We pick this story up in Numbers
22, verse 33 of the preceding chapter. So Israel smote him and his sons
and all his people until there was none left alive, and they
possessed his land. And the children of Israel set
forward and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side of Jordan
by Jericho. And Balak, the son of Zippor,
saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was
sore afraid of the people, because they were many, and Moab was
distressed because of the children of Israel." So this Balak is
the king of Moab, and he figures the same thing's gonna happen.
I think it's, I find it interesting. He didn't, I guess he didn't
know, I don't know if he, the history, but had he stopped and
not attacked Israel, They were charged to leave Moab alone. Mercy. He didn't recognize it. He just saw what they had done.
He figured, I'm next. But in Deuteronomy, there's a
specific passage, and I didn't write it down, but they were
charged not to touch them. So anyway, mercy spurned turns
to wrath, is what one old writer said. So anyway, verse 5, The
king sent messengers, therefore, to Balaam, the son of Beor of
Pethar, which is by the river of the land of children of his
people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come
out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of
the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now, therefore,
I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me.
Peradventure, I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that
I may drive them out of the land, For I want that he whom thou
blessed is blessed, and he to whom thou cursed is cursed."
He'd heard about this false prophet, that if he blessed somebody,
they were blessed. If he cursed, they were cursed. Anyway, he's offering him a lot
of money. He's going to offer him money.
Because we know in Jude, he says, this is where the donkey speaks
and rebukes this prophet for greed or however it's worded.
I've got it written out here. You may look at it. But he's
greedy. He's wanting money. So he's basically
hiring himself out for the king. And verse 7, the elders of Moab
and the elders of Midian departed with rewards of divination in
their hand, and they came unto Balaam and spake unto him the
words of Balak. So they got money with them.
Okay, then later on in the story, they're going to give him titles
and all these different things. So that's what he's after. He's
not after knowing the mind of the Lord. So what he does, There's
a few interesting passages here, specifically in verse 12 of this
chapter. Look at chapter 22, verse 12. And God spake to Balaam. And
he said, well, this is odd. Well, the Lord, his ways are
not our ways. And we'll see that his will prevails,
his purpose prevails. So he's speaking to this Balaam.
Thou shalt not go with these folks. Don't go back to the king.
Thou shalt not curse the people. And here's the key, for they
are blessed. See that? They are blessed. Okay. So, Balaam goes with Balak, and
then the Lord rebukes him for, I told you not to do that. He
went anyway. Then in chapter 23, He stands up to curse them and
he can't do it. The Lord puts the words in his
mouth and he blesses them. Numbers 23 and verse 8. This is just the key points.
This is what I want us to look at. This is what Balaam says. How shall I curse whom God hath
not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the
Lord hath not defied? So he tries to do it one time.
And Balak is infuriated, he's furious with the prophet. And he says, okay, let's go to
another place. Let's go to a high mountain and
do it again. Same thing happens. Okay, I'm
getting really mad. Let's go to another place. So
he takes him three different times to try to curse the children
of Israel. Well, in chapter 23, let's look
at verse 18 through 24. And he took up his parable and
said, rise, this is what he's saying. Verse 17, and when he
came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offerings and princes
of Moab with him, and Balak said unto him, what hath the Lord,
what has the Lord spoken, what has the Lord said to you, Balaam?
And the funny thing is, is Balaam, before he does anything, he gets
sacrifices, brings seven sacrifices, seven times, and all these different
things. And one of the writers said, it doesn't make any difference
how religious you are, If you're going by, if you're going, if
you're approaching the throne of grace in the wrong way, the
blessing is going to be a curse. So all these religious, everything
that's going on today in the name of God, it's going to be worse for them.
That's, and that's one reason why Melinda and I, and I've talked
to some other pastors and even before that, it's just my own
thought. It'd be better that you don't
go anywhere. than to go into the den of thieves
and liars. When we go on vacation, when
we go down to my mom's, we don't go. We have not gone. We won't
go. It made her mad. I told her why.
A couple years later, she got over it. Not going to go. Not
going to go. Not going to support it. Not
going to give any money for it. I don't care if it's a bank sale.
I don't care how unassuming it is. Not going to support it.
So anyway, he's doing every time he does as it goes to a different
place bring me some more sacrifices Bring me bring it on bring it
on. We're gonna keep doing this keep doing this. Maybe God will
change his mind Verse 18 then he took up this parable and said
rise up Balak and here hearken unto me thou son of Zipporah
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? Didn't he not say that
these are a blessed, didn't he tell in chapter 22, you shall
not curse these people, for they are blessed. Okay, that's the
premise, that's the title of the message, the blessed of God. Behold, I have received commandments
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. This
is Balaam, he says, he told me to bless, I cannot reverse it.
And look at verse 21. He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is
with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them
out of Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength
of a unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment
against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.
According to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,
what hath God wrought? They're blessed. And in chapter
24, verse one, and when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord
to bless Israel, he went not, as the other times, to seek for
enchantment, but he set his face toward the wilderness. Okay,
verses four through nine in the same chapter, and he said, which
heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty
falling into a trance, but having his eyes open, how goodly are
thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel, as the valleys are
they spread forth, as gardens by the riverside, as the trees
of len aloes, which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees
beside the waters. He shall pour the waters out
of his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king
shall be higher than Agog, and his kingdom shall be exalted.
God hath 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 his arrows. He couched, he lay down as a
lion and as a great lion, who shall stir him up? Blessed is
he that blessed thee and cursed is he that curses thee." I got to thinking. about this
amazing truth this week. Being blessed of God. Now I look
out. This church. Is insignificant. This church
is the numbers is to this world. This is not a blessed place. To this place. to be identified
with the Christ and the Gospel that is proclaimed here in truth. You sure couldn't convince me
that's because they're looking with the eyes. And I think I can scripturally
state that to be in such a state of grace, blessings, and therefore nothing, no one,
heaven or hell, can or will be able to curse it. Now you take
that in your own life. We are blessed. No one, heaven
and hell, Satan, the world, can curse the believer. This guy tried multiple times
and the Lord put in his mouth And he actually put words in
the mouth of a donkey to rebuke him. Because we are blessed. Now that word is benefited. We are benefited. Are we not? We are benefited, like I just
read, in him. Let me show you this. I've never
seen this before. Psalm 72. Can't make this up. It's in print. I can't change it. I don't want
to change it. Psalm 72 and verse 17. His name, you know who that
is, shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun and men shall be blessed in Him." Women, believers,
men, women, boys, girls are blessed in Him. That's it. And you know me, I like simple. Give me simple. Give me something
that I can as Bruce would say, I can wrap my mind around, I
can wrap my arms around, I can, give me this sure foundation,
this rock, this anchor for my soul. Thank God in Christ Jesus
that we are indeed benefited with salvation and we're not
going to be left alone. He that started a good work will
finish it. He didn't save us by His grace, by being blessed
by His benefits, and then leave us alone. No, we are benefited
with salvation, free salvation, nothing we work for, nothing
we earn, nothing we can do. We're benefited by being kept,
says Jude. We're benefited by being preserved.
We will endure to the end. And we're benefited with the
resurrection, therefore with glory or heaven. These are benefits. These are what it is to be blessed.
He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
I'm not talking about food. I'm not talking about houses.
I'm not talking about material things, though He does give those
things to us. I'm talking about cutting through
it all or the rubber meets the road, or however you want to
phrase it, blessing in Christ is a spiritual marvel. It's a miracle. But here's the
illustration here, going back to, you shall not curse, you
can't curse the people, for they are blessed. Highlight that, underline that,
and go back to it, this afternoon. Go back to it tomorrow. Go back
to it when things aren't going well, when sickness and all these
different things that encroach and cause us to struggle. And
then when we go to those things and we don't have any peace,
it's like, okay, I need, because I'm going to the wrong place.
I have peace in Him. Our blessings are in Him. Again,
I say, it's all because of Christ. We are blessed in Him. There
are no blessings apart from Him. There is no truth without Him.
There is no grace except in Him, and there is no mercy outside
of Him. All blessings are in Him. Now let's go back and just look
at the overview of the story. What we have here is God's overruling,
all manner of hate, Because Balak hated Israel, and the false prophet,
he loved money more than the truth of God, he hated, it's
just, we don't realize that we, and Lynn and I were talking about
this the other day, friends and neighbors, I'm not saying be
mean to them, I'm just saying, they hate, they hate, they hate
the gospel. Therefore, they do not, they
may be friends with you, they may try to show that they're
friends with you, they may do more than some of the folks in
the church do. But know this, If they do not
love Christ, they would be a curse. They would be a curse, okay?
Family included, it doesn't make any difference. God overrules,
however, God overrules all manner of hate, ill will, and vengeance,
and corruption of man against us, and thusly against Christ,
because God's gonna bless His chosen people. They are blessed. Our God is supreme. He's sovereign.
He's kingly. None can stop Him or question
His purpose or will. Job chapter 5. We're going to
look at several passages. Job chapter 5. Job chapter 5, verses... This
is what God's doing in this story. These passages. Job chapter 5
verse 12 and 13. God disappoints the devices of
the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. What was Balaam's enterprise?
He was specifically hired and paid to curse Israel. He couldn't perform it. He couldn't
perform it. He take it the wise in their
own craftiness. And the counsel of the froward
is carried headlong. He thought was going to curse
them. The king said, anybody that you
curse is cursed, anybody that you bless is blessed. But we
don't realize God had put in his mouth. He couldn't help it because his
people are bought and redeemed and quickened by blood. This false prophet, he couldn't
help it. Isaiah 43. And verse 13. Yea, before the day was, I am
he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will
work, and who shall let it? Or, I will work and who's gonna
turn it back? We're blessed. God's purpose of grace cannot
be altered. Psalms 76. Psalm 76. 76 in verse 10. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. Isn't that what's going in it?
The wrath of man. I hate you. I'm going to curse
you. I'm going to curse you. I'm going
to damn you. I despise who you are and who
your God is and who you represent. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. The remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain. We
were talking about this this morning. Nathan and Linda and
I were talking about this earlier this morning. Man, we think this
is going to happen in Syria and the children, and it's horrible,
but that is not the lowest man can go. We're thinking about
Hitler and all the atrocities, we do not have a clue. We understand,
because we understand all things, but we have not seen the depth
of depravity. We do not understand how black
this art is. I mean, we really don't. We really don't. He's
going to use the wrath of man, this Balaam, and the wrath of
man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath, God's not
going to let it go. That's one reason why the death
of the saint is pleasing in his eyes, because it says in the
scriptures he's removing them so they won't have to see how
much horrible things are going on or what's going to happen. And Song to Solomon, chapter
4, this is more about the church than it is about the wrath of
man or the wickedness of man. Psalms of Solomon chapter 4 and
verse 7, God speaking to his church, thou art all fair, my
love, there is no spot. Doesn't that sound like a blessing?
A benefit? There's no spot in thee. And
no one can say that there's a spot in thee, because God declares
that it's so, and no one can curse this, no one can touch
this. This is our security, our safety,
under the blood of Christ, in Him. I go back to that, in Him,
in Him. In Him is peace, in Him we're
blessed. Oh my brother, rejoice, again
I say rejoice. If God be for you, none can be
against you. Another example, turn to Genesis
chapter 42. Remember the story well. Jacob
and Joseph, We get like Joseph. I'm sorry, we get like Jacob. Genesis chapter 42. Now when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, why do you look
one another? I've heard there's corn in Egypt. Get you down thither
and buy for us from thence that we live and die not. So the brethren, they leave Benjamin,
right? They take all the brothers go. Before all this happened, Joseph
is sold into slavery. His brothers come back. They
have his coat of many colors and they say, and they put blood
on it. And they say, you know, he got, we figured he got tore
up by an animal. So they lied to their dad. Their
dad thinks that Joseph was, he was the one. He loved, you know,
he loved Joseph more than his other brethren. His other brethren
despised him because of that. So they said he's dead. So one
son gone in the mind of the dad. Jacob's lied to by his brethren.
They thought he was dead. In the meantime, Joseph is elevated
to second-in-command only to Pharaoh. The famine hits. Jacob
sends his sons to go down and get corn. Look at verse 36 of
Genesis 42. It came to pass that they emptied
their sacks, and behold, every man's bundle of money was in
their sacks, which they were supposed to leave at Egypt. And
when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were
afraid. And Jacob their father said unto them, me have you bereaved
of my children." Jacob, this is a believer, Jacob says, Joseph
is dead and Simeon is not. What happened to Simeon? He's
back in Egypt because Joseph's inquiring about the, he says,
he's asking about, they don't know who he was, he's asking
about his brother, their brother. He said, well, one of them's
died, that's him, they don't know. And he said, well, yeah,
he's got another son, he's Benjamin. And he's the apple of Jacob's
eye. It was Joseph. Joseph's dead
in his mind. And he's lied to and told that.
And Joseph said, you come back? I'm not going to give you anything
unless you bring, I want to see Benjamin. And they tell that
to Jacob. Jacob's like, Joseph's dead. Simeon's gone. Joseph is not. Simeon is not. If we don't go back, Simeon's
not, he's gone too. And now you will take Benjamin
away, all these things, look what it says, all these things
are against me. That's what a believer said in
a time of difficulty, in a time of trial. All these things are
against me. Don't we say that? We may not
say it, because the words don't sound right, but we, our attitude
is that. All things are against me. I
just got the saying, if he's forced, nothing can be against
us. I know that. I know God's sovereign. I know all things work together
for good. I know that, but there's no buts. We are blessed. It's like I said this morning
in Bible class. God hems us up in a corner and we've got no
excuse. Confess our sins. He's faithful just to forgive
us our sins. And like Enoch, walk with him. Walk with him.
In one mind, one accord, as a church family. We need one another.
So Simeon is held, and now the man, Joseph, wants Benjamin.
And his dad says, all these things are against me. Oh, little faith.
But God will overrule even our unbelief to bring glory to His
precious name and to save much people alive." Genesis chapter
50. I love this. This is right here. This is how
I wished I lived and believed and I would never forget how
to... I could memorize it, but it still
doesn't go to the heart. And Joseph's brethren saw that
their father was dead, verse 15, and they said, Joseph will
perventure hate us, and will certainly requite all the evil
which we have did unto him. And they sent messengers to Joseph,
saying, thy father did command us before he died, saying, and
see, they're still working larceny. They're still trying to get by
with stuff. And verse 18, and his brethren
also went and fell down before his face, and they said, behold,
we are thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, fear not, That's
what God says in Christ, fear not, you are blessed. You're
blessed. Am I in the place of God? But
as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it
unto good, to bring much to pass, as it is this day, to save much
people alive. Now therefore, fear not. He says
them again. Fear not, I am with thee. Be
not dismayed, I am thy God. I will nourish you." We worry about food. No. And your little ones. And he comforted them. That's why I can't, I can't,
I would feel, I would quit. I would quit tomorrow. If I had
to make something up to make you feel good, I would quit tomorrow. If it was up to me, if blessings
were up to me, the benediction, y'all stand and I've got power
and whatever. If it was all that, if salvation
were works, I would quit. If the keeping of the church
of God, big or little, were up to me, I would quit. It's not
worth it. But it's not. I stand here, and
I say what Joe said, I just take you back. It's already been written. It's profitable. You bet it's
profitable. Well, I've never seen that. Maybe
you've all seen this. I never saw that. This people
is blessed. They're blessed. You can't curse
them. You cannot curse. Did David maybe go back over
this when that guy was throwing rocks at him and cussing him?
I believe he knew something. He said, because that one captain
said, let me go just cut his head off. He goes, no. No. No. God told him. What? Well, God
spoke through a false prophet. Through an ass. Yes. I'm not going to try to explain
that. But I know that, go through all that. People want to talk
about this and that. No. Go to the quick, cut to the
quick. God has blessed His people and
they cannot be cursed. He says, He comforted them and
that's what I... Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
How do you comfort people? Tell them what to do. You tell them the truth. You
tell them to look to Christ. And they will do. They will do
what we talked about in Philippians. They will be of one mind. They
will strive for the unity of the gospel. the fellowship of
believers, now they won't look for peace outside, but they'll
know they'll certainly be here and they'll want to be here and
they want to hear what's being said. And look at this, and spake kindly
unto them. Now that word kindly, if you
have a margin reading, he spoke to their hearts. There's not a single sovereign
grace preacher that would not love to speak to everybody's
heart, young or old, I can't do that. But if I can do the
next best thing, I can preach the Word. And then, by the agency
of the Holy Spirit, link, however you want to say it, then He'll
cause them, and He'll quicken whom He will, and then He'll
impact and that which we thought was a curse. Wow. Sitting here listening to this
guy talk, I don't know what he's saying, I don't want to be here, I've
got things to do. It's a curse. If you're not a believer, you're
not interested. But then, one day, one day, the city of Harrisburg Filling up
a first aid cabinet in the city cemetery. I know exactly where
he was at. I got a phone call. Yeah, man,
he never calls me. What do you want? I finally heard. I start crying out thinking about
that. Somebody will hear. His word
does not come back. Boy, and that's our hope for
the children. And that's our hope for our family, and our
friends, and our neighbors. There's some friends, there's
some family members, and there's some neighbors that think, oh,
if they only believed. I get so sick and tired of talking
about sports, that in the back of my mind I'm thinking, oh,
if I could just sit down with you and communicate the gospel
and have you respond, I mean, there's no friend like those
kind of friends. There's no brothers like those kind of brothers,
there's no sisters like those kind of sisters. And then you begin
to come together as a church group and contend for the gospel,
striving, like we saw in Philippians this morning. So, Christ speaks to our heart,
that's the Holy Spirit link, bearing witness with our spirit,
He says, we say, I'm a child of God, and there's peace, because
we know You can't curse these people.
They're blessed. They're absolutely blessed. Go
back to our story once again. Though there's death all around
us because Balaam was wanting to curse them and then wipe them
out. Basically he was wanting to kill everybody. They weren't
allowed there. You can't do that. You can't
be here. You can't come into this country and just take over.
So we go back to our story and there's the children of Israel
and there's Balaam going from one mountaintop to another, seeing
everybody, he hates them, he hates the gospel, therefore he
hates our God. There's death all around us, the world is against
our Christ, Satan tempts us, and our own flesh tirelessly
resists the grace of God. Yet we, like Noah, in that ark,
will be kept safe and secure, and will reach our expected end.
He went in the ark, and 40 days and nights, Days and nights later,
he was still in Antarctica. Only eight people. What did he
say he preached for? He was a preacher of righteousness
and he preached I don't know how many years? And when we were
talking about that, I'm like, I don't feel so bad now. I don't
feel so bad now. Better is a little with peace
and quietness. And that comes directly from the scriptures,
but I've also heard other pastors who have big groups. They've
got troubles everywhere. I don't want it. I'm not smart
enough. I'm not smart enough to handle
that. And we need to be praying for
them that the Lord would give them grace to handle those situations. But this is what the Lord has
given us. It doesn't matter. We're blessed. I preached the
message when we first came out, and you got all the tribe, the
children of Israel, and I told this to somebody the other day,
and they're all there together. There's got to be somebody at
the end. There's got to be somebody last, and that was us. That's
the tribe of Dan. And I remember telling Donny
Bell this, and I remember telling whoever, we're just little guys way back
here. I said, but we're in the train.
And the tribe of Dan, you know what they had that no other tribe
had? They all have it, but they had the banner. And his banner
over us is love. I leave it with him. I leave
it with him. That we're safe and secure until
they are expected in. All together, the family of God
here in Jackson, walking by faith, by grace, until it's time. Tim
James, I'll see you when it's time. Until it's time. Until
the Lord calls each and every one of us away. Some sooner,
some later, some unexpectedly. But that's okay. Get some bad
news. Death looking at you in the face.
Get out. Get away from the doctor's office.
Get in the car. We're blessed. That's it. That's it. End of story. Blessed. Faith, at time, when it's time,
then faith shall give way to sight and will ever be with the
Lord. Amen and amen. I got to thinking
about this. I wrote this as the last, this
morning, I wrote this as the last thought. Yes, we are vulnerable. Yes, we are. And I looked it
up, I googled it, what that meant. Subject to this and that, we're
vulnerable. Yet, invincible. How's that song go? We're invincible
till our work is done, the believer. All because we are blessed in
Him. Without Him, Curse. One verse started the whole thing.
And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them. Thou
shalt not curse the people. For they are blessed. Wow. And it's all free. It's free. For a look. Believe on Him. May God give
us grace to believe this and believe his word. Nathan, would
you close us please?