(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This morning. 227. 227 is saved by the blood of the crucified one. Him 227. Once you find your place, we'll lift our voices together right on that verse. 227 saved by the blood of the crucified one. Lift your voice on that verse now. 227. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Now as the promised sin and the new word be done, sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Glory I'm saved. Glory I'm saved. I'm saved. My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone. Glory I'm saved. Glory I'm saved. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. The angels rejoicing because this is done. A shout of the Father joined there with the Son. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Glory I'm saved. Glory I'm saved. My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone. Glory I'm saved. Glory I'm saved. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. The Father he spake and his will it was done. Praise to the Lord in his own precious time. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Glory I'm saved. Glory I'm saved. My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone. Glory I'm saved. Glory I'm saved. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. All hail to the Father. All hail to the Son. All hail to the Spirit, the great and one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Glory I'm saved. Glory I'm saved. My sins are all part and my guilt is all gone. Glory I'm saved. Glory I'm saved. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Amen. Good start to our singing this morning. We'd like to go and ask the Lord's blessing on the service. So I've asked for the fidelity of His law. Father in heaven, we want to thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ. We also want to thank you for faithful word Baptist Church, Pastor Anderson. Please bless His voice. Please bless our voices as we lift them up to you in praise. Bless every aspect of today's sermon and let them pertain to every aspect of our lives today. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Back to hymn number 22. Number 22, are you washed in the blood? Hymn number 22 begins, have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Number 22, lift your voice. All that verse together now. Number 22, have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the lamb? Are your garments spotless, are they wide as so? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you walking daily by the Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Do you rest each moment in the crucified? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the lamb? Are your garments spotless, are they wide as so? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? When the bridegroom comes, will your robes be white? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Will your soul be ready for the mansion's bright? And be washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the lamb? Are your garments spotless, are they wide as so? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin And be washed in the blood of the lamb There's a fountain flowing for the soul of the queen Oh, be washed in the blood of the lamb Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the lamb? Are your garments spotless, are they wide as so? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Get that good singing. Alright. For our announcements together, if you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we will be in 2 Chronicles, chapter number 27. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. Also, if you did not yet get your prize from the missions conference, I know there were some people who brought up their passport and they had it all dialed in and they didn't get the prize. There's very few people left. But if not, then go see Brother Reggie Noble for that. Brother Reggie Noble, you want to just stand up, everybody see who that is? Alright, very good. And then on the right there, in the interest of minimizing the spread of sickness this time of year, we kindly ask that if any member of your family is sick or feeling unwell, please stay home until they're fully recovered. We've got a little bit of just normal seasonal sickness going around, and so we want to just be careful with that and stay home. Don't call in, crawl in, doesn't apply for church. And also, there was also something said about specifically hand-mouthed foot disease that somebody had, and so we want to be really careful about that because that can be like, you need to wait like two weeks until you're recovered from that because that's super contagious, super harmful. So we want to be very careful about those things. And then below that, we are wrapping up with the 2024 yearbook portraits. Thank you to all those who've already participated. But speak to the staff if you still need your picture taken because we're at the 11th hour here. It's the very end, and so you don't want to get left out. And then also, it says there, share the memories with your photos. We invite you to participate with the yearbook and share your favorite moments with our church. So please send your high-quality photos of this year's recent events, activities, or fellowship moments, and then there's an address there. So just if you took any pictures, and they better be good, all right, but if you took any good pictures, then if you submit them, then that'll kind of give us fodder for the yearbook because we want to be able to put some pictures in of activities and things. So we'll kind of just take la crème de la crème. So if your photo doesn't get picked, don't feel bad. We're just going to be going through just millions of photos. But send us any cool pictures that you have from any activities throughout the year. It could be like soul-winning trips to the Indian reservations, activities, field trips, whatever church stuff that happened, baptisms, whatever you got, send us your best photos. And then keep praying for our expectant ladies that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. Camden, New Jersey, they had nine soul winners with nine salvations. Also, I heard from Pastor Shelley yesterday that they did a thing out in Miami. They had 28 people soul-winning in Miami with 48 salvations. So that was a big hit, too. So thank you to everyone who participated with Camden, New Jersey, as well as Miami, Florida. And then parents, please supervise your children before, during, and after church services. We want to make sure that nobody is running around, roughhousing, getting wild or anything like that. And we don't want the mother-baby rooms being used without supervision. So supervise your kid in there if you need to use the mother-baby room. Below that, we've got the note about Pastor Mejia preaching on Wednesday night, December 4th. So if you don't normally come on a Wednesday night, make a point to be there on that particular Wednesday night. And that is about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, you should find the insert in front of your hymnal with the Psalm 24. If you don't have an insert, you can raise your hand and you'll receive one. Psalm 24, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Sing it out. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods. Who shall send him to the hill of the Lord? For who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and after all, Who hath not lived enough his soul unto man? It's either stored distinctly. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is a generation of them that seek him, That seems like they so take us. He loved, lived, lost, and held. O ye gates and me, lift up the everlasting doors, And the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty and thankful. Lift up your hands, holy place. He that hath loved ye at your everlasting doors, And the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, the Lord. He is the King of Glory to you. Amen. Good singing, everybody. Take your psalm. Let's now go to hymn 321. Hymn 321, where he leads, I'll follow. Hymn number 321. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word. Lift it up together now, 321. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word. He wrote far than any message that ever heard. Nor was the mind of the sinless I see. He's a great example, it's a pattern for me. When he leads, I'll follow, follow the way. When he leads, I'll follow, follow the way. Sweet is the tender one, he does have known. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word. He's a great example, it's a pattern for me. When he leads, I'll follow, follow the way. When he leads, I'll follow, follow Jesus every day. Listen to his lovely words, how much they mean. When he leads, I'll follow, follow the way. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word. When he leads, I'll follow, follow the way. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word. Sweet are the promises, kind is the word. one. Numbers chapter 23 and Balaam said unto Balak build me here seven altars and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams and Balak did as Balaam had spoken and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram and Balaam said unto Balak stand by thy burnt offering and I will go. Peradventure the Lord will come to meet me and whatsoever he showeth me I will tell thee and he went to an high place and God met Balaam and he said unto him I had prepared seven altars and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram and the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said return unto Balak and thus thou shalt speak and he returned unto him and lo he stood by his burnt sacrifice he and all the princes of Moab and he took up his parable and said Balak the king of Moab hath brought me up from Aram out of the mountains of the east saying come curse me Jacob and come 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 top of the rocks I see him and 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 last end be like his 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 and he answered and said must I not take he to speak that which the Lord hath put in my mouth and Balak said unto him come I pray thee with me unto another place from whence thou mayest see them thou shalt see but the utmost part of them and shall not see them all and curse me them from thence and he brought him into the field of Zophim to the top of Pisgah and built seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar and he said unto Balak 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 unto Balak and say thus and when he came to him behold he stood by his burnt offering and the princes of Moab with him and Balak said unto him what hath the Lord spoken and he took up his parable and said rise up Balak and here hearken unto me thou son of Zippor God is not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good 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 is God is with him and the shout of a king is among them God brought them out of Egypt he hath as it were the strength of an 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 the blood of the slain and Balak said unto Balaam neither curse them at all nor bless them at all but Balaam answered and said unto Balak told not I these saying all that the Lord speaketh that I must do and Balak said unto Balaam come I pray thee I will bring thee into another place per adventure will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence and Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor that looketh toward Jeshamon and Balaam said unto Balak build me here seven altars and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams and Balak did as Balaam had said and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. Dear Heavenly Father thank you for this opportunity to gather here today and hear the preaching of your word Lord I pray that you just open up our ears and our hearts to receive the word and be doers and not just hearers alone in Jesus name I pray amen. Man the title of my sermon this morning is the message of Balaam the message of Balaam typically when we look at the story of Balaam in the Bible we're kind of focused on the story about Balaam who Balaam is what he was told what he did wrong people debate about you know was he saved was he not saved did he start out as a good man of God did he go bad what's going on with this guy and a lot of times in those kind of sermons you end up kind of missing out on the actual message that Balaam is preaching because obviously we know that Balaam is a bad person he's a bozo he's wrong the Bible condemns him repeatedly but in this particular passage the Spirit of God comes upon him and he actually does speak the truth he actually does speak the Word of God because remember he's being hired to curse God's people but then God ends up turning that curse into a blessing if you would just flip over to Deuteronomy 23 I don't want to get too much into the story because I want to focus more on what Balaam actually preached the Word of God that God actually put into Balaam's mouth that's what I want to learn from this morning but just to get a quick overview of the story we could look at Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 3 it says an 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 forever because they met you not with bread and with water in the way when you came forth out of Egypt watch this because they hired against the Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor 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 love thee and thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days forever okay so there's just kind of a quick brief overview here flip over if you would to numbers 23 we'll get into the actual sermon numbers chapter 23 I will say this I don't believe that Balaam was saved I believe Balaam is burning in hell right now I think he was a false prophet and that he was a wicked person and that God can sometimes actually put his word into the mouth of even a wicked person just like when Caiaphas the high priest actually spoke by the spirit of God in the book of John he was clearly unsaved and yet being the high priest God put that word in his mouth and in the same story God literally causes an ass to speak a donkey to speak and so therefore I personally don't believe that Balaam was saved I can see where people are coming from on both sides on that but that's not the point of the sermon the point is what did Balaam actually preach it says in verse 5 of numbers chapter 23 the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said return unto Balak and thus thou shalt speak so notice that it's God putting this word into Balaam's mouth therefore we don't want to get so into the story of Balaam that we forget that what he is saying is actually the Word of God jump down if you would to verse 7 he took up his parable and said Balak the king of Moab had brought me from Aram out of the mountains of the East saying come curse me Jacob and come defy Israel how shall I curse whom God has not cursed or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied for from the top of the rocks I see him and 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 last end be like his now the first thing I want to point out to you here from the message of Balaam is that if God is blessing someone no one can curse them right if someone is being blessed by God if God decides that he is going to do someone good all of the enemies can foam and rage and curse and nothing can stop someone who is being blessed by God ok how can anyone even Balaam who was known for being the best soothsayer around and and being able to curse people and they would be cursed and so forth he say look how can I curse someone who God hasn't cursed I'm not more powerful than God no one's more powerful than God and so therefore we need to understand that if you are being blessed by God no one can actually curse you ok look what the Bible says well don't look but I'll just read this for you from Isaiah chapter 54 verse 17 no weapon that is formed against the shall prosper no weapon that is formed against the shop prosper and every tongue that shall rise against the in judgment thou shalt condemn this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me say at the Lord and of course remember that when we talk about being blessed by God how do you get blessed by God well obviously first of all you got to be saved right if you're not saved then according to the Bible you're at enmity with God we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ the Bible says and so until we're saved obviously we're not going to be under the blessings of God the Bible says he that believeth on the Sun have everlasting life but he that believeth not the Sun should not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him right and so in order to be under the blessing of God you gotta start by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that should kind of go without saying but of course we're living in a day where a lot of people have a strange doctrine that says that Jews are blessed by God even if they reject the Lord Jesus even if they hate the Lord Jesus that is a false doctrine okay you must believe on Jesus in the New Testament you you know you can't just say oh we have Abraham to our father God has laid the axe to the root of the tree and you know the Jews are of course doomed if they don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ which they don't and so the Bible is saying here that if you are the servants of the Lord according to Isaiah 54 17 and you have your righteousness from God from the Lord Jesus Christ and you're serving God no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper and all the the tongues that rise up to try to lie about you and slander you you know in judgment you will condemn them you are going to win the Bible is saying because if God be for us who can be against us how can we curse those who God is not cursed now let's go back to Balaam's message in Numbers chapter 23 and let's look at verse 19 because he gives actually four separate messages that are recorded in scripture that was the first one now let's look at the second message from Balaam says in verse 19 God is not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good behold I have received commandment to bless and he hath blessed and I cannot reverse it so again if God makes the decision to bless someone someone else can't reverse that right through some kind of voodoo or some kind of praying against you or something like that right that's not how things work with God right God is not some kind of a voodoo doll or a magic eight ball or a luck charm or something right God is going to judge righteously in the earth it's sort of like where the Philistines thought well if we just bring the Ark of the Covenant over to our side then we're gonna win now as long as we have the Ark of the Covenant with us that's not how it works right God is not just this luck charm where if you have the Ark of the Covenant you're gonna win no you got to be God's people you got to love the Lord you got to obey the Lord and here's the thing the Ark of the Covenant didn't even always work for the Israelites because the Israelites said oh let's bring the Ark of the Covenant to battle with us and they lost the battle because they were living in sin and so this is not some kind of a voodoo thing where you got luck charms and who is superstitious hocus-pocus rabbit's foot kind of thing with God right prayer doesn't work that way if we pray for things in order to get answered we have to pray according to God's will if you pray and ask for things that are contrary to what God wants your prayers are not going any farther than the ceiling okay you've got to pray according to God's will and so if people are out there and they're praying for bad things to happen to you and you're a righteous person and you're a good person and you're right with God those prayers are meaningless God will turn that curse into a blessing you know so when people are praying negative things toward me for example I just think to myself well that's great that people are praying for me even if it's something negative because you know what if God hears somebody pray a negative prayer toward me and he knows that I'm doing right he'll turn their curse into a blessing and you know we have thrown people out of the church before you know according to scripture as the Bible lists things that people are thrown out for we have excommunicated people from the church before and we have you know prayed basically that God would discipline them so that they could be restored so that they would get right with God and you know I've had people that I knew for sure were as guilty as sin and they said to me oh well I just don't want you praying anything bad like I don't want to be under the curse of God you got to hear me out and here's what I told him I said you know what if you are innocent if you're right with God then you have absolutely nothing to worry about I said I'm gonna pray for God to punish you for your wickedness and if you're innocent you have nothing to worry about think about it it's not like some kind of a well well if Pastor Anderson prays something it just automatically happens and it's so scary you see what I'm saying because at the end of the day he's only gonna hear us if we pray according to his will if I mistakenly thought that someone were guilty of someone and these people of course were guilty but let's say I mistakenly thought that someone were guilty of someone and I prayed God I pray that this person would get justice you know what he's gonna give that person justice and if they're righteous then they got nothing to worry about and here's the thing if other people are saying pastor Anderson I'm gonna pray that God destroys your ministry I'm just like great keep praying because you know what's gonna happen is they're gonna pray that and the Holy Spirit's gonna go whoop pray that God blesses your ministry because at the end of the day that's how prayer works God is not just up in heaven just doing whatever people tell him to do God is up there judging righteously knowing all things and giving people what they deserve and doing right and judging righteously and taking the prayers that we pray and look sometimes we don't know how to pray as we ought sometimes we pray the wrong thing but you know what is better to pray the wrong thing to pray nothing at all because at least if I pray the wrong thing God will take it and translate and say well here's what you really meant here's what you really need to pray if you knew what I know this is what you would be praying but if you don't pray at all then you just have not because you ask not and so what the Bible is saying here is that when God commands a blessing other people can't reverse it you know even if they're powerful people whatever that means right nobody can reverse it God's gonna do what God's gonna do he's not gonna sit there and curse the righteous or bless the wicked or anything like that okay he's gonna do right it says in verse 20 build I've received commandment to bless and he hath blessed and I cannot reverse it he hath not beheld iniquity and Jacob neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel the Lord is God is with him and the shadow of a king is among them now here's a key point here okay if you want to be blessed by God you want to get the sin out of your life okay why is it that God is blessing Israel is it just because they're Israel it's funny I was just reading the book of Numbers over the past few days and reading the book of Deuteronomy and as I was reading it it stood out to me as always when God keeps telling Moses hey just let me wipe these people out I'm gonna make you a better nation than them you know it's like people forget about that or maybe people just don't read the Bible but God threatens repeatedly to just wipe out the Israelites and start over with Moses and Aaron and say I'm gonna make you guys an even bigger and better nation than I was gonna do with them and then Moses is saying no no don't do that and Moses makes intercession for the people but God threatens to wipe out Israel and start over with Moses repeatedly okay I was just reading it in my devotions and here's the thing about this is that today right we have people that are over in Israel today they don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and people just kind of just assume that they're God's chosen people just because they have this name Israel just because it's what it says on the map or something but at the end of the day number one you got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ obviously in the New Testament or you're broken off anyway you're chopped off those branches are broken off but number two being saved is not even enough to ensure the blessing of God upon your life because here's the thing if I'm saved but then I go out and live a sinful life and a carnal life God's not gonna be blessing my life right bad things are gonna happen to me my life is gonna go poorly and the reason why God is so intent on blessing Israel at this point is he says that he has not beheld iniquity in Jacob he's saying look I'm not gonna curse them because they're not doing anything wrong right now so why would I curse them if there's not iniquity in Jacob if there's not any perverseness in Israel right now then why would I punish them why would I destroy them and so we have to stop and think if we want God to bless our lives then we want to make sure we have the iniquity out of our lives and the perverseness out of our lives because we want to be able to claim these kind of verses and say hey I want this verse to apply to me I want to be like Israel when they're doing right look at the end of verse 10 again we saw it a little bit earlier let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his well in order to say that you have to also get the iniquity out get the perverseness out and do right if you want to die the death of the righteous if you want your latter end to be like his well then you've got to live a good life right you got to follow the Word of God and again we know salvation is free going to heaven is free going to heaven is easy but being saved and going to heaven is one thing living a blessed life on this earth is another dying the death of the righteous is another right so those are two different things and so back to the scripture here in Numbers chapter 23 it says in verse 22 God brought them out of Egypt he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn they get a unicorn people debate what this is all it really means is just an animal with one horn and it's probably most likely referring to a rhinoceros okay so sorry little girls with the trapper keeper with the with the horse with a horn coming out of its head hey maybe there was such an animal at some point who knows but it's probably just some other one horned animal probably a rhinoceros I said one time hey I don't think rhinoceros is skip because talked about like unicorn skipping somebody sent me a YouTube video of rhinoceros rhinocerae you know skipping and so when I saw the rhinoceros skip I'm like okay that's it it's a rhinoceros I'm done I'm ready to move on with my life so you know whenever I read unicorn now I just picture a rhinoceros I saw the skipping you know I bless her those that have not seen and yet have believed but I saw the YouTube video but he says God brought them out of Egypt he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn right if you picture like a big old tough rhino or something that that makes a lot of sense surely there is no enchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel and again these words like enchantment and divination they don't really sound like Christianity do they like they don't really sound like something that we would be using as God's people Bible believing Christians but it again it sounds like the kind of like voodoo doll kind of Ouija board kind of stuff right and you know let's say somebody makes some little Pastor Anderson voodoo doll and starts stabbing it with needles I'm gonna be fine I'm gonna feel just fine don't do it anyway though no I'm not superstitious I'm just saying at the end of the day there's not going to be any divination or enchantment against God's people because again greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world and so the Bible says there's no divination against Israel according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel what hath God wrought now wrought is kind of an archaic word right but we're maybe familiar with like a wrought iron fence so we're a little bit familiar with this word really it's just saying like what what did God do what did God work what did he produce what is he done you know basically he's saying that in the end people are gonna look back at the history of Jacob and Israel and say wow look at the amazing work that God did here and again the right way to read this scripture is to apply it to Bible believing Christians in the New Testament don't be one of these people that's like oh actually that's about the Israel no it isn't God wrote all these things for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come the right way and some people say oh you know you don't want to constantly be reading Christ into the Old Testament yeah actually I do yeah it is how I read the Bible every time I'm reading the Old Testament I'm thinking about Jesus I'm reading Christ into the text and whenever I see the congregation of the Israelites I'm like reading the church into that and whenever I see God talking about his people I'm thinking okay God's people Christians that's the right way to read the New Testament that's how the New Testament consistently interprets the Old Testament it constantly takes these things and applies it otherwise what's even the point of just oh that's cool that that happened you know three thousand some odd years ago that's cool no no it's applicable it applies unto us today because we're the people of God if we are free from iniquity if we are free from perversity then God's gonna bless us too and no weapon that's formed against us will prosper if we are walking with God if we are serving God and so the main message of Balaam here in the beginning is just that I can't curse somebody who's got who's God's blessing that's not the way God works and the reason why I can't curse them is because they're righteous they're doing right so what can I do there's no enchantment against them in fact someday people are gonna look back and just be amazed at the great work that God did in and through his people verse 24 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 the blood of the slain and so we see that Israel is gonna be blessed God's gonna do a great work and they're gonna defeat their enemies now there are other scriptures of course that support this same idea keep your finger there in numbers because this is our main text but you can flip over if you want to Psalm 118 Psalm 118 while returning I'm gonna read free from Hebrews the Bible says in Hebrews 13 5 let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he had said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me right the Lord's my helper I will not fear what man shall do unto me look we should only fear God because even if the Balaams of this world and the Balak's of this world they all get together and they all start cursing us and trying to use enchantments or divination or whatever they do they cannot stop us the Lord's our helper we don't need to fear what man can do unto us look at Psalm 118 verse 6 the Lord is on my side but look in order for this sermon to work you got to be able to say that if you can't say that then all bets are off if you're out there just living for yourself you're not reading your Bible you're not praying you're not attending church you're out there breaking God's commandments doing a bunch of stupid stuff then you can't really necessarily say with confidence oh the Lord's on my side well is he though if you're out there living a life of sin I will not fear what can man do unto me the Lord taketh my part with them that helped me verse 7 therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes all nations compass me about but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them they compass me about yay they compass me about but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them says of course coming from an attitude of a king of Israel right so he's head of a nation state other nations are threatening to invade and he says in the name of the Lord I'm gonna destroy them obviously today we don't have a physical battle we do have a spiritual battle and so all this is still applicable for us today not in a physical fight we wrestle not against flesh and blood but we do wrestle against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places they compass me about what does that mean compass me about it means they surrounded me that would be the modern way of saying that right they compass me about yay they compass me about but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them verse 12 they compass me about like bees they're quenched as the fire of thorns for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them now why is it so repetitive because it's a song right is the book of Psalms they would actually sing this and so that's the chorus name of the Lord I will destroy them what a great chorus thou has thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me right and so the idea here is that look they're they're wicked people enemies they lack bail them all the different people that are out there conspiring and the Bible says here if the Lord your helper you don't ever need to fear what man will do unto you right at the end of the day God can protect you God can bless you in spite of all that Romans chapter 8 you can turn there if you like but we'll be back in numbers in a moment but Romans chapter number 8 famous verses beginning in verse 31 what shall we then say to these things if God be for us who could be against us isn't that pretty much what Balaam said said look if God's for these people I can't be against them if God commanded a blessing I can't reverse it I cannot curse whom God has not cursed he that spared not his own son verse 32 but delivered him up for us all how should we not with him also freely give us all things who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord if God be for us who can be against us the Lord's my helper I will not fear what man shall do unto me numbers chapter 24 let's look at the third message from Balaam numbers chapter 24 the Bible reads in verse number 8 God brought him forth out of Egypt he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn he shall eat up the nation's his enemies and shall break their bones and pierce them through with his arrows he couched he laid down as a lion and as a great lion who shall stir him up blessed is he that blessed thee and cursed is he that cursed thee and look again we need to take these promises and apply them to ourselves you know I remember there's a song that we'd sing in Sunday school as a kid every promise in the book is mine every chapter every verse every line course today a lot of people want to say no no these these blessings are for Christians there for unsaved Christ rejecting Jews in the Middle East God's gonna bless those who bless them God's gonna curse those who curse them that's wrong false the Bible actually says in chapter 3 that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith verse 16 now to Abraham and his seed where the promises made he says not into seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ so the promises were made to Abraham and his seed the seed is Christ Galatians 3 27 for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for you're all one in Christ Jesus and if you be Christ's then are you Abraham seed and heirs according to the promise so the promise made to Abraham and his seed the seed is Jesus and if you belong to Jesus you are Abraham seed and you are heirs according to the promise what is an heir an heir is someone who inherits the inheritance right somebody has a million bucks in the bank and they die and it goes to their heir right goes to the person who's gonna inherit that money the heir receives it well we inherit the promises of Abraham is dead right of course we know he's alive in heaven but physically he died so then that blessing got passed down on to Isaac that blessing got passed down on to Jacob right and throughout the history of the Old Testament the children of Israel inherited those blessings and heard those promises when they were right with God they inherited those things and now in the New Testament all those people are dead Caleb and Joshua right let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David that he's both dead and buried and his sepulchre is with us unto this day that's what Peter said right he's got so who inherits the promises in 2024 well if you're actually going by what the Bible says if we are Christ's we inherit those promises and God will bless those who bless us God will curse those who curse that makes a lot of sense doesn't it that that God loves his children and that God is blessing his children and that if people hate Christians and persecute Christians God's gonna curse those who curse Christians and that if people are good unto Christians he'll bless those who bless Christians makes a lot of sense unlike the political kind of just right-wing kind of interpretation of Scripture now look you you know if you want to listen to political talk show hosts and and websites and and pundits and different people who preach politics in various ways you know if you're interested in that great but you know what don't let those people interpret the Bible for you at the end of the day let's make sure that you get your Bible interpretation from the Holy Spirit from reading the Bible and from a saved people actually expounding the Bible to you not just some unsaved guys hey you know I mean God said there's people right look whenever you hear secular people talk about the Bible it's a big face palm isn't it it's like it's like watching jeopardy and the Bible category comes up guys super smart knows everything about you know French opera and he knows everything about all the different furniture styles of the 18th century but then it's like he gets on the Bible category New Testament give me New Testament for $500 Alex and all of a sudden it's like you know he doesn't know the difference between Peter and John right he doesn't know Saul of Tarsus from Saul the king of Israel they don't know ok because of the fact that this world obviously doesn't understand the things of God they can't receive the things of the Spirit of God so don't let them explain the Bible to you listen to what the Word of God is actually saying and here's the thing sadly there's a lot of pastors that you shouldn't even hear what they have to say about Israel either because they're basically just repeating what they heard on the talk radio instead of what they actually learned from studying the Bible with the Holy Spirit Galatians 3 enough said right Galatians 3 Galatians 4 Romans 2 Philippians 3 Romans 9 10 and 11 I could do this all day but the Bible says that we inherit these promises God will bless those who bless us curse those who curse us boy you know there's actually some good stuff in Balaam's message isn't there even though Balaam's bozo even though Balaam is a false teacher even though Balaam ends up getting killed with the heathen God turns his curse into a blessing and the Bible says that God put his word into his mouth that's why it's such a bad guy like Balaam can preach such a good sermon because he actually got it from the Lord it's a strange anomaly sort of like the donkey speaking that's kind of strange anomaly as well which is obviously you know there's there's a lot of literary stuff going on in the Bible right the Bible's a really complex book obviously it's first and foremost the Word of God that's the most important aspect but it's also amazing literature it's also superior literature right and that's why even unsaved people and heathen universities will literally just spend whole semesters studying the Bible as literature they don't believe in it the professor won't believe in it none of the students will believe it and they'll sit around and Harvard or Yale or Princeton or whatever sitting there and taking apart the Bible as literature because it's powerful literature because obviously there are all these different you know literary devices going on like for example that the ass actually represents Balaam in some ways right in the fact that God could put his word into the mouth of someone unlikely in order to carry out his will and so we see here in numbers 24 if you want to get back there verse 17 the fourth message of Balaam just for sake of time I'm just going to read you one verse from this fourth message it says I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh there shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of sheth and so here we have the final word from Balaam he has preached four sermons in a row and all four of them even though he's being paid to preach against Israel he's being paid to curse Israel he gets up and four different times he ends up blessing Israel God turns the curse into a blessing God puts a word in his mouth and of course Balak the guy who's paying the bills gets super mad because he says I paid you to curse them and you're blessed he's I wish you would just not say anything just don't don't bless or curse them just don't say anything he said I told you all I can say is what God tells me to say and so that's what happened and that's how the story ends in chapter 24 look at verse 25 last verse and Balaam rose up and went and returned to his place and Balak also went his way now that seems like the end of it chapter 22 chapter 23 chapter 24 you have these three chapters that make up the Balaam saga and in that version of the story what happens is that Balak hires Balaam to curse Israel God turns the curse into a blessing Balaam is unable to curse Israel he ends up blessing them and then everybody just kind of gives up and goes home right that's a great story in and of itself but in real life though sometimes things like this will happen there will be a great victory God's people win and then what happens many times great victories are followed by great defeats because life goes on right after the story ends life continues other things happen and believe it or not Balaam ends up finding a way to curse Israel he ends up succeeding at cursing Israel which is kind of bizarre because you know you think to yourself the whole story is about what it's about how Balaam can't curse Israel he tried to curse them and God turned into a blessing but guess what plot twist Balaam successfully curses Israel in the end it's hard to believe isn't it but look what the Bible says we can just jump forward to well before we do that let's just look at chapter 25 because this is the way the the Old Testament sometimes works especially you don't really see this in the New Testament but sometimes in the Old Testament you'll be reading and you kind of feel like something's left out right the story will kind of jump a little bit and again this is just a literary device where you're supposed to fill in the blanks and it's to kind of leave you wondering or leave you hanging and sometimes it's explained later which later in the book of Numbers this is going to be explained but as you're reading numbers from left to right you finish chapter 24 you think we're done but then all of a sudden look at verse 1 of chapter 25 and Israel abode in Shittim and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab now at first blush you might think maybe this is totally unrelated you know God is blessing Israel Balaam can't curse them he says hey there's no iniquity how can I curse them there's no iniquity but then all of a sudden next chapter we got iniquity we got fornication happening and so again you have to kind of read between the lines I'm not just making this up because we're going to see how this is supported later in the book of Numbers and in the New Testament as well what obviously took place is that Balaam went home and Balak went home and either one or both of them started to think about Balaam's message a little bit and they started thinking about it and said so why can't I curse Israel because I want to get I really want to get paid that was a sweet gig because the Bible says that Balaam loved the wages of unrighteousness and so maybe Balaam goes home and is thinking man that could have been such a sweet gig that could have been so much money that could have been so good maybe Balak goes home and says oh man you know what's the problem here what you know I thought Balaam was our guy what's the deal we don't know the whole story God doesn't give us any details but apparently one or both of them somebody came up with this idea that said well hey if the problem is that Israel is too righteous and that's why they can't be cursed then all we got to do is just get Israel into sin and if we can get Israel into sin then God's wrath will come down on them look what the Bible says as we keep reading here it says they began to commit whoredom in verse 1 and they called the people under the sacrifices of their gods and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods so now they're into fornication and idolatry two super major big sins in the eyes of God and Israel joined himself unto Baal Peor and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel so look we go from God blessing Israel if God can't curse them and he's not gonna to all the sudden now we have God's anger kindled against Israel well that switched pretty quick didn't it and the Lord said unto Moses take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the Sun that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel so now it's time for heads to literally roll because of the wickedness of fornication and idolatry and Moses said unto the judges of Israel slay ye everyone his men that were bailed that were joined unto Baal Peor and behold one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitis woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and when Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest saw it he rose up from among the congregation took a javelin in his hand he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly so the plague was stayed from the children of Israel and those that died and the plague were twenty and four thousand so this guy killed two birds with one stone right he goes into that tent where the fornication is going on he takes a javelin and he only has to use the javelin one time and make a fornication shish kebab right there right and kill them both and then God basically backs off from his fierce wrath now that Phinehas puts a stop to the wickedness and later on God's gonna talk about how blessed Phinehas is and and God's gonna use him you know and his lineage to be the the high priests and so forth in Israel now flip over to chapter 31 of numbers okay because you say well pastor Anderson you kind of filled in the blanks there a little bit between chapter 24 and 25 but are you sure you didn't just make that up because maybe it's just a coincidence that that story ended in chapter 24 and the next thing you know they're committing sin God's angry God kills 24,000 because what did Balak originally say to Balaam in chapter 22 when he said I want you to curse this people he said there's too many of them too many people curse them for me well Balaam successfully was able to wipe out 24,000 people not bad for one soldier right I don't think many soldiers wipe out 24,000 of the enemy but yet Balaam is able to wipe out 24,000 of Balaam's enemies how did he do it well the Bible tells us because a lot of people think of Revelation 2 14 of course because we typically have more of a familiarity with the New Testament than the Old Testament and that's of course as it should be obviously the New Testament is super important it's the most foundational basic truth for us as Christians right if we only had one or the other we'd want to have just the New Testament right you know like if we were translating into a foreign language or something we'd we wouldn't be like all right let's get them the book of Numbers we'd be like well let's get a Matthew Mark Luke and John okay so the point is we tend to have more familiarity with the New Testament I'm gonna read this for you you don't have to turn there but you turn to Numbers 31 Revelation 2 14 says I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam now what does the word doctrine mean the word doctrine means teaching okay that is what the word doctrine means we talk about false doctrine talking about a wrong teaching okay there are people there at that church he says that hold the doctrine of Balaam watch this who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication now the Bible is telling us that there's no question that chapter 25 is connected to chapter 24 okay it's not just that Balak and Balaam went home and that was the end of it no at some point Balaam taught Balak and said hey this is how this is gonna go down here's how we're going to hurt Israel we've got to get them into sin we got to cast a stumbling block before them let's put a stumbling block before them let's get them to commit fornication because if we can get them to commit fornication and to eat things that are sacrificed to idols that's how you're going to get God's wrath on Israel the problem is that there wasn't any iniquity there wasn't any perverseness let's fix that and that's what apparently Balaam and Balak did according to Revelation chapter 2 verse 14 but this is not something new in Revelation because if we go back to numbers 31 when I understand that it's not that you know people reading the book of Numbers had to wait for like 1,500 years you know to have this explained to them it's actually explaining them right in the same book of Numbers look at Numbers chapter 31 verse 13 it says Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the princes of the congregation went forth to meet them without the camp and Moses was wroth meaning he was angry with the officers of the host with the captains over thousands and captains over hundreds which came from the battle and Moses said unto them have you saved all the women alive behold these caused the children of Israel watch this through the Council of Balaam and that is what Revelation 2 14 is referring back to so Revelation 2 14 is not necessarily giving us something brand new by saying that Balaam taught the children of Israel to commit fornication to eat or sorry Balaam taught Balak to cast that stumbling block to get them to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed to idols it's actually coming from numbers 31 16 where it says that these caused the children of Israel through the Council of Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor remember that was the name of their false god the false god was called Baal Peor Baal means Lord and so this is a false god called Baal Peor and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord how many people died total in the plague 24,000 right so 24,000 people were plagued and died because of the Council of Balaam Balaam was responsible for these people dying because he taught Balak who then put the stumbling block in front of them to get them doomed if you go back to chapter number 25 of numbers quickly I'm almost done but numbers chapter 25 if you go back notice if we read a little more carefully now that we know these things now that we've seen numbers 31 and Revelation look at verse number 1 again of chapter 25 Israel abode and she team and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab and they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods and the people that eat and bowed down to their gods and so you notice this aspect of the Moabites inviting them right it says they called the people under the sacrifices of their gods and so this makes sense and now you kind of put all the pieces together Balaam explains to Balak in some future meeting hey here's how we get them counsels him Balak then invites them entices them into committing these sins with his people so here is the moral of the story ok the moral of the story is that no one can destroy you if you are serving God if God is for you no one can be against you no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper you are invincible if God is on your side but you can destroy yourself you can't be destroyed by an enemy the Moabites aren't gonna be the ones that destroy you but you can destroy yourself and so this is why the devil he knows these tactics he understands how this works he knows that just maybe smiting you with a bunch of boils or taking away all your money or killing your children's you know he's tried that before and obviously yeah that's gonna work on some people but at the end of the day though a truly righteous man like job he just goes through all that he just keeps going he he says though he slay me yet will I trust him and just keep serving God no matter what ok but typically what is the devil do instead that's not the devil's main modus operandi ok what does the devil typically do he does it Balaam style and here's what he does he will try to tempt you to commit sin because if he can get you sending you'll destroy yourself so you can only self-destruct as a Christian it's not that the enemies were just too powerful they just had iron chariots they were just too tall they were just too strong they were just too powerful for us no no one is too powerful for God's people the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church of God and so it's never going to be that the enemy was too strong too smart too powerful too cunning too much that will never be what brings anyone down ok as God's people only one thing can bring us down only one thing can bring our church down only one thing can bring us personally down and that is our selves by delving into sin and so that's what the devil is going to do he's not going to come at you and necessarily frontally assault you what he's rather going to do is try to allure you entice you tempt you he's going to invite you he's going to want to be your buddy you know it's not going to be people kicking you out of things that is your undoing you know I've been kicked out of some things and maybe you've been kicked out of some things we've all been kicked out of things at some point right that's not going to destroy us getting kicked out you know the Bible says blessed are you when men will separate you from their company and call you evil and also you know it's not going to be kicking at getting kicked out that hurt you it's going to be invite getting invited in you know it's not going to be that oh you know you got kicked out of the ministerial association that's why you felt no it's going to be because you joined the ministerial associations because you got invited to the presidential prayer breakfast not because you were kicked out of the presidential prayer breakfast right because the devil and his minions know that if you can't beat them you join them and so they will try to entice us and allure us and look you as a Christian what are the what are the specific sins we're talking about here we're talking about fornication and idolatry these are still relevant now obviously we all know what fornication is and this is a huge temptation for young people huge temptation right God wants us to be pure the Bible says this is the will of God even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication and so God is looking down from heaven and God wants his people to be pure right to wait until they're married to indulge in that physical relationship and then once you're married to be faithful to your wife or your husband respectively and so fornication is a way that that the devil can get you to destroy yourself right he can tempt you with someone that will entice you into fornication and then you end up destroying yourself you're no longer invincible now because you have opened yourself up to that okay just like the children of Israel did and so the Bible says this flee fornication flee run away from it every sin that a man do with is without the body but he that commit a fornication sin it against his own body I mean it's a self-destructive act to commit fornication don't do it of course Hosea 13 9 says Oh Israel thou has destroyed thyself but in me is thy help so Israel is later told you destroyed yourself okay they were so they were doing so great in chapters 23 and 24 and then in chapter 25 they crash and burn do not allow sin to come into your life and corrupt you and twist you up because it's not worth it you'd rather go to bed at night with your head on the pillow knowing God's on my side the Lord's my helper I'm not gonna fear what man's gonna do unto me if God's for me who can be against me then delay your head on your pillow knowing that you've committed grievous sin against the Lord just waiting to see when's the punishment gonna come when's the chastisement gonna come right boy you got sin in your life you better confess it and forsake it start living for God start doing right because no one can destroy you but you can certainly destroy yourself when it comes to idolatry obviously we in the United States do not have a problem with idolatry in the literal sense but the Bible also says that covetousness is idolatry you know so metaphorically the love of money is idolatry and so you get obsessed with just making money being rich trying to see what possessions you can acquire and you go down that road you can be destroyed that way as well you can destroy yourself and what does the Bible say about people who love money it says they pierce themselves through with many sorrows right and what did what did Phineas do in that story he pierced some people through didn't they remember that he put him on a skewer I mean it's it's a pretty graphic chapter numbers there are a lot of kind of you know dry parts of numbers but man there are some rough parts in them I feel like numbers kind of paints a really rough picture of who God is so it's an important book to read don't just get bored with the genealogies and bail because you need to find out that God does some rough things and God has got some serious wrath and the book of numbers really highlights that throughout the whole book but you know Phineas is the one who physically pierced them through literally but you know what in a sense they pierced themselves through didn't they they did that to themselves they should have known when they're just publicly flaunting their sin and just publicly being an example and showing everybody we don't care what God says we don't care what Moses says we're just gonna march into this tent in front of God and everybody and make a big show about how we're committing fornication and Phineas is just like I just can't take it anymore I'm just not gonna take it anymore and he goes in there but at the end of the day they pierced themselves and you know what the Bible says if you go out and commit fornication you're sinning against yourself in addition to sinning against God and if you follow the love of money you will pierce yourself through with many sorrows let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this great passage Lord and even though Balaam is a bad guy and we could spend other sermons talking about everything that was wrong with Balaam Lord help us to just meditate this morning upon the actual message that you put into Balaam's mouth about the fact that once you're blessing someone then other people can't reverse that and and and that the only way for us to end up having you angry with us is when we have a bunch of iniquity and perversity in our hearts and lives Lord help us to not ever self-destruct help us to be able to claim these promises about you being on our side and Lord help us to follow those teachings from the good things that Balaam said and in Jesus name we pray amen and man take your hymnals together go to him 303 number 303 my faith looks up to thee hymn 303 sing it out together with me on that first verse 303 my faith looks up to thee thou Lamb of Calvary 303 lift it up now Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh And that's listening this morning we are dismissed Oh You