And we'll go back to Numbers
chapter 23. The book of Numbers, especially these
events that we're dealing with regarding this man Balaam, these
are near to the end of Israel's journey toward the land of milk
and honey. It won't be much longer. They're
now camped beside the Jordan River. And not too many days
or weeks from this, they will go into that land that God had
promised to give to Abraham and to his seed. We'll look into
this portion of Scripture after we once again seek God's face
in prayer. Our Father, this is such a very
serious time. Whenever we open your Word in
front of a congregation, we feel the burden of the Word of the
Lord. And we are made to know and remember
again the seriousness of what we are attempting to do. Oh God, we understand we're a
people on the precipice of eternity. And there is but one, one savior. There is but one sacrifice that
satisfied you. There is but one blood that washed
away sin. Oh, Father, we come to you through
that one whom you ordained, that man whom you ordained, our Lord
Jesus Christ. And we ask, oh God, for Christ's
sake and based upon his merits, based upon his sacrifice upon
the cross of Calvary that satisfied your justice for a chosen people,
We ask you, O God, to send forth now the Spirit of Christ that
he would minister within the hearts of all of us. Take your word, O Father, and make it real to us. We don't want to merely be religious. Lord, we want to be righteous. We don't merely want lives that
are clean and upright. We want hearts that are righteous
before you. We don't want to merely wear
the clothing of Religion, we want the garments of your salvation. Oh God in heaven, you have said
in your word that you're plenteous in redemption. You're merciful
to those that call upon you. Lord, hear our call and hear
our cry. for mercy through the Lord Jesus
Christ and his work of redemption that fully satisfied all of your
justice. Bless as I preach and bless these
individually as they listen. Give to us the hearing ear Give
to us the seeing eye for spiritual things. Lord, we ask these things
for your glory. In the name of Christ Jesus,
our savior, amen. There are in this world lots
of religious people. people have this very day, millions
of people undoubtedly have attended their respective churches, denominations,
places of various beliefs, and people have listened today
to either true preachers or false preachers. true prophets or false
prophets. It is a sad fact that every man
who comes before a congregation, who has a Bible in his hand,
it's a sad fact that they don't all speak for God. But it is
a fact that we need to understand. Everybody who says God sent me
to speak to you is not sent of God. The man that we've been
speaking about, I spoke about him this morning, we'll kind
of focus in on him again this evening, is a man by the name
of Balaam. And as I said this morning about
Balaam, his name means not of the people. He is not of the
people of God. You must understand that. He
is a man from the East who was a soothsayer into well, witchcraft
and such things as that nature. A man who had unusual gifts. But he did not know God. He was
not numbered among the Israel of God. Now, in the Old Testament,
we know there's the nation of Israel, and they are a picture
of God's true Israel. God's true Israel being the bride
of the Lord Jesus. God's true Israel being the chosen
of God unto salvation. God's true Israel being those
that were redeemed by the bloodied death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's true Israel are those who are made to know the grace of
God in their hearts through the regenerating work of the Holy
Spirit. God's true people are those who
come to believe the Lord Jesus Christ and rest all of their
souls hopes for salvation only in this one and in his work of
redemption. Balaam was not one of the people. He was a false prophet. And as you read about Balaam,
and Nancy and I were talking about this this afternoon, as
you read Numbers chapter 22, 23, and 24, it is not easy to
detect that he is a false prophet. Because in many ways, he seems
to be a faithful man setting forth the Word of God. And I
would challenge you to find anything that this man spoke that was
wrong. Whenever God came to him and
said something to him, you go tell King Balak this, that, or
something else. He said it just like God spoke
it. He knew the Word of God mentally. He had recited what God gave
him. But the Word of God, the Word
of grace, The word of the gospel, it never penetrated his heart. He did not know the God of creation. He did not know the God of grace. He did not know the God of glory. He knew the letter of the word
of God. Because he accurately delivered
that word to Balak. Balak, as you will remember,
had hired him to curse Israel. Now understand, Balaam, he was
ready to curse him. He wanted to curse him. He desired
to curse him. He was given money. He was given
treasures. He was given cattle and sheep. And he, with all of his being,
he wanted to do what Balak asked him to do, what he was hired
to do, but God would not let him do it. But he wanted to do
it because he is an evil man. You beware, you be careful when
you listen to any preacher, and that includes me. That includes
Brother Allen. That includes brother Ron when
he preaches. We must be like the Bereans and
take the word of God and make certain that which we're listening
to is indeed the word of God. Every man doesn't preach the
truth, that's just a fact. You see, Balaam, Though he accurately
recited what God told him to Balak, he didn't care anything
about Balak. All he cared about was his money.
And furthermore, he didn't care anything about Israel. All he cared about, more treasures. and he didn't care anything about
the glory of God. Didn't matter to him. He'd work
for anybody. He'd preach for any religion.
He didn't have any scruples about that. Didn't matter what the
belief was. All religions, as far as he was
concerned, was okay. All he wanted to do was make
another dollar. That's all he wanted. And I'm
telling you there are multitudes of preachers today. They can
say some accurate, accurate things. But you be careful because most
preachers don't know the gospel of grace. They can read the Bible. but you listen to them now. You've
got to listen. I kind of hesitate to say with
a critical ear, but in a way you do listen with a critical
ear. And I challenge you, take the word of God and follow me. That's the reason we say, bring
your Bible. You can't just believe what a
man says because he says, now I'm a preacher sent from God.
Really? The Lord Jesus, he said in Matthew
chapter seven, beware of false prophets. That's what he said. He said, they come to you in
sheep's clothing. They masquerade as if they're
one of the Lord's people. And they come with a smile. Usually they're very pleasant
men. They're nice fellas. But the saviors, this is the
Lord Jesus now. The savior said inwardly, oh,
inwardly. He said, they're destructive
and ferocious wolves. And they're out to destroy you.
They're out to destroy you. That's what Paul said when he
met in Acts chapter 20 with the Ephesian elders. He said, after
I leave, he said, after my departure, I know, I know that within the
congregation there shall rise up men who don't know God. They're wolves. And he said,
let me tell you something, they're not gonna spare the flock. No,
they don't show any mercy. And you know, as you read about
Balaam, again, I'll say this, he said so many good things that
if we didn't know the whole story, we'd think, well, this guy's
all right. But you see, he didn't have a
burden. And one of the things that sets God's preachers apart
from false preachers is God's preachers have a burden. Number
one, they have a burden for the glory of God. This weighs heavily upon, it
weighs heavily upon me. that I want the God of glory,
the God of grace, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. I want the Lord to be magnified. That's my desire. If I know my
heart deep down within me, that's what I want. And that's what
every preacher of the gospel longs for is the glory of God.
I want God to be exalted. Let the Lord be your boast is
what the scripture says. In fact, for you, You in the
pew. The scripture says, whether therefore
you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. That's to be our reason for living.
That's to be our reason for preaching. That's to be your reason for
playing the organ. That's to be your reason for
playing the piano. That's the reason for singing.
That's the reason for you being here. That's the reason why we
all ought to exist and live for God's glory. Because you see,
it's not about you. You see, with Balaam, it was
all about Balaam. Who's he interested in? Balaam. He wasn't interested in God. God's preachers have a burden
for the glory of God. And I'll tell you something else,
God's preachers have a burden for His Word. The Word of God
is a burden laid upon them. You read through the Old Testament
prophets. The burden of the Word of the
Lord weighed on them. Now it wasn't a grievous burden. It wasn't a burden that they
hated to bear. But it was a heavy burden because
they realized their responsibility to be honest before God, to be
truthful before men. And they bore that burden faithfully. You read through the book of
Isaiah 13 times, Isaiah talked about the burden of the word
of the Lord. Where's that today in religion? You watch television, you watch
preachers on television, they're entertaining, they're laughing,
they're cutting up. They're making a mockery of the
things of God. Where's the burden of the word
of the Lord? Where's the fire that burns in
the heart? You don't see much of that. Preachers today are tickling
the ears of people. Try to keep them happy. Try to
keep them satisfied. Try to keep their churches together.
Try to brag on folks. Try to recognize people. Let's
recognize people. That'll make people feel good.
That'll keep them coming. Let's make them busy. Let's give
them a job. Let's entertain the young people.
Every once in a while I get a phone call and I say, what do you do
for your young people at 13th Street Baptist Church? And the
last one I said, we're trying to keep them out of hell. Is
that okay? I get so frustrated with people. They want to entertain. Well,
we want to make church fun. Make it fun. This is the most serious thing
we do right here. It's not about having fun. And
I, you know, I'm kind of a lighthearted person, and I put a little levity
into things, I put a little humor into things, and sometimes I
feel like I do too much of that. Because really, this is quite
serious. Because as I prayed a while ago,
you're on the verge, you're on the very precipice of eternity,
and you're going to meet a holy God. There's nothing funny about
that. And He demands righteousness. And if you're not righteous,
He's going to do away with you forever. That's as serious as
it gets right there, Ron. And so the true preacher comes
with a burden for the word of the Lord. And it's like a fire
that burns within. It's like, who is it? Alphas in the book of Job. He listened to Job and his three
friends. And he just spoke, he's the youngest
of all of them. He said, I'll let you guys have
your say, cause you, it's supposed to be wisdom and old age. He
said, I ain't heard a good thing yet. I hadn't heard anybody honor
God. He said, I'm like a wine skin. I'm gonna burst wide open if
I don't say something. None of you guys have bragged
on God. You talked about yourself. That's
the servant of the Lord right there. Oh, he said, I'm full of the
matter. You gotta say something or I'm
just gonna bust wide open, he said. And that's the way it is
with the burden of the word of God, isn't it, Alan? You just
gotta tell the truth. You gotta tell people who God
is. Oh, they don't know. They think
God can be manipulated. See, that's what Balaam thought. I read to you this morning those
times when he offered his sacrifices to God. He wasn't a true worshipper. He's trying to butter up God.
Because he thought if he could do something that pleased God,
then he could get God to do what he wanted Him to do. Hey, that
ain't going to work. You're not going to manipulate
God. You can manipulate your God. but you're not gonna manipulate
the God of heaven, earth, and hell because he'll do his will
among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth and none's gonna stay his hand nor say unto him, what doest
thou? And the man of God has a burden for the word of the
Lord. I wanna tell you who God is. He's not like you thought
he is. You can't move him around. He's
unchangeable. And he's absolutely holy. He's
not gonna accept the best you can do. You go ahead and live
your life. Well, I'm living by the 10 commandments. Go ahead.
Law of God will kill you. That's right. It'll put you out
of business. Law of God will lock you away
someday in hell and throw away the key. That'd be the end of
you. Oh, God tell people who God,
tell people what God demands. He gotta tell people of his grace,
that he's not gonna show grace. He's not gonna show mercy. He's
not gonna forgive at the expense of his justice. The soul that's
sinning shall die. God's gonna get death. Do you
understand that? He's gonna get death. Either
yours or substitutes, but he's gonna get death. He's gonna get
blood. He'll have a life. He's gonna have a life. And the burden of the word of
the truth about sinners. We're a helpless bunch of people. And we can clean up the outside.
And if you're doing some things that are wrong, Drink, getting drunk, or using
illicit drugs, or immorality, those are wrong. You go ahead
and clean up the outside. That's all right, go ahead and
clean it. You're doing some vile things, y'all stop them. But
that's not gonna make things right with God. It'll make you look better before
people. but you're still going to be
rotten before God. And the burden of the Word of
the Lord tells about Christ Jesus, the only Savior. The burden. The burden. The burden of the
Word of God. There's the burden for the glory
of God, the burden for the Word of God, there's the burden for
the souls of men. I do care about you. You care about your congregation.
That's the reason we tell people the truth in Atlanta. That's
why we're honest with you. I'm not trying to win your friendship. I'm not trying to get you to
like me. I appreciate being liked. A whole lot better to be liked
than to be hated. But that's not the goal here.
I want you to know God through Christ Jesus. That's the reason,
that's a burden that weighs on my heart and it weighs on the
heart of every preacher. You ever heard of a preacher
by the name of Christmas Evans? He preached many years ago. Well,
the service began and he wasn't up on the platform. That's back
in those days when you ascended and they had those big pulpits
and the sounding board, you know, so that, because they didn't
have microphones and stuff like that. They started the service
and the music was going on and one deacon said to another deacon,
where's the preacher? He said, I don't know. And he said, well, you better
go check on him. So he went to his office. And there was Christmas
Eve, and Pastor Evans was in there praying, didn't have the
door closed, praying. And he just slipped right back
out, went out, and the other deacon said, well, did you find
the preacher? He said, yes, I did. He said, well, is he coming?
He said, he's praying. And he said, brother, here's
what he's praying, Lord, I've gone into the pulpit by myself
for the very last time. If you don't go with me, I'm
not going. That's a man who's got a burden.
That's a man who's got a burden. Oh God, give us that kind of
preacher. Make me that kind of preacher. Preacher with a burden. Balaam
didn't have that. He didn't have that. Ever read
anything about William Carey? He was a missionary to India,
long time ago. And he had a son who helped him,
his name was Felix. And word came to William Carey,
said, did you hear about your son Felix? He said, no, what? He said, Felix has been appointed
by the King of England to be an ambassador representing the
British crown to some country. I forget what country it was
now. And William Carey said, hadn't
heard that. He said, yeah, it's true. He
said, well then my son Felix, he has shrunk. from being an
ambassador of the King of Kings to being an ambassador for the
King of the British Crown. Oh, this is weighty. This is
weighty. Don't take this lightly. Balaam, false prophet. But he spoke in parables. And I want you to go, I'm going
to skip over some things here. I'm going to take you to the
New Testament. I'll do that another time. But I want you to look
here in chapter 23. He spoke four parables. I got to give them to you quick.
Parable number one is in chapter 23, verses five through 10. And
here is the gist of this parable. Now in each one of them, he's
talking to Balak and giving to him the word of the Lord. And the first parable is about
really no condemnation for God's people. Chapter 23, look at verse
five. And the Lord put a word in Balaam's
mouth. Isn't that something? That's
an amazing, the Lord put a word in his mouth. And the Lord said,
you go back to Balak and this is what you're gonna tell him.
And so he returned to him and lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice. He and all the princes of Moab,
there they are by the burnt sacrifices. And they're thinking, listen,
we brought to God the burnt offerings that he demands. Surely we can
kind of move him around. We've softened him up. That's
the idea. We've softened God up so that
he'll do what we want him to do. Now notice this. This man Balak, he hires Balaam
to go and curse Israel. And he says, you go to God, you
go to the God of Israel and talk to him. But Balak, he did not have any
confidence in Baal, Peor, who was his God. He didn't have any
confidence in him doing anything at all. Because his God was merely
a dung hill God. That's all he was. He was a male
God of the Moabites. He was just an idol coming out
of the vain imagination of men. Whereas God is real, God is glorious,
God's eternal, God's a creator, God's a sustainer, God's the
savior of sinners, but not Baal. And he knew deep down in his
heart, this is interesting. He did have enough sense to know,
Baal can't help me on this. No, he can't. Because he's just
a figment of your imagination. That's all, he's just an idol. So verse seven, he took up his
parable and he said, Balak, I remember Balaam's preaching now. And he,
actually Balaam is a very, he's a good orator. He's a very eloquent
speaker. And when it comes to preachers,
really, he's a better preacher than Moses was as far as his
style. And he's a better preacher than
Aaron. Aaron is now dead, of course. Oh, he was an orator. Oh, he is a speaker. He is polished,
but he didn't know God. See, we come to you, Alan preaches
to you, and I preach to you. We're just country preachers.
We're not polished orators. We make mistakes, and sometimes
our grammar isn't correct. Sorry about that. I'm just a
Virginia boy. Sometimes I speak Southern and
not American or not English or whatever, you know. But we do have the truth. Balaam didn't have the truth.
He is a good speaker. He says, Balak, the king of Moab,
hath brought me up from Aram, out of the mountains of the east,
saying, come, curse me, Jacob, and come, defy Israel. And this is what God told him,
told Balaam to tell Balak. How shall I curse whom God hath
not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the
Lord hath not defied? I can't curse them. I can't defy
them, because God has blessed them. And for the people of God,
we're blessed with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Nobody can curse you. Nobody can curse you. See, the
only one who can truly curse people is God. Even Balak knew
that. And Balaam knew that. And I hope
you know that. It doesn't matter what anybody
else says. There's only one who can bless
and one who can curse. And it's up to him, which he
does. People have trouble swallowing
that. But he blessed the people in
Christ Jesus before this world began. I was at a business the
other day, and after I paid the money, this guy said, Lord bless
you. I said, I've been blessed from
all eternity. And he just looked like a deer
caught in the headlights. He didn't know what to make of
that. I've been blessed from all eternity.
Those whom God blesses, they're blessed indeed. And this is what
Balaam says. He's continuing the word of the
Lord. He says, from the top of the rocks, I see him. I see Israel. From the hills, I behold him.
Lo, the people shall dwell alone and they shall not be reckoned
among the nations. In other words, they're not of
this world. You know, now we've got the 2020
census. You fill yours out, I'll fill
mine out. I've been counted. Nancy's been counted. We've been
counted. We've been numbered. We've been reckoned. But really,
our citizenship isn't here. Our citizenship's in glory. It's in heaven. And we must not get too upset
about things that happen in this nation and on this earth because
really, it doesn't have anything to do with us. You understand
what I'm saying? We're not of the nations of this
earth. We're a chosen generation. We're
peculiar people. We're God's redeemed people.
We're not of this world. And the world doesn't understand
us. The world doesn't understand why we meet tonight. while we
preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified and magnify the name of God,
they don't get it. Maybe you don't get it. But there
are some of us, we get it. And we're here because we want
to. Nobody bribed you to come. I didn't put $5 bills under some
of these pews and if you find the $5 bill, it's yours. That's
your reward for coming. I tell you your reward for coming,
you get to hear the truth again. You get to hear the gospel of
Christ Jesus again. You get to hear about forgiveness
again, and righteousness again, and the Savior again, and the
mediatorial reign of our Lord Jesus again. Boy, that's reward. That's reward enough. I get to
hear the truth. I get to bask my soul in the
truth of God's Word. He says in verse 10, who can
count the dust of Jacob? Man, so many of them, he says.
He said, oh, I wanna die like they die. Let me die, verse 10,
let me die the death of the righteous. Let my last end be like his. And I say, Balaam, well, I got
that same desire. Yeah, I wanna die the death of
the righteous. And I want my last end to be
like his. I'm coming down toward the end
of life. I want my last end to be the
death of a righteous man. Balaam didn't die the death of
a righteous man. He died the death of a wicked
man. And in hell, he lifted up his
eyes. And as his first parable, Now
to look at chapter 23 again, now look at verse 14. Here's
his second parable. God's blessings are irreversible. Verses 14 through 26. So he brought him into the field
of Zophim and took him up on a hill. He just keeps getting
higher and higher. To the top of Pisgah. and built
seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar." Still
thinking you manipulate God. You surely don't think you can
move God around, get God to change what he's purposed to do. And he said to Balak, stand here
by the burnt offering while I meet the Lord yonder. And the Lord
met Balaam, put a word in his mouth and said, go again unto
Balak and save us. And when he came to him, behold,
he stood by his burnt offering and the princes of Moab with
him." There's Balak and all those princes, all them high ranking
people. And Balak said, well, what'd
the Lord say? Verse 18, so he took up this
parable. I told you this morning, first
time the word parables used in the Bible is in Numbers chapter
23 when Balaam used it. He took up this parable and he
said, rise up, Balak, and hear. Every parable directed to Balak.
Hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor. And he says several things. He said, God is not a man that
he should lie. Men lie, that's just a fact. Let God be true and every man
a liar. You're a liar and I'm a liar
too. Let's just be honest about that.
Well, you know, you, I gotta be careful here. White says,
does this look good on me? Looks great. Actually, I'm thinking I prefer
something else. I don't wanna get in trouble
here. We've managed to get through 51 years, but you get the idea
what I'm trying to say. And we have a way of kind of
molding the truth. We're liars. All men are liars. And he says, God is not a man
that he should lie, neither the Son a man that he should repent.
Watch it. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? Now somebody says, you know,
well, I know God has His plans. No, He doesn't. God doesn't have
His plans. I have plans. and you have plans. God has his eternal purpose. There's a big, big difference. Because those plans that I make,
even though I tell you I'm gonna do something, maybe I promise
you, I'll see you tomorrow at such and such a location, and
I fully intend to stand by my word, but though I have good
intentions, there are a lot of things I can't control. And so
lots of times my plans just don't come to fruition. And it's the
same way with you. But that's not the way it is
with God. If he says something, he's gonna
make it good. That's God. And you're not gonna
move him around and say, well, prayer changes God. I beg your
pardon. What in the world are you saying?
Prayer changes God? He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. If you got a changeable God,
you're worshiping an idol. That's all you worshiping. Tell you what, God says he's
gonna do something. Go to the bank on it. Go to the bank on it. You know,
before he made this world, he covenanted for the salvation
of a people. He purposed it, it's done. It
was done. He united a people to Jesus Christ,
it was done. Well, Jim, when were you saved? Before the world began. when
God put me in Christ Jesus. Well, when was that? I've always
been in Christ Jesus. I've always been one in Him. Because when God purposed it,
it's done. See Christ, the Lamb of God who
died 2,000 years ago, He really died 2,000 years ago. But the
Bible says He's the Lamb who was slain before the foundation
of the world. I can't explain that, but I sure
enough believe it. It's so. Look at verse 20. Behold, I have
received commandment to bless and he had blessed, I can't reverse
it. Let me tell you something, you
who are the people of God, you've been blessed with all spiritual
blessings and not all the powers of hell can reverse that. Let
all the enemies of God gang up on you, Satan leading the way,
and all the one-third of angels who fell with him. It doesn't
matter if they're all against you. If God be for you, who can
be against you? This can't be reversed. And verse 21, he hath not beheld
iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. Can you believe that? He doesn't
see any iniquity in his people. Iniquity, what is that? Iniquity,
not equal to perfection. God doesn't see anything in you
but perfection. That's all he sees. And He's
always seen you in perfection because He's always seen you
in Christ Jesus. You're surety. Well, doesn't He see when I sin?
Sure He sees when you sin. Is He displeased with my sin? Sure He's displeased with your
sin. When David committed adultery
with Bathsheba and then had Uriah sent to the front of the lines
and then said, leave him out there by himself. And Uriah,
her husband, Bathsheba's husband got killed. And what the Bible
says, that thing displeased the Lord. But God wasn't displeased
with David though. Because David, was in his son,
with whom God is always pleased. Did David do wrong? Sure he did
wrong. Do we do wrong? Sure we do wrong,
and when we do, it displeases God. But He's not displeased
with us. That's what we need to remember.
And I don't want to do things that are displeasing to God,
and you don't either. But the fact is we do, and He
forgives us through the blood of the Lord Jesus. But in Christ
Jesus, He is always pleased with us. And if you could ever grab
a hold of that, or if that ever grab a hold of you, when you
lay down tonight, you'd get some sleep. You'd be at peace. And he hadn't seen perverseness. You know what that means? Mischief. There's nothing troubling in
the people of God to God. There's nothing about you that
troubles God. He looks at you and he says,
perfect. Perfect, righteous. See, that's
the amazing thing about this gospel. Perfect. He goes on. He says, the Lord,
his God is with him and the shout of a king is among them. Oh boy,
the charismatics have a good time with shout of the king.
Wherever the people of God are, There's always the shout of the
King among them. And I can tell you what it is.
It is finished. That's the shout of the King.
It is finished. He cried that on the cross of
Calvary. And whenever we gather together,
the shout of the King is among us. Oh, this feeds our souls. This makes us rejoice. It's finished. He finished the work of redemption.
And then Balaam says, God brought them out of Egypt. He hath, as
it were, the strength of a unicorn, which I take to be a rhinoceros. The Lord gave to Balaam the name
of an animal, which in the eyes of men is one of the strongest
beasts on earth. God's got the strength of a rhinoceros. And he says in verse 23, surely
there's no enchantment against Jacob. There's no divination
against Israel. According to this time, it shall
be said of Jacob and of Israel, watch this, what God hath wrought. Look what God hath wrought. He
brought these people out of Egypt. They're on their way to the promised
land. Look what God hath wrought. And then he sees that the people
of God are in union with Christ, who is the lion of the tribe
of Judah. You remember Genesis chapter
49, when Jacob pronounced blessings upon his sons? And he got to
Judah. Listen, we're one with Christ
Jesus. So he says this in verse 24.
Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion and lift up
himself as a young lion. He shall not lie down until he
eat the prey and drink the blood of the slain. We're more than
conquerors through Christ who loved us. Thirdly, and I gotta
go quickly here, chapter 24, verses one through nine, God's
people are beautiful. God's people are beautiful to
Him. Well, look at verse one of chapter 24. And when Balaam
saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, it pleased God
to bless Israel. Whatever has pleased God to do,
that's what he does. In other words, he does what
he pleases. You don't do what you please.
You're not independent. You're very dependent upon a
lot of people, but God does what he wants to do and nobody can
stop him. And here's what you need to understand. Go back up into chapter 23 and
verse 28. Balak brought Balaam unto the
very top of Peor that looketh toward Jeshimon. See, it keeps on going up higher
and higher. You just need to get a better
look at him. That's what Balak is saying to Balaam. You need
to see the whole picture. And I'll tell you, with you and
me, sometimes we just look at things on our level. Things are
not as we view them. Things are as God views them. He's way up here. And the Lord arranged for Balaam
to go way up on top of a high mountain and look down upon Israel. And he saw it pleased God to
bless his people. Look at verse five. He says,
how goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel.
They dwell in peace. They dwell in peace. He beheld
all their tents of people abiding together, dwelling together,
worshiping God. They dwell in the Lord. He saw
the Lord watches over them all the time. The Lord was a pillar
of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He's just up
there watching them. Because they're watching from
a high viewpoint. We make the mistake of looking
through just level. Hey, you're not gonna get the
big picture then. You just need to go up on a high
mountain. view things, and this is what God showed Balaam, how
see things as God views things. How goodly are their tents. He says in verse six, as the
valleys are spread forth, as the garden by the riverside,
as the trees of line aloes, which the Lord hath planted, and as
cedar trees beside the water. These people, they're like trees
that God has planted. They're rooted in his gospel. They're rooted in his grace.
They're rooted in his eternal purpose. And they're like lovely
flowers in the king's garden. He planted them all. And look
at verse seven, he shall pour the water out of his buckets.
His seed shall be as many waters and his king shall be higher
than Agag and his kingdom shall be exalted. That Balaam's up
there looking down. He says, look at that river of
water following them. River that come out of a rock. River that went with them all
the way to the land of promise. Ain't that something? The river
of life is with them. Christ is with us. Ah, don't
forget that. Christ is with us. And I'll tell you, he's higher
than any king on this earth. His kingdom be exalted. In verse
eight, God brought him forth out of Egypt. He hath, as it
were, the strength of a unicorn. He shall eat up the nations,
his enemies, and shall break their bones and pierce them through
with arrows. He couched. He lay down as a
lion, and as a great lion, who shall stir him. Blessed is he
that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee. And
that's still that way today. Don't you mess with God's people. You parents, somebody mess with your kids,
even they're adults now. You don't take that too kindly.
You don't take that too kindly, would you? You don't do that.
Did you say something about my son? Now, wait a minute. You better reel them words back
in. We take offense if you say something about our children,
our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren. You be careful what you say about
God's children. You don't want him to take offense
with you. No. Yeah, but they did wrong. Well, you best forgive them then
because the Lord has. Yeah. And well, I gotta, let me wrap
this up here. Let's go over to chapter 24 and
verse 15. So he took up, here's the fourth
parable, total victory in Christ. He took up his parable and said,
Balaam, the son of Beor, hath said, the man whose eyes are
open, God's open eyes see some things. He has said, which heard
the words of God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which
saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having
his eyes open. He said, I shall see him, but not now. That's sad. I don't see him now. You see
him now? I see him now in his word. I
see him now by faith. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all ye into the earth, for I am God. And Balaam says, I don't
see him, but not now. You're right, Balaam. You will
see him. And you will see him. Every one
of us is going to see Him. We're going to see Him by faith
as the only Savior, the only hope we've got. We're going to
see Him at the judgment. Not going to be good then. He said, but not now. He said, I shall behold Him,
but not now. You know what He's saying? Well,
I know I'm going to die, but at least that's far off. No, you're wrong. It's not far
off, Balaam. You're gonna meet God, and you
don't have a savior, and you don't have a mediator, and you
don't have a great high priest, and you're laden with your sin,
and your death is gonna come sooner than you think, because
Israel is gonna come together, and they're gonna kill a bunch
of their enemies, and you're gonna fall among them. You think
judgment, well, judgment, yeah, that's a long ways off. How do
you know that? It might be tonight. Then he says three things about
Christ. There shall come, number one, a star out of Jacob. Verse
17, a star out of Jacob. He's the bright morning star.
He's the light of the world. Number two, a scepter shall rise
out of Israel. That's his kingly authority.
And shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children
of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession.
Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies. And Israel shall
do valiantly. And number three, out of Jacob
shall come he that shall have dominion. and shall destroy him that remaineth
of the city. And then he just continues to
talk about the destruction of the Lord's enemies. Verse 20,
when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable and said,
Amalek was the first of the nations. First of the nations to do what?
To attack Israel. He says, but his latter end shall
be that he perish forever. And he looked upon the Kenites
and took up his parable and said, strong is thy dwelling place,
and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. Looks like you're pretty
secure over there, but nevertheless, verse 22, the Kenites shall be
wasted until Asher shall carry thee away captive. You see, you
got a refuge. Isaiah says a refuge of lies. Unless Christ is your refuge,
you got a refuge of lies and God's going to find you out.
He's going to jerk you out of that false refuge and bring you
before him in your rotten, filthy rags and cast you away. And then
verse 23, he took up his parable and he said, alas, who shall
live when God doeth this? Boy, that is exactly right. Who's
gonna live when God goes on the war path? When the Lord Jesus sets up his
great, great white throne judgment, who shall live? You see that group at his right
hand? dressed in those white linen
garments you read about a while ago in Revelation chapter 19,
that righteousness that's been imputed to them, they gonna live. We gonna live. He says, and ships
shall come from the coast of Chittim and shall afflict Asher
and shall afflict Eber and he also shall perish forever. All
of God's enemies. And Balaam rose up and returned
to his, he went back to his place and Balaam also, Balak also went
his way. Both of them in unbelief. Just went right back where they
come from. You say, Balaam heard all these things from God? And
he went right back where he was? Right back to the cesspool of
idolatry? Yes, he did. because God wasn't
pleased to do a work of grace in his heart. Boy, we're totally
dependent upon him, aren't we? Oh God, show us mercy for Christ's
sake. Well, let's close in prayer.
Lord, oh my, how shall we begin to thank you? of your marvelous grace given
to us in Christ Jesus. You have blessed us so immensely. And we remember that if God be
for us, who shall be against us? All the powers of all the enemies
of our God and against our souls, all of them together, can't lift
a finger against your people, and they can't curse whom God
has blessed. Oh, our gracious God, thank you
for blessing us in Christ Jesus. In his name, with thanksgiving,
we pray. Amen. you