Let's go to the book of Numbers
this morning, Numbers chapter 23. Going into the Old Testament
this morning to the book of Numbers chapter 23. And here's my subject,
iniquity, iniquity not seen in Israel. Iniquity not seen in
Israel. And let me read here verse 21
of Numbers chapter 23. He hath not, that is God hath
not beheld iniquity in Jacob. The word iniquity means wickedness,
inequity. anything unequal to righteousness. And it says, God didn't see any
wickedness in Jacob. Now you understand he's talking
about the remnant within Jacob, that he's talking about the people
of God. And then neither hath he seen
perverseness in Israel. The word perverseness means mischief. anything troublesome unto God. God didn't see anything in Israel,
in His true Israel. He didn't see anything that bothered
Him or troubled Him. He didn't see anything in Israel,
in His people, in His people that He redeemed, that He saved. He saw nothing that was against
Him or contrary to Him. The Lord his God is with him. And the shout of a king is among
them. Really good words, but they're
spoken by an unusual man who appears for just two or three
chapters. He's mentioned several times
throughout the scriptures, but his name is Balaam. He's one
of the most unusual people that we meet with as we study the
wilderness journeys of Israel. He was a soothsayer. He was a preacher. He was actually, he originated
from the same country that Abraham came from, Mesopotamia. He was very well known in that
part of the world for his supernatural abilities. The devil He has power. He has authority. And he had
given to this man some ability in the purpose of God, because
God's going to use him. And God did use this man. But
the devil gave to this man unusual abilities. And even God used
him from time to time. I said the other night, God uses
everybody. Everybody's God's servant. And
God's going to use this man, Balaam, though he is, he's a
false prophet. He is a prophet for a hire. He
is, as the Lord spoke in John chapter 10, he's a hireling. This is a man who doesn't know
anything about redemption, he doesn't know anything about substitution,
he doesn't love God, he doesn't love the God of Israel. He is
not a believer in Jehovah. He sees nothing to be benefited
by the sacrifices of Israel and yet he offered sacrifices to
the God of Israel. And as you read through his history,
you will find him offering to God on two or three occasions,
sacrifices unto the Lord. He's a most unusual, unusual
character. But we never lose sight of the
fact that ultimately he is a false prophet. He has no love for God. He has no worship of God, but
he said some really good things. He's like many a false prophet
today who can say a lot of good things and yet not say the good
thing of the gospel of God's grace. The redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. He even says some things that
are accurate about God and about Israel, about the people of God. For instance, in this very verse
he says, God doesn't behold any iniquity, He doesn't see any
wickedness in His people. And He doesn't see any perverseness,
nothing that troubles Him. Here's what Balaam is saying.
As God beholds His people, as He inspects them, He sees nothing
that bothers Him. You know what bothers God? Sin.
That's opposed to God. But He didn't see any in Israel. And this is what Balaam said.
So he was capable of saying some accurate things. Some things
were very true. And yet his heart was far from
God. In fact, our Lord used three
of his disciples who were inspired writers in the New Testament. He used Jude, he used Peter,
and he used John to say some things to warn us about this
man, Balaam. Jude says he warned of the error
of Balaam. Peter in 2 Peter 2 and 15, he
warned of the way of Balaam. Then John in Revelation chapter
2, he warned of the doctrine of Balaam. You see, this man is a self-serving
preacher. He is covetous. And though he has some good things
to say about God, and some good things to say about the people
of God, this is a man who ultimately, he calls Israel to mingle the
worship of God with the worship of idols. This is a man who upon
their recommendation to the Israelites, The Israelites invited some of
the women over from a heathen country who were idolaters. And
then they married in that they blended the worship of Jehovah
with the worship of idols. That's this man. He is himself
an idolater, though he could say some accurate things. As you read about him, from especially
chapters 22, 23, and 24 in the book of Numbers. As you read
some of the things that he says, and as you observe some of the
things that he did, you would think he was a faithful minister
of the gospel, a preacher of the word. You know, the Lord tells us many
false prophets are gone out into the world. We read that in the
book of 1 John chapter 4 and verse 1. Sometimes it's hard
to immediately recognize a false prophet because so often they
seem to be men who know some things about the Bible, which
makes them all the more dangerous. Because they go through the Scriptures
and they pick out verses and they say, thus saith the Lord. They seem so often to be men
of honesty, men of integrity, men who are charitable, men who
are kind, men who are thoughtful, men who can even say some accurate
things about God. You see, there are many men today
standing behind pulpits, just like I'm standing behind this
one, who are very much opposed to the way God saves sinners
by His own free and sovereign grace. And yet, they'll speak
about grace. They'll mention the mercy of
God. They may even mention the blood of the Lord Jesus. but
they ultimately make salvation to be that which you must accomplish
and not that which our Lord has accomplished by His redemptive
work upon the cross of Calvary. They don't preach the whole gospel. They don't preach the whole message
of redemption and that salvation is of the Lord. You see, a man
can say God is love, and still be a false prophet. A man can say, believe on Jesus
to be saved and still be a false prophet because He presents to
you a false Jesus. And a man can even speak about
heaven and say it's a real place. It's a real place. It's a place
of happiness. It's a place of joy. And everybody
who believes on Jesus goes to heaven when they die. And yet
that man may not be a true preacher of the Gospel. He may say right
things about the Lord Jesus Christ and still be a false prophet.
If he makes salvation ultimately to be dependent upon man and
his will or his works or his worth or his ways. One writer said that sweet words,
sweet words often come out of the heart that is filled with
corruption and error. Sweet words, nice words, even
accurate words can be spoken by a man who doesn't know the
gospel. In our Bible class this morning, we were talking about
Annas and Caiaphas. Caiaphas and Annas,
those were the high priests of Israel. But if you go back, and
we don't have time to visit now, but in John chapter 11, it's
Caiaphas who set forth an accurate depiction of substitution. He
said, it's necessary that one man die for the nation, that
the whole nation perish not. Well, my friends, that's the
gospel of substitution. He didn't even know what he was
saying. In fact, the scripture says, this he spake by the Spirit
of God. And yet he hated the Lord Jesus
Christ. He hated God's way of salvation. He despised salvation by sovereign
grace and mercy. He was dependent upon his own
works, his own obedience to God's law to get him into good standing
with God. So a man can say some accurate
things. He may even get really close
to the gospel. And yet, not know God. This is Balaam. This is how Balaam
was. He had some things of God in
his mind, and the devil in his heart. That's Balaam. It's a very solemn portion of
Scripture, because here's a man with some God-honoring truth,
and yet his old heart is foul, it's very hard, and it's very
opposed to God Himself. Oh, how awful it is that there
are many people who go from the pulpit right to hell, right to
hell. Even with a Bible in their hands,
that's Balaam, that's Balaam. I think of that scripture in
Matthew 7, the Savior said, not everyone that saith to me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to
me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Hadn't we preached in your name?
And in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful
works? Then I will profess unto them,
I never knew you. I never knew you. Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. And these were the very ones
that our Lord warned people about a little earlier in Matthew chapter
seven in verse 15, beware of false prophets because they dress
up like sheep. but inwardly they're devouring
wolves. Balaam was such a man. He said some wonderful, wonderful
things about the Lord Jesus. In fact, he said, when I die,
I want to die like righteous people die. Look at chapter 23,
look here in verse 10. Here he is speaking, Balaam. He said, who can count the dust
of Jacob? And the number of the fourth,
the fourth part of Israel, because Israel is divided into four camps. He said, just one fourth of it.
It's a great big body of people. And he had observed them, and
then he makes this astounding statement. And who among us would
not say amen to this? Let me die the death of the righteous
and let my last end be like His. That's what I want. I want to
die the death of a righteous. I want to die the death of a
justified man. Of a man to whom God has shown
grace. I want to die the death of a
man who's justified, accepted by His grace through the blood
of the cross of Calvary. I want to die the death of a
man who's justified in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
to die the death of a man who is justified by faith. That is, by faith he has received
the very record of God concerning His only begotten Son who bought
His people with His blood and He satisfied divine justice. Let me die the death of the righteous. That's what I want. And let my
last end be like His. I want to die with my sins pardoned. I want to die with some confidence
in the Lord that He's my salvation. He's my refuge. He's my life. I want to die with some assurance
that God forgives me for Christ's sake. Those of you whose confidence
of salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, that which you
only, only plead is His blood and righteousness, isn't it?
And when you lay down upon your deathbed, May your final prayer be, and
I know your final desire would be, depending, of course, whether
you're conscious at that point, but I know your final desire
would be something like this. Oh God, receive my soul at last
for Christ's sake. Oh God, see the blood. Oh God,
I'm nothing at all. I have nothing to render to you. I have nothing to give you. I
have no merits of my own. Look on the sacrifice of your
only begotten Son, who satisfied your law and your justice, and
He put away all the sins of all of your people. Oh God, be merciful
to me, a poor sinner, for Christ's sake. Let my last end be like
His. But Balaam, though he had some
right knowledge, he was in his heart an enemy of God, and he
loved this world and the things of this world more than the Lord. As you look at him, as you read
about this man, it almost seems like he saw the
glory of Christ Jesus. Look at chapter 23 and verse
12. He answered and said, and he's
speaking to a man, Balak, he's the son of the king of Moab,
who had hired him to pronounce a curse upon Israel. And now he answers Balak, And
he says, must not I take heed to speak that which the Lord
hath put in my mouth? Boy, that's good. Whoever stands
behind this pulpit, or any pulpit for that matter, any man who
dares to speak in the name of God to people should always have
this desire, I don't want to speak anything that the Lord
didn't put in my mouth. This is the way he talked. Look at chapter 24. Look at what
he says about the Lord Jesus. Chapter 24, verse 15. And he
speaks, as you go through this, and if you have time later to
read, yes, he speaks four parables. Here's another one in chapter
24, verse 15. He took up this parable. He said, Balaam, the
son of Beor, hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath
said, he hath said which heard the words of God, and knew the
knowledge of the Most High, one which saw the vision of the Almighty,
falling into a trance, but still having his eyes open. Listen
to what he says about Christ. I shall see Him. But not now. And actually, that's
a very sad statement there, but not now. I don't see Him by faith. I don't see Him with a needy
heart. I don't see Him as the Savior
I need. I don't see His bloody redemption
and the necessity of it. I don't see His righteousness. I shall see him, but I don't
see him now. Watch it. I shall behold him,
but not nigh. There shall come a star out of
Jacob. This is Christ Jesus. And verse
17, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite
the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheph. Chapter
24 verse 18, And Edom shall be a possession, and Seir also shall
be a possession for his enemies, and Israel shall do valiantly.
Verse 19, Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion. He believed to some degree in
the absolute sovereignty of God. And shall destroy him that remaineth
of the city. My, what words there are so truthful
that came out of this man's mouth. but he didn't know God. Now the
story begins, and I'm not gonna spend much more time talking
about Balaam, but the story begins with Balak, he was the son of
the king of Moab, that they were upset because the Israelites,
it was so many of them, and they're going through the wilderness,
and they're going to the promised land. And they've seen what they've
done along the way, especially what just happened to the Amorites. And Israel had defeated them.
It was a slaughter. And so the Moabites are very
concerned, we don't want that to happen to us. And so, Balak, he's the son of the king,
he sends word for Balaam. And listen, Mesopotamia is a
long ways away, but this man's got a tremendous reputation. He's the most powerful prophet
anybody knew about. And he sends some messengers
to him, and he sends with them gold and silver, and he says,
here's what I want you to do, pronounce a curse upon Israel. And Balaam says, let me pray
about it. And he goes back to these messengers
and he says, in essence, I can't curse the people that God has
blessed. And he says, get out of the land. In other words, go home. And
you think, man, this guy, I like this guy. And so he goes back
to Balak, and then Balak sends even higher up messengers. He
sends some of his princes real high up in the kingdom. And they
go to Balaam and they say, listen, here's the word of the son of
the king. He said, he will give you anything
you want if you'll curse Israel. And of course he couldn't pronounce
a curse upon Israel because God had blessed him. Now, there's lots of other things
I could go into about this man, but let me just kind of fast
forward to the end of his story. Look at chapter 25 and verse
one. Chapter 25, in fact, verses one
through three. Israel abode in Shittim. And the people began to commit
whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people
unto the sacrifices of their gods. And the people did eat
and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto
Baal Peor, unto a false god, to an idol. And the anger of
the Lord was kindled against Israel. Now go over to chapter
31 and verse 16. Chapter 30, how did this come
about? How did this happen here? They
fallen into idolatry. Well, how did this come about?
Chapter 31, verse 16. Moses is speaking now and he
says, behold, these, talking about the women, because you'll
notice in verse 15, have you saved all the women alive? Verse
16, behold, these caused the children of Israel through the
council of Balaam to commit trespass against the
Lord in the matter of Peor. There is a plague among the congregation
of the Lord. Go back in verse 8. What happened
to Balaam? Well, Israel has sent out an
army. A thousand from every tribe.
They go out against the enemies of Israel. Chapter 31 verse 8. They slew the kings of Midian.
besides the rest of them that were killed or slain, namely
Evi, and Recham, and Zer, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of
Midian, Balaam, Balaam also of Beor, they killed with the sword. He didn't die the death of the
righteous. He died the death of the unrighteous. He was a preacher. He said some
good things. He said some truth. But He didn't die the death of
the righteous. He died the death of the unrighteous. They killed Him with the sword.
You see, He joined Himself with the enemy of God and the enemy
of His people. And Moses, he said, appoint an
army. They got a thousand troops from
each of the tribes of Israel. He said, over there's the enemy.
Go after them. They killed them all, including
Balaam. Balaam died. But I want to go back to chapter
23, to this statement that he made. And it is an awesome statement
here in chapter 23. And in fact, I'll read beginning
at verse 18. He took up his parable. Here's another one of the parables
of Balaam. Rise up, Balak. This is the guy
wanting to hire him. And here, I want you to listen
to me, hearken to 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? Or hath he spoken, and
shall he not make it good? And at this point you want to
say, this guy, he's telling the truth. Well, he was telling the
truth. And he says this in verse 20, Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and He hath blessed, God has blessed His people. Let
me ask you this, when did God bless His people? Before the
foundation of the world. And He blessed His people with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If somebody says to you, and
a lot of people say this, and it's fine to say, may the Lord
bless you. Well, you could rightfully say,
listen, I've been blessed with all spiritual blessings since
before God ever made this world. Because I have Christ Jesus,
God has given me to Him, and Him to me, we're wedded forever,
we're in union, the head and the body, we're joined together,
and I have all things in Christ. He says, He hath blessed. I can't
reverse it. Nobody can. And then he says, God has not
beheld iniquity in Jacob. God sees no wickedness in Jacob. God sees no wickedness in his
people. Neither hath he seen perverseness,
mischief, anything troublesome to God. He's not seen perverseness
in Israel. In fact, he says, Jehovah the
Savior, who is the God of Israel is with him. The shout of the
king is among them. And the few minutes I have remaining,
I want to, I just want to show you two things. Very simple. What does this not mean? When
he says God doesn't see any iniquity in his people, what does that
not mean? Because I think that needs to
be stated first. And then secondly, What does
it mean? First of all, what does this
not mean? Well, it doesn't mean that the
people of God live above sin and that we do not sin after
conversion. It doesn't mean that at all.
There is no such thing as sinless perfection. That's why the apostle said,
oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? In fact, before his death, he
said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I'm chief. I am chief. And he is on his
way out of the world. We're still sinful people. I've got news for you, you who
are believers. You're just going to keep on
sinning. Right to the end. You say, well, I don't want to.
I understand that. Neither do I. But we still have
the nature of flesh that is opposed to the things of God. And any
child of God, every child of God knows this, and you can certainly
Understand this in light of Romans chapter 7. There's a war that
goes on inside the heart and the mind and the soul of every
child of God. It's the war of the flesh against
the spirit. Now the Lord says that sin shall
not have dominion over you, but it's still there and it's still
a battle. It still troubles you. So this
does not mean that the people of God are free from sin. conversation, and in our manner
of living. In fact, the scripture says in
1 John 1, if we say we have not sinned, we call God a liar. And it is sin. They're not mistakes. They're
not blunders. They're sins. And they're just
as wrong as the sins of an unbeliever are wrong. Secondly, this does
not mean that God is unaware of the sins that we commit. Because
you see, this is not a reference to the attribute of God's omniscience. It's really a reference to the
attribute of justice. But as far as God's attribute
of omniscience, you say, Jim, there's one of them five other
words. What does that mean? God is all-knowing. He knows
all about us. Hebrews 4, all things are naked
and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. You
can't hide anything from Him. He sees and knows about everything
and everybody. He sees the secret hidden things
of the heart. He knows every desire, every
motive, every imagination, every thought, and He hears every word
even before you speak it. He knows what you're going to
say. All things are open to Him. It doesn't mean that God's unaware
of our sins. And I'll go a step further here
in the third point. This does not mean that God takes
no notice of our sins, and it does not mean that He is not
displeased with us when we commit them. I'm thankful for the forgiveness
of sins. But we must never imagine, as
the people of God, that since the Lord Jesus died
for our sins, according to the scriptures, that God is somehow
passive toward the sins of his people when we do commit sin. If you think that, you're dead
wrong. When David committed adultery
with Bathsheba, and then really murder to try to cover it up,
God was very displeased with David. God was very dissatisfied
with David. Now, it wasn't that the justice
of God was stirred up against David, but he had offended his
father. You see, the Lord will never
punish His people for our sins, but He does chasten us. And He chastened David. And that
baby conceived in this adulterous relationship, that baby died. And it hurt David. In fact, the
whole thing hurt him. It was not as though God was
unaware of what He did, or God didn't care about what He did.
We must never entertain that thought. We must never think
that God is somehow passive to all the sins of His people because
they are all under the blood of Jesus Christ. God is very
displeased with us when we are disobedient to Him. And we must
never forget that. We don't take sin lightly, do
we? It's the Apostle Paul says, you
would continue in sin that grace may abound. God forbid. I hate
my sin. You hate your sin. And we know
God hates our sin. So it doesn't mean that. And we're not going to perish
for our sins. But we can feel some chastisement
of our heavenly Father. If we maintain a bad attitude
toward Him or live in habitual sin of some sort or other. See, sin is wrong, doesn't matter
who commits it. Whether it's a believer or an
unbeliever. Don't ever forget that. You who are the children
of God, don't ever take your sins lightly. No wonder we weep
over our sins. They're against God. They're
against the love of God and the grace of God and the blood of
Christ Jesus. Are they forgiven? Yes. Yes. Will we have to answer for them
ever? No. But they do. You know, you can
grieve the Holy Spirit's what the scripture says. But let me
get this, number two. What does it mean? It means that
in so far as the justice of God is concerned and the law of God,
that perfect law of God is concerned, God sees no sin in His people
because His Son has washed them all away by His blood. God doesn't see iniquity in us. He doesn't see any imperfection
in us. Because the Savior has answered
for all of our guilt. Our iniquities were imputed to
Christ Jesus. They were all punished in Him.
And He put them all away. John puts it this way, and you
know that He was manifested, Christ was manifested to take
away our sins. And in Him is no sin. We have no sin in Christ Jesus. As God looks upon His people,
He sees nothing worthy of death. He sees the immaculate righteousness
of the Lord Jesus freely imputed to us. He sees nothing for which
to punish us. Because as Daniel said, the Savior
made an end of sins. We read in Hebrews chapter 10,
by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. You see, all of the sins of God's
people are covered by the blood of Christ Jesus. They're hidden
from the view of God's justice. And before God's law, we don't
have any sins. This is the glory of the gospel,
you see. This is the beauty of redemption.
And while we see our sins and we feel our sins and we weep
over our sins and we confess our sins, as the scripture says
in 1 John 1, 9, God sees in us only the perfections and the
beauties and the comeliness of His glorious Son. You see, here's what it means.
It means we've been made the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus. God sees us in His Son. He finds no fault with us. Though we commit multiplied sins
every day, they are not within view of the justice of God. Because justice has been satisfied
in the death of our substitute. He paid the debt we couldn't
pay. And he established righteousness
for all of his people. You see, all of the laws of God,
they demand satisfaction. And our Lord Jesus has made satisfaction
for all the sins of His people and we're made the righteousness
of God in Him. That's why we read in 1 Timothy,
the law of God was not made for a righteous man. We're a righteous
people. We're not under the law, we're
under grace. Free from the law. Oh, happy
condition. Jesus has bled. And there's remission. We're cursed by the fall, or
cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, but Christ has redeemed
us once for all. And it means this in closing.
It means that His church, the church of Christ, His bride,
is made beautiful through His humbleness, Here's what I preach
to you this morning. And here's the message of the
gospel, full and total forgiveness by the grace of God, by the power
of God, by the blood of Christ, and by the covenant of God's
grace. And God, according to his covenant
purpose, he sees no iniquities in his people. His justice sees nothing troublesome
to Him. Because listen, if God sees anything
in you that is troublesome to His holy character, He's going
to damn you. You're gone. If you die like
that, you're going to perish in your sins. Christ said, if
you die in your sins where I am, you can't come. If God sees anything
bothersome to Him in you, if His justice, if His law sees
anything in you or in me, deep within us, in our minds, in our
innermost being, anything that troubles Him, that is against
His perfections, we gonna perish. But if we're in Christ Jesus,
There's nothing there to trouble God. There's nothing there bothersome
to Him. The only thing that's there is
the beauties of the Savior. I tell you, when I think of this,
my heart is just filled with thanksgiving. Because I have
a little inkling of what I am by nature. and of what I still
am. I'm just a poor sinner. And yet, the Lord sees nothing
in me worthy of death. And the reason is because He's
been gracious to me through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Isn't this a glorious gospel?
Oh, it's so wonderful.