Come back to Numbers. Turn to
Numbers chapter 22. I'm going to highlight chapter
22 and basically speak from 23 and close at 24. Now, I'm not
going to run this thing long. I actually started preparing
this message a couple weeks ago to bring here. Henry had me to preach, and I
went ahead and preached it. I cheated on you. I went and
preached at 13th Street. And I sat down and rewrote it
a couple days ago. And I tell you, I've enjoyed
this study. I've never heard a message preached
from this portion of Scripture. That is the whole context of
it. There's three chapters. And when I looked at it, I thought,
you really have to touch on all three chapters to really get
what's being said here. And the title of the message
is, The Blessing Cannot Be Changed. The blessings that we have in
Christ, the blessings God's given us, they cannot be changed. And
that gives me great comfort. Because we live in a changing
world, and I mean we change daily. But the gospel and the blessings
and all this we have, it can't be changed at all. And I thought
as I was sitting there, I thought, and I was thinking about this
message, and I thought, you know, we can't take our present situation,
we can't judge our standing before God by our present situation
and the things that we endure and the things that we, that
God gives us and the things that God does not give us. We can't
use those things and judge our standing before God. Because
in Christ we are a blessed people, blessed beyond measure. And that's
how we judge. We judge what God's done for
us in Christ, not what he does for me today and not what I have
on my dinner table. It's what God's given me and
his Son, and that's what we judge God by. And that blessing, he
says here, cannot be changed. So we'll look over in chapter
22, and I'm just going to highlight some of this here in 22. It says
here in the first one that, and Israel, and the children of Israel
set forward and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan
by Jericho. And Balak, the son of Zippor,
saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. He had become
afraid. So it says here Israel pitched
their tents in the plains of Moab. Now who are the Moabites? Who are the Moabites? Well, they
are the descendants of Lot. That's who they are. They are
the descendants of Lot. And they had no need to fear
Israel. They had no need to be afraid.
Not at all. God told Israel through Moses
not to contend with the Moabites. Look over in Deuteronomy, chapter
2. Over here in Deuteronomy, chapter
2. Let me show you this. And they should have known this,
and no doubt they probably did know this. Deuteronomy chapter 2 and verse 9, And the Lord said unto me, Distress
not the Moabites, neither contend with them, and bear, for I will
not give thee of their land for a possession, because I have
given her unto the children of Lot for a possession. So God
told Israel, He said, Leave the Moabites alone. And they really
could have used this to their advantage. They could have used
Israel as a protection. But instead, here, the king of
Moab, he became afraid. He was afraid because Israel
had defeated the Amorites, and the Amorites were a much stronger
people than the Moabites. And Israel, he said, whipped
them. But I noted here how often do
we get things on our minds that are just not so. We become afraid of things that
we have no need to be afraid of. We have fears where there's
no foundation for them. None at all. Fears that are unfounded.
And that's a lesson for us here. But we'll see also in verses
five through eight, and I tell you the best thing to do is when
you go home today, is read these three chapters together. Because
I don't have time to really read each one of them. But Balak stands
for Balaam. Now who's Balaam? Who is Balaam? But John Gill said that it's
not easy to say who he really is. It's not easy to say who
Balaam really is. Matthew Henry said this. He was
a famous conjurer. He is a soothsayer. He said that
Balaam, according to some of the Jewish writers, thinks that
he was a great prophet at one time, but grew proud and covetous,
and God departed from him. And to support his sinking credit,
he took up the art of soothsaying for money. In other words, Balaam
was a hireling. You can just stamp that on Balaam.
He was a hireling. Let me show you this in the scriptures.
Look over at 2 Peter, chapter 2. Let's look and see who Balaam
is. We'll start in this out. 2 Peter, chapter 2, in verse 15. He says here, which
have forsaken the right way, the gospel, and are going astray,
following the way of Balaam, the son of Bethsaur, who loved
the wages of unrighteousness. He loved, he took money for what
he did. He took money for his soothsaying. He was in it for
the money. In Jude, verse 11, "...were unto them, for they
have gone in the way of Cain," the way of works, "...and ran
greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the
gainsaying of Corey." He was in it for the reward. Now, I
want you to turn to one more chapter, and it's over in Revelations,
chapter 2, just right over, a few pages there. Verse 14, "'But I have found
a few things against thee, because thou hast there then that hold
the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block
before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto
idols, and to commit fornication.'" See, Balaam, after the end of
all this, he taught Balak how to make them fall. So Balaam
is a hirer. That's who Balaam is. He's a
soothsayer. He's a hirer. He's in it for
the money. So Balaam sends for Balaam to come and curse Israel.
He said, I want you to come over here. I want you to curse this
people. I want you to curse them. And here's another lesson. And
I've seen this in places I've worked. Don't let yourself get
caught up in doing someone else's dirty deeds. Don't get caught
up in another man's problems. That's not your problem. And
that's what he was, he was calling Balaam in on his problems to
do his dirty deeds. But we'll see here now in verses
8 through 12, and I'm sure Balaam knew who these people were. He
said, there's a people come out of Egypt. They sent a message
and said, there's a people. He knew who they was. Balaam
knew who these people were that come out of Egypt, and he knew
that they were a blessed people. So he takes a night to inquire
of God, to go inquire. He says, let me go tonight and
inquire of God concerning this matter of going with him in the
curse. And God spoke to him. God met him. God spoke to him
because he's concerning his people. You know, you're not going to
touch the apple of God's eye without God meeting with you.
And God spoke to him, and God asked him, he said, who are these
men? Who are these men? Well, God knows who these men
are. God never asked, he never asked us for information. God
knows who they are, he knows our enemies, and he knows their
thoughts. But he wanted Balaam to acknowledge
who these men were. He wasn't Balaam, he was going
to pull out Balaam, you know who these men are, you know what
they're up to. So God tells Balaam, he says
that he's not going to go with them. He said there's no need
for you to go with them, they are a blessed people. You don't
need to go with them. It will be a useless journey
for these people. These people are blessed. They
cannot be cursed. They cannot be cursed. So verses
13 through 18, Balaam sends them away because God would not let
him curse Israel. He said, don't go with them because
you're not going to curse Israel. And Balaam, he shouldn't even
have to pray about this. He shouldn't even have to seek
the Lord about this. A man comes and asks me to curse
Eureka or Stanley. I should have to pray, but I
just send him away. But you get out of here. You leave. But Balaam,
he's in there saying, for the money, he said, let me go talk
to God about it. Let me figure a way out. Let
me figure a way to do this. That's what he said. That's what
he wanted. But he sends him away. He said
his people are blessed. He sends him away because God's
not going to let him curse Israel. But Balak here in verse 17, Balak
is persistent. I tell you what, he's persistent
here. He sends more money and more honorable men there in verse
17. He sends more money and more
honorable men. He knows. He knows that Balaam
has a selling price. He knows he's in it for the money.
He knows he's a hireling. And he knows if the pot, if he
gets the ante up high enough that he's going to break and
come. He knows he's going to do it. So verse 18, Balaam tells
the men, he says, I cannot, I cannot say more than what God will allow
me to say. God sovereignly, he sovereignly
constrains Balaam. God sovereignly constrains and
controls our enemies. You know, this world's not running
loose. It's not running loose. Satan's not running loose out
there. God's got them all under his control. And he's got this
prophet under control, and he says, I can't say, I just cannot
say any more than what God will let me say. I can't do it. It's not in man, the Scripture
tells us, to direct his steps, his ways. It's not in us. We
don't know. We don't know the next minute.
But God does, and he directs the course of this whole world.
He directs his whole course. But Balaam says here in verse
19, but let me go one more time. You see, he wants to go. He wants
to curse them. Let me go one more time. Maybe
God will change his mind. You see, Balaam wants to go.
He wants to curse Israel. Now, if he were a true prophet
of God, he wouldn't do this. He wouldn't be seeking God for
this matter at all. And God says in verse twenty,
God said to him, if, if the moon, if the princes come and call
thee, rise up and go, but you cannot, you can only say what
I give you, if they come and call you. Now if you'll note
there in verse twenty-one, Balaam rose up early and he took off.
He didn't even wait for them to come and call him. He didn't
even, nobody came to call him. He got up early and just saddled
his ass and took off. He said, let's go guys. He said,
let's go. So he didn't even wait for anyone
to call him. And this is how eager he was
to go. You know, this had potential for a big payday. This is probably
one of the biggest paydays he had for Sue's thing. So in verses
22 through 31, God, it says, was angry with Balaam for going. God's angry with him. God's angry
with him for going with the intent of cursing his people. He's going
to meet with God now. He's going to deal with God.
So God sends an angel, and it says, The angel of the Lord stood
in the way, and Balaam's ass saw the angel, and it went off
to the side. And this happened here. This
happened three times, and Balaam smote his donkey. He smote it,
and he beat it. And the donkey spoke to him in
a man's voice. And you know what I read then?
I thought, he wasn't even startled. You notice that? I mean, he just
spoke back to it. I imagine he saw some pretty
strange things in his line of business, because that didn't
even startle him when that donkey spoke back to him. But note here,
it says in there that the angel of the Lord stood as an adversary. I tell you what, they're ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who are to be heirs
of salvation. If God would open our eyes and see the protection
that we have from his throne through angels, it would amaze
us. It would amaze—God stopped him.
The Lamb of the Lord stood there, and it was going to strike him
dead. It was going to strike him dead. And here's a lesson
here also that jumped out at me. We need not be upset when
God hedges up our way. When God stops us and God turns
our direction, See, Balaam got mad and started beating his daughter.
We don't need to beat on anyone. If God stops us in the direction
we're going, we just need to pray for God to give us the right
direction. We don't need to be upset about it. Not at all. But here's what's happening.
The Lord is making it very plain. He's making it very plain to
Balaam that Israel is not going to be cursed. You're not going
to curse this people. I don't care what your intent
of the heart is, it's not going to come out of your mouth. Your
heart might not be right, but he said, I'm going to control
what comes out of your mouth. And note the providence of God here.
Israel doesn't even know that a curse is being plotted against
them. They're down there dwelling in the plains in Moab, and they
don't know that a curse is being plotted against them. And I thought
of this, there's many times throughout life, as we go throughout this
Especially in this evil world. There are many times that we
are saved from evil. There's evil plodding against
us. We don't even know it. We don't even know it. And yet,
day after day after day, God delivers us, and God saves us,
and God blesses us. Israel's down there, and God's
taking care of them up here. He's taking care of this matter,
and they're down there just dwelling safely. And the same thing goes
on with us now. We're dwelling here safely. And
you know Satan, like he's done before Job, wanting to take over
Job, wanting to destroy Job, and he still does that. But God
doesn't let that happen. Now you may ask, why? Why does
God allow or even speak to such a prophet as Balaam? Why does
God do this? Well, first of all, God will
use whom he wills. God will use whom all are his
servants. God will use a good man or a
bad man. God will speak through whom he
wills. And then, secondly, God exposes bad prophets through
their error. He's going to expose Balaam here,
too. And then, I believe it's the day or so. God allowed this
to go on for our learning. These things, this Bible, this
Bible was written for our learning. This Bible was written for you
and I to learn from, be instructed by. He's written for our learning
And I'm thankful, I'm thankful for the message that comes out
of chapter 23. I'm thankful to Rahim that you can't curse these
people, they're blessed. I'm thankful to know that. It's
comforting to know that. And then verses 36 through 41,
Balak, Balaam comes to Balak, he comes into town there. Well,
Balak goes out to meet him. And he winds and dives the prophet,
he is just ecstatic. He is encouraged in his madness
because the prophet came. The prophet came, and he's just
encouraged in it. Be careful. Be careful who you're
with and who you lend your company to. You might encourage their
madness. Balak was. Old Balak saw Balaam,
and he said, Oh, I got what I wanted. So now, chapter twenty-three.
We come to chapter twenty-three. Notice how far these Moabites
fell from true worship. They were the descendants of
Lot. Lot knew about true worship. He was with Abraham, and Lot's
called a righteous man. But notice here how far they've
fallen. Balaam told Balak to build seven altars. That's not
of God. That's not of God. He had seven
altars, he had seven bullocks, and he had seven rams. There
was always one altar and one sacrifice. You see how far they've
fallen? They've gotten so superstitious
over this thing. Always just one. If God is impressed
with one, here's what they're thinking. If God is impressed
with one answer and one sacrifice, how do you think seven will impress
him? My friends, God's impressed with
one, Christ. I've never impressed him, you've
never impressed him, but Christ has. This is my beloved son in
whom I am well pleased." He never said that about me. He said that
about his son. But they're thinking here, they're
thinking that seven men, seven of them ought to really impress
him. If one of them, if the blood of one impresses him, how about
the blood of seven? So they build these things here.
They build them and they're going to change God's mind. This ought
to change God's mind. This ought to pull God on to
our side. You know, it's like two football
teams going in this locker room to pray. And they're wanting
God to bless them and help them. And I think that is so crazy. You know, God's going to choose
upsides here. But God's not going, this time it's been determined
before the world began and there's not going to be any changes to
it. There's not going to be any changes made. So Balaam goes
to speak with God and God puts a word in Balaam's mouth, not
in his heart. It never entered his heart. He
put it in his mouth. And God turned the curse into
a blessing. You've got to see this over in Deuteronomy chapter
23. Deuteronomy chapter 23. Deuteronomy chapter 23. Look
here in verse 4 and 5. Let me read verse 3. And Ammonite
or a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the
Lord, even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the
congregation of the Lord forever, because they met you not with
bread and with water when they came into the plains of Moab,
but instead of coming down there with bread and water and welcoming
them as brothers in the way. When you came forth out of Egypt,
and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor,
of Kathor, of Mesopotamia to curse him. Nevertheless, the
Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam, but the Lord thy
God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy
God loved thee." He turned the curse into a blessing, and that's
what's happened to us in Christ. He turned the curses against
us into a blessing. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So here, anyway, he turns a curse into a blessing. So verse 7,
Balaam says to Balak, you brought me here to curse Jacob and defy
Israel. He says in verse 8, How shall
I curse? How in the world can I curse
whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the
Lord hath not defied? How can I do this? How can any
curse fall upon them whom God hath blessed? Doesn't Paul say
in Romans 8, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? How in the world can these people
be cursed? God has redeemed his elect from
the curse by making his son a curse for them in their sin. So how
can I curse him? How can a curse fall on us? It
can't. It can't. God is a just God. Scripture says that he's a just
God and he'll by no means clear the guilty. And I'll tell you
this, he'll by no means condemn the innocent either. And in Christ
we're innocent. We're innocent. In Christ, we're
holy, we're justified, and we cannot be cursed. You might cuss
me, but you can't curse me. The curse can't light on. It can't stick. If the blood
of Christ cleanses us from all sin, then what sin can be used
against me to curse me? I don't have any. Not in Him. So verse 9, the people, he says
here, Balaam says to Balak, he says, the people should dwell
alone and not be reckoned among the nation. They are a separated
people. They are special people. We are
a separated, called out, chosen people for God, a peculiar people,
a purchased people is what we are. Now, we talk about here,
he's talking about the true Israel of God. They are purchased people.
When God condemns the nations of this world, this nation won't
be in that line. They won't be standing in that
line, not at all. And he says here in verse 10, who? Who can count the dust? The elect
of Jacob. Who can count that? Who can number? Who can number that multitude
of sinners that God has chosen from this world and redeemed
by his Son? Who can number that? He said
you can't number. God says, it's a number no man
can number. And even a bad prophet here had
enough sense to say this. He said here, looking at them,
he looked at them and he says, let me die the death of the righteous. What is that? What is the die? We all got to die. Every one
of us has a death to die. Well, I want to die the death
of the righteous. To die the death of the righteous is to
die in peace. It's to die in peace with God. It's to die in hope of eternal
life, of eternal existence with God. It's to die in hope. It's
to die and never to die again. We're not going to die one time.
We're going to have no part in that second death. I'm going
to die one time and that's it. And then it's forever. Forever
with the Lord. It's to die for this world and
to wake up in paradise. It's to be absent from this body
It is to be present with the Lord. That's where we're at. And he said, let my end be like
his. This is not coming from his heart.
This is God using him. This is God using the clay pot.
He said, let my end be like his. What is our end? What is our end like? It's victorious. It's victorious. God's Israel
has a glorious end. We have a glorious end. It may be rough along the way.
They spent 40 years in the wilderness. It may be tough and rough, and
it will be. God tries us, he chastens us,
but I tell you what, we had a good end. Why are you are paying you for
a curse? And you're saying you're blessing
these people. What are you doing? But I can't help it. This false prophet who came with
the intentions of cursing these people says, I can't help it.
God won't let me curse them. Every time I open my mouth, a
blessing. It turns out to be a blessing. And by that says,
well, well, come with me. We'll go look at him from another
point of view." He said, let's go to another place. You know,
Satan did that with our Lord. Three times he took him to different
places. And our Lord said, get thee behind
me, Satan. He said, get thee behind me,
Satan. But old Balaam says, okay. He said, let's go try again.
Let's go to, let's go look at another place. He says, well,
I'll go, let's go to another place and I'll show you. You'll
only see a fourth part of it. You won't see all of them, but
bless what, curse what you do see. You know, he figured if
he could wipe out half of it, he could whip the other half,
upon what he figured. So he said, let's go to another place. The
enemies of Christ never cease. Our enemies never rest. Even
Satan has said, left for a season, and he always comes back. So
in verse 14, he tries again. He builds seven altars, and he
offers a bullock and a ram on every altar, trying to impress
God by his religious show, by his religious ceremony. God wants
to sacrifice. He said, this is what we're going
to do, and we're going to impress God. God's not impressed. I'm telling you, God's not impressed
by the services of men. He's impressed by the work of
his son. That's who he's impressed with.
So he tries again. He gives all those answers, and
the scripture tells us obedience is better than sacrifice. He
should have just said, no, these people are blessed. But no, he
doesn't do that. He goes again, and the Lord meets
him, and he gives him the same answer. He gives him the same
message. The gospel never changes. The
blessings we have in Christ, it never changes. I don't have
a different message the next time I preach. It's not going
to be a different message. It's the same one. I preached this at
13th Street. I preached it here. We understand
it's one message. The blessing, the blessing never
changes. The message concerning God's
elect in Christ, it never changes. Why? Why does it never change? Because in verse 19, God's not
a man that he should lie. He wasn't lying when he gave,
when he spoke the gospel. God's not a man that he should
lie. He'll not answer the word going out of his mouth. Men change
their minds and men change their attitudes. But God doesn't change. God changes not. There's no shadow.
There's not even, say, the shadow of turning with him. Every one of us, when we leave
here, we'll go out there in the sun shining bright. Everyone's
going to cast a shadow. He doesn't cast one. There's
no shadow of his even turning. There's no shadow of turning.
There's no shadow of turning with God. He never changes. His
promises never change. His purpose never change. God's
the same rest of the day and forever. And that doesn't change. If God loves me now, it's because
He always loved me. He didn't decide to love me.
God's always loved me, and I can't explain that. If I'm His, I've
always been His, and that's just too big for me. That's just too
big. He's always loved me, and that'll
never change. That'll never change. You know,
I have two sons. They're my sons, and that won't change. They'll
never be anybody else's son. They're mine. And if I'm his
son, that's because I've always been his son, and that'll never
change. And it says this, and also it goes on to say this,
neither the son of man that he should repent. A man repents
of the things he's done wrong. He repents of a bad decision
he's made. Well, God cannot sin. God cannot sin, therefore he
has nothing to repent of. And his wisdom is so perfect
that he cannot make a mistake. He cannot make a mistake, not
at all. The blessings on God's people
are not mistakes, not one of them. Not one of them is a mistake.
The children are not by mistake. I've heard people say, well,
we didn't really plan on that one. God planned on every one of His,
and every blessing was planned. Not one of them was a mistake,
not a one. And it says, hath he said, and
shall he not do it? God is faithful to do just as
He said He would. He'll do just as He said He would.
We can count it. You can stake your life on that
now. You can stake your life on it. He'll do it just as He
said. If God has pronounced you blessed, if God has pronounced
you justified and glorified in Christ, then thank Earth you
are. Yes, you are. I'm not going to be justified.
I am. God already considers it glorified. It's good, it's done
with Him. God is faithful to His Word,
He's faithful to His Son, He's faithful to His covenant, and
He's faithful to His people. God will do just as He said He'd
do. And shall He not make it good,
He goes on to say, shall He not make it good, He will make all
His promises in Christ good. Wait and see. It'll all be good. Now in verse 21, he tells why
the curse cannot happen. Here's why he can't curse. Here's
why he can't curse Israel. He says, God hath not beheld
iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. My, what a powerful verse. You
cannot be charged with a crime you haven't committed in God's
court. Now, you can't in a man's court. You know, they put men
in jail that's been innocent of crimes, but not in God's court.
Not in God's court. Not at all. Christ has so thoroughly
cleansed us from our sins that not one spot can be found, not
even a blemish. Not even a blemish. It can't
be found. Therefore, not one charge can
be laid to our account. Not one. When God sees his Israel,
you know what he sees? Him. If God be a family, who
can be against me? And no one can turn him against
me. Satan can't turn him against
me. The world can't turn him against me. And I myself can't
turn him against me. He's with me. He's with me. And thirdly, in the shadow of
a king is among them. And what a king. What a king. The king of kings and the Lord
of lords is among this people. He's among his people. We are
so assured of success because God is with us that we can shout
the victory before we ever enter into the battle. We are so assured of success
because of our king. He said the gates of hell cannot
rebel against The prophet takes note of what God has done for
them in Christ. He takes note of what God has
done for them. And I want to take note of what
God has done for us in Christ. He said in verse 22, God brought
them out of Egypt. God brought them out of cruel
bondage. He parted the Red Sea for them. You think God can't
deliver them out of your hand? Look what God's done for these
people. Look from where he's brought them. And he's going
to curse them? Look what he's done for them.
He's going to bring them to this point and curse them? That ain't
going to happen. Look where God has brought us
from, the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his dear Son,
from the power of sin to liberty, from the hand of Satan to his
hand. He's brought us from hell to heaven, from the curse of
the law to the blessings forevermore. I tell you what, if we but look
what God has delivered us from, It'll calm our fears and strengthen
our faith if we can just see where He's brought us from. When
God's people consider where they have been brought from, they
cannot be defeated. You can't defeat His people.
You know, that's a useless effort. You can't defeat His people.
If you want to, if you want to, I tell you what, if you want
to get over or overcome depression, get your mind on Him. Get your
mind on the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done for us in
him. Get it on him. He says here in verse 23, there
is no enchantment against Jacob or divination against Israel.
He said none of it's working. All my who-do's and do-stuff
is just not working. They're blessed. They're blessed. All things work together for
our good. The prophet comes to curse, and
it turns into a blessing. All things for our good. God
makes all things to serve our eternal good. And he says here,
verse 23, It shall be said concerning Jacob and of Israel, What hath
God wrought? What hath God wrought? What a
work! What a work of God you are! We are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus. What a work of God we are, the
chiefest. We are the chiefest of his work.
We are the chiefest of his creation. I want to know what God has done
for us in Christ. He chose us in Christ. He loved
us in Christ. He made a covenant with Christ
concerning us. Christ came into this world and
fulfilled that covenant. He became bone of our bone, flesh
of our flesh. He lived for us a perfect life
of righteousness. He died in our place. He rose
again for our justification. He now intercedes for us. He
calls us by his grace, regenerates us by his Spirit, sets us free
from the dominion of sin, Satan and the law, free from the curse
of that law, to inherit a new heaven and a new earth. What
hath God wrought for us? My, when they looked at us, they
said, My, what has God done for this people? He says in verse
24, they're going to be strong like a lion. The church is not
weak. She's not weak. No, the church
is not weak, but strong in her Lord. And he says in verse 25,
don't curse and don't bless. Just shut up. Oh, Balaam said,
just shut up. If you're not going to curse
them, don't bless them either. And Balaam says in verse 26, I told
you, I told you I couldn't curse them. I told where he said in
verse twenty-seven, well, let's go try it again. Let's go to
another. He said, I got another place. And Balaam goes right
with him. He's in this thing for the money.
He wants to curse him. He goes with him. So you go over
to chapter twenty-four, and I'll wind this up. Balaam saw, here
in verse twenty-one, when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord
to bless Israel, he went not, as in other times, to seek for
enchantment. But he set his face toward the
wilderness. And in verse 2, he says, And Balaam lifted up his
eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their
tribes, and the Spirit of God came upon him. In verse 2, he
sees the blessed people. God told him they were going
to be blessed, and now he sees the blessed people. He sees them
blessed, and he sees the people abiding in their tents and in
their tribes. What does he see? He sees harmony and obedience. abiding in their tents and in
their tribe. God separated them in tribes,
and that's where they stayed. He sought obedience and harmony.
And then in verse 5, he says, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob,
and thy tabernacles, O Israel. I tell you this, if God dwells
with you in a tent, it's a good place. He didn't send them in mansions,
did He? He didn't send them in a palace. He didn't send them
in $200,000 or $300,000 homes. He sent them in tents. reason he saw them in tents,
because this is not their home. Don't drive your stakes too deep.
This is not home. Live in your house like it's
a tent, and care of it, but live in it like it's a tent. And he
looked there, and he saw those old, well-worn tents that they
were living in, because they'd pack them up, and they'd carry
them, pack them up, and they'd carry them, and they'd pitch
their tent, and they'd pack them up. But he said, Oh, how goodly. Oh, how goodly. How goodly. I tell you this, if God dwells
with you there, it's a good place. It's a good place to dwell, and
don't leave it. Don't leave it. And Balak gets
mad, and he says to him, he says, get out of here. Just go home. Get out of here. But Balaam turns
and he says, I can't do good or bad of my own mind. I don't
have control of it right now. He says, I can't do either one
right now. Don't blame me. Let's look at this in verse 13.
Let me find verse 13 here. If Balak would give me his house
full of silver and gold, I can't go beyond the commandment of
the Lord to do either good or bad of my own mind. For what
the Lord says, that will I speak. He says, I can't do it. I can't
go beyond what God will let me say. And he says in verse 17,
I shall see you, but not now. He's giving a prophecy here of
the Messiah. which is going to come 1,500
years later. And I tell you this, I thank
God He has come. He was looking forward, we looked
back. He has come. And you know why? He says, I
shall not see Him now. I see Him now. You see Him now. God's given us an understanding,
as we read over there in 1 Corinthians this morning. I see Him now.
And He says, I shall behold Him, but not nigh, but you and I will.
You and I were drawn nigh, we'd been made nigh, we were brought
nigh what? By the blood of Christ. He didn't
see nigh as we do. There are many who see with their
eyes and hear with their ears, but their hearts are far from
Him. But not us, we see nigh. And there's going to come out
of Jacob a star. These people you want me to curse?
He said a star is going to come out of them. And he's called
a star because of his brightness. He's called a star because he
never changes. You know that Abraham looked at the same star
as you and I look at? Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. They still look, they look to
the same Christ we look to. And that's the way it'll always
be until time ends. He's called the bright morning star. And
he said, a scepter shall rise out of Israel and smite the corners
of Moab and destroy all the children of Seth. A scepter. Christ is,
he's saying here, the sovereign ruler. The king of kings and
lord of lords is coming out of his people, and they are not
going to be cursed. They are not going to be cursed.
He's coming out of his people, and you want me to curse them?
God's not going to let it happen. And none shall deliver out of
his hand. Out of Jacob shall come he that
shall have dominion. Our Lord reigns. Our Lord reigns. I'll tell you this, he shall
have dominion and you and I are going to be blessed. And that
can't be changed. That can't be changed. That's the same number of two
hundred and sixty-eight, two hundred and
sixty-eight out from the foundation. We'll sing verses one, two, and
five. It's all the same. 1, 2, 5. How fine a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can he say than to
you he has bled? To you who for us here to Jesus
have bled. Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand, Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. There's no that on Jesus hath
plead for repose, I will not, I will not be turned to his foes. For all hell should endeavor
today I'll never, no never, no never forsake.