The hour that you need the Lord more than any other
hour of your life is right now, right now, for him to speak,
for him to reveal himself to our hearts, that his peace he would afford. I've titled this message this
morning, Robbed of Peace, Robbed of peace, how easily we can be
robbed of our peace with God. And the story that the Lord gives
us in his word in 1 Samuel chapter 2 is a picture, it is a type
of what happens when we are robbed of our peace. Let's read it together. First
Samuel chapter two, and we'll begin reading in verse 12. Now
the sons of Eli were sons of Belal. They knew not the Lord. And the priest's custom with
the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's
servant came while the flesh was in seething with a flesh
hook of three teeth in his hand. And he struck it into the pan
or kettle or cauldron or pot, and all that the flesh hook brought
up, the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh. unto all the Israelites that
came thither. Also, before they burnt the fat,
the priest's servant came and said to the man that sacrificed,
give flesh to roast to the priest, for he will not have sodden flesh
of thee, but raw. And if any man said unto him,
let them not fail to burn the fat presently
or first, In other words, the servant came and said, we want
some of that raw meat before it's offered as a burnt sacrifice. And the one who's making the
offering said, well, no, let's burn the sacrifice to the Lord
first. And then you can have whatever your soul desires. And
the servant of Eli and, I mean, Hophni and Phinehas, the sons
of Eli, the sons of Belial, would answer him, Nay, but thou shalt
give it me now, and if not, I will take it by force. Wherefore,
the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for
men abhorred the offering of the Lord. The Lord gave to the children
of Israel three sacrifices. One was the burnt sacrifice.
In the burnt sacrifice, all the parts of the animal were to be
consumed by fire and no one was to eat any of it. It was all
offered as a burnt sacrifice to the Lord. The other was a
sin sacrifice. And the sin sacrifice, the fat
of the animal was to be burnt by fire as a sacrifice unto the
Lord. And then part of the animal was
to be given to the priest to sustain them so that they would
have food to eat. Being the sons of Levi, the priest
never owned any property and they were depended upon the provisions
that the rest of the Israelites would make for them to sustain
them in the world. And then there was the peace
offering and that's what's being referred to here. The peace offering
The peace offering, the fat of the animal, was to be burned
by fire as a sacrifice to the Lord. The right shoulder and
the breast of the animal was to be given to the priest. Very
specific, the Lord was, in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy, telling the
priest what part of the animal they could have. The rest of
the animal was to be used in a religious ceremony conducted
by the ones who made the offering. In other words, the family members
of the man who brought the sacrifice could enjoy the rest of the animal
in a feast time. And that's what's being referred
to here. So the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, would rob
from those who were offering the fat of the animal and saying,
we want that meat to ourselves first and if you don't give it
to us, we'll take it by force. And then they were taking what
the Bible refers to as a flesh hook, a spear with three prongs
on it, and they would go to where the family was cooking the rest
of the animal, and they would thrust it into the pot or cauldron,
and they would draw out whatever was stuck to those three prongs
and steal it from the family, robbing them of their celebration. and robbing Christ of his glory. Now that's the story. That's
what's happening here. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
nine. Hebrews chapter nine. All three of these offerings,
the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the peace offering were all
typical. They were all types, they were
all shadows, they were all signs pointing to the burn offering,
the sin offering, and the peace offering that the Lord Jesus
Christ would do on Calvary's cross by the sacrifice of himself. And so we read here, if, in Hebrews
chapter nine, beginning of verse 12, neither by the blood of bulls
and goats and calves, but by his own blood. In other words,
these offerings that were made year after year by the Israelites
in the Old Testament never put away sin. They pointed to the
one sacrifice that would put away sin. And so the Lord's telling
us here in Hebrews chapter nine that the blood of these goats
and these calves did not accomplish the salvation
of the people of God. But by his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place Having obtained eternal redemption for
us. Oh, brethren, the Lord give us
some understanding what that means. Having obtained, past
tense. Here's a picture of the priest
of God going into the holies of holies and taking the blood
of these sacrifices and putting it on the mercy seat. And God
saying to the children of Israel, here I will meet with you where
this blood is put. But all this blood, all this
blood that was shed day after day in the tabernacle and later
in the temple, never was successful in putting away sin. And so when
the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross and shed his
precious blood, he took that blood And he put it on the mercy
seat, not the one in the tabernacle built of gold with the hands
of men, but the mercy seat of God. He put that blood there
and he obtained, he obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled the unclean, sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh, all that, all those ceremonies,
the Lord said, with an eye of faith, if they were done with
an eye of faith toward the fulfillment of those types, So when the Old
Testament believers made sacrifices, they didn't look to that sacrifice
for their sanctifying, they looked in faith to the one that that
sacrifice would typify, would picture. And the Lord's saying,
if God was satisfied with that, With that, with an eye of faith
towards Christ. How much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God. Now in the first hour we looked
at the Trinity and here we have the Trinity again. All three
persons of the Godhead in one verse. The blood of Christ through the
eternal spirit offered himself Without spot, not to you and
to me, not to the world, he offered himself to God. This is so important. This is so important. God saw
the travail of his soul and God said, I'm satisfied. The Lord
Jesus Christ wasn't making an offering himself to us. He wasn't
saying, here's the offer of salvation if you'll accept it or reject
it. He made himself an offering to God. And God was satisfied
with that offering. And the evidence and proof that
we have that God was satisfied that what the Lord Jesus Christ
did on Calvary's cross actually obtained eternal redemption for
all of those for whom he died is the resurrection. The resurrection. God raised him from the dead
because God said, that's it, that's enough. Eternal redemption
is accomplished through the sacrifice of Christ. So these offerings
in the Old Testament, we're pointing to that one offering. Let's read verse 14 again. How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? If our conscience is purged from
dead works, If the Lord Jesus Christ has obtained eternal redemption
for us, if by the offering that he made to God, God was satisfied
with his sacrifice, then the conclusion of that is that we
have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our
hope. He's our hope. We have peace
with God. What these priests were doing
was robbing Christ of his glory by taking that which was to be
burnt by fire. And we know what that's a picture
of. It's the fiery wrath of God's justice that fell upon the Lord
Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. And they took by force that which
was to be burned by fire. And then they went to the people
who were to celebrate the sacrifice in faith, and they stole from
them portions of that which they were to enjoy. And as a result, go back with
me to our text. As a result of that, verse 17,
Wherefore, the sin of the young men was very great before the
Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord." The Israelites, because of what
the sons of Eli were doing, worshiped without peace. They resented
their religious activities. To them, the worship of God was
loathsome, it was despised. Is this not what robbing men
of their peace does? If I don't have peace with God,
through the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
has already obtained eternal redemption for me, that I'm left
with wondering what I need to do in order to have peace with
God. And if I'm an honest man, and
I'm trying to attain peace with God by something that I do, then
I despise my life. I despise my religious life. I despise the efforts that I'm
making. I abhor these requirements that
are being placed on me. I don't know if I've done enough.
I don't know if I did it right. I don't know if I prayed the
prayer right. You see, the men despised worship
because they were robbed of their peace. They were robbed of their
hope. Maybe if I just do better or
try a little harder, I can obtain peace with God. And religious people are the
most miserable people in the world. And the people of God can be
pretty miserable too. when they lose sight of Christ. When they lose sight of Christ.
You know, I thought about David. You know, David had stolen Uriah's
wife, killed Uriah. Bathsheba's pregnant now and
David's doing everything he can to cover up his sin. And there's
no question in my mind that David went to the temple every day
for those nine months before Nathan came and exposed him and
said to him, David, you're the man. You're the man. I think about how miserable David
was for those nine months. What was he doing? He was trying
to atone for his sins. He was trying to make up for
what he had done. He had lost sight of the fact that the Lord
Jesus Christ had already obtained eternal redemption for him. He
hadn't gone to God in faith looking to Christ. He was miserable. His religious
life, he would have been a hard man to be around those months.
You know, when Nathan came to him and told him this story about
a man who had a lamb and he took his neighbor's lamb to give to
his guests, David said, kill him. That was just David's spirit
right then. Why? Because he had no peace.
He was miserable. We lose sight of Christ. We lose
our peace. And the most miserable people
in the world are religious people. Oh, they're covered up and they
try to act so happy and spiritual and in their homes and in their hearts,
they're just absolutely miserable. Why? Because they don't have
peace with God. They've had it stolen from them by false prophets
who have robbed from them the sacrifice of Christ and have
taken from them their peace. That's who these men represent,
the false prophets who say peace, peace, when in fact there is
no peace. There is no peace. Robbed of
peace. And our scripture, our text tells
us that this took place in Shiloh. Now Shiloh is where the tabernacle
was set up. And Shiloh means, translated,
it means a place of rest. But the people weren't at rest.
They abhorred the worship. They abhorred what Eli's sons,
Hophni and Phinehas, were doing. They abhorred the fact that these
priests were coming and stealing from them the meat that they
were supposed to enjoy. They robbed from them the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ and they took by force that which
was supposed to be offered to God as a burnt sacrifice. And there was no rest. Shiloh, a place of rest. We rest only when we're able
to cease from our labors. We rest only when we're able
to see that the Lord Jesus Christ is all our salvation before God,
that everything that God requires of us was accomplished in Him,
that He is our advocate with the Father. He is our righteousness. He is our salvation. And if we
have our peace robbed from us then we can't rest, we can't
rest. They took the fat of the animal
that was supposed to be burnt and they went to the burnt offal
and they said I'll take that piece right there, I mean a fatted
piece of meat is so much better. you know, to eat than maybe the
shoulder and the breast that they were supposed to have. And
they said, well, no, let us make sure that we offer to the Lord
that portion which belongs to him. And then you take whatever
you want. And they said, no, no, we're gonna take it by force
if you don't give it to us. When men don't have peace with
God, they think that they can take by force salvation. They think that they can obligate
God by a prayer that they pray or decision that they make. They
think, well, if I take the first step, then God will be obligated
to save me. I'm going to force God. I know
he wants to save me. I'm going to force his hand to
save me. They took a portion of the sacrifice
that was to be burnt to the Lord and they took it raw. Now, in Exodus chapter 12, when
the Lord gave to the children of Israel the law that was to
be observed in the Passover, the Lord told the children of
Israel that the entire animal, the entire lamb, you remember
the lamb was to be taken in, it was to be without spot, without
blemish, they were to observe it for three days, which is a
picture of the three years of our Lord's earthly ministry,
and that he was without spot and without blemish, and then
they were to burn it, and they were to eat it. This was the
peace offering, this is the Passover lamb. And not any of it was to
be left. It was all to be consumed by
fire. And the Lord said, do not eat
it raw. Now these priests wanted a raw
piece of meat. They wanted it. They wanted a
rare piece of meat. And God told the children of
Israel, don't eat it raw. You burn it with fire. You roast
it all with fire. The Lord Jesus Christ was roasted
with the fire of God's justice on Calvary's cross. He satisfied,
he satisfied the justice of God by being burned with the fire
of God's wrath. We see that in the sacrifice
that Elijah made on Mount Carmel when the fire of God fell. And
the prophet said, let the God that answereth by fire, Be God. And that's what happened. And the fire of God fell and
consumed that sacrifice. And when the sacrifice was burned,
the fire was quenched. What a glorious picture. How
oftentimes we see fire as a picture of God's judgment. To try to
apply Anything in the Bible, anything concerning the word
of God, apart from the sacrifice that Christ made on Calvary's
cross, is to turn religion into a work. Do not eat it raw. Any attempt to apply the life
of Christ to our life without the fire of God's wrath on Calvary's
cross is to consume raw meat. All the teachings of scripture
can only be understood in light of the cross. That's why Paul
said, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ and him crucified. The Latin word for cross is the
word crux, C-R-U-X, and we often will use that phrase. That's
the crux of the matter. Well, the cross is the crux of
the matter for all of time and eternity. All of time and eternity
intersect at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is where
the sacrifice was burned by fire. It is where God was satisfied. in the putting away of our sin
is where eternal redemption was accomplished. And without it,
without it, we're attempting to eat raw meat. The historical events and doctrines
of the Bible may entertain men's intellect. Sentimental moralisms in the
Bible are nothing but a tickle to our emotions. And yet, how
many times men will go to God's word to try to find some trinket
of truth that will help them in the temporal trials of life
and ignore the very crux of the matter. and ignore the sacrifice. And they will think, they will
think blasphemously and presumptuously, I can rob from God. You give
it to me willingly or I'll take it by force. And they take raw
meat. Every aspect of his life and
every word that he spoke must be understood in light of full
satisfaction. Any attempt to follow the teachings
of Christ apart from full justice and satisfaction accomplished
on Calvary's cross, those three hours when the sky was darkened
and God forsook his son. That's what all of time and eternity
is to be understood in light of. That's the fire. Any attempt that you and I make
to try to fix a problem by precept or example or scripture without
an eye to what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished in quenching
the fiery wrath of God's justice on Calvary's cross, robs us of
our peace. The only way you can have peace
is in light of the burnt sacrifice, the burnt offering. And the burnt
offering, the sin offering, and the peace offering all had a
portion of that animal that was to be consumed by fire. And God
said, don't eat it raw. Don't eat it raw. Don't try to
eat Christ. The body of Christ, yes, he said,
except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no
life in you. And he is our bread and he is our life. but only
in light of what he accomplished on Calvary's cross can we have
peace with God. And then the other thing the
Lord told Moses in Exodus about the Passover, he said, don't
eat it sodden. Now we just saw that these people
were boiling the meat in a pot, in a cauldron. And the Lord said, don't. Don't
cook it in water. Don't boil the sacrifice. Don't try to tender it up by
boiling it. You know, sometimes you have
to take meat and put it in a slow cooker for a long time, you know,
to tender it up. He said, don't do that. Burn
it with fire, roast it with fire, and eat it that way. What is
that a picture of? Is it not the watering down of
the gospel? Is it not the trying to make it more appealing to
the flesh? Is it not taking the offense
out of the gospel by saying things like this, well, you know, there's
a sense in which God loves everybody. No, there's no sense in which
God loves everybody. He loves righteousness and he
hates iniquity. Well, you know, there's a sense
in which Christ died for everybody. No, there's no sense in which
Christ died for everybody. He died for his elect. He died
for his people and he obtained eternal redemption for them.
And yet the Hoffneys and Phineases of religion will rob us of our
peace by taking away this glorious truth of who Christ is and what
he accomplished when he offered himself to God as a sacrifice
for our sin. And we end up being robbed of
our peace. Men will say, I've heard this
statement a lot, well, you know, the death of Christ was sufficient
for the sins of all men, but efficient only for the elect.
And I know that the people who say that are trying to open a
side door to the gospel. They're trying to say, well,
you know, it's sufficient for you if you'll just come. But they have to admit that it
was efficient only for the elect. That statement, at face value,
is true. Had God chosen to elect all men
and had Christ, had God chosen to elect, to choose all men to
salvation, nothing more would have had to be done than what
the Lord Jesus Christ did. His sacrifice was so sufficient
and so full and so satisfying to the Father that it would have
been sufficient to save all men. But God didn't choose all men.
And it didn't save all men. Why do we make those statements?
Why do men make those sort of statements? They make them in
order to try to take the edge off the gospel. They make it
in order to try to make the gospel palatable. They're sodding the
meat. They're softening it up. The
gospel's offensive. It is offensive. And to the natural
man. To the believer, it's their life.
It's our hope. Oh, we've got no place else to
go. Don't eat it raw. Don't try to
apply anything in the Bible, particularly the life of Christ.
Well, anything apart from the sacrifice that Christ made under
the fiery wrath of God's justice. It's the only thing that makes
sense of everything. And don't try to take the edge
off the gospel. You lose your peace. This peace offering. Now clearly Hophni and Phinehas
are pictures of false prophets. Hophni's name means brawler,
or particularly it means boxer. He was a fighter. He was a contentious
man. Oh, I have found when you talk
to a religious person about the gospel, Immediately they want
to... I was talking to a man last week
and I couldn't get a sentence out of my mouth and he would
object. He would object. He was just a brawler. He was
a contentious man. He wouldn't bow to any... Isn't it interesting that the
word bow and bow is spelt the same way? You either bow to the gospel
or you bow up against it. There's no in between. There's
no in between. And Hophni was a brawler. He was a contentious man. Phinehas'
name translated means mouth of brass. Now, brass is a hardened
metal. And here we have men that don't
speak the truth. They don't speak in grace or
in love. inflexible, unteachable. The real thing that defines them
is they knew not the Lord in our text. They knew not the Lord.
So they're robbing Christ of his glory, robbing men of their
peace, They were brawlers and contentious and hard-mouthed
and unteachable. They wouldn't bow, they just
bowed up every time. And all this took place in Shiloh
that was supposed to be a place of rest and no one was resting
and as a result, men despised going to church. They despised
it. They left with no peace. They
left with no hope. Notice also in our text, will
you go back with me to 1 Samuel 2 in verse 13, and the priest
custom. Now this word custom means that
this was their judgment. The word custom here means judgment. In other words, they considered
this to be right. They considered this form of
worship to be the right way to go. And they had been doing it
so long that everybody accepted it as, well, that's just the
way it is. Oh, the customs of religion are
so deeply ingrained that men just think, well, this is right.
They despise going to church. They despise their religion.
They're uncomfortable. They're not happy people. They
don't know what eternal redemption is all about. To them, religion
is just something they've got to do in order to try to achieve
peace with God. They don't have peace with God
through the Lord Jesus Christ. They've denied the fire wrath
of God's justice, and it's become their judgment. It's become their
custom. It is their denomination. It
is their creed. It is their confession. It is
the way they do things, and no one questions it. And you ask
them, where do you find that in the Bible? And they can't
answer you. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
11, Matthew chapter 11. And I want you to stay with me
for a moment because the conclusion of this message is that it's
not just the false prophets of man-made religion that will rob
you of your peace. There's a Hophni and a Phinehas
in your old man that will rob you of your peace. There's an
inflexible, unteachable spirit in your old man. There's a dead
man that you live with every day. that would have you look
somewhere other than the Lord Jesus Christ for your peace. And He will steal from you the
body of Christ, the meat of the gospel, and He will rob the glory
of Christ by causing you to think that there's something more that
you can do. Oh, if I could just If I could
just obligate God, if I could just, Matthew chapter 11, you
have your Bibles open there, look at verse 12, and I understand,
and you know, there are good men that I respect that love
the gospel and preach Christ who have understood this verse
differently than I understand it. I just have to say that I do
believe this is what the Lord is saying. Matthew chapter 11 verse 12.
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence and the violence take it by force. Now, ever since John started
preaching, and particularly after he identified the Lord Jesus
Christ, now John the Baptist has been put to death by Herod.
The Lord's talking about the violent response of men to the
gospel. He's not talking about believers
taking the kingdom of God by force. I've heard that said. You know, we're gonna, We're
going to, you know, in other words, we're going to, we're
going to pursue the things of God until, you know, we're going
to seek it with all of our hearts and not know. He's saying the
violent men, those who are opposed to the gospel, try to take the
gospel by force. John chapter six. Verse 15, when Jesus therefore perceived
that they would come and take him by force to make him a king,
he departed again into a mountain himself alone. You're not gonna make Jesus Lord
of your life. You're not gonna make him anything. You're not gonna take him by
force. You're not gonna steal the sacrifice like Hophni and
Phinehas were doing that belongs to God as a sweet-smelling sacrifice
to God for the hope of your salvation. And yeah, isn't that what men
do? I'll take it by force. I'll pursue things until God
will be, have no other choice. But no, I will have mercy upon
whom I will have mercy and whom I will, I will harden. Brethren,
we are completely dependent upon him. Try to make him king, he'll hide
himself. He is king. He doesn't need our
approval. He doesn't need our making him
anything. Isn't that what men do? Now, I want to close this message
with the sons of Belial. That's what the Bible calls Hophni
and Phinehas. And for a long time I thought
Belial was just another spelling for Baal, but it's not. Baal
is Beelzebub, Baal is the devil. Belial means wickedness or evil. And it's mentioned, the sons
of Belial are mentioned several places in the Bible. I would
encourage you to look them up. We don't have time this morning
to look at all of them, but I want to look at one of them. And one
of them is found in 1 Samuel chapter 30. 1 Samuel chapter
30. And while you look that up, I
will tell you quickly about another one. You remember when David
went to Nabal and asked Nabal for some food to sustain his
men. And Nabal said no. And David
got his men together and he was going to kill Nabal and his whole
family. And Abigail, Nabal's wife, came running out to meet
David and she bowed before him. And Abigail becomes David's wife. But here's what Abigail said
about her husband. She said this, she said, he is
such a man, a son of Belial that men cannot speak to him. He is
such a son of Belial that men cannot speak to him. So she's
describing her husband Nabal as a man who cannot be taught. He's unteachable, he's obstinate,
he's argumentative, and what a difference in the spirit of
grace when we come before the Lord. Lord, teach me. Teach me
to pray. Lord, if I believe something's
not true, take it away from me. Lord, show me Christ. Lord, I
don't know anything. I can't do anything. I don't
have anything. I'm completely dependent upon
you. So this unteachable spirit is called the sons of Belial.
And then the other place I want you to see is in 1 Samuel chapter
30. And here's the story. David and
his men are out in battle. They leave their wives and children
in a town called Ziklag. When they come back from battle,
they see from a distance as they're approaching this town, smoke
coming up from Ziklag. And when they got there, the
town was completely burned and there was no one there. The Amalekites
had come in and taken all of David and his men's wives and
children and taken them captive. Well, David's men wanted to kill
him for that. And the scripture says that David
comforted himself in the Lord. He went to the Lord and said,
Lord, what do I do? And Lord told him, pursue the Amalekites.
The end of the story is that here's the line in God's word,
David recovered all. It's a picture of the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ being taken by the Amalekites by sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the son of David, pursued the Amalekites on Calvary's cross
and he recovered all. Well, when David took his 600
men to recover the families of these men and his own wives and
children, The scripture says that 200 of the 600 men were
so exhausted they couldn't go any further. And David told the
200, you stay behind, and I love the way that God's word says
it, you stay behind with the stuff. The Lord in his word calls
all the material things of life, stuff. He said, you stay behind
with the stuff and we'll take these other 400 and we'll pursue
the Amalekites. And they did. And they defeated
the Amalekites and they recovered all the family. And on their
way back, the 400 look at these 200 who were too exhausted for
battle. And they say to them, You're
not gonna get the spoils of battle. We'll give you your wives and
children and you get out of here. We're going to take the spoils
of battle to ourselves because we worked harder than you did. I think it's in verse, you have
your Bibles open to 1 Samuel chapter 30. So I think it's in verse, in verse 22, then answered all
the wicked men and the men and men of Belial, of those that
went with David and said, because they went not with us, We will
not give them aught of the spoil that we have recovered, save
to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead
them away and depart. And then said David, you shall
not do so my brethren with that which the Lord hath given us,
who have preserved us and delivered the company that came against
us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you
in this matter? But as his part is that goeth
down to battle, so shall his part be that tarried by the stuff. He shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward
that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto
this day. Is there not a son of Belial
in you? that suggest to you that you
could enjoy a better peace with God based on how hard you fight. The Lord calls them the sons
of Belial. He said, no, the spoils of war are going equally. Now, what is the spoil of war? I am thy reward. I am thine exceeding great reward. To think that somehow that the
blessings of God's peace and God's grace are going to be measured
according to how hard we fought and how good we did versus someone
else who didn't do as much is to deny Christ his glory and
salvation and rob men of their peace. There's no degrees of reward
in heaven. Why? Because your reward and
my reward and the weakest, most immature child of God's reward
And the most faithful, committed child of God's reward is Christ. And that reward was not given
because of anything that we did. That reward was given because
of what Christ did. Our peace with God. Is robbed. By. Hophni and Phinehas, the sons
of Belial, every time we get the thought that our peace is
determined by something other than what the Lord Jesus Christ
did. And if we like David's men, look
at the 200 that stayed behind with the stuff and say, no, I
worked harder, I get more than they get. Careful. That's the very, that's the very
thing that will cause you to lose your peace. We have peace
with God by the fire wrath of his justice that fell on Calvary's
cross. Christ is our peace. He's our peace. Our heavenly father, thank you
for thy dear son. Thank you for your word. Lord,
we pray that your Holy Spirit. Would. Cause us to meditate,
remember, think, reflect on the things that you've said. That
we might enjoy. Our peace. For Christ's sake. For it's in his name we pray. Amen. 125 in the hardback terminal,
let's stand. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sid that hath the bricks, and
stay thee far. guide my soul to save, while
my lips shall still repeat, Jesus made it all.