THROUGH THE BIBLE - Numbers..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. At this time, beloved, we have chapter 23 in front of us. We continue with the story of Balaam and Balak that started last week in chapter 22.

We'll go for one more chapter. So as we are going to read all of these details and receive this word with faith and in the Spirit of the Lord, let's read together, beloved of Christ. Number chapter 23, with much reverence, paying attention to each one of the words knowing and acknowledging by scripture and the authority of it, of the importance of the moment in which the saints come together, even here in the flesh of those of you who are connected online. So, beloved of Christ, let's read together Numbers chapter 23. May the Lord help us as we do so and as we speak about his chapter.

And Balaam said to Balak, build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams. Balak did as Balaam had said, and Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. And Balaam said to Balak, stand beside your burnt offering and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me and whatever he shows me, I will tell you. And he went to a bare height and got met Balaam.

And Balaam said to him, I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram. And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak. And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. And Balaam took up his discourse, and said, From Aram, Balak has brought me, the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains. Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, denounce Israel."

How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? For from the top of the cracks I see him, from the hills I behold him. Behold, a people dwelling alone and not counting itself among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the four parts of Israel?

Let me die the death of the upright and let my end be like his.' And Balaam said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them. And he answered and said, Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth? And Balak said to him, Please come with me to another place from which you may see them.

You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there. And he took him to the field of Sophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull. And I ran on each altar. Balaam said to Balak, stand here beside your burnt offering while I meet the Lord over there.

And the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, return to Balak and thus shall you speak. And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offerings and the princes of Moab with him. And Balaam said to him, what has the Lord spoken? And Balaam took up his discourse and said, Rise, Baal, I can hear. Give ear to me, O son of Zippor.

God is not a man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said and will he do it? Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it? Behold, I receive thy command to bless. He has blessed and I cannot revoke it.

He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them. And the shout of the king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the thorns of the wild ox. For there is no enchantment against Jacob, not divination against Israel.

Now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, what God has wrought. Behold, a people as a lioness, it rise up, and as a lion, it lifts itself. It does not lie down until it has devoured the prey and drank the blood of the slain. And Balaam said to Balaam, Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all. But Balaam answered Balaam, Did I not tell you all that the Lord says that I must do?

And Balak said to Balaam, come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps you will please God that you may curse them for me from there. So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert. And Balaam said to Balak, build for me there seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams. And Balak did as Balaam had said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

And that is the Word of the Lord. Amen. Brothers and sisters and friends who are with us, even those who are online, your attention is required in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we meditate on this chapter here, we continue, brothers and sisters, with the story that started last week with Balaam and Balak, this king of Moab, when he heard of the mighty works that the God of Israel had performed and done. His heart was filled with fear.

If you hear that this God Almighty has taken these people out of Egypt with all of these mighty works and that these people have destroyed a couple of kings, then that will be the natural thing to feel in your heart, in unbelief. This Balakin of Moab was filled with fearful thoughts that he was going to be destroyed. And as a man, the only thing that he could do, not having the God of the universe to come and plead for help, he sent his men and his people to find Balaam, a diviner, a man of enchantments, a wicked and righteous man, a pagan man. who had the reputation of being able to bless and be able to curse, perhaps and more than likely by the power of Satan. A diviner who up to this point has been never called a prophet.

Actually, in the Old Testament, He's never called a prophet. It is only in the New Testament, when the Spirit of God, with His interpretation, divine interpretation of these events, call Him a prophet. He's a diviner, a man of enchantments, a man who does wicked things to accomplish the things that He wants to do, curse and bless. And the King Omoav, in his flesh, moved by satanic powers, by his flesh, goes to these men to say, there is a people, these people who are followers of the God of Israel, who have come and destroyed. There are many of them.

And his heart was filled with fear. In the story that we have in these three chapters, beloved of Christ, this Balaam is going to bring Thinking that he's going to bring a curse upon the people of Israel, he will end up blessing the people of Israel, not only three, but four times. The blessing or better, the curse that the king of Moab was expecting that Balaam will bring upon the people of Israel, completely changed by the divine power of the Lord God of Israel. Changed completely. So that which Moab was expecting unto his favor will turn to be against him.

And that which he was expecting that will be against the people of Israel will be for the blessing of the people of Israel. Beloved of Christ, this Moab or this king of Moab used a false prophet, a person, a diviner, a man of enchantments that according to the New Testament in Jude and 2nd Peter is the perfect example of a false prophet. A man, a pagan man who was taken and moved by demonic powers and by Satan himself now is called in 2nd Peter, was given in 2nd Peter as the example of a false prophet. Beloved of Christ, there are so many things that we could say in these chapters 22, 23 and 24. And perhaps by His grace and help, I will point you very clearly to the prophetic utterances that are given in this section to Jesus Christ.

But I want to give you a warning today. And this is in line of the things that we have discussed from 2 Peter when it comes to the nature of false prophets who are clearly exemplified here by Balaam. That is not my words. Those are the words of the New Testament. Balaam is the example of a false prophet given here in this chapter 22, 23 and 24.

And I want to bring your attention to three characteristics of every false prophet that are clearly exemplified in the life and in the workings of Balaam. three characteristics that we have perhaps discussed in the past, but three very important attributes or characteristics or ways of false prophets as they are exemplified here in the chapter that we have and in the section that we have in the life of Balaam. The first one, I'm going to bring you back to the previous chapter to show you the first characteristic of a false prophet. And if you go there to chapter 22 to verse nine, I'm going to read a section there because there is a section that seems to be a little bit of trouble because it seems that the Lord says something to Balaam and then it seems that he is just changing his mind. that He's changing His ways when it comes to Balaam.

And I'm sure that you have felt that difficulty as you read that chapter there in chapter 22, verse 9. The first characteristic is going to be given here. Let's just read it together and I'm going to give it to you. In verse 9, it says, And God came to Balaam and said, Who are these men with you? When the men from Balaam came.

And Balaam said to God, Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying, Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and he covers the face of the earth. Now come, curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out. God said to Balaam." This is the answer of the Lord.

This is the disposition of the heart of God upon this situation that is taking place. This is what he says. This is the truth that comes when Balaam comes with this request to the Lord. This is what God says to him. The will of the Lord was, you shall not go with them.

You shall not curse the people for they are blessed. That is the commandment of the Lord. You shall not go. You shall not curse them, because they are blessed." This man has come to ask a question and an answer has been given.

That is the disposition and that is the will of God that these men may not go, that these men may not curse the people of Israel, because they are blessed. And then as we progress with the story, this man who already has the answer to this request, comes once again to the Lord to ask as if his answer would have not been clear in the first place. He comes to ask once again, what is he supposed to do after the men have come to him to visit him? And then in verse 19, when you go and see that second instance in which the Lord now is going to direct to him or speak to him, he says, Or better from verse 18, But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more. So you two please stay here tonight that I may know what more the Lord will say to me.

What more the Lord will say to me? He had spoken already. You shall not go. You shall not go. Verse 20, And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them, but only do what I tell you.

What has taken place? What has taken place here is Romans 1, given over. This man has been given over. to the real intentions of his heart. That is what 2nd Peter says in Jude, that this man was after financial gain, that this man was a deceiver.

He was not interested in uttering the words of God. He was interested in gain. And he had the reputation of receiving money for the courses or the blessings that he gave, given over. That is the first characteristics of a false prophet. given over to his own devices, given over to his own passions, given over to his own ways, given over to the counsel of his mind, given over to the counsel of his soul.

He wanted to try to receive money and gain from this thing. And the Lord gave him over. How do we know that? Because when the donkey comes to confront him, this is considered to be a sin. Balaam was going against the word of God that had been manifested in the first place.

The characteristic of a false prophet is that he's given over to his own devices and imaginations. But then in the chapter that we have in front of us in chapter 23, we see another fearful characteristic or another possibility of a false prophet. And that is given to us in verse 3. It says, And Balaam said to Balak, stand beside your burnt offering. They had offered burnt offerings and I will go.

Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me and whatever he shows me, I will tell you. And then he went to bear to a bare hide, and what happened, verse 4, and God met Balaam. Beloved of Christ, a prophet is not only given over, but as we have spoken in the past, There are instances and there are times in which God is pleased by His Spirit to manifest Himself unto a man that is given over unto his own passions and devices, a man that is considered to be a false prophet. It's not that a false prophet does not have any type of interaction with the Spirit of God. It's not that a man, a false prophet, does not have any type of enlightenment into the words of God or even share and be partaker of the Spirit of God.

But rather, in the wisdom and in the plans of God, a man who is given unto his own imaginations and nature can reach a point of Reprobation such that the Lord will even manifest unto him just as He did with Balaam. The Lord met with him. When you go to the New Testament, in Hebrews chapter 6, it's very clearly spoken of these men that are given to their own devices, that they can be enlightened, that they can be partakers of the powers of the age that is to come, that they can participate of the Spirit of God. This is fearful, beloved. One would think that God is going to have communion only with those men that are going to speak his word.

But through the Old Testament and according to the New Testament, we see that there are men who are dead in their trespasses. Who can partake of the Spirit of God, who can partake of the of the presence of the Lord. I just we have it here. And not only that, beloved of Christ, because this man, Balaam, is clearly a false prophet according to Jude and 2 Peter. More than that, God can speak to or through better a false prophet.

God can speak, God can put His word in the mouth of a false prophet. And this is exactly what is happening here. We are told in verse 4, And God met Balaam, and Balaam said to him, I have arranged the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram. And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth. The Lord put the word on Balaam's mouth, not only once in this chapter, but how many times?

Two times. Once to speak of the might and the power of Israel. And the second one to speak of the relationship of the Lord with the people of Israel. All of that truth rooted and based in the promise given to Abraham. The Lord has been pleased.

that at times and in His perfect counsel and in His perfect ways that He will use men that are given over to His passions, to His ways. A man that is given over to His own flesh, that He will give that man over. And that man will have encounters even, or be enlightened in the Word of God, be partaker of the Spirit of God and the powers of the age to come, Hebrews chapter 6, and also be carrier of the Word of God. This is what we have here. Pay attention to verse 19.

It says, God is not a man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it? These words are the words of a false prophet. And these words, this verse here is the backbone of the doctrine of the immutability of God throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament.

This verse that you have in there, verse 19 is spoken by Balaam, a false prophet. It is not only the Word of God, because it is in front of your Bible there in verse 19, but it's the backbone of the Old Testament saints' doctrine and understanding of the immutability of God. And then also in the New Testament, when it's spoken of the ways of God not changing or not turning, or there's no lie in God, God has been pleased. to speak His Word, not only speak His Word, but inscripturate His Word, spoken through a man that the New Testament clearly defines as a man of perdition. He's the example of those who have forsaken the way of the Lord.

It is the example of a false prophet. It is an example of those for whom the blackness of the judgment that is to come is reserved. Jude, just read Jude and you will see those things there. What a terrifying and fearful thing, beloved of Christ, that God will be pleased to do this through a man, His holy and perfect Word. And there we learn that the Word of God does not derive value by the person that is preached or spoken or uttered, but the Word of God derives value, substance, perfection, and everything that it is because it is the Word of God.

God can speak through a stone, God can speak through a donkey, God can speak through a false prophet, and God can speak through His people. The value of the Word of God is not derived in any of those vessels, not on the stone, not on the donkey, not on the false prophet, not even His people. The value of the words of God and the truth and the power, the perfection of the words of God is rooted in who God is. And that is his word. And his ways are always perfect.

And what he decides is that which is to be followed. That is what we learn from there. But of course, beloved of Christ, we are left with a question. But how are we going to know? How are we going to know then?

How are we going to discern if not even truth spoken from the mouth of a man necessarily proves that the man is a man of God? How are we going to know that even if manifestations of the Spirit and enlightenment through the Word and being partaker of the powers of the age that is to come in a man, not even that is a sign of the truth of that person of that vessel? How are we going to know? So many times I have spoken in my sermons in Second Peter about this, and I have pointing many in different ways to different answers to that question. But on this opportunity, I want to point you to one that is found in First John, chapter two.

So if you come with me to First John, chapter two. And I hope that the Lord may give you the faith to take this scripture not with cold intellectualism and not with superstitious, truthless things, but rather as it is to be taken by faith. In First John, chapter two, speaking of false teachers in the context of the church, verse 18, children, it is the last hour and you have heard that the Antichrist is coming. So now many Antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that is the last hour, they went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, they went out that he might be complained that they are, they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One. And you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth.

Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist. He who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. And if what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the son and in the father. And this is the promise that he made to us eternal life. Now, pay attention to verse 26. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you, even when the one that is trying to deceive is inside of our mind, in our heart.

write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and it's true, and it's no lie, just that he has taught you, abide in him. The anointing of the Spirit, beloved of Christ, the unction of the Spirit, as the old people would say, only abides permanently, that you cannot remove, that you will not take in the heart of a person who by grace through faith has been genuinely inserted into the person of Jesus Christ. The person who, by the abiding of the Father and the Son in his heart, truly will be kept and endured until the end, not because of the things that they know and they do, but rather because of the spiritual reality that they have inside of them.

And those people, those who by grace through faith have been united to the person of Jesus Christ, are the ones who continually are Increasingly and progressively illuminated in the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, that those truths might not only abide in them, but they will abide in the person of Jesus Christ. To the point that the mind that the person has is the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. To the point that the heart that that person has is the heart of God Himself. Psalm 119 and Ephesians chapter 4, to the point that the desires that that person has are the desires of the Lord Jesus Christ, not like the false teacher, who even though they may have words of truth and they may delight in the truth, they do not have the heart of God in them.

And the heart of God, being in alignment with the heart of God is to love the Lord God with all your mind, with all your soul, and to love the people of God, or to love your neighbor as you love yourself. And the love of God is being poured unto the people of God. Balaam did not care about the Israelites. Balaam cared about his pocket. Balaam cared about the money that he could receive for this spiritual engagement.

That's why he tried, tried, tried to change the mind of God or to try to change these ways. He was interested in receiving gain unto self. He was moved by his own passions, and so is the heart of many men and women who day by day proclaim the words of God as if they were speaking of God. Yet their hearts are away from the heart of Christ. Yet their hearts is ignorant of the love of Christ.

Yet their hearts and their souls are ignorant of the ways of God. And the burdens of God are not their burdens. And the love of the things that God loves are not what they love, the love self, beloved of Christ. conformity to Christ, die to self. Christ lives in us.

Remove our heart, have his heart. Remove our mind, have his mind. Remove our desires, have his desires. It's the life of Christ in us, the one that guarantees that we are going to abide until the end. And it's the one that guarantees that when God speaks, we receive his truth.

And his truth is not fruitless, but rather because of the faith of the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. That faith of him in us makes us receive this word, not only with the mind, but with the heart desiring to die to self and that Jesus Christ may live in us powerfully. So even though we don't go to seminary and we, even though we don't have books and even though we don't have, you know, accolades and name and letters before our names, When we come to this book, and when we bow our knees before the Savior, and when we're broken and contrite before Him, knowing and acknowledging that apart from Him, we are powerless and there's nothing in us, then He speaks to us His Word, transforming us and changing us, not only individually, but also to those around us, because the love of God is manifested unto His people. And that is what He wants for each one of His saints, That the heart and the mind of Christ might be so powerfully present in each one of you that your life will go beyond yourself and will turn to the person that is seated next to you, the one that lives with you, the one that does not live with you, so that Jesus Christ will be exhorted, not only in your heart, but in the hearts of everyone. Amen.