For three chapters here we have
the story of a unique man named Balaam. And he makes some very profound
God-honoring statements in these three chapters. Later to be found out, talked
about over in the book of Jude for his greediness, but it's almost impossible to
detect here in the book of Numbers that this man is not genuine. But the setting here, the king
of Moab, whose name was Balak, had sent and hired Balaam to
curse Israel. He got to looking around and
said, God's blessing that people so much, and they're multiplying
so, and they're getting so strong. What I need is that people to
be cursed. And so he tries to hire Balaam
to curse Israel. And here in chapter 22, in verse
6, he says to him, come now, therefore, I pray thee, curse
me this people, for they are too mighty for me. Pair adventure. I shall prevail that we may smite
them, and that I may drive them out of the land. For I want that
he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed."
Now this little term we don't use nowadays, W-O-T. For I want, that is, I think,
I fully believe that he Whom thou blessest is blessed, and
whom thou cursest is cursed. Balak says to Balaam, I believe
you have the power to bless or to curse. Well, Balaam goes to
the Lord who instructs him in verse 12. And God said unto Balaam,
thou shalt not go with them. Thou shalt not curse the people,
for they are blessed. Balak sends messengers promising
Balaam great reward. And Balaam sends word back to
Balak in verse 19, and he says, verse 18, sent word back and said, if Balak
would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot
go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more. I just cannot. It wouldn't work. I cannot do it. He does not say,
I would not do it. He says, I cannot do it. Again, in chapter 23 in verse
8, Balaam says, how shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? It's impossible. He tells Balak
further on down in chapter 23, In verse 19, God is not a man
that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. Balak tells Balaam, I wanted
you to curse them and you've blessed them. And so he goes on to tell him,
now just leave it alone. Just don't do either anymore. Verse 25, and Balak said unto
Balaam, neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all. Just leave it alone. But Balaam
answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee saying, All that
the Lord speaketh, that I must do. It matters not what we think. It matters not what we want or
what we do. If it pleased the Lord to bless,
we can't curse. And if it pleased the Lord to
curse, we can't bless. So I want to talk to us a few
minutes this morning on this thought, blessed or cursed? Blessed or cursed? I want to read about a cursed
man whom men thought was blessed. And then I want to read about
a blessed man whom men thought was cursed. First, the cursed man. whom men thought was blessed.
Turn with me to Luke chapter 12. The Gospel of Luke chapter 12. And verse 16. Some of you are
familiar with this fella. A cursed man whom men thought
was blessed. Luke 12 verse 16. And he, this
is the Lord Jesus, spake a parable unto them, saying, the ground
of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought
within himself, saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will
I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry." Everyone in the community talked
about how blessed this man was. He's worked hard. He's made some
good business decisions. He's planted the right things
at the right time. And his crops have been tremendous. He has made so much money. He
has accumulated so much goods. He's run out of room. And he says, I've got to do something
with all this. But notice in these verses we read, it's all
I. In these three verses, three or four verses, 16 through
19, he used the personal pronoun I six times. What shall I do? I have no room. This will I do. I will pull down my barns and
build greater, and there will I bestow my goods, and I will
say to my soul, six times. Five times he uses the little
personal pronoun, my, my fruits, my barns, again my fruits, my
goods, and my soul. I suppose the farm was named
All About Me. I know a lot of people whose
farm is named All About Me. That's the way this fellow thought
and lived. And he's talking to himself. He hadn't consulted the Lord
or anyone else. Notice it said here, In verse
17, he thought within himself. He didn't need any advice from
anybody. And then when he does start talking,
he's talking to himself. I will say to my soul, boy, I'm
just one self-sufficient bundle of wisdom. I don't need anybody
or anything to know what to do and how to do. I'm the only one smart enough
to know what to do with all this I've got. And as we read here,
he said, I've got it made. I've got much goods laid up for
many years. I'll never have to work another
day in my life. I can just lay back, eat, drink,
and be merry. You talk about a man that's blessed. Or was he? Was he? It's a beautiful success
story till you get down to verse 20. And his attitude of selfishness
and self-sufficiency, it all comes out. But God said unto him, thou fool this night thy soul shall be
required of thee then who shall those things be which thou has
provided so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is
not rich toward God you're rich mister but you're not rich toward
God and this night Thy soul shall be required of thee. And God
calls him a fool. When Jesus said, What shall a
man give in exchange for his soul? You remember that statement?
He never said, What will a man take for his soul? Like it's
yours to sell. But what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul. In order to get it. Well the truth is, a cursed man
won't give a dime in exchange for his soul. He'd rather have
the dime. Now this is not a proposition.
Don't miss what it's saying. The man is not because he's greedy. He's greedy
because he's cursed. What we do don't make us what
we are. What we do reveals what we are. That's the order. This is about the condition of
the heart. And the question is not whether
you've got five dollars or five million. The question is, what
would your answer be if the Lord asked for any of it or all of
it? So was this man cursed or blessed? He was so blessed materially,
but he was cursed spiritually. He so loved the material, he
cared not for the everlasting destiny of his soul. A cursed man that men thought
was blessed. Many things come to my mind when
I read this and think about this. Years ago now, I'm guessing thirty
years ago, early to mid-eighties, a pastor called me from the coal
mine country of Kentucky and asked me to come preach. He was
going to be gone that next Sunday, and I told him I'd come. Well,
June and I left before daylight, drove several hours, got to this
little church way in the mountains, way in the middle of nowhere,
got there a little before 10 o'clock. And this was not the
poverty stricken coal mine community that you hear about so much. Most of these people had made
it big. They was right in the money part
of it. And there was nothing in the
parking lot but Cadillacs and Mercedes and Jaguars, a little
country church in the middle of nowhere. And so we got out and went in.
It was wintertime, cold. All the women had on mink coats. Diamonds looked like the size
of a marble. I mean, it was something. Well, immediately three men came
over and introduced themselves. Said to me, we don't have anybody
to teach the class. We don't have anybody to teach
the class. So they asked me, so I taught a lesson at 10 o'clock. And then I preached at 11 o'clock. And after it was over, shook
hands, hung around a few minutes, nobody said anything, so we left. Took off, drove, I don't know,
a half hour, I guess. Finally found a restaurant. It
was a Western Steer, I remember that. Got us some lunch. hung
around all afternoon, drove back to that church, preached again
at 7 o'clock, and then started home. Now in those days, for
financial reasons, we didn't make trips like that very often.
You know, vehicle, fuel, meals, left home before daylight, got
in early midnight. And those people Those well-off
people gave us not one penny. Now I hesitated to tell that
story, knowing what some of you would be thinking about now.
And if you think I remembered that all these years because
they never gave me anything, you're wrong. I want to say this openly, plainly,
and clearly. The Lord has always taken care
of me and He's always done it through His people. And I don't believe He's going
to stop now. But I told you that because many times through the
years I've thought of it and it has grieved my heart and it
has puzzled me just trying to imagine the condition of people's
hearts, so self-centered, so inconsiderate and thoughtless as that. I couldn't imagine it.
I couldn't imagine us calling somebody to this place to preach,
and them driving a long way and everything, and us not even saying,
how you doing? We liked it. Didn't like it. Have a good day. I don't even
think I said that. I couldn't imagine us doing that. The heart, the matter of the
heart. I buried a man a few years ago,
then buried his wife. And they talked all the time
about all the good they'd done. Built this, done that. gave to such and such but they
left this world and they left their fortune where there's no
concern whatever for the kingdom of God. There's something wrong
with that. I had another man tell me on
his deathbed he said well I've tried to give my children what
I never had Of course, I'd heard that a lot of times. But then
he said, I wish I hadn't have done it. He said, they don't love God, and I don't know if they love
me. And then he said, and this I've
never forgotten, he said, I'm going to heaven. And he looked
at me real serious and he said, I hope I haven't paved the road
to hell for them. A cursed man whom men thought
was blessed. Now, a blessed man that men thought
was cursed, I'll be brief, John chapter 9. John chapter 9. Some of you are
familiar with this story. A man is born blind. And in those
days, people thought blindness was a curse from God. I guess
people still do think that. I mean, a lot of people think
if you have a flat tire, it's a curse from God, you know. But
here in the beginning of this chapter, John 9, Verse 1 says he was born blind.
And verse 2, the disciples asked the Lord, Master, who did sin? This man or his parents? That he was born blind. Well,
they implied that they believed a man was born a sinner. Therefore, he could be born blind.
Now, most people, you know, do not believe that nowadays. They do not believe babies are
born sinners. I mean, they're so tiny and tender and precious
and innocent. Tiny, tender and precious, yes.
Innocent, no. No. Adam's race, Adam's fallen race, It's not something everybody
wants to talk about or hear about, but it's just so. If that baby
dies in infancy or even before it's born, he or she is with
the Lord by grace. Same way any of us will ever
be with the Lord by His grace. They talk about age of accountability. when that child must do something
to cause God to make up his mind about them. No, no. The age of
accountability for all of us was when Adam fell. At that moment, Adam and all
who had ever come from his loins for more than 6,000 years now,
accountable to God from that moment. We fail in Adam. We're accountable
to God in Adam. Not when a young'un grows up
enough to decide to be a sinner or a saint. Uh-uh. Accountable. Accountable. So the disciples ask, or is it
the sin of his parents, the reason he was born blind? The Lord Jesus
answers them immediately in verse 3. And he said, neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. In other words, Jesus is saying
from eternity, my Father, purpose that this man be born blind. not because he is unhappy with
him, but because he's happy with him. He's chosen in me. He's one of mine. And though
men thought this man was cursed, he was really blessed because
his blindness was only for a time. It was deliberate on God's part
to get to this moment in time. And we could all see this message
today in this light. It's better to be born blind
and die seeing than to be born seeing and die blind. Blessed or cursed. That's what we're talking about.
And this is basically what Jesus told these Pharisees at the end
of this chapter. Listen to this, verse 39. And
Jesus said, For judgment I am coming to this world, that they
which see not might see, and that they which see might be
made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are we blind
also? Jesus said unto them, If you
were blind, You should have no sin. But now you say, we see,
therefore your sin remaineth. Cursed or blessed. Paul said in Romans 11, and this is a tremendous verse that
everyone should mark. Romans 11, 33. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out. If you think you've caught up
with God, you're just getting further behind. If you think
you've figured Him out, You're messed up more than you ever
thought you was. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways pass by now. You can't figure God out by looking
around at the way things are going or the way you think they're
going. You can't know God's mind concerning
anyone based on whether that person is having it good or bad. I told you a few Sundays ago
a story about the man at the paint store mixing paint. He'd put in a little squirt of
this, a little squirt of that, a little squirt of that to get
to this color. And some of those he'd just put
in a tiny, just a drop or two. And you'd think, well, what difference
could that make in a whole gallon? It makes the difference. the
difference. Some people are given wealth
and health and live to honor God with what he's given them.
That's a blessing. Other people are given wealth
and health and live ignoring God as if it's theirs to enjoy and
accountable to none for it, even God. That's a curse. Some people work and struggle
all their lives to make ends meet and never get ahead, but
honor God all the way and praise Him for the little they do have
and share it with others, that's a blessing. Other people work, struggle,
connive, steal, still don't have anything and live and die penniless,
ready to do anything for another dollar. That's a curse. So whether a person has much
or little materially, whether a person has good health many
years or poor health many years. None of that's the issue. The
issue is this. If everything you've been given
by God in health and wealth really in your heart belongs to Him, then you're blessed. If everything you have, health,
wealth, family, if all of it in your heart belongs only to
you, you're cursed. You're cursed. Years ago now, when our house burned, I mean
nothing left but ashes, I had one fellow actually ask
me, what did you do to deserve that? Well, I answered him like this. I said, I cannot judge God's
providential workings on the basis of what I deserve if I
did He'd have to do a lot more than burn my house down. He'd
have to put me in hell. And then I told him, he'd have
to put you in hell. If God was just operating on what we deserve,
oh no. But we can only judge the providential
workings of God in light of Romans 8, 28. And we know. Of course, if you don't have
this conviction in your heart, you don't know. But I know, I
do know that all things, things we call good, things we call
bad, things pleasant and things painful, all things do work together
for good to them that love God. And who is that crowd? It's them
that are the called according to His purpose. And so that's
the message today. Blessed or cursed. We'll leave it at that. Let's
stand together.