Chapter 23, this is kind of an interesting and unusual, when
I think of David talking about his last words, and he talks
about the sons of Belial during this time. So let's look at verses
six and seven of 2 Samuel chapter 23. But the sons of Belial shall
be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be
taken with hands. But the man that shall touch
them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear, and
they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
with thanksgiving. Lord, we're so thankful that
you're God and beside you is none else. We're so thankful
for your sovereign control of all things. We're so thankful
for the freeness of your grace. We're so thankful for the forgiveness
of sins we have in Christ Jesus. Lord, what a What a blessing
that You've been pleased to make Yourself known to us and we give
thanks. Lord, we pray that You would forgive us of our sins. We pray that You would cause
us by Your grace to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek,
to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in
heart, to be a peacemaker, and to be persecuted for righteousness
sake. Lord, cause that to abound in
us by your grace. Cause us to grow in the fruit
of thy spirit. Bless your word. Bless your word
wherever it's preached. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now I think it's very interesting
that included in David's final words are these words regarding
the sons of Belial. You ever wondered who they are?
You see them in scripture quite a bit. The sons of Belial, and
David includes a warning about these men in his last words,
his dying words. He said they need to be thrust
away. And I want to read the New King James Version of verse
7. But the man who touches them
must be armed with iron and a staff of a spear, and they, the sons
of Belial, shall be utterly burned with fire in their place. Now
who are the children of Belial? Belial is mentioned one time
in the New Testament. Remember the scripture, what
concord, what agreement hath Christ with Belial? You remember
that scripture. Belial is given as a name of
Satan in the New Testament, and the children of Belial are children
of the devil. That's what that means. I think
of when the Lord said to the Pharisees, your father's the
devil, and the lusts of your father you will do." The children
of Belial actually are every unbeliever. Now I want us to
look at what the Scripture says regarding these people, the sons
of Belial. First turn to Deuteronomy chapter
13. Beginning in verse 12. If thou shalt hear say in one
of thy cities which the Lord 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 cities, saying, Let us go and serve other gods which
you have not known. Let's go and serve other gods. which you have not known. Now,
this is the mark of the children of Belial. Go and serve other
gods which you have not known. Now, let me say this. Anything
I hear that's not exactly like the God of the Bible is a false
god. And if someone would give, what's the word I'm looking for?
Give recognition. to something that's different
than the God of the Bible, the God you've not known. Now what's
the God you've known? The God you've known is the God
who saved you by his sovereign grace, isn't that so? The God
you have known is the God who completely saved you by what
Christ did without your works. Is that the God you've known?
The God you have known, and now if you hear anything contrary
to this God, it's a God you've not known and it's a son of Belial,
trying to draw you away. That's what a son of Belial is.
He's someone who promotes the God that you have not known. Turn to Deuteronomy 15. I've
got about 11 or 12 of these. I'm going to go through them
real quick. Deuteronomy 15 verse 9. Well, let's begin in verse seven.
But if there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within
any of the gates in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth
thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from
thy poor brother, but thou shalt open thy hand wide unto him and
shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he
wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart.
And my marginal reading says Belial. Belial. Beware that there be not a thought
in thy wicked heart, saying, the seventh year, the year of
release is at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy poor
brother, and thou givest him not, and he cry unto the Lord
against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Now, I think this is interesting. The year of release. Let's say
the year of release was in a week. And that means all debts, anything
anybody owed you had been canceled, put away. What if somebody came
up to you and said, I need to borrow $5,000 from you. I need
this. And you think, the year of release
is in a week. I'll lose every bit of it and
I won't be able to have it paid back to me. I'm not going to
give him a dime. I mean, that's wrong of him to even ask that
of me. Now, here's what I want you to
think. The Lord had promised to bless them In giving, he would
take care of them. He would take care of them completely.
You didn't have to worry about it. Even if it was right before
the year of release, the Lord would take care of you. The sons
of Belial could not trust the Lord to do what he said. They
couldn't trust the Lord to take care of them. This is an issue
of faith. And they could not trust the Lord. That's the bottom
line. And he calls them a son of Belial.
Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 2. I'm going to read these as they
come up in the scripture. Now, the sons of Eli were sons
of Belial, verse 12, 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 12. Now, the
sons of Eli were sons of Belial. And how are they described? They
knew not the Lord. If you go on reading about these
sons of Belial, what did they do? They used their religious
office for their advantage. They took food from people that
didn't really come to them. They took it by force as the
priest, you need to give us this, you need to give us that. They
had a religion of personal gain is what it is. But they knew
not the Lord. And do you know it's a crime
to not know the Lord? They had Eli to teach them. And
you know, these are the same boys that God killed. Sons of
Belial. And what was their crime? They
knew not the Lord. Anybody who doesn't know the
Lord. Now, I know if I know the Lord, it's only because he's
made himself known to me. You know that, don't you? If you
know the Lord, it's because He was pleased to do something for
you. And you know that, so you can't
look down on somebody who doesn't know the Lord in that sense.
But still, the Lord is so glorious that it's a crime not to know
Him. It's a crime not to believe His
gospel. The sons of Belier are those
who do not know the Lord. 1 Samuel 25. Now this is Abigail talking about
Nabal. Remember that story where David
protected Nabal and he comes for provisions and Nabal wouldn't
give them to him? Even after David and his men
had protected him? Now look what Abigail, his wife, says about
him, Now there's a mark of a son of Belial that can't be spoken
to. I won't hear it. I won't hear it. I don't want
to hear that anymore. Don't you say that to me. That kind of
attitude. is the attitude of a son of Belial. He can't be spoken to. He hears
it and he says, I'm not going to have that. He's totally closed-minded
to the truth. He's totally closed-minded to
anything against himself. He's not going to hear that.
That's a son of Belial. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 30,
verse 22. Then answered all the wicked
men, and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said,
because they went not with us, we'll not give them aught of
the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and
his children, and they may lead them away and depart. Now, every
one of the sons of Belial said this, the wicked men. Now, the
story is where David went to Ziklag to recover the spoils
after the Amalekites had raided Israel and carried them all off.
And there were 200 men. who were so faint, they couldn't
go with David to fight the Amalekites. They didn't have the strength
to get over the brook. They had to park themselves there, and
they were too weak to help David out. They couldn't. They couldn't.
And so the 400 men that went, they recovered the spoils. And
when they come back, all the wicked men said, these guys that
didn't come with us, they don't get any of the spoil. They didn't
work. They didn't do what we did. We
have more coming to us. Isn't that just like the 12-hour
workers? They only worked one hour. We've
worked 12. We've borne the burden and heat
of the day. We've had it so difficult. And
you make them equal to us? Here's a mark of a son of Belial.
He hates grace. That's it. He hates grace. He
can't deal with the fact that these people who didn't do anything,
they're getting the same thing we are. That's as wrong as it
can be. A son of Belial hates grace. And you know, I was thinking
about that. Well, I don't want to be that person. I will be,
apart from the grace of God, thinking I have more... I'm a
preacher. They weren't a preacher. Look what all I... Oh, what a
horrible attitude. A son of Belial hates grace. 2 Samuel chapter 20. Verse 1, And there happened to
be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri,
a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet, and said,
We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son
of Jesse. Every man to his tents, O Israel. He blew the trumpet
and said, we have no part with David. You're your own master. You're independent. You don't
have to be answerable to anybody. Go back to your own tent. A son
of Belial is someone who's independent. Don't need Christ. Don't need
his grace. Don't need anything. He's independent. First Kings 21. Verse 10, And set two men, sons of Belial,
before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme
God and the king, and then carry him out, and stone him, that
he may die. Now this was Jezebel's, what
she wanted to do with this man who owned this vineyard that
Ahab wanted, bring in two sons of Belial. wicked men who will
bring false witness." Now here's what a son of Belial will do.
He'll bear false witness. He won't tell the truth. He'll
say something other than that which is true according to the
gospel. Anytime you hear a man preach something other than the
gospel, that man is a son of Belial. He's a wicked man. You
can write that down. 2 Chronicles chapter 13. Yet Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,
verse 6, 2 Chronicles 13, yet Jeroboam, does that name ring
a bell with you, Jeroboam? How many times do we read of
the sin of Jeroboam throughout the Kings and the Chronicles?
This was considered the arch sin, the sin of Jeroboam. Now what was the sin of Jeroboam?
If you'll remember, He was afraid that Rehoboam, the son of Solomon,
who was in Jerusalem, he was afraid people would quit paying
any attention to him because they're going to go to Jerusalem
to offer the sacrifice. And Jeroboam said, now you don't
need to go to Jerusalem to offer the sacrifice. That's too much
trouble. And he set up two golden calves in Dan and Beersheba and
said, you don't need to go to Jerusalem. Now there's one place
where the sacrifice was offered and accepted. What's that represent? There's one place of God's acceptance.
Christ. Christ. He said that's not necessary. It's too hard for you. It's too
difficult. You can go to Dan. You can go
to Beersheba. And you'll be in good shape. That is the sin of
Jeroboam. He denied the necessity of Jerusalem. The one place of the sacrifice.
The one place of God's acceptance. Remember you were to pray toward
Jerusalem. And how many times do the different
kings, they're measured by whether or not they committed this sin
of Jeroboam. It's like 12 or 14 times in the Kings and Chronicles. But what did he do? Who did he
have behind him? Yet Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,
the servant of Solomon, the son of David, is risen up and hath
rebelled against his Lord. And there were gathered unto
him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened
themselves against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam
was young and tenderhearted and could not withstand him." Now
who is it that followed Jeroboam? The sons of Belial. They can
accept. Something other than the sacrifice
only being accepted in Jerusalem, in Christ. They can accept something
different from that. And really, I can't help but
think of the Seekers Church. Make things easy. You can come
to church in your pajamas. We're going to make things easy. You can even drive by. That's
the center of Jeroboam, making things convenient and easy. Nothing
should be easy and convenient about the worship of God. Nothing. Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6, beginning
in verse 13. Verse 12 I mean. A naughty person. You know that
word naughty is the same thing as a son of Belial. The same
thing. A son of Belial. What's he do?
A son of Belial, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. I'm not sure how to pronounce
that. I never have. But what it means, he distorts
the truth and he perverts the gospel. That's the son of Belial. He walketh with a froward mouth. He distorts things. He leaves
out things. You know, you can listen to a
preacher and quite often what is wrong with him is seen by
what he doesn't say. And that's the son of Belial.
He distorts things. Proverbs chapter 16, verse 27. An ungodly man, and once again
my marginal reference says this is a son of Belial. A son of
Belial diggeth up evil, and in his lips there is a burning fire. Now, I couldn't help but think
of the political campaigns. The way one politician tries
to dig up evil against another, it's embarrassing. You know,
to see all that stuff, you know, he did this, he did that 50 years
ago, or 20 years ago, and so on. But the point is, is a son
of Belial is going to try to expose others so his own light
might shine brighter. He wants to make others look
bad so that he'll look good. He digs up evil. He seeks to expose people just
so that he might look good. May the Lord deliver us from
that. That's what a son of Belial does.
And finally, Proverbs 19, verse 28, an ungodly witness. And that word ungodly is a son
of Belial. A son of Belial scorneth judgment,
and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity. An ungodly witness
scorneth judgment. Now one of the things that's
glorious about our gospel is it's perfectly righteous. Judgment and justice are the
habitation of Thy throne. And the only thing really that
gives us any peace is that in Christ, I'm perfectly righteous. I'm without sin, that I really
have the righteousness of Christ. The only thing that gives me
any peace is that the blood of Christ actually washed away my
sin and made me perfect and just and righteous before God so that
when God sees me, He doesn't see me as a sinner A covering
that he accepts me as righteous, though he knows it's not. No,
I'm altogether righteous in Christ. Now that's judgment, isn't it?
That's justice. And an ungodly man scorns that. It's not important to him. He'll
think that the blood of Christ can, Christ can die for everybody
and they might end up in hell anyway if they don't do their
part to make what he did work. That's the scorning of judgment.
Judgment is the perfection of God. I'm perfectly righteous
in God's sight. No sin. If I had any sin, God
would have to send me to hell. He said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. Now that's judgment. Don't you
love the righteousness of the gospel? The judgment of the gospel? I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein
in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed." Now, a son
of Belial could care less about anything like that. It's just
not important to him. He scorns judgment. Now isn't it interesting that
in David's last words, now that's a whole lot of material to cover
in half an hour, but maybe you can look at it again. Isn't it
interesting that in David's last words he describes the son of
Belial? And remember, the son of Belial
is anybody who does not believe the gospel. The one time he's
mentioned in the New Testament, it's what agreement, what concord
hath Christ with Belial? Absolutely nothing. And the sons
of Belial are the children of the devil. And may the Lord deliver
me and you from being sons of Belial. Okay.