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that you would be with the pastor now as you pour your spirit upon him as he preaches your word. And please just help us to be attentive and to be edified, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, all right. We are in Joshua chapter 24. Look down at your Bibles at verse number eight of Joshua chapter 24. It says, and I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side of Jordan, and they fought with you and gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you. But I would not hearken unto Balaam, therefore he blessed you still, so I delivered you out of his hand. And the title of the sermon this morning is Balaam, the son of Bozor. Balaam, the son of Bozor. Now, Balaam is a pretty familiar character in the Bible. In fact, he's mentioned at least 59 times throughout the scriptures. And I would say, in my opinion, no exhaustive teaching on false prophets would be complete without a proper analysis on this individual right here, okay? You know, the reason why is because Balaam played such a significant adversarial role against the nation of Israel that God saw it fit to mention him in the New Testament as being a false prophet. But not only that, he even named a false doctrine after him called the doctrine of Balaam. You know, when you read the New Testament in 2 Peter chapter two, which is the hall of fakes, okay, you know, mentioning all the false prophets, you have the hall of fame in Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of fakes in 2 Peter chapter two, you see that God actually mentions the doctrine of Balaam or excuse me, in Revelation 2, talks about the doctrine of Balaam, and then it mentions him in 2 Peter 2 and the book of Jude as well. And so no teaching on false prophets would be complete without talking about this individual right here. Now, why study Balaam? You know, why preach a sermon on a Sunday morning about Balaam, a false prophet? I mean, is this really edifying? You know, can't we get a sermon on grace? Can't we get a sermon on God's mercy? Well, you know what, I'm gonna tell you why it's important to study false prophets and more specifically, why we're gonna study Balaam this morning. First and foremost, because the Bible tells us that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with the hot iron. So the Bible tells us that in the latter times, referring to 2020, there's gonna be people teaching false doctrine, causing people to depart from the faith. The Bible also says in 2 Timothy 3 that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. The Bible tells us in 2 Peter 2 that there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall privately bring in damnable heresies, denying even the Lord God that bought them. Folks, I think this is important. If he's saying that, hey, there were false prophets in those days, but no marvel, there's gonna be false teachers in your days as well, you know, we should be able to identify who these people are. Call them out by name, say who they are, what they teach, what their error is, and compare them to the false prophets of the Bible. You know, Peter, excuse me, Paul, when addressing the Ephesians in Acts chapter 20, he tells them, for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. He says, he tells them that even of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. So over and over again, we see the New Testament, we see the whole Bible, but specifically the New, excuse me, the New Testament, tell us that we need to beware of false prophets, okay? And this is why he gives us various examples of what a false prophet is. The one of the most famous ones is Balaam, the son of Bozor. Now, we know that Balaam is a wicked person, okay? Now people, you know, when they read the story of Balaam in Numbers chapter 22, they can get a little confused sometimes. And the reason for that is because you see Balaam preaching the word of God, he's speaking truth. I mean, he's blessing Israel instead of cursing them. He's going to God for counsel. He wants to know what God thinks about a situation. So you can see how a babe in Christ or an individual who's not very well versed in the Bible can read that and say, well, maybe he's just a prophet of the Lord who went astray or something. But we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this guy is a wicked individual, okay? He is an adversary to God's people. And in fact, look at Joshua 24 verse eight, let's read it again. To prove it, it says, Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warned against Israel and sent and called Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you, but I would not hearken unto Balak. No, he says, I would not hearken unto Balaam. Therefore he blessed you still, so I delivered you out of his hand. So who's the one who wanted to destroy the children of Israel? Obviously we know that Balak did, but so did Balaam. And the Bible says that God delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of Balaam. Why? Because he was an adversary to God's people. He was not a good person. He sought to destroy them. And that's what we're gonna look at this morning. Now go to Deuteronomy chapter 23, if you would. Deuteronomy chapter 23. We're gonna see this morning how the story of Balaam unfolds. And we're gonna go, of course, to the most famous part of Balaam's story in Numbers chapter 22. But I wanna read some scripture here in Deuteronomy 23 first. This morning I wanna do a character analysis on Balaam and basically render some lessons from his story. Now lesson number one from Balaam. What can we learn from this false prophet? What are we gonna learn from this false prophet? Well number one, that he was a prophet for hire. He is a prophet for hire. A false prophet, but a prophet nonetheless for hire. Now again, we see him in Numbers 22 speaking God's word. But folks, that should come as no surprise to you because you have false prophets today that do the same exact thing. Where they get up behind the pulpit, they claim to be a Christian, they believe a false way of salvation, or they have a perverted view of the scriptures and they're preaching God's word. Now obviously they're preaching a mix with lies, but they're preaching God's word nonetheless. But we see him doing that and it could almost seem as though he's a prophet from the Lord, but we know that nothing could be further from the truth. Now let me read to you from Joshua 13. You're in Deuteronomy. Let me read to you from Joshua 13 verse 22. It says, Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them. So the Bible actually calls him a soothsayer. Not necessarily a prophet, but rather a soothsayer. Now what is a soothsayer? Modern day, we would say he's a palm reader or something. You know, he's a diviner. He practices witchcraft. He tries to foretell the future by soothsaying. Now why does the Bible use that term to describe these kind of people? Well, think about it. A soothsayer is someone who speaks soothingly. A smoothsayer, you know those smooth preachers? Like Joel Osteen? He's a soothsayer. He speaks very smoothly, right? He's very nice when he speaks. But when it comes to the prophets of God, they're a little rough. They tell the false prophets to go to hell. They expose the false prophets. They expose the politicians of their day. They call them out by name. They don't beat around the bush. They tell it like it is. The soothsayers, on the other hand, they want to be friends with the politicians. They want to be friends with Gavin Newsom. The God's prophets call Gavin Newsom out and say he could go jump in the lake of fire. That stinking hypocrite. A soothsayer is what he really was. Speaking smooth things. In other words, he preaches lies is what he does. And this was his occupation. Think about that. Balak the king saw him as a suitable agent for hire because he knew he was involved in the occupation of telling lies. And what better person to go up against the children of Israel than a false prophet? Look at Deuteronomy 23 verse three. It says, an Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. This is God speaking here. Even to their 10th generation, shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever. Now, this is not the sermon here, but hey, if God said that certain people couldn't come into the congregation of the Lord back then, what's the difference today? There's certain people that God says can't go into the congregation of the Lord here. Reprobates, sodomites, pedophiles, child molesters now welcome in our church. Says because they met you not with bread and with water in the way when you came forth out of Egypt and because, look what it says, they hired against the Balaam, the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse thee. So we see here that he was hired. Now go to Numbers chapter 22, where we're gonna spend the majority of the time in the sermon, Numbers chapter 22. And let me just make something very clear. Balaam wasn't hired to preach the truth, though we see him doing that, but that's not what he was hired for. He was hired to preach lies. And look, obviously you have preachers today that will preach the truth or they will try to get a certain edge on their sermon, in order to cause people to attract them to their church, to fill up their church. That's obviously a case at times, but more often than not, you will have preachers who preach lies for filthy, lucre's sake. Let me give you some examples, the Jehovah's Witnesses. These are people who are preaching lies in order to earn a paycheck. How about the Mormons? Oh, you shouldn't call out other religions. Folks, these are damnable heretics who teach a false gospel. They teach a perverted way of Jesus Christ and they do it for filthy, lucre's sake. That's wicked. So they literally teach people how to go to hell in order for them to earn a paycheck. Evil, okay? The New Testament refers to this act as loving the wages of unrighteousness. They like to get paid to do evil things. Look folks, it's almost better that, you know, it's more honorable for a prostitute than for a false prophet. Obviously, being a prostitute is not honorable, but being a prostitute over being a false prophet is. Because being a false prophet not only endangers people's lives, but it also damns people's souls to hell, okay? Now let's look at when he was hired to teach lies and false doctrine. Look what it says in verse number five of Numbers 22. He, referring to Balak, the king, says he sent messengers therefore unto Balaam, the son of Beor, to Pethor. All right, I stapled my notes here so I can't read the scriptures. He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam, the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, behold, there is a people come out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of the earth and they abide over against me. Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me. Prayer to venture, I shall prevail that we may smite them and that I may drive them out of the land, for I want that he whom thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou curses is cursed. So what do we see here? Balak is shaking in his boots because of the fact that the children of Israel is wiping out every nation they come across. You know, God is basically telling them, hey, go into this place and destroy this people, I'm with you, the battles of the lords, and anywhere they would go, as long as they obeyed God, they were able to conquer that nation, you know, that people. So Balak sees this, he's hearing the reports, and he's like, man, these people are gonna lick us up like an ox licketh up the grass. In other words, he's like, these people are gonna like whoop us, okay? So he's like, we gotta hire a false prophet, a popular one, a soothsayer, to go and basically curse the children of Israel so that I can win this war. Look what it says in verse seven, and the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with, look what it says, the rewards of divination in their hand. And they came into Balaam and spake unto him the words of Balak. So what are they doing? They're bringing him a compensation, a salary, okay? They're bringing him income. Now, notice that this isn't something that he shuns. He's not like, how could you? Who do you think I am? You know, you think I'm some sort of politician or something like that? I just take bribes like that? And you know, he's not shunning what they're telling him here. And look, the Bible tells us in 2 Peter chapter two, the reason why he doesn't shun them is because he loves the wages of unrighteousness. How many of you love something today? You know, you love, some of you love food, okay? Amen. We're all gonna love food during Thanksgiving. Amen. You know, some of you love your hobbies, you love your children, you love your wives, you love your spouse, you love your job. Balaam loved the wages of unrighteousness. Says a lot about him. Look what it says in verse eight. And he said it to them, Why do you hear this night? And I will bring you word again, as the Lord shall speak unto me, and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam. So they tell him like, hey, here's the reward of divination. And he's like, hold on a second, I gotta go consult with the Lord real quick, okay? Now, people read this and be like, okay, well, maybe he's sincere. He's trying to figure out what the Lord wants him to do. Maybe he's going to the Lord for consultation. Why are you hitting on him like that, Pastor Mejia? Maybe he's just, you know, he's just a little confused. Well, look, Balaam's not doing this because he's a man of integrity. Because a man of God doesn't have to consult with God about cursing his people. Stupid. A man of God would be like, no, you're cursed. I'm not gonna curse God's people. I'm God's people. So you're telling me to curse myself? Let alone get paid for it, right? That money perish with thee. Now, again, what is the modern day application of this? The modern day application is that you have false religions today who literally get paid full time to preach lies. And make no mistake about it, when those people come to my door, I rebuke them sharply. When a Mormon, a Jehovah's Witness, or whatever other religion that teaches the perverse way of Jesus Christ or his gospel, I yell and scream at them in front of my kids. You know, I had one guy come to my door and he was just like, he didn't say, hey, here's an invitation to my church. He didn't say, hey, are you 100% sure that if you die today, you go to heaven? You know what he's saying? Do you know that God is a woman? And I lost it. I lost it. I was like, get the hell out of my front door, you wicked false prophet. And they're just like. Oh, you shouldn't speak to them like that. Folks, the Bible tells us not to bid them God speak to rebuke those people sharply. Wicked. But there's people out there like that who literally get paid to do those things. Now, obviously, we see this throughout Christianity, whether it's a Joel Osteen, it's a Rick Warren, it's these Charismatics or Pentecostals who literally do this for the sake of money. Well, let's talk about independent fundamental Baptists. Okay, how about Manly Perry? Now, if you don't know who Manly Perry is, just tune out for these next couple of minutes. But Manly Perry is a so-called and independent fundamental Baptist who's teaching lies. He's gone up over the last couple of weeks and months and preached Jehovah's Witness doctrine. And lo and behold, what does he have in his church? Former Jehovah's Witnesses. Coincidence? I think not. He has former Jehovah's Witnesses in his church and he's teaching Jehovah's Witness doctrine. And look, let me just say this. I believe that he believes that doctrine. But I also believe that he began teaching it in order to appease and appeal to the Jehovah's Witnesses in his church. Why? Because he loves the wages of unrighteousness, folks. That's why. And he's more concerned with building his church, having people come to his church, and so he's gonna teach lies in order to do so. Folks, I don't care if I offend everyone in my church and only have five people, me and my family, in our church, I'm still gonna preach the truth. No amount of money should ever motivate a preacher to change what he believes and starts teaching some damnable heresy. But Manly Perry is. Manly Perry is teaching that hell, there's no burning in hell. That's Jehovah's Witness doctrine. Hey, you're learning something today, man. That's Jehovah's Witness doctrine. He's teaching that Jesus did not die. What in the world of gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Hello? It's nonsense. There are hirelings that flee when the wolf cometh. They don't really care for the sheep. They're doing it because they wanna earn money, they wanna get the wages of unrighteousness, and this is exactly what we see Balaam doing. He is a prophet for hire. Now look, this is not to say the pastors should not get paid, because obviously they should. We see that that is a biblical concept. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 9, 14, even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. But let me say this, the gospel is the truth. Not getting paid to teach lies, getting paid to teach the truth, right? In order for a pastor to be able to provide for his own, to live a normal life, so he can give himself wholly to the ministry. But there's people out there who have an agenda, and see church as an opportunity to take advantage of honest people, okay? And look, I've personally known people who are in independent fundamental Baptist churches that literally, they want the pastorate, they want to get ordained in order for them to just make money and be lazy. They literally steal money from the plate, okay? You know, you got people like Adam Fanon, who literally, they would collect up the offering, they put it in the plate, and he'd just like take it himself, and just put it under the pulpit, and he's just like, nothing to see here, as he's putting it in his own pocket. Folks, and look, if any of you want to know what we do when we take the offering, I'd be more than happy to show you. I never touch the money here, never. We have a group of five guys who count the money, they put it into a bag, it's sealed by Chase, it's transported, and you know what, if that bag is transported and it's torn, I'm going to jail, okay? I don't touch that money, because I'm not doing things for filthy lucre's sake. You know, I preached the truth prior to being a pastor, I believed these core doctrines before I was ordained, you can ask the men in this church, you can ask Alex Berea, you can ask Marcos Sanchez, you can ask Ulysses Hernandez, prior to me even being a pastor, you can ask Albert. Prior to me even being a pastor, I believed these things and I preached these things as though I had a congregation. Why, because these were my core beliefs. Oh, I'm not going to be New IFB anymore. You weren't New IFB to begin with, what are you talking about? New IFB isn't something that you're like, you're in and then you're out and then you're in again. New IFB is just something who you are. New independent fundamental Baptist, okay? So we see that he was a prophet for hire, and this is evil, this is wicked, okay? When people don't have a conscience and they have no problem with just behaving like a politician, just getting paid for just doing wickedness, that's wicked, that's evil. Now what's the second thing that we can learn from him? Well look at Numbers chapter 22 verse 15, the second thing that we can learn from him is that he was limited by God. He was limited by God. Now we're skipping a lot of verses here, we're going to go back to those in just a bit. But look at verse 15, it says, And Balak sent yet again princes more and more honorable than they. And they came to Balaam and said to him, Thus saith Balak, the son of Zippor, Let nothing I pray thee hinder thee from coming unto me. So what's going on here? They sent him the reward of divination, God says, no, you can't curse my people. Go tell Balak you can't do that. He goes back and he says, I can't do it. So what Balak does is he sends more honorable people than the first princes that came with more rewards of divination to try to entice him to be able to do it, to curse his people. Verse 18, Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more. Now therefore I pray you, tarry ye also here this night that I may know what the Lord will say unto me more. So just keep in mind that when he's going back to God to basically say, hey, this is what they want me to do, he's trying to get God to give him permission to go curse the children of Israel. Verse 20, and God came unto Balaam at night and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up and go with them, but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shall thou do. Now, pay attention here because this can be a little confusing, right? Because we see in verse 21, and Balaam rose up in the morning, saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab, and God's anger was kindled because he went. Now, this is not a contradiction, okay? What we see here is that God tells him, hey, if the men come to call thee, rise up and go. And if you go, the words that I speak unto you, that's what you're gonna say. Well, is that what he did? Did they come and get him and be like, hey, you ready to go? No, verse 21 says Balaam rose up in the morning, saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. Just completely disobeyed God. So he gets up, he's like, oh, time to make some filthy lucre. Gets his ass, gets on top, saddles his ass, and he goes with the princes of Moab, just completely disregards what God says, okay? Verse 22, God's anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand, and the ass turned aside out of the way and went into the field. And Balaam smote the ass and turned her into the way. But the angel of the Lord stood in the path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself onto the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall, and he smote her again. So what's going on here? He's like riding on this donkey. God opens the eyes of the donkey to see the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword, and the ass is just like, no way. He runs into the field, and he's like, what are you doing? And then he goes into this area where there's a wall on one side, a wall on the other, crushes his foot, and the angel of the Lord is terrifying. It's a terrifying sight. First of all, an angel of the Lord is terrifying, let alone a sword drawn. This thing's gonna kill me. Smart donkey, amen. And then Balaam is just like hitting that thing, he's like, what are you doing? Verse 26, and 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 ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam, and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with the staff. So finally, they get to a point where the angel is just standing in the narrow place, there's just nowhere else to turn, so he just buckles under him. And then Balaam is really mad, he starts beating the donkey and just whooping it. But what do we see here? What's the biblical principle that we see here? We see that he could proceed no further. Now go to 2 Timothy chapter three, hold your place there. You see, the reason the angel of the Lord was there was to stop him, right? It was to stop him from trying to go receive the reward of divination and curse the children of Israel. He did not allow Balaam to proceed any further. Now 2 Timothy chapter three is a good chapter also that teaches principles about reprobates and false prophets. Look what it says in verse number eight. Now as Janus and Jamborees withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. This is referring to a person who can no longer be saved. They're reprobate concerning the faith. Verse nine, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be made manifest unto all men as theirs also was. So what's the principle there? The principle is this, is that false prophets, when they're wolves in sheep's clothing, you know, when they're in an independent fundamental Baptist church or a place where they claim to preach the right gospel, they shall proceed no further. Don't think, oh man, this person's just getting away with it. They're just gonna keep corrupting people. No, no, no, don't worry about it. Their folly shall be made manifest and they shall proceed no further. What does folly mean, their stupidity? How stupid do you think Balaam looked? Going through the fields, getting his foot crushed. Everyone's like, is that Balaam? Isn't that his donkey? Like he's had it for like, what's up with that? Isn't that how you think, got rabies or something? He's like yelling and smiting his ass and just going crazy. His folly's being made manifest. And he can't go any further. And look folks, this is what God does to false prophets. When, let me just explain something as well, okay? You know, I joke around and I say like, Joel Osteen is like a wolf in wolves clothing, right? And it's true, he is. Like any saved individual with any sense in their mind knows that Joel Osteen's just a wicked individual. He's only gonna be able to deceive unsaved, you know, Christians, so to speak. Christians that are basically, they have the name of Christ but they're not really saved. They haven't believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe in a false way of salvation. Any Christian who is actually saved knows that's a wolf. Like, this guy's a false prophet. But the wolves in sheep's clothing are those who infiltrate churches like ours. They look like us, they talk like us, they act like us, they teach like us. And they can deceive people. And that can be kind of disheartening, you know, that can become like a little scary sometimes because you think to yourself, like, who's the false prophet? Like, who's the infiltrator? You know, and then we never want to have the spirit in our church where we just suspect everyone, by the way. You know, we're just like, who's the Judas here, you know? Why, because we need to rest assured that the Bible tells us that their folly shall be made manifest. And they shall proceed no further. And then wouldn't you say in the lifespan in our church so far, all of the wicked people, you know, all of the false prophets and all the idiots of our church who are here, they're gone. And thank God for that. Thank God when God removes the dross from a church, right? Oh, you shouldn't talk about them like that. Why are you gonna, there's people who the Bible says are good for nothing. Trash. That's what the Bible literally says. And look, I know you don't know that because maybe you just stick to the book of John. But look, folks, when you read the entire Bible, you see that God specifically says there's certain people, they're cast out, they're to be made to be trotted under the foot of men. They're good for nothing, the Bible says. And God gets rid of those people. But even more so, a false prophet who's trying to infiltrate, to teach damnable heresy, to molest children, to do wicked stuff, you know, they shall proceed no further. They will be like Balaam, who has the angel of the Lord as his adversary. They can proceed no further. They can't go any further, their folly shall be made manifest. A great example of that is Manly Perry. Him and his Rick James moments. Don't forget, cocaine's a hell of a drug. He's over here preaching one thing in 2017. Then he comes back around in 2020 and says, I heard the most blasphemous teaching I've ever heard in my life, you know, by this pastor. And he's talking about like another pastor. And he's just like, you go back to his 2017 sermon, that's exactly what he's preaching. He's like, are you crazy? And then in my mind, I feel like he responds by saying, cocaine's a hell of a drug. Kids don't do drugs. But we have examples of this even in the Bible. Think about Janus and Jambres in the book of Exodus when they're withstanding Moses. They were able to kind of deceive the people and replicate the miracles and the plagues, but it came to a point where they said, we can proceed no further, this is the finger of God. Multiple times in the Bible, we see that. You know, Judas couldn't proceed any further. Yeah, he was there for three and a half years, but it got to a point where he manifested himself of who he really was. God allowed him to manifest himself and to make, and by the way, his manifest was made folly. Because now we see him for the last 2,000 years as being the guy who hung himself and his bowels gushed out, okay? So Balaam was a prophet for hire. Balak came to Balaam to hire him to curse the children of Israel. Wicked thing number one is the fact that he would be willing to get paid in order to teach lies. The second thing is that we see is that he's limited by God. And we should find consolation in that, amen? You know, don't have this attitude like, oh man, all these people, who else is the next false prophet, you know? I was talking, I don't know, I was talking to one of the brothers the other day, and I was thinking to myself, or maybe it was my wife, I was telling them, look, there's been at least like 13 people. Was it you, brother, you, Lisa? There was like 13 people in the new IP who had already been found out as being like wicked people, you know? We went through all the lists. And some people were like, oh, it's falling apart. The new IP is falling apart. No, that's a good thing. What are you talking about? They're exposed, they're manifested, they go away. And then we have a bunch of new content every Sunday, amen? I don't have to figure out what I'm gonna preach on Sunday morning, you know? Now I know. But they're limited by God. They can proceed no further. Now, go back, look at Numbers chapter 22, look at verse 28. What's another thing that we can learn from Balaam, the son of Bozor? By the way, in the Old Testament, it's Balaam the son of Beor. In 2 Timothy chapter two in the New Testament, it's Bozor, it's the same name. In case you're wondering, like, it says Beor, why are you saying Bozor? So the third thing that we can learn from him is that Balaam was a natural brute beast. He's a natural brute beast. And of course, I'm taking that from 2 Peter chapter two, where the Bible says, and these as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of those things which they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption, okay? So the Bible refers to false prophets in the New Testament as natural brute beasts, okay? Now, how are we gonna draw that parallel here? Well, look what it says in verse 28. This is where we find the unique occurrence of the ass speaking, okay? It's pretty cool. This really happened, guys. There's only two animals in the history of mankind who've been able to speak. You have the ass, and then you have the serpent. They were actually able to speak, okay? And this isn't Shrek, okay? That's probably where they got the idea from. So this is at the point where, you know, Balaam is just beating the ass, and he's just like mad. He's all frustrated. He's like, I gotta get my money. Verse 28, and the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, what have I now done unto thee that thou wast smitten me these three times? Now, look, folks. If I have a dog that's just like, you know, acting up, and I'm like whooping it, and it just like, it opens his mouth, and it's just like, pastor, what have I done unto thee? Whatever I had planned just goes out the window. I'm like, this freaking thing just talked to me. Right? If the donkey speaks, it's like, I am going, cocaine is a hell of a drug. You know what I mean? You stop and think this thing is talking. I mean, any normal person would think that. I would be calling over people like, hey, you gotta listen to this. This thing just said something in Hebrew or whatever language you're speaking. But no. Verse 29, and Balaam said unto the ass, because thou hast mocked me. So he's like talking back to the ass. How much more stupid do you think he looks to anybody who's around him? He said unto the ass, because thou hast mocked me, I would, there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill thee. So now he's threatening to kill the beast of burden here. And the ass said unto Balaam, am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was dying unto this day? I mean, it's a sweet donkey. It's being very kind, right? Was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, nay. He's just like, no. Balaam, the animal's talking. Can you just like think about this for a second? Look, hey, forget the wages of unrighteousness, you can make a lot of money just, you know, with this thing right here. Come and see the talking donkey. And the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way and his sword drawn in his hand and he bowed down his head and fell flat on his face. So what's going on here? So basically the ass is telling him, look, I'm not just doing this for no reason. There's something that I'm scared of. And that's why God opens the eyes of Balaam to see the angel of the Lord with the sword in his hand and the Balaam's like, oh, okay, I get it. Verse 32, and the angel of the Lord said unto him, wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way, look what it says, is perverse before me. And the ass saw me and turned from me these three times. Unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee and saved her alive. Now, folks, what do we see here? We see that the intention of the angel was to do what? To kill Balaam. He's like, I was actually trying to kill you. You're lucky that your ass, you know, hit the right side and the left side and went into the field, crushed your foot, went under you, because I would have killed you and saved the donkey. Well, this is God speaking here. Let's just make something very clear. This is what the Bible would refer to, you know, the theological term, it's a theophany, okay? It's a pre-incarnate Christ, manifestation of Jesus Christ. Now, when it comes to the story of Balaam, again, you know, a lot of people get hung up on the fact that Balaam, you see, you read through the whole chapter, he is like prophesying, I mean, he's preaching the truth. Although he's a false prophet. And this is why people think, man, well, maybe he's just a, because, you know, I looked it up online, looking at what people say, just to see what they say, and people are like, oh yeah, he's just a prophet who went astray, he was just greedy and all these things, you know? And he's not a bad person, he just got carried away with his covetousness. No, he's a wicked person. What we need to understand is that this was a supernatural occurrence, okay? And I believe this is one of the reasons why this story of the ass speaking is in Numbers 22. Why, because Balaam speaking God's word was as supernatural as the dumb ass speaking with man's voice, right? Balaam being able to wax eloquent and speak God's word was just as supernatural as the dumb ass speaking with man's voice. And no one would look at the donkey and say, oh, okay, it's a human, right? Like no one there would be like, oh, it's a person. I thought this whole time it was a donkey, it's actually, it's a human being. No, people would say, well, that's a miracle, okay? Well, in that manner, we shouldn't look at Balaam and say, oh, okay, he's a saved prophet who just went astray. No, it's just a supernatural occurrence that took place where he was able to preach the word of God, okay? And in fact, this is why the Bible says that he is a natural brute beast in 2 Peter chapter two. These as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things which they understand not. So if false prophets speak evil of the things which they understand not, then it requires a supernatural occurrence for them to speak the right things. You understand? Balaam and his donkey are a picture of Balak and Balaam because just as Balaam was riding on the donkey to try to get him to go wherever he wanted him to go, in like manner, Balak was doing the same thing to Balaam trying to get him to curse the children of Israel wherever he wanted to go. And just as Balaam smote the ass and reproved him and corrected him because he wouldn't go in that direction, in like manner, Balaam reproved Balaam in the following chapters because he wouldn't curse the children of Israel. You understand? So the miracle, the miracle that he spoke God's word, by the way, wasn't the only miracle, okay? The fact that he wasn't permitted to speak the lies was also a miracle, okay? Now look at verse 13. Come back to verse 13. Because we think, oh wow, it's a miracle that he was able to preach the word of God. Yeah, that is a miracle, but it's also a miracle that he was just not allowed to speak the lies that he wanted to speak. Look at verse 13. Balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the princes of Balak, get you into the land, for the Lord refuses to give me leave to go with you. I mean, I don't know how this looked like, but he's just like, there's some sort of force field or something. I can't get through this. I'm not allowed to go. Look at verse 16. They came to Balaam and said to him, thus sayeth Balak, the son of Zippor, let nothing I pray thee hinder thee from coming unto me. For I will promote thee unto very great honor and will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me. Come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people. And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, if Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord, my God, to do less or more. This is not an integrity type of a statement. He's not like, you know, you can offer me whatever you want. I'm not gonna take it. He's just saying, look, you can offer me whatever you want, but I can't do anything. God's not allowing me to do it. You can give me silver, gold, houses, honor, prosperity. I can't do it. Look at verse 37. Balak said unto Balaam, did I not earnestly send them to thee to call thee? Wherefore camest thou not unto me? Am not I able to indeed promote thee to honor? And Balaam said unto Balak, lo, I am coming to thee. Have I now any power at all to say anything? The word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak. What is he saying? I don't have any power to preach lies. I can't do it right now. I'm mad, you know, it's out of commission right now. God's not permitting me to say these things. Now, so what do we see here? We see that he's simply a brute beast, okay? And look, let me just say this. Manly Perry's a brute beast. It was a miracle that he was able to preach the right things in 2017. You know what? It's a miracle that God made him forget that and preach the wrong things in 2020 and contradict himself so sharply. It's all a miracle, what God allowed. And you know what? You should take it as God loving us, amen? God loves us in such a way that he makes manifest the folly of the false prophets so they don't damage anyone else. Look at verse 20. Now, what was the agenda of Balak and Balaam? It was to destroy Israel. They wanted to destroy Israel, but you know what? They couldn't. So what's the next principle that we learned? He couldn't destroy God's people. He couldn't do it, right? Look at verse 20. 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 it seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord is God is with them and the shadow of a king is among them. Now, let me explain something very important here, okay? Everyone pay attention. Balaam could not destroy the children of Israel. But Balaam's still a false prophet. So you know what he actually did? Because he understood, I can't curse Israel. I can't pronounce cursings upon them. He actually, what he did, what we see in Revelation chapter two, is that he taught Balaam how to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed into idols and to commit fornication and that would cause God to curse them. Because after this story, we see that, oh, look what it says in chapter 25. Go to chapter 25. So this story's done, right, with Balaam and Balak and they're just like, all right, we give up. Not really. Look what it says in verse one. And Israel abode and shit him 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 did eat and bow down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Belpeor and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 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 turn away from Israel. So look, Balak, he's like, all right, look, I can't curse them, but here's what we can do. We can cast a stumbling block before them so they can sin against God and then God can curse them. God can destroy them. What's the principle there? No one can destroy us but us. Right? No weapon formed against thee shall prosper, the Bible says. You know who's the only person that can destroy you is you. You're the only one who can destroy yourself by allowing yourself to sin, to get involved in fornication and drunkenness and adultery and all manner of evil. At that point, you know what? God can destroy your life. You know, I hate Gavin Newsom, but he's not gonna destroy us. He can't destroy me. I don't care how much money he has, how much influence he has, how wicked he is, how much power and influence he may obtain, he can't destroy me. He can't destroy us. Don't give him that honor and that credit. Amen. Balaam over there, Governor Balaam can't destroy us. We could only destroy ourselves. You see, Balak, he's smart. He's just like, look, I can't do it, but I'll teach you how. And this is why it's called the doctrine of Balaam. He's like, if we can get them to just sin against God, worship false gods, commit fornication, then we can get God to destroy them, and then the war's yours. Wicked. Super evil. But unfortunately, he actually succeeded, okay? And look, folks, let me just say this, is that, you know what? Don't fear anybody in this world. Don't fear the false prophet, don't fear the wicked governors, don't fear the wicked politicians, don't fear Bill Gates. What's to be afraid of anyways, right? A weenie? You know, don't fear any of those people. Who are the only ones that we should fear? Well, first of all, fear God. Right. In such a way that we recognize, I gotta make sure that I keep my life clean, that I'm serving God, because I'm the only one who can destroy myself. Okay? Now go to Numbers 31, and we're done here. Numbers 31. And look, if you read that story in Numbers 23, God just like begins to wipe people out. I mean, pretty, it's a savage moment, where he's like, hang their heads up against the sun, then my fierce anger may turn away. Hang their heads. He's like, I want everyone to see what the consequence is of turning away from God. That's a sight to see. I mean, every man, woman, boy, girl, and child are just walking by and they see all the heads of all the people who worship false gods. Guess what, those children are like, we ain't worshiping false gods. Nope. Put away Belpior, we're serving the true God. And he said that the fierce anger may be turned away. I thought that was the fierce anger. You mean there's more? There's more to your fierce anger? Yeah, there's a lot more. Hey couples, make sure you're not fornicating, amen? Get married, get right with God, do it right so that the fierce anger is turned away from you. Hey, if you have a propensity to be involved in marijuana and drugs and alcohol, put away from yourself that wicked act so that the fierce anger is turned away from you. Don't destroy yourself. That's a sermon for another day, but it's a good point, amen? Last point is this, is that Balaam, he would eventually just destroy himself. Or he would be destroyed himself, should I say. Look what it says in verse seven of chapter 31. And they warred against the Midianites, and the Lord commanded Moses, and they slew all the males. And they slew the king of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain, namely, Evai, Rekim, Zor, Her, Reba, five kings of Midian. Balaam also, the son of Beor, they slew with the sword. And you see later on that God tells him like, hey, make sure you slay that individual, because he caused you to sin in the matter of Peor. Now, unfortunately, we cannot slay physically false prophets today, okay? I know a lot of you are disappointed about that. You know, they can't be slain, but here's the thing, we can still use the word of God, which is the sword of the spirit, to slay them. You know, the Bible says that the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing sunder of soul and spirit, joints in the marrow, is a discernment of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And the Bible says, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open into the eyes of him, with whom we have to do. So what do we do today in 2020? We use the word of God to expose these false prophets. We don't protest against them. We don't go before the church and protest against them. What we do is we preach against them and put it on YouTube, amen? And make funny clips with, you know, parodies with Rick James, amen? We slay them with the sword. And make no mistake about it, man, the parodies done. The dude is done. And rightly so. You know, you know what slew him? The word of God. Cause you can do nothing against the truth before the truth. And the truth is the most dangerous weapon that we have. Cause all we have to do is just pull out that sword and it just slays them on the spot, okay? You know, here's some lessons that we learned from Balaam. He's a wicked individual, but what we can take away from this is this, is that yeah, he's wicked, he's a prophet for hire, but you know what? God will limit people like that. They're a brute beast made to be taken and destroyed, just as Balaam was. But you know, ultimately, the main takeaway is this, is that just recognize Balaam can't destroy you. You're the only one who can destroy yourself. Amen? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and thank you for the story of Balaam, the son of Bozor, and just everything that we have in the Bible from Old and New Testament that speaks of his wickedness. So that we can identify the modern day Balaams of our world, Lord. Pray, God, that you'd help us to continue to use the word of God to expose them, and to cause other people to stay away from them, to avoid false prophets. And Lord, help us to take to heart this matter of destroying ourselves, because all of us, myself included, can do that. We often place our fear on the state of our country, leaders, politicians, governors, mayors, but none of those people can destroy us. They can't even touch us, because we're God's people. The only person that can destroy us is us. If we disobey you and choose to go astray and do things that are.