out of Egyptian captivity. Well, they didn't extricate themselves
out of that bondage. They didn't deliver themselves.
They didn't free themselves. This man, this preacher, this
prophet said the Lord did it. And I'm telling you, salvation's
of the Lord. He brings his people out of spiritual
bondage and captivity. We were in captivity to Satan.
He broke the captivity. More than that, we were held
hostage. We were bound by God's law that
demanded a ransom price in order to release us. And God said,
a ransom has been found. Release them from going down
to the pit. Christ the Savior died in the
stead of sinners. God found a ransom. No wonder
this man said, the Lord hath wrought it. The Lord has done
it. And he declared the blessedness
of the Lord upon those who honor God's people and the curse of
the Lord upon those who seek to do God's people a harm. You better beware of mistreating
any of the Lord's little ones. There's someone who takes notice. There's someone who sees. There's
someone who observes. Be careful what you say to one
of the Lord's children. Be careful with the attitude
that you deal with them. They're beloved of God. God has redeemed His people. He's bought them with a terrible
price, the blood of His Son. Be careful. He blesses those
who bless his people. And he curses those who curse
his people. And then this man, he saw a vision
of the Almighty. And he proclaimed the day. He
said, a star is coming out of Jacob. He proclaimed the birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the birth of Messiah. He said, the
scepter shall rise out of Israel. That's the king. He is the king
of kings and the Lord of lords. He's always been king. He's always
been the Lord by virtue of the fact that Christ is God. but
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross, wherefore God hath also exalted him." He's
the king. He wears the scepter. He's got
the scepter in his hand and he wears the crown. He rose up out
of Israel. This prophet preached that. And he announced the everlasting
greatness of the people of God. and divine judgment upon all
those who don't know the Lord. And he set forth the absolute
dominion of the Son of God, that is the glorious reign of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who is this man, you say? Turn
to Numbers chapter 22. For all that I've said, that
this man said, and I just sat down, I read numbers 22, 23,
and 24. Listen, read the word of God.
It's all right to consult the commentary, but read the word
of God. The way I go about preparing
a message, is that I try to saturate my mind and my heart with the
scriptures. And when I got to studying about
this man, Balaam, Balaam, he was a prophet for a hire. That's important to remember. He is a prophet for a hire. And I started thinking about
him and I just, I went to the scriptures, go to the scriptures. If you're gonna give a devotional,
if you're going to give a message, if you're going to give the testimony,
if you're going to witness to your neighbor or somebody you
work with or whatever, stick with the word of God. and absorb it as God enables
you to do that. Just saturate your mind with
the scriptures. And I read numbers 22, 23, and
24. I read them over and over and
over again to give myself a grasp of who this man is and what he
believed and what he said. But let me tell you something. For all those good things that
I listed that he did, he died an enemy against God. You see, there are in this world
true prophets and false prophets. And have you ever listened to
a man and you knew that, okay, this guy doesn't preach the gospel,
but well, he's on television or radio or whatever. Well, I'll
listen a little bit of what he says. And you say, boy, he said
some good things. Well, I've drawn that conclusion
from listening to men who I know are false prophets. You see,
you judge a man's ministry and you've got to, in a sense, you've
got to listen to a man with a critical ear. And I don't mean jumping
on every misspoken word. judge his ministry by the message
that he preaches? Does he preach the gospel of
Christ Jesus? Does he exalt God in his sovereignty? Does he put man down in the dust
in his depravity? Does he preach unconditional
election? Does he preach limited atonement,
that is the The full purchase price by Christ of all of his
people, particular redemption. Does he preach irresistible grace? Does he preach the perseverance
and the preservation of the saints of God, consistent with the word
of God? These are the things you listen
for in every message, but there are some false prophets who don't
really believe those things that I just enumerated, but nevertheless,
they can say some good things. And such a man was Balaam. He said so many good things,
but he died. an enemy of God. I gave you a listing of things.
I said, number one, he offered sacrifices to God. He presented
to the Lord offerings of bullocks and rams. Look, I said chapter
22, go to chapter 23. Let me show you this. I'll give
you just three, four verses here. Chapter 23. And I'll tell you the story,
King Balak, of Moab. He saw the Israelites coming
in, and the Israelites had conquered other little nations, and he
said, uh-oh, we gonna be next. And so he goes out and he hires
him a prophet. Balaam was a prophet for hire. He used witchcraft, he used enchantments,
evidently had some unusual gifts. He was from the East, and he got some power from the
devil, because all power ultimately comes from God, and God gives
some to the devil, and the devil gives it to witches and sorcerers
and such, and that was Balaam. But God used this man to set
forth many wonderful truths. And then having used him, even
though he was a false prophet, having used him, he cast him
aside to perish forever. You see, all men and women are
the servants of God. All men and women are the servants
of God. Either an unwilling servant who
doesn't understand what's going on or a willing servant. Balaam was an unwilling servant. Satan is an unwilling servant. Judas was an unwilling servant. Balaam did what he did for money. He went to the highest bidder.
He loved silver. He loved gold. And this King
Balak, he seeks out Balaam. By the way, Balaam's name, not
of the people. That's what his name. Not of
the people of God. He's not of the people of God.
You need to make a note of that. Not of the people of God. He
seeks out Balaam and he says, now listen, I give you money. Here's what I want you to do.
And Balaam says, okay, what is it? I'll enter into a deal with
you. What is it? Because I want money.
And King Balak said, I want you to pronounce a curse upon Israel. He said, okay. He said, let me
go ask God about this. And he actually went and he asked
God about it. And God said, you can't curse
people I've blessed. My decree is irreversible. You see the people of God have
been blessed with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. And that is an irreversible decree. In fact, all of the decrees of
God are irreversible. And God has decreed everything
from the beginning all the way to the end. And everything that
happens fulfills God's predestinated will. Isn't that wonderful? And that which Balaam set forth
And that which he did was according to the purpose of God. So he
goes and he prays. God said, you can't curse him.
You can't curse him. Well, here's what Balaam and
Balak did. Now look at chapter 23, verses
one and two. You there? Chapter 23, numbers
one and two. And Balaam said to Balak of the
Moabites, Build me here seven altars and prepare me here seven
oxen and seven rams." Seven, what's that? That's a
significant number in the Bible, isn't it? Perfection, completion,
like seven days in a week. This man, Balaam, he is not ignorant. of the ways of the God of Israel. Because as it says back in the
book of Exodus, all the countries around it, I think it's Exodus
chapter 15, when Israel is singing the song of redemption. It said
all the kingdoms, all the nations were aware of what God did for
Israel. And Balaam knew. He knew what
God did for Israel. And he knew how he dealt with
them. And he knew the necessity of approaching God only by the
means of a blood sacrifice. And that's what he did. But his
heart wasn't in it. His heart wasn't in it. This
is not true worship. So, verse two, and Balak did
as Balaam had spoken. And Balak and Balaam offered
on every altar a bullock and a ram. This is a man who was
religious. He is not irreligious. He doesn't deny the existence
of God. He said, listen, I've learned
enough about these people and their God, that if you're gonna
deal with their God, you gotta do so through a sacrifice. He
had that up here, but he didn't have it here. You do know that, don't you?
You do know you can't deal with God apart from a sacrifice. But
it's got to go from up here. It's got to go through the mind.
There's no question about that. It's got to go through the intellect.
But it's got to go deeper. The Lord has got to put it into
our innermost being to where we believe and we understand
and we comprehend no coming to God except by the blood. Do you
understand that? I hope you do. Look again at
verse 14. So Balaam brought him, brought
Balaam under the field of Zophim to the top of Pisgah and built
seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. And
he said, Balaam said to Balaam, you stand here by the burnt offering
and I'll meet the Lord yonder. Once again, he knows if he's
gonna meet with God, he's gotta do so through a burnt offering.
And then look a little further in the chapter. Look at verse, last two verses of the chapter
29. And Balaam said unto Balak, build
me here seven altars and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven
rams. And Balak did as Balaam had said
and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. And if we didn't
know better, We'd say, well, this guy's faithful. He knows
the truth because he says some good things. Now, listen to me.
Let me warn you. There are a lot of preachers
who say some good things, but they don't say the good thing. They don't say salvation is of
the Lord. They don't preach about the satisfaction
of God's justice in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
they say some good things, and they do some good things, but
they don't know God. I hear some preachers in this
country rising up and saying, we're going to keep on meeting,
notwithstanding what the governors say, we'll just keep on meeting. And they defy the governors in
the midst of this COVID-19. But I find it interesting, they
don't defy those who preach a false gospel. They don't denounce freewillism. that men have made an idol out
of their free will, they don't touch that subject at all. But
I'll stand up against the government. I'll stand up against those in
authority. But I dare not touch those who
are religious, lest I lose some of my audience and some of my
supporters. Be careful. Balaam said a lot
of good things. but didn't know God. Didn't know
God. I'll tell you something else.
He was a prophet who spoke the word of the Lord and did so beside
the offering. Look again back here in chapter
23. Look at verses five and six. The Lord put a word in Balaam's
mouth. Isn't that something? The Lord
put a word in his mouth And the Lord said, return unto Balak,
and thus shalt thou speak. And he returned unto him, and
lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice. He and all the princes of Moab
will stand right here beside this sacrifice. And I'm gonna
deliver you the word of God. So he begins in verse seven.
He took up his parable, and then he began to speak. And I'll deal
with that passage tonight. He began to speak. He knew, listen,
he knew that to speak to God, he had to approach God through
a sacrifice and he knew that it was necessary to preach to
the people, I need to stand by the same sacrifice. But he didn't
love the one that the sacrifice pointed to. He's an amazing man,
he really is. and he'd received direct revelations
from God. Look at verse 11, here in 23. And Balak said unto Balaam, what
hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies,
that's what I paid you for, and behold, thou hast blessed them
altogether. This man wanted to curse, he
was just itching to curse. And when he opened his mouth
to curse, he only blessed. Because the Lord overruled him.
Now look at verse 12. And he answered and said, this
is what he said to Balak. Must I not take heed to speak
that which the Lord hath put in my mouth? That's good. That's good. You can't improve
upon that. I've got to tell you what God
has spoken to me. And actually every true preacher
of the gospel does that. I've got to deliver to you the
word of God that he has spoken on these written pages of his
holy word. And he's the first man who spoke
in parables. And I told you I'll preach on
those tonight. It's the very first time the word parable is
used in the Bible. Balaam spoke in parables. But go back to the 22nd chapter. He had a face-to-face encounter
with the Son of God. The Lord met him and He and the
Lord talked, I suppose he talked to the Lord in a vision, I don't
know. But he spoke to the Lord and the Lord said, well, the
Moabites want you to go with them. When they come to get you,
then you go with them. But now Balaam is a very covetous
man. And rather than wait for them,
he was up at the crack of dawn because he wants more money.
He wants the treasures of Moab. And so in verse 21 of chapter
22, and Balaam rose up in the morning. He saddled his ass and
he went with the princes of Moab. Now God said you can go with
them when they come to get you. Oh, but he's a greedy man. He's
anxious to get more money. So he beats everybody up and
he starts on his way. Verse 22, God's anger was kindled
because he went. And the angel of the Lord, who's
that? That's Christ Jesus. That's the
Son of God in pre-incarnate form. He often appeared like this in
the Old Testament. He stood in the way for an adversary
against him. Now Balaam was riding upon his
ass, and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw the
angel of the Lord standing in the way. In 2 Peter 2, Peter
talks about false prophets and he likens them to brute beasts. Brute beasts. But let me tell
you something, this beast that Balaam is riding on has more
sense and more understanding than the man who's riding him.
And the real brute beast in this story is not the ass upon which
he rode, but Balaam. He's the real ignorant man. Verse 23, again, the ass saw
the angel of the Lord standing in the way and his sword drawn
in his hand. And the ass It turned aside out
of the way and went into the field. And Balaam smote the ass
to turn her into the way. Here's this little burra and
she turns aside because she sees the angel of the Lord standing
in the road with a sword. And that little burra, she just
kind of veers off into a field and Balaam begins to beat her. Verse 24, but the angel of the
Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall on this side and a wall
on that side. And when the ass saw the angel
of the Lord, she thrust herself into the wall and she crushed
Balaam's foot against the wall and he beat her again. And the angel of the Lord, Christ,
went further and stood in a narrow place where was no way to turn,
either to the right hand or to the left, and when the ass saw
the angel of the Lord, he knew his master. He knew his creator,
or she knew her master. This little burrow, this ass,
this jackass, this donkey, she knew her creator, she knew her
sustainer, she recognized him. Men who have sinned don't recognize
him, but this beast recognizes him. And she falls down under
Balaam. Oh, and his anger was kindled
and he smoked the ass with a staff. Just beat that poor burrow to
death nearly. And the Lord opened the mouth
of the ass. And she said under Balaam, What
have I done unto thee that thou hast smitten me these three times? And Balaam said unto the ass,
because thou hast mocked me, I wish I had a sword in my hand,
I'd kill you right now. And the ass said unto Balaam,
am I not thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I
was thine unto this day? I've been good to you, haven't
I? I've been a faithful servant. I've been a faithful servant,
a willing servant. Was I ever want to do anything
so unto thee? Have I ever done anything like
this before? And he said, no. And then the Lord opened the
eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in
the way and his sword drawn in his hand. and he bowed down his
head and he fell flat on his face. He saw the Son of God and
fell flat on his face. Verse 32, and the angel of the
Lord said unto him, wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these
three times? Behold, I went out to withstand
thee because thy way is perverse before me. And the ass saw me
and turned from me three times. These three times, unless she
had turned from me, surely now also I had killed thee and I'd
have saved her. What you don't realize is she
saved your life. I wonder how many times in our
lives God has put whatever circumstance we were in And there was something
that happened, something he put there that saved our lives. We
were in danger, didn't even know it. He put something there that
saved our life. And Balaam said unto the angel
of the Lord, watch it, I have sinned. That's a good thing to say. I
told you he said some good things. I have sinned. For I knew not
that thou stoodest in the way against me." I didn't know you
were against me. I didn't understand who it was
that stood in front of me ready to kill me. I didn't know anything
about this. I didn't know anything about
your justice. I didn't know anything about wrath. I didn't know anything
about judgment. Now therefore, if it displeased
thee, I'll get me back again." And the angel of the Lord said,
go with the men, but just tell them what I tell you to tell
them. He had a face-to-face encounter
with the Son of God and died and went to hell. But you know
what? Most of the people who saw the
Savior face-to-face during his earthly sojourn, They saw him. They heard him. They witnessed
his miracles. They still died in unbelief,
went to hell. He's got to do something for
you in your heart. There has to be a revelation
of His glory and of His substitutionary sacrifice to the heart. That's
what's necessary. See, everybody's gonna see Jesus
Christ someday at the judgment. Oh, but to see Him now as the
only Savior, to bow before Him now as Lord
and King, Now that's salvation. You know, three full chapters
are devoted to this man, 22, 23, 24. He talked about the certainty
of the Word of God. Look at chapter 23, verse 19. And I've got to go quickly because
it's just, there's so much information here. Look at 23, 19. And this
is part of the parable, part of the second parable. I'll be
dealing with this tonight. Verse 18 says, He took up his
parable and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear, hearken unto me, thou
son of Zippor. 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? Hath he spoken, and shall he
not make it good? And when I hear a preacher say
something like that, I say, Amen! Amen! If God says He's going to do
something, you can bank on it. He's going to do it. Once again in chapter 23, look
back at verse 9. He talked about the blessedness
of being numbered among the people of God. He says, from the top of the
rocks, I see Him, I see the Lord, I see the Lord and His people,
because you can't separate the Lord and His people. See, there's
a unity of Christ and His people. From the hills I behold Him,
lo, the people shall dwell alone. They're the lone people of the
earth who belong to God, the redeemed of the Lord. and shall
not be reckoned among the nations. They're not numbered with the
heathen nation. They're different people, chosen
from all eternity to belong to the Lord. And he says in verse
10, who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth
part of them? And then he says, let me die the death of the righteous
and let my last end be like his, but it wasn't. But he said that
that's his desire. I want to die the death of the
righteous. Listen, if you want to die the death of the righteous, you've got to be a living in
righteousness. You got to have righteousness
in Christ Jesus. You want to die righteous? Live
righteous. That don't mean do right during
your life. That means bow to the Lord Jesus
Christ and recognize His righteousness only avails with God. You don't have any of your own.
Well, preacher, I'm doing the best I can. How good's a man
got to be to be accepted by God? He's got to be as good as God.
He's got to be righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, let
me die at the death of the righteous. Poor old soul, it's not gonna
happen. Because you love money more than
you love the Lord. Oh, you've got some belief, you've
got some right beliefs here now. But listen, no man can serve
two masters. That's what scripture says. as
something he loved more than the Lord, something far more
important to him than the things of God, is the things of this
earth, the treasures of this earth. Isaac, greedy man. He's
a covetous man. And then look at chapter 24,
verse 17. He saw a vision of the Almighty.
Look at verse 17 of chapter 24. I shall see him, but not now.
I'm going to see him one day. I shall behold him, but not now. There shall come a star out of
Jacob. There's Christ Jesus. There's
Christ Jesus. The star, capital S, the star,
the bright in the morning star, he saw, he foretold, he prophesied
of the coming of the Son of God, the star coming out of Jacob. He's Christ, the light of the
world. He's the son of righteousness.
And he says a scepter shall rise out of Israel. A king! A king is coming! That's what
he said. A king is coming! He did come. And I tell you what,
he's going to smite all of his enemies. He had lots of good things to
say. He never could curse Israel. But I tell you what he did do,
and I'll wind this up. He told Balak, he said, I can't
curse the people that God's blessed. I'll tell you what you do. You
invite the Israelites over into your camp where you're having
a feast for your God, Baal, specifically Baal Peor as his name. Dunghill God of the Moabites. and you get them to eat with
you and fellowship with you and break down all distinctions between
true religion and false religion. Get them to come over to your
side and just say, we can get along here. You believe your
way and we'll believe our way. You come to our church today,
that's what they said. And they did, Israel did. And
they feasted with them and they bowed down to their God. And God was angry with Israel
and he killed 24,000 of them. Balaam said, I can't curse them,
but I can tell you what God will do to them if you can lead them
into idolatry. God will get them. And he did.
He did. But know this. notwithstanding all the purpose
of hell against the true people of God, the enemy shall not be
victorious. The purpose of God shall continue
triumphant. And though he did cause hardship
for the nation of Israel, no question about that, he couldn't
harm the people of God. And later, look over in chapter
31. Chapter 31. As some time later,
the Lord spoke unto Moses. Said, it's time for vengeance.
Get out your swords. And God said, I want a thousand
soldiers out of every tribe. and pull your swords out and
go out there and kill the enemy. Well, that's what they started
doing. In verse seven, chapter 31 in
verse seven. And they warred, the Israelites
warred against several people, and among them, the Midianites,
as the Lord commanded Moses, they killed all the males. They
slew the kings of Midian. Beside the rest of them that
were killed or slain, namely, Evi, and Recham, and Zer, and
Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian, Balaam also. the son of Beor, they killed
with a sword. He's still with them idolaters. You make your camp with them,
you're going to perish with them. That's the truth. You're going
to hang around idolaters. You're going to hang around false
religion. You're going to hang around free
willers. Well, we all have differences, but we all love the Lord. Go
ahead and hang around with them. But the angel of God is going
to come after you one of these days with his sword drawn. Because
you didn't take a stand for his word. You were a compromiser. Dangerous, dangerous thing. Boy,
it's an interesting fellow, isn't he? Interesting man, Balaam. Three full chapters devoted to
him, and he's mentioned several times throughout the scriptures.
I'll give you a few of those this evening, but I didn't preach
long enough. You kinda got the story now. May God show us mercy for Christ's
sake. Yeah. Just being religious, my
friends, isn't good enough. You gotta know God. Gotta be
found in Christ Jesus. There's no righteousness anywhere
else except the righteousness of the Son of God. Oh, may we
be found in Him. That's Paul's prayer in the book
of Philippians. Let's bow together. Thank you,
Father, for the Word of God, so very clear, so pertinent for our day, a day
of religious compromise, a day of very little religious distinctions. When most people think if you're
good and you go to some kind of church and you believe in
God, you're all right. Oh Lord, show us that that just
isn't so. Because we've looked at a man's
life this morning who did many religious things, many good things,
but he didn't know you. He didn't know the living God.
He didn't love Christ. He didn't believe Christ. He
loved riches. He loved mammon. He loved the
things of this world more than the Lord. And you can't serve
two masters. Be merciful to us and bring us
to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. in whom salvation
is found, and in Him alone. For Jesus' sake I pray, Amen.