I want to read, let's just read
the first six verses. We looked last week at verses
1 and 2, but let's go ahead and read down through verse 6. Deuteronomy
chapter 23. He that is wounded in the stones,
or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the
congregation of the Lord. A bastard shall not enter into
the congregation of the Lord, even to his tenth generation
shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord. that Ammonite or
Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord,
even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the
congregation of the Lord for ever. Because they met you not
with bread and with water in the way when you came forth out
of Egypt, and because they heard against thee Balaam, the son
of Beor of Petra of Mesopotamia, to curse thee, nevertheless the
Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam, But the Lord thy
God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy
God loved thee. Thou shalt not seek their peace,
nor their prosperity all thy days, or ever." We have been
looking at some principles here in verses 1 and 2 last week,
and these verses that we read to you tonight concerning the
law, the rule of who could enter into the congregation of the
Lord. and worship Him and serve Him, and who couldn't? And the
Lord prescribed this to Moses. This didn't come out of Moses'
head. He didn't write this down because he was prejudiced. He
was a bigoted towards other people, but the Lord revealed this to
him. And the children of Israel only had the infallible rule
of faith and practice. No other nation had the law that
they had. God had not revealed Himself
to any other nation as He had the nation of Israel. He had
given no other nation the laws or the priesthood or the sacrifices
as He had given to the children of Israel. And He gave these
laws to them in order for them to know Him and worship Him and
serve Him. And this is one of the reasons
why the heathen hated the nation of Israel for the most part.
because they only had the Scriptures. They only had a revelation of
the true and living God. And the Lord appeared to Moses
and He said, Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God am one Lord,
just one Lord. And when the word got out on
them that they believed this one true and living God and all
the other gods of the heathen was nothing but stumps and stones
and their worship was no better than the worship of devils, I'm
telling you they were hated by other people. But nobody but
this nation had the law telling them how God is to be worshipped,
how He is to be served, And who can serve Him? Who can approach
into His presence and who can't approach into His presence? And
that's what these first three verses here are about. Verse
1 that we saw that no eunuch or no one that was injured or
no eunuch could approach into the Lord's congregation, be in
the congregation of the Lord. And that was someone that we
looked at last time couldn't bear any fruit. And we saw the
principle behind that, didn't we? Everything concerning God's
kingdom bears fruit. The Lord Jesus Christ is a fruit-bearing
Savior and all the people in His kingdom bear fruit. Remember
the barren fig tree in Luke 13 where the man had it planted
in his vineyard and he went seeking for fruit for three years on
it and he said he found none and what did he say? Cut it down.
God will not tolerate professors who do not bring forth fruit,
will He? Every child of God brings forth fruit. We saw that last
week. And then, of course, they are
in verse 2, bastards. Nobody approaching to God except
He has a Father. Everybody in the Kingdom of God
has a Father and God is His Father. He is born of God. We have the
same Father that Christ has. I send to my Father and to your
Father the same Father. And now this evening we are going
to look here in verse 3 through verse 6. And here He said in
verse 3, He is speaking of the Ammonites and the Moabites shall
not enter into the congregation of the Lord. And He said they
are even unto their tenth generation forever. Now people look at this
differently. Some of the commentaries say
this is speaking of the men only, that they were Ammonite and the
Moabite and not the Ammonites, the women. And there is some
exceptions to this rule. We know one. One well, remember
Ruth? Remember what nationality she
was? She was a Moabite, wasn't she? So it may be that He's speaking
here of the men only. And He was certainly speaking,
first of all, that they had to be converted. They must be converted. If the women came into the congregation
of the Lord to worship, they had to be converted as Ruth was. And boy, she was, wasn't she?
when Naomi said, Go back with your sister. She said, Your God's
going to be my God. Your people's going to be my
people. Before you die, there's where I'll die. So she was a
convert, wasn't she? She was converted to the Lord.
But this here is telling them that no Moabite or Ammonite could
enter into the congregation of the Lord, and it says here, forever. Now let me give you just a little
bit of history about these two nations, these two nationalities
of people. You remember their origin. These
are the children of Lot by incest. Remember that? Firstborn was of his oldest daughter
by the name of Moab, and then his second one was by his youngest
son. He named him Ammon. And these
are the two nations that come out of those two brothers. And
from the very first dealings we find that they had with Israel,
they hated Israel. Both of these nations hated Israel.
When they were coming out, I read it to you there, when they were
coming out of Egypt and going into the land of promise, the
Ammonites would not even give them any bread, would not sell
them any bread or water. And you find this in all of their
history. You hear about the Moabites? this false prophet against them
to curse them. The Lord turned it to a blessing.
But all through the Scripture, David fought against them. Solomon
fought against them. And when Nebuchadnezzar came
in and took them captive into the land of Babylon, the Ammonites
and the Moabites was there cheering him on just before they come
in and tore down the wall and tore up the temple. The Moabites
were joining with the Ammonites and the Edomites saying, raise
it, raise it, even to the foundation thereof, tear it down. They wanted
it destroyed. And then when they came back
out of captivity, Ezra and Nehemiah, Ezra came back to build the temple.
These two nations fought against those people to try to get them
to stop building the temple. Nehemiah came back out of captivity
with his group. These two nations fought against
them, made fun of them. It was the Ammonites, one of
the Ammonites that was out mocking the Jews one day while they were
building the wall around the temple there. And they said,
if a fox walks on that wall, he'll fall down. And they laughed
and laughed them to scorn and discouraged them. And well, let
me read this to you. Look over here, this whole Deuteronomy. These two nations cease to be.
There's no evidence now that any of these two nations exist
at all. But look in Ezekiel. Look, Ezekiel chapter 25. Let
me just read you a few verses here concerning these people
because there's a principle taught here that I want to look at.
Ezekiel chapter 25, and look in verse 1. These nations sort of joined
together. They never did separate very well. They were descendants
of these two brothers, and what one did, the other did. In Ezekiel
chapter 25, and if you want to read some more concerning the
judgment of God on these two nations, you can find it in Jeremiah
chapter 48 and chapter 49 about the destruction of these two
nations. But here was their attitude. Look in chapter 25, look in verse
1. The word of the Lord came again
unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites,
and prophesy against them, and say unto the Ammonites, Hear
the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God. Because
thou saith, Aha! against my sanctuary when it
was profaned." And boy, that's what Nebuchadnezzar did when
he came into it. He profaned the sanctuary. And they said,
uh-huh, uh-huh. That's the way we love to see
it, uh-huh, uh-huh. And, "...against the land of
Israel when it was desolate." Boy, they loved that when they
looked on there and all the Jews were carried away captive. And,
"...against the house of Judah when they went into captivity."
Behold, therefore, I will deliver thee to the men of the east for
a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee, and
make their dwellings in thee. They shall eat thy fruit, and
they shall drink thy milk. And look here in verse 7. Look
in verse 6. For thus saith the Lord God,
Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stepped with thy feet,
and rejoiced in thy heart with all thy despise against the land
of Israel, Behold, therefore, I will stretch out My hand upon
thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil unto the heathen, and
I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee
to perish out of the countries, and I will destroy thee, and
thou shalt know that I am the Lord. And in verse 10, the last
part of it, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the
nations. And they were cut off. And you
look in chapter 48 and 49, of Jeremiah, and you can see the
Moabites were the same way. So these nations were destroyed
because they were the enemies of the Lord and of His church. Now, what kind of principle is
taught here? That's what we want to look at
for just a minute. The principle, there's a principle
that's taught us here, and this is the principle. The enemies
of the Lord. It may be an individual or it
may be a nation, but the enemies of the Lord will never be allowed
into God's kingdom to worship Him and to serve Him. God will
destroy a man or He will destroy a nation or He will destroy a
world before He will allow His enemies into His presence to
worship Him and to serve Him. He won't allow them in His kingdom
here. He won't allow them in His house
yonder. It will never happen. Just as
surely as He barred these Ammonites and the Moabites, He bars all
His enemies from the worship of Him and from serving Him in
His kingdom. Here's what the Lord Jesus said.
He said, Bring hither My enemies, that would not that I should
reign over them, and slay them before Me. Now I tell you the
most dreadful state for any man to be in, to live in and to die
in, is to live and die the enemy of God. And that's why the world
gets so mad at us because we tell them the carnal mind is
at enmity with God. Ye were enemies in your mind
by wicked works. And no man who has a wicked mind
and enmity in his heart can serve God, can he? He cannot worship
God. He cannot come into the true
congregation of the Lord. That's the first principle that
we see. We could elaborate there, but we don't have time. Secondly,
here's the second principle we can learn from this. It shows
us the absolute need of reconciliation by the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because all men in their minds
are just as much at enmity with God by nature as these Ammonites
were and these Moabites were. Therefore, reconciliation by
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is essential. What did Christ
do at His cross? He reconciled enemies, did He
not? You that were alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in
the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." And listen to
what Paul said in Romans 5. When we were enemies, enemies
of God, enemies of His law, enemies of His way, When you were enemies,
you were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Now, here's the two things, and
you talk to people that you'll find out lost people, this lost
world does not like. We're told today that everybody
knows the Gospel and just about everybody loves the Gospel. But
listen, brothers and sisters, the world hates the Gospel. The
Gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ is offensive to the world.
You mention these two things, you stress these two things,
that we are born enemies of God in our minds. By nature, we're
enemies of God. And you stress that. And the
world says, I may not be as good as I ought to be, but listen,
I'm not that bad. I know I'm not doing everything
I ought to do and this and that, but listen, I don't hate God. I'm not God's enemy. And I tell
you, it takes God to convince a man that by His very nature,
He's the enemy of God. The carnal mind is the enemy
of God. And because they cannot comprehend this, Then they are
offended at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it
is there at the cross where Jesus Christ made peace for His enemies. Peace on God's behalf. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. But if we are not enemies, we
do not need reconciling, do we? It is because we are enemies
that we need reconciling. And thirdly, this teaches us
this. the absolute necessity of believing the message of the
cross. It is absolutely necessary that
we receive this atonement, this reconciliation. Listen to what
Paul said. We joy in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the reconciliation. We found out that we are wrong.
We found out that we weren't walking parallel with God. He
was going this way. We were going that way. And so
what did we do? We humbled ourselves and we received
before God the Lord Jesus Christ with all our hearts. We believed
on Him with all our hearts. And we obtained forgiveness of
our sins. We obtained mercy. Paul said,
I pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. In other words, throw down your
arms, pile up your weapons, stop the war against God, bow before
Him and seek mercy through Christ and salvation through His marriage.
Be ye reconciled to God. You say, why should I be? Well,
you can't worship Him without it. I mean, that's what this
teaches us, doesn't it? These Ammonites and these Moabites
could never enter into the presence of God with the children of God
because they were the enemies of God. And neither can you and
neither can I or anybody else. Brothers and sisters, the cross
of Jesus Christ is essential. It is absolutely essential. Paul said many walk, many profess,
of whom I've told you often and now tell you even weeping that
they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. And what's the very
next sentence? Whose end is destruction. We're enemies by nature. Christ
has reconciled all His enemies that come to Him and bow down
and receive this reconciliation, this peace with God. That's the
second. That's the third principle there
that we see. Now look here in verse 4. Let's see this. In verse 3, we find out His enemies.
His enemies would never enter into the congregation of the
Lord. They were His enemies. Now, look at the principle by
which He'll judge His enemies. There's two of them. The first
one is in the first part of verse 4. Look at this. Here's the way
the Lord will judge His enemies. because they met you not with
bread and with water in the way when you came forth out of Egypt."
The first thing we find out here, He's going to judge them by their
omission. What they had opportunity to
do and did not do by what they omitted to do. That's the first
way He's going to judge them. What did they omit to do that
they had opportunity to do? Give Israel bread and water.
Sell them bread and water. They had opportunity to do good
and did it not. Listen to this. The Lord Jesus
on the Day of Judgment Himself will judge the lost by what they
had opportunity to do and neglected to do. I was hungry and you gave
me no bread. I was thirsty, you gave me no
water. I was in prison, I was sick,
and you came not to visit me. I was naked and you did not clothe
me." What a man does not do, he'll have to give account on
the day of judgment when he had opportunity to do it and did
not do it. Somebody said, Bruce, I haven't
done too bad a thing. What about what you neglected?
That's just as bad, isn't it? What men neglect to do. There
is a Bible laying on, I bet you could go, the little town that
I live in, I bet you could go to that little town, and you
visit every person in that little town, I bet you would find a
Bible laying on the shelf. I wonder how many weeks, how
many months, how many years go by and they have had the opportunity
to open that Bible and read about who God is, the way of salvation,
who they are, the words of life, and they never did. Reckon they'll
ever give account of that? How often does it come into lost
men's minds, there's just a thought comes there, I should seek the
Lord. I ought to pray to Him. And they
don't do it. Men will give account on the
Day of Judgment as to what they did not do when they had opportunity. That's one of the principles
by which the Lord will judge the lost people. And then the
last portion of that is this. the evil that they did. They
did not do this, but they did this, they hard-bailed them to
curse the children of Israel. And you know something? The Lord
never did forget this. In Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse
1, I had my wifey to get in the book to see and look up how many
years it was from the time that Moab hard-bailed them to curse
the children of Israel To Nehemiah chapter 13, it was almost exactly
1,000 years. And the Lord said, I remember,
I remember what Moab did. How he heard Balaam to curse
you. 1,000 years! And he still hadn't
forgot it. The evil that they did. Men sin
and then their conscience is soothed because they forget it.
God never forgets, does He? He never forgets. What men have
done that's evil, they'll stand there on the dead judgment, and
all the evil that they've done, right down to the foolish thoughts
they've had, and God will set it all in order before them.
Everything they will answer for on the dead judgment. The things
they didn't do that they could have done, the evil that they
did they should have never done. God knows it all. The Bible talks
about His books of remembrance. He's got a book of remembrance.
And you know something? He'll never forget what His people
have done for His glory either. I was hungry and you fed me.
I was thirsty and you gave me. He'll never forget that, will
He? He'll never forget the good that His people have done because
He works in them to do it. He's not unrighteous to forget
your work and labor of love which you've showed towards His name.
He'll never forget it. But that's the principle that
we see there. That's the way the Lord will judge His people. I tell you, aren't you glad,
brothers and sisters, that He's forgiven you? Aren't you glad
for the mercy and for the blood of Jesus Christ that's washed
you? Wouldn't you hate to stand before God, even tonight, and
have to give account of the evil that you did and the good that
you neglected? Oh, I pray, Lord, hide me. Hide
me in Yourself. Hide me in Christ. I love that
precious verse of Scripture that says there's no condemnation
to them that's in Christ Jesus. That's why we don't have to be
afraid of death and the judgment. I don't understand all about
the judgment, but I know this, there will not be one charge
that rises against God's people and they'll be condemned for
it. I know that. I know that. Look at another
principle right quick. In the last part of verse 4, And because they heard against
thee Balaam, the son of Beor of Petra, of Mesopotamia, to
curse thee. Well, I said this is the principle,
but not the principle, but just something I thought very interesting
here. It was said that Balaam was from
Mesopotamia, and I just noticed this the other day. You remember
who else was from Mesopotamia? Abraham. They were from the same
place. The God of glory appeared to
Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia and said, Get out. One of the
reasons, that was a place of idolatry. They worshipped idols
there. Get out from your father's house
and from your kingdom and from your kindred, your land, and
come into the land that I'm going to give to you. And he went out.
And we never see anywhere except Jacob went close to there, but
he didn't go there to live. He had to flee there and it never
was home to him. till he got back to the land
of Canaan. So they really never did go back to that land. But
you know something? Balaam lived there. Balaam, this
false prophet, lived there. And here's, if there's a principle
there, here it is. And it's this. Those who come
out of a sinful world often despise those. Those who don't come out
often despise those who do. Abraham came out and had all
of his children. Here's a man who didn't come
out, and he despised. I wonder if it had something
to do with him thinking, Boy, Abraham came out of this country,
and he told what a wicked place it was. Once he got half mad
about it. Callin' my place idolatrous and wicked. Those who don't come
out of the sinful world often despise those who do. Do you
have any former friends who don't thank too highly of you now?
you used to run around with before the Lord saved you. And they
don't think too high of you. It ain't so much you have to
separate yourself from them. They'll separate themselves from
you. You can be as good to them as you can be. But they'll say,
Oh, Greg, he got religion. He just ain't anybody anymore.
But see, you don't laugh at their filthy jokes. You don't tell
them filthy jokes. You don't get drunk with them
anymore. You tell them how the Lord saved you. You start talking
about the lover of your soul? Oh, he's got religion. We don't want to hang around
with him anymore. And Peter says it like this. They think it's
strange that you run not with them to the same excessive riot,
speaking evil of you. And why? The Lord's called you
out of darkness into His light. And you know when this happens,
don't we think sometimes, this is strange? And we get our feelings
hurt, don't we? Somebody will say something to
us and, oh, we'll take it so personally we'll get our feelings
hurt. We're just so tenor on it. I'll tell you what should
hurt us if the world doesn't speak evil, if the world don't
hate us. The world's in darkness and we're in the light. The world
lives a lie and we have the truth. And you get these two together
and the world will not hate them? That's not the way it's supposed
to be. The Lord Jesus said, if you were of the world, the world
would love His own. But because you are not of the
world, I've chosen you out of the world. And I've put my light
in your heart, and I've put my truth in your heart, and I'm
in your heart. Therefore the world hates you.
The Pharisees never hated Paul till the Lord saved him. And
then they tried to kill him. The Thessalonians turned from
the idols to serve the living God, and they suffered from their
countrymen. The Corinthians left their fornication
and their adultery, and they were washed, they were sanctified,
they were justified by the Lord Jesus Christ, and they suffered
at the hands of their wicked countrymen. That's the way it's
supposed to be, isn't it? Those who come out of idolatry
and those who come out of darkness, they're despised and hated by
those who don't That's why Balaam hated Abraham's descendants.
He was still an idolater. So that's a good principle there,
isn't it? Look here now in verse 5. I love this. Nevertheless,
the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam, but the Lord thy
God turned the curse unto a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy
God loved thee. Ain't that amazing? I want to
take just a minute and read this to you. I want you to turn over
here with me, right to your left, in Numbers. Look in Numbers chapter 22 or
chapter 23. Numbers chapter 23. This is where,
this is where Balak He was the king over Moab. He sent to Balaam
and wanted Balaam to come and curse the children of Israel
for it. And that's when Balaam was riding on the donkey, remember?
And the angel of the Lord kept appearing to him. He kept turning
his side. And finally the Lord stopped him. The angel was going
to kill him. And the little donkey saved his life. And the Lord
was angry with him. And he said, I'll go back. And
the Lord said, you go on. He's a rebel and he wouldn't
have went back anyway. He'd have found some way to go on. But
the Lord said, you only speak what I tell you to speak. You
speak what I put in your mouth. So he went over there and found
Balak, the king that called him to curse Israel. And look at
the three times. Let me just read some of this
to you. Look in verse 5. Balaam, he prepared his altars. and offered the sacrifices, the
bullocks on the altar and so on. And then he went out a little
ways to meet the Lord. In verse 5, And the Lord put
a word in Balaam's mouth, and 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. Get a picture of that. And he
took up this parable and said, this is what Balaam said, Belak
the son of Moab hath brought me from Aram out of the mountains
of the east, saying, Come, curse me, Jacob, and come and defy
Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath
not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the
Lord hath not defied? For from the tops of the rocks
I see him. And lo, from the hills I behold
him, lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned
among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob,
and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the
death of the righteous, and let my end be as it is. And Balak
said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to
curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast blessed them all together. That was the first time. Look
here at the second time. Look over in chapter 23 and look
in verse 15. And he said unto Balaam, Balaam
said to Balaam, Stand here by thy burnt offering while I meet
the Lord yonder. And the Lord met Balaam, and
put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again to Balaam, and
say thus. And when he came to him, behold,
he stood by his burnt offering, and the princess of Moab with
him. And Balaam said unto him, What hath the Lord spoken? And
he took up this parable and he said, Rise up, Balak, and hear,
hearken to me, thy 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, shall he not
make it good? Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. 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 the king is among him. 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? 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 of the prey and drink of the
blood of the slain. And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither
curse them at all, nor bless them." The second time he blessed
them. He was only saying what God was putting in his mouth.
But can you imagine the joy of the heart Israel had when they
heard what the Lord told Balaam about them? God hath not beheld
iniquity in Jacob? What would you say if God said
that about you? Wouldn't that be amazing? You see sin all in
you. It strives. It works. You struggle
against it all the time. And here God says, I see no sin
in him. He has no perverseness about
him. He is clean as the driven snow. That's what God said. He turned the cursing into a
blessing. And look at one more place. Look
at the last place. A little bit lengthy. Look in chapter 24. Balaam tried a new strategy when
he saw that the Lord wasn't cursing the other way. And Balaam saw
that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel. He went not, as other
times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face towards the
wilderness. Balaam lifted up his eyes, and saw Israel abiding
in his tents, according to their tribes. And the Spirit of God
came upon him, and he took this parable, and said, Balaam the
son of Boer hath said, and him whose eyes the Lord has opened,
he hath said which heard the words of God, which saw the visions
of the Almighty fall into a trance, but having his eyes opened. 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 lean aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as
cedar trees beside the water. He shall pour the water out of
his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king
shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.
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 his arrows. He crouched, he lay down as a
lion, as a great lion, who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that
blesseth thee. Cursed is he that curseth thee.
And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote
his hands together, and Balak said unto Balaam, I call thee
to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast altogether blessed
them these three times." If you want to read something interesting,
just go on and read the rest of that chapter and God puts
another word in his mouth concerning the coming of Jesus Christ by
this people Israel. What amazing! And every time
God turned His cursing into a blessing. What do we see in this? What
can you and I learn from this? Well, we can learn this, can't
we? That things sometimes we look at as evil that come upon
us are sickness, are weakness, are pain, persecutions, temptations,
trials. The things sometimes that are
evil in themselves, left to themselves, they'd be a curse to us. Sickness
would be an awful curse, wouldn't it, if left to itself? But haven't
you ever noticed that the Lord takes some of these things and
He turns them into a blessing? I think someday we'll say with
Joseph, when we get yonder, as Mr. Peterson said, and we'll
look back and see that all things worked out for good. Such was
God's great design. And someday we'll look our curses
in the face. And we'll say with Joseph, you
meant it for evil. You sickness, you meant it to
hurt me. You temptations, you meant it for evil. Devils, you
meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. That's
what you and I will see some day, brothers and sisters. And
it's amazing to me how God can work these things in our life
that bring us so low and harm us and in and of themselves would
curse us. He turns them to our good. He
turns them into a blessing. What about the sufferings of
the Lord Jesus? Isn't that a good example? Look
how He suffered at the hands of wicked men. But how did that
turn out for us? That turned out pretty good for
us, didn't it? He whom thou loveth is sick.
Poor Lazarus was sick, probably with a fever, suffering pain,
vomiting. For three days that poor man
was sick and finally he died. Wasn't that evil? That wasn't
evil at all, was it? That's for God's glory. And for
the good of Martha, and the good of Mary, and the good of Lazarus,
they saw the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And sometimes He
lets us see out of our sickness, out of our sorrows, and out of
our struggles, and out of our persecutions, He lets us see
that He's brought good out of us. David said, It was good for
me that I was afflicted. Good for me that I was afflicted? Good for me that somebody got
mean with me? Good for me that I was sick and couldn't get out
of bed? Good for me that I went in pain? It was good for me,
He said. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. How much evil
the Lord keeps us from, brothers and sisters, sometimes for our
suffering. And what would mean in and of itself would mean only
for cursing. Listen to old William Cowper
how he said it. God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the
sea, And He rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds Of
never-falling skill, He treasures up His bright designs, And He
works His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take, The clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and
shall break with blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord
by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning
providence He hides a smiling face. His purpose will ripen
fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. But God is his own interpreter
and he will make it plain. I don't know if Moses and the
children of Israel had any idea that this false prophet was trying
to curse them. And I'll tell you what Balak
said about that false prophet. He said, I've noticed everybody
you curse is cursed. Everybody you bless is blessed.
I don't understand that. But I wonder if the children
of Israel thought, Oh, my soul, this man is going to curse us.
But God turned to her blessing. And He'll do that way with you
too. You're His children. He's that kind of a Father. And
He said in the last verse, we'll look at that quickly. Thou shalt
not seek their peace, in verse 6. nor their prosperity all thy
days. Thou shalt not seek their peace."
Well, don't seek your peace the same way they seek their peace.
Their peace is a temporal peace. And they seek it from this world. They seek it by temporal advantages. Brothers and sisters, our peace
is not there. It's not like their peace. We seek our peace with
God, don't we? And we seek it through redeeming
love and blood. We seek our peace by looking
away from this world, looking away from its temporal pleasures,
its carnal advantages, its religions, and we find our solitude and
our contentment in looking away to Jesus Christ and walking daily
with Him. That's where we have our peace.
We find our peace. We don't seek to do anybody any
harm. We don't seek to mistreat anybody. But we don't tell this
world that they have a lasting peace. We can't, can we? I've often wondered how Wanda
does her job in counseling. I'm sure she does it well. I've
heard too much about the good about her to think she don't.
But isn't it a tough thing to go to the bed of a sick person
that's dying and they're lost. How do you comfort somebody like
that? What do you say? I don't know what to say to them. To comfort them? When you go
to a spouse that's lost her husband and they're both lost, how do
you comfort somebody like that? I know about all one who does
sit and listen a lot of times, don't you? Just sitting and listening.
But all you can tell them is this, listen, there's only one
place of lasting peace. There's only one place of true,
eternal prosperity, and that's in the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if they'll have that, well,
but if not, we can't seek the peace of this world, can we?
Because there is no peace to the wicked. They're like the
troubled sea. casting up its mire, the guilty
conscience. They have no peace with God.
Lord bless this Word.