The Way of Balaam - Numbers 22:1-25:18

well we're in numbers chapter 22 and 23 tonight if you'll make your way there if you brought your Bible look at our message tonight the way of balaam we look at one of those fascinating characters that is quite mysterious he's a bit of an enigma to Bible teachers he goes along with individuals that were close to the things of the Lord like a Judas Iscariot and how could he be with the Lord for three years and then betray the Lord in such a way that he ultimately goes out and hangs himself for a guy like King Saul the very first King that the Spirit of God comes upon him the scriptures say the Lord gave him a new heart and and then the Lord gave him men to serve with him but as time went went along his heart turned away from the Lord to where he he got his self in a very bad place outside of the blessing of the Lord and there are some individuals in the Bible that we look at that are a bit mysterious and yet we see it also in practical life and ministry life and in church life we sometimes we just say man I don't get it this guy's walking with the Lord for this many years and now he just wigs out and does this and as we look at this Balaam the New Testament uses him as one of the icons of false teachers false prophets as a matter of fact the Scriptures declare that and they call it the way of Balaam the heir of Balaam and the doctrine of Balaam and so we want to share with you about this Balaam now baylin's life covers chapter 22 23 24 and 25 of the Book of Numbers and we're gonna do part 1 tonight we'll see how far we get and then we'll do part 2 I imagine we'll be somewhere around chapter 22 and 23 but just to give you a little background and bring you into up-to-speed where we're at the children of Israel are moving forward and they're headed right towards the doorstep of the promised land and as they've been asked to go through certain countries and they've been denied and they've had to go the long way around the people have grumbled and complained and this and that well they've pitched camp right on the border of the country of Moab and the king of Moab a guy by the name of Bay lack is totally freaked out he's heard about these Israelites how they beat they conquered Sai Han and the king of the ammonites and they heard about how he conquered OGG king of Bashan and as the nation of Israel is just becoming really this powerhouse of God's people and what the Lord is doing Balak wants to get a sorcerer to come and curse God's people and so that's his plan his plan is to go hundreds of miles away to a guy that has quite a reputation that whoever he blesses is blessed and whoever he curses is cursed and he's sending Prince's along with basically the promise of being honored with silver and gold these two things are the pressure points that really persuade Balaam to to come even if the intent of King Bank Balak is that he curse the people there are a lot of people they would like to purse the people of God curse the work of God in in various ways and shapes and forms when they hear some of the ones a believer oftentimes of the occult or I don't know if you heard some months back when the football season was still going and it's it's the end of the season and Tebow who's playing quarterback for the Denver Broncos one of the most outspoken born-again Christians in a long time playing for the Denver Broncos and he's going to play in New England now they lost in New England but there was a group of witches because they just hated his Christian message that banded together in this made national news that a group of witches got together to curse Tebow and the Denver Broncos when they were gonna come to town now I've never heard in all the history of watching football a bunch of witches getting together to curse another team now I've heard some pretty bizarre things but never a group of witches banding together to curse why is that because t-bo's very outspoken witness for the Lord really stirred up the world of darkness and they wanted to come about and and and you know I've always wondered how that works out when there's believers on both sides of a football team and they're both praying on their knees to win I don't know how the Lord we're set out I don't know how that works but but there was a desire to curse and I sincerely believe that had absolutely nothing to do with them losing the Patriots were just a superior team as we found out through the rest of the year but here as we look at this this Balaam a guy that becomes a New Testament icon for a false prophet god powerfully speaks through him in four beautiful prophecies for the nation of Israel check it out so we begin in verse 1 it says then the children of Israel moved encamped in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho now balak the son of zippor saw all that Israel had done to the amorite and Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel so Moab said to the elders of Midian now this company will lick up everything around us as an ox licks up the grass of the field and balak the son of zippor was king of the Moabites at that time then he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at pith or which is near the river in the land of the sons of his people to call him saying look a people has come from Egypt see they cover the face of the earth and are settling next to me therefore please come at once curse this people for me for they are too mighty for me perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land for I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed so the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the diviners fee in their hand and they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak and he said to them Lodge here tonight and I will bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me so the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam now one of the fascinating things about this story is that those Balak the king of Moab was really troubled that the children of Israel were harass or bother him that just wasn't the case as a matter of fact this tells us in Deuteronomy chapter 2 verse 9 that the Lord said do not harass Moab because they were near relative to the nation of Israel so God had given Moab their inheritance the children of Israel weren't going to mess with them and if Balak would have just even talked to Moses or the children of Israel he would have found that out he would have saved himself a lot of trouble and saved himself some money and this and that if he would have just figured out really what was going on but they weren't going to mess with him but they were camped right next door to him and they were quite an intimidating force now as these elders of Midian with the diviners fee in their hand as they would go to a sorcerer they would go to a soothsayer they went to him and they asked him that question or it basically delivered the message from Balak and Balak had a lot of confidence in this guy hey I've heard that who you bless his blessed and who you curses cursed and his reputation had preceded him and so as this message was delivered him to him he said Lodge here tonight and I will bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me so the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam now Balaam is going to ask the Lord in prayer the God of Israel he's a foreigner he's outside of the covenant people of Israel and yet he's this mysterious false prophet yet he is a guy that is tapped into and knows the Lord and whatever degree that we'll discover and and God is going to choose him choose to use him to bless the children Israel not to curse them but to bless them to be a vessel and as he praised that night in verse 9 it says then God came to Balaam and said who are these men with you so Balaam said to God they lacked the son of zippor or king of Moab has sent to me saying look a people has come out of Egypt and they cover the face of the earth come now curse them for me perhaps I shall be able to overpower them and drive them out and God said to Balaam I'll not go with them you shall not curse the people for they are blessed that's a short prayer meeting God should I go curse your people no don't go with them dumb Kherson okay easy answer right it would be a very short story if it ended there with him now in the following verses telling them God said no can't go with you there are blessed people can't curse them sorry about that sorry you traveled hundreds of miles to come talk to me because God said no now if you're a king and you're sending dignitaries you're usually not going to take no as an easy answer you're gonna want to push and add more pressure so Balaam goes out in verse thirteen so Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak go back to your land for the Lord has refused to give me permission to go with you and the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak and said Balaam refuses to come with us he tells them God said no you guys go back to Balak I can't have anything to do with it now as the case is if you've ever been around a very persuasive person or never a very persuasive group of people the ante of pressure gets lifted up that ante of pressure is in more notable princes and a bigger reward or more honor the bottom line for Balaam as we see in the New Testament it's called the way of Balaam the error of Balaam he's the greed of Balaam this is what his weaknesses is greed and he really wants the reward but God said no so he tells them no but it doesn't mean that down deep inside he's not itching to do it have you ever prayed about something you earnestly prayed about it you desperately wanted to do it and God said no and when God said no it's as if you can only receive it through a clenched Dalek No now when you prayed you were all flowery Oh Lord whatever your will is all do it you say yes you say no you say wait Lord whatever your will as I am your servant you are my master I will do whatever you say and the resounding no comes from heaven like there is really something inside of you that you wanted so desperately isn't the real challenge and this is the thing about prayer prayer is not getting my will done on earth it's getting God's will done on earth or I should say it's not getting my will done in heaven but it's getting God's will done here on on earth and it is a place of yielded us and we have this flesh inside of us that sometimes wants to really fight against the will of the Lord it wants what it wants when it wants it and and at times it's it's this this struggle to put down the old man the Bible says to reckon the old man to be dead to mortify the deeds of the flesh to somehow stand on top of this this self-centered I want my way thing that is inside of me and to keep it really submitted to the things of the Lord and that's now the struggle that begins to go on with Balaam and since it appears quite clearly that God's Will was he not go and not curse the people let's just describe that as God's perfect will God's perfect will for Balaam is don't do this it's over finito subjects done but everybody has their price or at least Balaam has his price and it says in verse 15 then Balak again sent princes more numerous and more honorable than they and they came to Balaam and said to him thus says balak the son of zippor please let nothing hinder you from coming to me for I will certainly honor you greatly and I will do whatever you say to me therefore please come curse this people for me then Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak though Balak were to give me his whole house full of silver and gold I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my god to do less or more notice he says beyond the word of the Lord my god it appears that Balaam plays around in his relationship with God but ultimately he will fall on the side of not being right with God but in this point he tells him hey I can't go beyond the word of my god now in verse 19 now therefore please you also stay here tonight that I may know what more the Lord will say to me and God came to Balaam at night and said to him if the men come to call you rise and go with them but only the word which I speak to you that you shall do so Balaam rose in the morning saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab the second prayer meeting that he has with the Lord the Lord says ok you're bent on doing this I can see I'm kind of reading between the lines because this is what unfolds on the whole story you want this bad you're bent and determined to do this and the Lord goes okay go ahead my perfect will was for you to stay away from this not to do this I told you that before no and now because you're determined to do it it has come to mean in this passage of Scripture for many Bible teachers the Lord's permissive will earlier I said God's perfect will and then we see God's permissive will meaning that when you sincerely pray to the Lord and the Lord shows you clearly by revelation in from his word to your heart through peace or no peace that he doesn't want you to do something never does want you to do something he want you to wait and God has revealed his heart to you and then you in a determined striving strong desire to do it no matter what yes Lord I know you said no but but but but I want to do this and you can see here that the largest is okay you want to do it all right let me lay out the parameters for you you only say what I tell you to say when I tell you to sit because the Lord knew what his weakness well you know oftentimes the Lord when we're praying about some area of our life that we're wanting the Lord to open up God knows what's down the road he knows if that's gonna be good for us or bad for us he knows if that's gonna bring us into a greater place of temptation or not he knows if it's gonna bring us into greater blessing in peace or not God knows the beginning the end from the beginning he knows everything he knows what the fiber of your DNA is he knows what your weaknesses are he knows what you're thinking about he knows what tempts you what doesn't tempt you God knows all of those things so oftentimes when the Lord is telling us know in areas of our life he just knows our frame that we're dust and it's best for us not to get close to that it's best for us not to be in that situation it's best for us to have the Lord say no it's best for us not to have that relationship so we're dos so desperately wanting Pastor Chuck shares a funny story about being a 1819 year old kid and he was at a youth camp and he met this other Christian girl she was 18 or 19 and he just prayed desperately Oh God I will serve you I will do anything for you if you'll give me this girl to be my wife and he approached the girl and the Lord had kind of said no to a man but he approached the girl and she said no to him and kind of shattered his heart and he was all broken up for it and then as the years went by then you know he fell in love with Kay his wife and things went by well through the course of things about fifty years later they were in a church or some kind of retreat situation again and he met the woman fifty years later and when he saw her said Oh God thank you so much for saying no because the years have not been kind to that woman you know the Lord knows how we need you and the Lord knows what's not gonna work for our hearts and our lives right and so but some of us even here tonight there might be some of you that are really striving against a clear revelation of God's Spirit to your heart they say you know don't get involved with this girl don't get involved with that guy don't take that job don't hang out with these friends don't put yourself in this vulnerable situation so Balaam as he prays he now steps into God's permissive will I look at God's perfect will as plan I hate for my life and I realized that if I get stubborn enough and I get it's like that says in the song I think it's Psalm 106 when when the Lord says that the children of Israel wanted something so desperately and the Lord granted their request but he gave them leanness of soul it's like they wanted it so bad the Lord said okay alright that's what you want you got it but along with that came a leanness of soul in which they knew that God granted the request but it wasn't God's best it wasn't planning it was Plan B and I think that every child of God has to discover that when we say yes to God's perfect will there's that beautiful plan a that God wants to unfold no matter all the turns and twists and ups and downs but when we're determined if you want to settle for Plan B that's your choice it really is your choice if you want to permissive will Oh God that's what Balaam chooses here he chooses the permissive will of God and God tells him okay now if these men called now it doesn't say in verse 21 that they called notice back in verse 20 if the men come to call you rise and go at them but verse 21 just says so Balaam rose in the morning saddled his donkey and went with the princes he just took off he's like whew alright I'm gonna get the honor I want I'm gonna get the silver and gold I want because all of the different scriptures say that greed is the thing that is motivating him motivating him now if you just saw this prayer meeting which you and I just read it you just heard it God said okay go with him but just say what I say any rises and he goes with them then you're kind of thrown off by verse 22 aren't you then God's anger was aroused because he went and the angel Lord took his hand stand in the way as an adversary against him and he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him now God's angry the anger of the Lord was aroused against him and will see because of his greed God can see his heart what we can't see between the lines God sees in his heart in mind he's thinking oh how am I gonna do this how am I gonna pull this off how am I gonna say exactly what God wants me to say but get the silver and the gold and get honor from Baylock and God sees his motive God seizes mine and that's that's why the Lord is the judge and that's why the Lord tells us not to judge because I don't know what the motive of other people's lives are I don't know what they're thinking about I don't know what their circumstances are I don't know everything that surrounds it but God knows everything that's why he's the perfect judge and so now the anger of the Lord has aroused against him so he sends the angel of the Lord to destroy him it's pretty serious but fortunately for Balaam he has the world's smartest donkey it says he's riding with his donkey's got two servants with him so picture this baylin's going he's got two servants with him they're riding with the princes of Moab in verse 23 now the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand and the donkey turned to side out of the way and went into the field so Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back onto the road they're going down that first of all grown men riding donkeys is always a comical sight so first of all we've already got a great story going and a great picture in my mind and so here's Balaam you know waddling along on his little donkey and all of a sudden the donkey has greater spiritual insight than Balaam does because he's so blinded by his greed the donkey sees the angel Lord and and takes off in saves Balaam's life and the reward this donkey gets for saving Balaam's life because this this angel award has a drawn sword he's gonna kill Balaam and so the dark he tries to save Balaam's life by going on in the field and what's his reward he gets struck with his stick get back on the road the first opportunity is escaped for danger the second one comes up verse 24 then the angel Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on this side and a wall on that side and when the donkey saw the angel Lord she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall so he struck her again so now as the angel Lords right in the road and there's a wall on each side and I don't know if you've ever had a horse smash your foot if it's very unpleasant and he gets his foot smashed and so once again he strikes his donkey but the donkey saves his life the second time now the third time in verse twenty sixteen the angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left and when the donkey saw the angel the Lord she laid down under Balaam so Balaam Zanger baylin's anger was aroused and he struck the donkey with his staff this time the donkey just plops down right in the road to end Balaam's on top of this donkey and so this donkey would find out she's a female donkey she gets struck the third time verse 28 then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey oh it just gets ghost from great to better the Lord opens the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam I just picture her with one of those really sweet super feminine girl voices what have I done to you that you have struck me he's three times and Balaam said to the donkey because you have abused me I wish there was a sword in my hand for now I would kill you so the bonk that the donkey said to Balaam am I not your donkey on which you have written ever since I became yours to this day was I ever disposed to do this to you and he said no Balaam is so upset he doesn't even realize he's arguing with an animal now I know a lot of people have cuts their horses or their dog or their cat and they have talked to him and they've had but you've never had one turn around and have a intelligible conversation with you when that freaked you out of like mr. ed the talking horse from years ago the donkey she turns around and she starts talking to him the Lord gives her a voice box she begins to communicate with him and he's so upset he just argues she says have I ever done this to you before no but there's a sword in my hand I would kill you yeah now if there's anything worse than arguing with a donkey it's losing the argument with a donkey because she says ever since you bought me as a donkey haven't I been a good donkey have I ever done this to you Pete for he's like well no now it's stories like this that people that want to criticize the Bible and bring back up their skepticisms say come on you guys can a donkey can the Lord really make a donkey talk well sure akin he formed your voice box he formed my boys box people said can you really believe that Jonah was swallowed up by a giant sea creature and he was in the belly of this great sea creature for three days and three nights sure God prepared this sea creature to give Jonah the first you know three days submarine ride ever and when Jonah it took him three days to repent because the the Prophet was so stubborn he would not repent and when he finally repented after three days the great sea creature vomited him up on the shore just projectile prophet right on the shore Ken Ken the miracles of the Bible be true Ken Jesus take five loaves of bread to fish and feed 5000 men can he take two fish in seven loaves and feed 4000 men there's the feeding of the 5,000 there's the feeding of the 7,000 and there's so much food leftover that doesn't count the women and children there's so much bread left over after the 5,000 they fill up twelve baskets full and after the seven thousand they fill up seven large baskets full if you can believe Genesis 1:1 in the beginning God created the heavens in the earth and God created the heavens in the earth according to Genesis chapter one and two in six days and rested on the seventh day if you can believe Genesis 1:1 the rest of the Bible is a piece of cake but it is people that don't believe Genesis 1:1 they believe that we need evolution to create everything which evolution doesn't prove anything as a matter of fact I mean the if you you look at you know the complexity of cells and in all of those things and the DNA and it's it's code and there has to be a designer and as a matter of fact even if you're here tonight and you believe in evolution I just want you to know my hats off to you you'll have much more faith than I do that everything that you can see came from accident you see when I see a brand-new car if I see a Dodge Viper and I see this brand-new car and I look at it the first thing I think is wow who designed this thing that's what I think right I don't say wow I wonder over millions and millions and millions of years that the rubber came together on the tires the Bose speaker system was put in this you know you can go through this whole thing and it just even you know something that as simple as a watch if all the components are right in somebody asked me where did you get this watch I said well I was just kicking around in the dirt out in the back of the property and over millions and millions of years everything came together for this this watch and I I just picked it up and man I was even on Mountain Standard Time just took a couple more million years to get that Mountain Standard Time on there and if you look at the the absolute ridiculousness of the the argument if you just take the math of how old they say the universe is and how much we know that the Sun burns scientists can measure how much of this volume of the Sun is a bright star is burning up if you put those numbers together the Sun would be so close to the earth they would just be burned to a cinder you know years ago when men went to walk on the moon they expected because they can measure the space dust that falls from the atmosphere date you know as big feet that they had on that the lunar module that came down they fully expected because of the extrapolation of evolution of these millions of years they expected the space dust on top of the moon to be 6-foot deep so they thought if they stepped off they would drowned you know in the dust and that's why they have those weak and when they got up there was only about 4 to 5 inches deep at every turn if you look at practical things but let me just tell you you look at a human body and the design that God has put inside of us and if I think that about a watch and I think that about a car and but I want to look at you the creation of things it's amazing and here in a little story as the Lord wants to get a prophets attention he gives a donkey a voice box and the donkey I think she's got a beautiful voice she's a female donkey beautiful voice and she's a great debater she puts him to silence ok and so verse 31 says then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face and the angel Lord said to him why have you struck your donkey these three times behold I have come out to stand against you because your way is perverse before I may notice this key your way is perverse before me why did the angel want to kill him because of his what he saw in his heart he rebukes him for striking this donkey three times notice the angel Lord was keeping track of how he was taking care of this donkey listen to what Peter says in 2nd Peter chapter 2 verse 15 and 16 look how he is described it says they have forsaken speaking of false prophets the right way and gone astray following the way of balaam the son of beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness but he was rebuked for his iniquity a dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the Prophet here Peter tells us it's a man's voice we find out as a female donkey this is all very confusing but whatever voice is given to him or to her the communication is to rebuke the madness of this prophet in his greed because the Lord saw his way is perverse can God see that your way is perverse he got see your heart tonight God see your thoughts God see you when you're away from the things of the Lord are the people who the Lord can the Lord see you know all about what's going on in your life most certainly you see the Lord knows all about us that's why he is the one that is equipped to teach us instruct us rebuke us chasing us correct us do whatever because he sees everything that we're all about and when the Lord sees there's something in our life he'll convict us of it he'll bring it up in Scripture we'll bring it up in church he'll bring it up on the radio or bring it up with a friend he'll bring it up in your own heart your own conscience because God wants us to do well and sometimes he needs to just step in and just say you know what the road you're on what you're thinking about right now what you've what you've been really concentrating on the last couple of weeks in your life are you how you're getting off-track and in your marriage faithfulness or whatever the Lord just deals with that it just speaks to it and he speaks to you it appears you know I know in my own life he speaks to me very gently but then as I ignore it it seems to get more forceful you know the Lord's got this huge volume knob and he can turn up the volume really loud and get your attention so it says in verse 33 the donkey saw me and turned aside from me these three times if she had not turned aside from me surely I would also have killed you by now and let her live she would have lived but he would have been dead buddy and Balaam said to the angel lord I have sinned for I did not know you stood in the way against me therefore if it pleases you I will turn back then the angel of the Lord said to Balaam go with the men but only he has to time this over and over and over but only the word that I speak to you that you shall speak so Balaam went with the princes of Balak now when Balak heard that Balaam was coming he went out to meet him at the city of Moab which is on the border of the aren't on the border of the territory then Balak said to Balaam did I not earnestly send to you calling for you why did you not come to me am I not able to honor you and Balaam said to Balak look I have come to you now have I any power at all to say anything the word that God puts in my mouth that I must speak so Balaam went with Balak and they came to cure Joff huzzah then Balak offered oxen and sheep in a sense son to Balaam to the princes who were with him so it was the next day that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of bail that from there he might observe the extent of the people then Balaam said to Balak build seven altars for me here prepare for me here seven bulls and seven Rams and Bale acted just as Balaam had spoken and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar then Balaam said to Balak stand by your burnt offering and I will go perhaps the Lord will come to meet me whatever he shows me I will tell you so he went to desolate hike and God met Balaam and he said to him I have prepared the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and Aram then the Lord put a word in Valens mouth and said return to Balak and thus you shall speak so he returned to him and there he was standing by his burnt offering he and all the princes of Moab the offerings the sacrifices are on this place an altar of bail if you will it's a pagan altar these sacrifices are what you would do as a diviner or a soothsayer or a sorcerer because that's what Balaam was but God chooses to intervene and speak nevertheless and verse 7 he took up his Oracle and said Balak the king of Moab has brought me from aram from the mountains of the east come curse jacob for me and come denounce israel how shall i curse whom God is not cursed how shall i denounce whom the Lord has not denounced for from the top of the rocks I see him and from the hills i behold him there a people dwelling alone not reckoning itself among the nations who can count the dust of jacob a number or number one-fourth of Israel let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be like his here as he blesses he says men i I can't curse them God hasn't cursed him I can't denounce them God hasn't they're a people that are not reckoning themselves among the nation's you need Israel is a unique people that God chose to make a nation to ultimately bring the Word of God to the world to bring a message of God to the world to ultimately bring the Messiah the Savior to the world through the nation of Israel but here is he's caught up in this blessing Balaam says let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be like his now this is a fascinating desire of baylin's because he's not gonna die the death of the righteous as a matter of fact in chapter 31 just a few chapters ahead of here the children of Israel are gonna kill a bunch of kings and him he's gonna die the death of the unrighteous because in order to die the death of the righteous you got to live the life of the righteous everybody that I talked to anybody that I dialogue with all want to die the death of the righteous isn't it something they wanted their funeral people to stand up and say oh they're a great guy they're a great girl they're there they're with God in heaven they're in a better place they're all of this to date but now on this earth they just want to live like hell they want to do whatever they want to do they want to go where they want to go they wanted they don't want any boundaries they don't want the Holy Spirit restricting them they don't want God's Word giving them instruction they don't want to worship with the people it's fascinating to me that people when I talk to him and I'm dialoguing I'm talking about going to heaven and their sins being forgiven or going to hell or whatever the subject might be that that comes up when I'm dialogue in with them when I ask them hey do you want to go to heaven I've never heard somebody tell me no I don't because they know the alternatives not very positive they don't want to go to hell do you want to go to heaven well sure I want to go to heaven doesn't everybody want to go to heaven but I don't want to go to heaven right now you say well do you know Jesus said your Savior I don't need Jesus well how you gonna get to heaven then well I'm just a good guy well that's not gonna cut it you're not gonna make it without his blood washing away your sins and forgiving you and so you need a relationship with him if you're gonna live for eternity I'll say why don't you come to church ah hey Church bunch of hypocrites down there well why don't you start reading your Bible ah nobody can trust the violets been mistranslated so many times say we you want nothing to do with God's Word you want nothing to do with Church you want nothing to do with worship oh you know you go to church and they sing all of these worship songs to God I don't like all that singing I have said to certain individuals say you know what you won't like heaven you're probably not going to go to heaven because you don't want anything to do with the Lord's people you don't want to worship the Lord and we're gonna be worshiping throughout eternity it's amazing having an earth will pass away but God's words never gonna pass away it's gonna be this great congregational family reunion up in heaven and you don't want God's be around God's people now you don't want to worship the Lord now you don't anything to do with his word why in the world would God want to let you into his heaven when here on earth you want nothing to do with him that doesn't make any sense does it just doesn't make any sense and yet that's exactly how people think that's how they talk that's a and then they think all of a sudden when they die they're gonna die the death of the righteous when they've never lived the life of the righteous the righteousness that you and I experiences by faith and the finished work of Jesus and the Lord declares us to be righteous then practical righteousness begins to go out from our lives from that point he says let my end be like here's man you know what you'll see and no people that know the Lord and they die in the Lord tremendous peace then there are those who die without the Lord and it's a sad thing and the family doesn't have that hope it's just kind of a heavy thing verse 11 then Balak said to Balaam what have you done to me I took you to curse my enemies and look you have blessed them bountifully so he answered and said must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth then Balak said to him please come with me to another place from which you may see them you shall see only the outer part of them and shall not see them all I'll curse them from me from there so he brought him to the field of zou zou fem to the top of Pisgah and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar he said to Balak stand here by your burnt offering while I meet the Lord over there then the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said go back to Balak unless you shall speak so he came to him and there he was standing by his burnt offering and the princes of Moab were with him and Bale said to him what has the Lord spoken and then he took up this Oracle and said rise up BAE Lacan here listen to me son of zippor God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should repent has he said and will he not do it or has he spoken and will he not make it good behold I have received a command to bless he has blessed and I cannot reverse it he has not observed iniquity and Jacob nor has he seen wickedness in Israel the Lord his God is with him and the shout of a king is among them God brings them out of Egypt he has strength like a wild ox for there is no sorcery against Jacob nor any divination against Israel it now must be said of Jacob end of Israel oh what God has job done look a people Rises like a lioness and lists itself up like a lion and that shall not lie down until it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain now this second blessing that he brings about Balak is also going to be upset about but he tells him a couple of things Balak first of all god's not like man that he should lie or the son of man that he should repent or turn because god knows what he's all about and there's a couple of things that really stand out to us in this and that is in verse 21 he says he has not observed iniquity and Jacob nor has he seen a nick wickedness in Israel the Lord his God is with him now if you've been with me going through the book of Exodus Leviticus and numbers have you observed any iniquity and the children of Israel had they whined and complained and and they complained a while back and the Lord sent serpents to judge them and bite them some people rebelled against him the earth opened up and swallowed them up the children of Israel have done nothing but whine murmur and complain and be unbelieving rebellious twerps through the whole process and so now the blessing the Lord comes through Balaam to Balak and this is the message that the Lord is looking at his people and he says I have not observed iniquity in Jacob huh you and I are reading through it we've observed some iniquity and Jacob he says I have not seen wickedness in Israel now that brings up a very important point for us when God's people believe in him by faith the Lord puts them in this place of positional righteousness it's where they they're they're standing with God is a right standing with God by faith now they're stumbling and they're failing and that's what we just mentioned all of their murmuring all of their complaining all of their failures all of that stuff and yet the Lord as he looks at them he says I've not observed it now think about this for a moment when the Lord looks at your life here you came tonight do you believe in Jesus and what Jesus has done for you on the cross his blood that was shed and the Lord looks at you in your standing positionally the Lord looks at you just like this passage and says I have observed no iniquity in here it's Jacob it's Israel he has observed no iniquity in Rick he's observed no iniquity in you you say wait a second man I have had a bad week I haven't done too well today I got mad at the secretary came home and kicked the dog and marked up my wife and you know I mean you had a bad day okay and yet this is the this is the fascinating thing about our faith in the Lord and what you have to get a hold of if you're really gonna grow in your walk with the Lord because as you come to the Lord by faith through His grace the Lord declares you to be righteous Jesus who knew no sin became sin that you and I might become the righteousness of God so positionally he looks at every single one of you without iniquity without sin that you are holy and without blame is that amazing or what he looks at you that's what you look just like he looks at his son and son in that perfect condition you know a couple of verses to hopefully encourage you in that and Psalm 32:1 and two is a great chapter and a couple of verses it says blessed are happy is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed her happy is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit aren't you happy when you're forgiven and God doesn't hold record of wrong or impute to your your sins because you see when I sinned and fail when you sinned and fail it's all imputed to Jesus on the cross Jesus paid the price so remember it's all there the wrath of God is poured out on Jesus there so I sinned and blow it but the wrath Jesus received all the judgment for that sin in exchange I've sinned in blood but I get all of the righteousness and the right standing with God so any day good or bad morning noon or night no matter where I'm at what's going on because of my faith in Jesus or wherever you're at and your faith in Jesus you are in a perfect standing with God that he observes no iniquity or wickedness in you doesn't mean we're not struggling with temptation and we're not struggling with wickedness and iniquity what it means is that the blood of Jesus the Lord is looking at you through sunglasses not s you in but s o N he's looking at you through his sunglasses and the righteousness that is imputed to you now the reason the Lord I love Colossians 3:3 says for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God you're hidden in Christ so the Lord does not impute that to you I love Romans chapter 8 verse 30 says moreover whom he predestined these he also called whom he called these he also justified and whom he justified these he also glorified God looks at your life in three tenses we learned in Revelation chapter 4 verse 8 that they're worshiping around the throne of God and they say holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was past tense who is present tense and is to come future tense that's how you describe eternity past present future but in Romans chapter 8 verse 30 it says he predestined us that's in the past he saw us that we believed in the Lord and those who he called then he justified the present tense we receive Christ now are justified by faith in Christ and these he glorified so the Lord looks at your past he chose you before the foundations of the world he sees you in the present tense you believed in him by faith he called you and you're justified and then he looks at you and the future tense that you're already glorified because God can look at you in the past the present future tense it's mind-blowing but the prophet Bale Balaam declares that it's so awesome you know we so often condemn ourselves because we fail I don't know if you ever mess up I know you're a pretty good-looking group of people but I mess up and what I need to know is that first of all I'm in right standing with the Lord perfectly by faith every day and practically God wants to help my life match up with that life but I'm right with God I'm right with God I'm forgiven by the Lord you know a beautiful picture for us if you were with us earlier in our study in the book of numbers when remember he's up looking at the camp he's gonna look at the camp from three locations as he's looking at the camp I shared with you the shape of the camp was in the shape of the cross remember and so as he's looking at the people the people are camped in a cross shaped configuration so when he's looking at the people what is he looking at them that he cannot put a curse on them he's looking at the work of the cross he's looking at the finished work of the cross for you and I sooner or later you're gonna grow to the place that you finally realize the completed finished work of what Jesus has done for you though you're accepted in the beloved you're seated in the heavenly places you're right with God doesn't mean we don't struggle doesn't mean we don't sin that's why I love about the New Testament you know when the New Testament talks about Old Testament Saints it never brings up the junk they failed in go through the book of Hebrews chapter 11 the hall-of-fame of faith and it's talking about Abraham and how by faith he went out not going where he was not knowing where I was going and and he had these promises and he was looking for a city whose foundation and builder and maker was God and he goes through this whole thing he doesn't talk his failures he doesn't talk about a line about Sarah twice doesn't say you know talk about him trying to help God out by having Hagar the handmaid and then having a son by the name of Ishmael all the blenders of Abraham not mentioned in the Hall of Fame of faith when it talks about Noah and Noah moved with godly fear and he built the boat and he goes through this whole thing about Noah doesn't say no got out of the boat planted a vineyard and got drunk and naked he doesn't say that he doesn't say that he says well what about David and he doesn't talk about David and Bathsheba a david numbering the people when it talks about lot it says righteous law doesn't say lot who's hanging out in this you know wicked Sodom and Gomorrah and the rest of us reading the story going why don't you get out of Dodge law what's your problem man you're hanging out with all this you know perverse people and there you won't you won't even when Abraham has to go rescue you from the Kings you go when you move right back into town a lot what's your problem and you look at humanly humanity there was ever a struggling weak backslidden Christian it was locked yet the New Testament says righteous lot righteous lot wait a second her then is that the same long I was reading about yeah was it the same no yeah was that the same Abraham the same David when it talks about Moses and how he chose to suffer with the chill people of God rather than it be the son of Pharaoh does it talk about him killing the Egyptian burying him in the sand does it talk about him strike in the rock just talk about him not being able or than Promised Land because he struck the rock no I talked to me about him in it in a condition by faith you see by faith I can look at each one of you and just say by faith the Lord observes no iniquity in you he sees no wickedness in you now you and I know we have stuff that we struggle with we're praying about it we got or tempted we had thoughts in our minds we got we got all kinds we got problems right inside here we got problems but the Lord says by faith and my son all of the consequences in the punishment the wrath of God that is poured out against that ungodliness was all nailed to the cross that's why would you said it's finished it's a done deal so by faith in Him there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus we're totally right with God and that's not to encourage us to go live a life of sin it does the exact opposite it actually encourages my heart to live a life that pleases God and so he says these things and he also says that there is in verse 23 there is no sorcery against Jacob nor any divination against Israel ever now and then you'll have somebody try to curse you and there's no divination or sorcery against Jacob and there's none against us as well I like a couple of verses proverbs 26 2 says like a flitting sparrow like a flying swallow so a curse without cause showing an on light it's not gonna light I've had people curse me and told me this and that the judgment of God and all kinds of stuffs gonna on me and I just don't worry about it because I know I'm right with God and and it's not that curse is not going to lie like isaiah 54:17 no weapon formed against you shall prosper in every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness as from me says the Lord and the one that condemns us all the time is the devil tells us in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 10 that he's the accuser of the Brethren day and night but then in verse 11 it says this and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives to the death there's no curse that can fall upon you there's no curse that can come upon me I don't have to worry about the curses of this world the curses of people that sometimes are those who are have been so called you know people of the Lord that have cursed me because of my stand on something and God's gonna judge you brother and he's gonna do this no he's not he judged his son at the cross I'm I'm good to go I'm okay I'm not afraid of your cursing and the things that you're trying to put on me years ago there's a pastor that I knew that made a stand against some false prophets and these false prophets came out and said you know thus says the Lord because he had condemned their their false prophets prophecies he stepped up and said hey that's not what the Word of God says these guys are all wet they're out of line they're they're not right and these guys came against him and they began to curse him they said you're gonna die within a year of brain cancer you're gonna do and they put all these curses on him and it was funny just how those people just kind of went by the wayside and he just kept serving the Lord you don't have to worry about it when you're right with God you don't have to worry about the curses from this world or the sorcerer's or the witches gathering together to throw your football game off it's all okay because no weapon that's fashioned against you shall prosper are you shooting in your life for the surrendered perfect will of God are you kicking and screaming against this perfect will and are you going to get plan B instead of its permissive will it's all about your own heart being surrendered or not let's pray Lord we just ask that you would meet us here these strengthen us that you'd build us up Lord we need your grace and your touch and Lord we just pray right now Lord there are those who are struggling Lord struggling with decisions in their life struggling with the direction in their life Lord we just pray for them right now that your spirit would lead them and bring them into a place of surrender blessing Lord would you just bring a surrendered yielded heart inside of them and bring your blessing upon them that they might be soft and moldable and yielded and just want to hear your voice that voice that's behind them saying this is the way go in it Lord we pray that you would just give them that direction tonight by your spirit in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Pastor Rick Brown

Views: 12,244

Rating: 4.5478263 out of 5

Keywords: Numbers

Id: 96s7XXF0Z6w

Length: 56min 46sec (3406 seconds)

Published: Sun May 13 2012