Beware the Doctrine of Balaam

To begin the sermon, I just want to turn over to Psalm 19. Psalm 19, you'll remember, is the Psalm where David is looking up at the skies, and he's declaring God's glory as he looks up there. As he progresses through the Psalm, you see that his meditation turns into praise of God. And near the end of the Psalm, he makes some comments that we would be well to look at. Let me just begin here in verse 7. As we go down through verse 7, he's talking about the sun, he talks about the bridecrum coming out of his chamber in the sky. Then he goes and talks about the law of God and how perfect it is. And down in verse 12, he concludes and he says, you can understand his errors. And then he opens up to God, and sometimes when we meditate with God, it leads us into a state of repentance. And David, you see that here, he says, cleanse me from secret faults. Let me know, God, what it is in me that I don't even recognize, because David is seeking purity here. He wants to become a pure person. And all of us should have that same desire if we have the hope of Jesus Christ returning and being with him at his return to become pure. So David says, cleanse me from secret faults. And then he says in verse 13, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I'll be blameless, and I will be innocent of great transgression. Presumptuous sins. You know, that word presumptuous, you know, if we find ourselves presuming something, often we can get ourselves in trouble. When we see the word presumptuous, and David talking about presumptuous sins here, you know, there's a number of sins that we talk about. And as we go through our life, and as God works with us and purifies us in preparation for his return, there's many things we look at. Now, there's secret faults that David says, but there's those presumptuous sins. Presumptuous, when you look it up in the dictionary, and it's an appropriately translated word there, it means taking liberties with what's entrusted to you.

It has pride involved in it, because we kind of put ourselves in a position and presuming that we know something, we can do something, or there's something that we can do on our own. We may be doing things too boldly, doing things not authorized to do. It indicates an intentional, rebellious act by a group or individual.

So David says, keep me back from presumptuous sins. And David knew, as he sat there and meditated, that he had been guilty of some presumptuous sins. You know, when you look at his life and you see the adultery with Bathsheba and then the murder of Uriah, those were presumptuous sins. He knew what he was doing. It was no secret to him that adultery was against the commandments of God. He knew that he was sinning.

He knew that what he was doing with Uriah was a sin, that he in effect was murdering Uriah to cover up that sin. And yet he was in a state of mind where he was acting presumptuously. Maybe the thought went through his mind, you know, it's no big deal to God. God knows I have this weakness and I just have to do it. But at the bottom of it, at the base of it, David so badly wanted something that he couldn't control it. And so even though he knew it was wrong, he progressed. He just couldn't stop himself. And so it was an act of rebellion as he kind of closed his eyes toward God and you remember the time where, you know, he was there and he kind of was blind for the next several months. He didn't really realize what he did until Nathan came and told him, look what you've done. And to David's credit, he immediately repented. He didn't justify. He didn't try to explain. He realized what he had done. So when David says, keep me back from presumptuous sins, he knew what he was talking about. Because, you know, we should too because I'm sure you and I have been guilty of presumptuous sins. Doing things that we know is wrong. Thinking that, you know, it's kind of just really nice to do these things. They're just kind of fun to do. You know, maybe it's the gossiping, as we talked about in James 3 in the Bible study, it's really fun to talk about things. Maybe it's taking liberty with some of the things that we think at church or talk about and, you know, say, well, I don't know if that's this or whatever. Or just doing whatever comes to our mind that we know or our conscience lets us know is not the right thing to do. Because God does, when we're headed down a wrong road, kind of prick our conscience a little bit and we feel uneasy about it.

But too often we may just continue down that road to our ruin. David, you know, was brought back during that time. God, He listened when Nathan told him and He realized what He had done and He repented of that. But presumptuous sins are another class of those sins that we don't often talk about, but we should be aware of.

You know, when you look at the word presumptuous, it only shows up seven times in the Bible. Most of those in the Old Testament. So let's look at a few of the places that it does show up, and it's kind of instructive. Let's go back to Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 1. Deuteronomy 4. You know, Moses is recounting to Israel, you know, their sin basically with the scouts. When God, when they sent scouts into the Promised Land, they came back and they spoke against God. You know, we can't go up against these people. They're too strong. We can't overcome them or whatever. And God was pretty angry with the people at that time. None of the people that lived in that generation were able to go into the Promised Land. It was a stiff penalty to pay.

And they should have known better. They should have had faith in God. They shouldn't have talked about God and said, He's not able. He's not able. We don't want to go up. We don't want to do what He has to say. So in verse 43, you know, it was Israel that when they began to see what God's problem was, and then they were going to go fight, and God told them, Don't fight. And they were like, Oh, no, we are going to go fight. You read through the chapter here.

In verse 43, Moses says this, he says, So I spoke to you, yet you wouldn't listen, but rebelled against the command of the Eternal, and presumptuously went up into the mountain. You know, I told you what to do. You were dead set that this is what you were going to do. You were going to show God, OK, we blew it. We blew it into the scouts, but now we're going to go up. We're going to go fight. Even though you told us not to, we're going to do it.

And he goes, So you acted presumptuously, and the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do, and drove you back from Seer to Horma. And you returned and wept before the Eternal, but he wouldn't listen to your voice, nor give ear to you.

So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there. So when we do presumptuous sins, God, you know, this is Him talking to us, and we know better. And they should have known better, but they didn't know better. In Deuteronomy 17, we see presumptuously show up twice. You know, and the latter part of this verse is talking about the instruction to the kings, but in Deuteronomy 17 and verse 12, Moses says this, he says, Now the man who acts presumptuously, that who takes liberty with his position, puts himself in a position he shouldn't be, who is kind of maybe thinking, you know, I know this isn't kind of right, but God will understand, or it's not that bad, whatever.

Anytime we find ourselves in our minds thinking, God will understand if I do this, or it's not that bad, boy, we want to be where we may be right on the road to a presumptuous sin. And if we act presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die.

So you shall put away the evil from Israel. Well, presumptuousness is something that God doesn't want his people to do. Understand who we are, understand what his law is, understand what his commands are, and be crystal clear, and what he expects of us. It's us who cloud the issue. And sometimes we act presumptuously and make judgments that benefit ourselves, we'll see, that lead to our ruin. Verse 13, it says, and the people shall hear and fear and no longer act presumptuously.

It's a serious situation with God when we take that upon ourselves. Chapter 18, one chapter later, in verse 22. Speaking of a prophet, someone who might be interpreting prophecy. It says, when a prophet speaks in the name of the Eternal, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Eternal has not spoken.

The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Don't be afraid of him. So even as we go through our Bible studies and go through Revelation, I try to remind us it's not our interpretation. Sometimes we can speculate on what's going on in that regard. Let's go to the New Testament because presumptuously shows up there as well. In fact, in a set of scriptures that we read not too long ago in 2 Peter, in 2 Peter 2, we talked about false prophets. One of the things enduring the end times is to know the truth and discern truth from error and not fall prey to the very significant messages of false prophets that Christ says that even the elect would fall away for if they weren't well versed in what the Bible says.

In 2 Peter 2, let me just read a few of the things here because I'm going to reference some of these characteristics of people as we come down to the word presumptuous in verse 10. Verse 1, he says, there were false prophets among the people even as there will be false teachers among you. Okay, so that's within the body, right? Not just people outside within the body who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. Whenever we do something in secret, whenever we do something behind the back of someone, it's probably on the road to a presumptive sin, right?

Because if it's open, if it's clear, if what we're telling people, if what we're saying, we should be able to speak it in open to anyone. But if we're behind the scenes whispering this and whispering that and giving our interpretation and those type of things, and if we have people telling things that are just a little different than what the Bible says or what you might hear the church say, you know, that's not a good thing.

They will bring in, secretly bring in destructive heresies. Destructive being they can harm people. They can destroy people. Okay? We all have a responsibility of what we say to each other and to hold true to the word that God says. Bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

By covetousness, whenever we are presumptive sin, we're. We're in the foreground, not God. We're not doing God's will at that point. And in presumptive sin, we really want something. Whether it's money, whether it's prestige, whether it's position, whether it's someone, you know, accolades or whatever it is, by covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words.

For a long time, their judgment hasn't been idled, and their destruction doesn't slumber.

Well, let's drop down to verse 10 here. It says then, as he talks about the angels who, you know, left their right abode.

In verse 10, he says, especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. They despise authority.

You know, we've got to look at that word, despise, because despise is a strong word in the English language today.

You know, when the Bible talks about despise, if we despise authority, even if we just kind of scoff at it, even if we just kind of like, eh, we don't have to listen to what they said, we don't have to listen to what God said, you know, we kind of just take it as a grain of salt.

So, despising doesn't mean necessarily hate, you know, but it means despising authority, kind of rejecting it, putting it aside for your own purpose. They, these people that it's talking to leading up to verse 10, they are presumptuous. They're presumptuous. They're self-willed. They're not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.

And again, evil, sometimes if someone is speaking evil of someone, we back off and think, whoa, that is just evil. We're not going to listen to that. Evil just means scoffing, can kind of be a joke, kind of trying to put someone down, kind of saying, you know, don't need to do that, too old-fashioned, whatever. Anything that kind of discredit the person, that's speaking evil in some of the newer translations, get rid of that word evil, because the more appropriate translation is probably scoff or denigrate or try to minimize something in someone's age. They're not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.

So we have some characteristics of people that might be on the road to a presumptuous sin.

And none of those characteristics are good. None of those characteristics are of God.

Covetous, self-willed, walking in the lust of the flesh. You know Jude, Jude talks about these people, too. He has much of the same words that Peter does in his second epistle there.

Let's look at Jude for a minute.

In Jude, we get into verse 8. As you read through, you see he's talking about false prophets, the same type people that Peter is talking about here.

In verse 8 it says, these dreamers, they defile the flesh, they reject authority, they speak evil of dignitaries.

Here's people who God categories as presumptuous.

Verse 10, they speak evil of whatever they don't know. They may not even understand the whole situation, or they may be interpreting it in their own way.

They don't understand or haven't sought what the word of God is, and they just do things and whatever seems best to that.

Whenever we do whatever seems right to us, what that leads to, right? There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.

These speak of whatever they don't know.

And whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.

Woe to them! They have gone in the way of Cain. They have run greedily in the era of Balaam for profit.

And they've perished in the rebellion of Korah.

And so we follow the progression of presumptuous sins down through the Bible, and we come to this man, Balaam.

Balaam shows up in a few places here. Let's go back to Revelation 2.

Just in our past Bible study here, this past Wednesday, we read about Balaam.

Revelation 2, to the church in Pergamos, in verse 13, Christ says, I know your works. I know where you dwell. I know where you dwell where Satan's throne is.

And you hold fast to my name. You didn't deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. You held fast to the faith.

You were doing the right things, but, verse 14, but I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

Well, that's a pretty steep charge, isn't it? That was our words that when God says to the church, one of the churches of Revelation, to all of us, who all these messages pertain to, there are some who hold to this doctrine or this teaching of Balaam.

You know what we teach in many ways, right?

If we have the opportunity to stand up in front of people, we teach.

But we teach by our actions, we teach by our examples, we teach our children by our examples, by our actions.

We teach all the time by what we're doing, and it's a huge responsibility that Christians have.

And as God talks to this church, you know, and we would say, absolutely, there are those in the church today, some of whom who would hold the teaching of Balaam.

And yet, Balaam is tied to all those things we read in Jude, all those things we read in 2 Peter, and tied to presumptuousness.

You know, he also says in verse 15, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

Well, for you and I, we better learn what Balaam and what the Nicolaitans did, because if God hates it, we don't want that to be any part of us.

We don't want it to be any part of our secret faults that we don't realize what we're doing.

We certainly don't want to be guilty or presumptuous sins.

We want to be able to pray from the heart the same thing that David did.

Show me my secret faults. Don't let me fall prey to presumptuous sins.

And the doctrine of the Nile Nicolaitans, I'm sure we're not going to be able to get to that today.

We'll do that later.

But it's a little different than what the doctrine or teaching of Balaam is.

So I want to go back, and I want to look at this Balaam today, because it's important for you and I, as we prepare for the return of Jesus Christ, now that we see it even more closely than we did a few months ago, to know what it is to make sure that we're examining ourselves and that we aren't some who might be guilty of that.

On our way back to the book of Numbers, let's stop off in Micah.

Obviously important to God because Balaam is mentioned there for the end time, in Jude and in Revelation.

And in the book of Micah, in verse 6 of Micah, in verse 5, it says this to Israel, It says, O my people, remember now what Baloch, king of Moab, counseled, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him.

Remember it. Remember it. Keep it in front of your mind.

Don't forget it. And try to understand it that you're not guilty of the same thing.

Why do we do it? That we may know the righteousness of the Lord.

Because obeying God is, yes, about keeping the commandments, but we know that there are sins apart from just, you know, we could say, I've always, like the young rich man in Matthew 18, I've kept all those Ten Commandments. But there can be other sins that are just as deadly to God.

We saw some of those in James, right?

Partiality. Partiality is a sin unto death.

If we know to do good and don't do it, if we look the other way, it's a sin.

A presumptuous sin is a sin.

And obviously, what Balaam did was a sin unto death because the end result for him, what he did, was death.

So let's go back to Numbers 15.

And I'm going to progress from Numbers 15 up to Numbers 22, where we see the story of Balaam, because in Numbers 15 and verse 30, we see the word presumptuously again here in the Old Testament.

Let me begin in verse 28.

Because here in Numbers 15, 28 through 31, God talks again about those intentional sins and presumptive sins.

Verse 28, We didn't know it was wrong.

Before we came to the church, we didn't know that the seventh day was the Sabbath, so it was unintentional sin. Still have to be repented. Still have to turn from it.

If a person sins unintentionally, or shall make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally, when he sins unintentionally before the eternal, to make atonement for him, and it will be forgiven him.

You shall have one law for him who sins unintentionally, for him who is native born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger who dwells among them. The same law for everyone.

Back there in Israel, it's for Israel or the foreigners.

Today, it's no matter who we are, the same law applies.

We can't look at ourselves and say, God has made an exception for me. I don't have to obey that.

It doesn't happen. When we think that, you're on the road to a presumptive sin.

There is one law for everyone, regardless of your situation, regardless of the station you have in life, regardless of your status in life, one law for everyone. God doesn't say, well, for this group of people, this is required, but if you have this in your life, then you don't have to do that. He doesn't say it. It's the same for everyone.

And if we think differently, we may be on the road to presumptive sins.

Unintentional for now, but hopefully by the time we finish this discussion, maybe not so unintentional.

Verse 30. Verse 30, but the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the eternal, and he'll be cut off from among his people.

The presumptive ones. I kind of know what I'm doing. I've heard the words. I've read the Bible. I've heard sermons.

My friends have told me this. I'm going to do it anyway because I think I'm a special category.

Or God will look the other way because he knows my situation.

Now it says he'll be cut off from among his people because he has despised the Word of the Lord.

When we reject God, when we do things our own way, we replace our way with His way, we despise Him.

And as broken as commandment, that person shall be completely cut off. His guilt shall be upon Him.

So God talks about these unintentional sins and then the presumptive sins.

For the next several chapters, He talks about some sins that were presumptive. If you go on in chapter 15, you find the first example He gives is of man that's walking on the Sabbath and a man is out gathering sticks.

Well, God had told them, you know, nothing on the Sabbath day, no work at all.

What you do, you get ready on the preparation day for the Sabbath, nothing.

Now either the man was doing one of two things.

For him to go out on the Sabbath after he heard the clear command of God.

Either he thought, either he wasn't paying attention, which is a sin itself, right? Either wasn't paying attention to God, or he thought, it's just little sticks.

I'm not going to go down and chop down a tree. I'm not going to go out and, you know, split wood.

I'm just going to go gather a few sticks. God will be okay with that. Certainly He's okay with that.

Well, that was a presumptive sin. He put his interpretation on what God said. God was clear.

Nothing. Don't do any work on the Sabbath. Keep that Sabbath reserved for God. And the man paid with his life.

He learned a presumptive sin led to his death.

In chapter 16, then we have Korah. Korah was certainly a presumptive man. He presumed some things.

He was presumptive enough to look at Moses and say, who are you Moses?

Who are you Moses? To be up there leading Israel. Who appointed you, boss?

Well, that's pretty presumptive words, aren't they?

And here, Korah was accusing Moses of doing something that Korah was doing.

A presumptive sin to challenge God and what he was doing.

Korah, Korah and his company, because he was pretty good about going behind the scenes and getting people to kind of agree with him.

And just like Satan with the third of the angels, but he had 250 people that, yeah, yeah, we should be ruling.

We should be. It should be us doing these things. They learned their lesson.

They learned their lesson and they ended up being swallowed up by the earth.

So as we come over to chapter 22, we find even Moses, who, showing the detail that God looks at and what he wants us to do as we purify ourselves before him.

You know, Moses, before we get to chapter 22 and the example of Balaam here, when Israel is complaining about water, Moses goes out.

And in anger, you know, says, must we bring water from this rock?

Same mistake you and I might make, because Moses has been there every step of the way. He knew it was God bringing water from that rock, but he put himself equal to God.

There's another example of a presumptive sin. Moses, it was brought to his attention and he realized we give God glory for everything.

He may use us for whatever task it is, but we give him glory for everything, just like those 24 elders that we talked about in Revelation that cast their crowns before Christ.

They know exactly where everything they have came from and they owe it all to him, just like you and I owe everything to God and give him the full glory for everything.

So we come to chapter 22 and we have Balaam, who is almost a synonym for someone evil when you read the Bible.

God says, don't be like him. Don't have that in your church. Watch out for this attitude in you.

I'm going to kind of read through quickly here so that we have the picture of the story here of Balaam and what happened, because Balaam did a number of things right as you read through. But he did some major things wrong.

Chapter 22, verse 1 says, And Balak, the son of Zippor, was king of the Moabites at that time.

So we have a picture of what's going on here. Israel is camped there. They know the story of what's happened to Israel. Moab is concerned. They're going to swallow us up. What do we do?

So he called. In verse 5, he sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the river and the land of the sons of his people, to call him, saying, Look, a people has come from Egypt. See, they cover the face of the earth and they're settling next to me. Therefore, please come at once. Curse this people for me. For they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed.

So we have these two major players. We have Balak, the king of Moab, and he calls on Balaam. Joshua 13 tells us that Balaam was a soothsayer. He told fortunes for money. He wasn't an Israelite. He was very familiar with the Israelites. And we'll see that God actually spoke to him. God actually answered his prayer. Actually, God put words in his mouth.

Balaam itself means not of the people. He knew Israel well. He knew the God of Israel. But he wasn't of the people. He kind of had a different spirit about him. We will see as a soothsayer, that's how he made his money. So it was interesting or very appealing to him that Balaam was going to come.

And he was going to give him money. We'll see. So the elders of Moab, verse 7, and the elders of Midian departed with the diviner's fee in their hand. We're coming with money, Balaam. This is what you live for. And they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak. And Balaam said to them, Well, he's going to go consult God. And it says, So Balaam said to God, The son of Zimpor, King of Moab, has sent to me, saying, Look, the peoples come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth. Come now, curse them for me. Perhaps I will be able to overpower them and drive them out. And God replied to Balaam, You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. No confusion in the message that God gave Balaam. And to Balaam's credit, he followed it implicitly this time. So Balaam, verse 13, rose in the morning and he said to the princes of Balaam, Go back to your land, for the eternal has refused to give me permission to go with you.

He told them right. You know what? I can't do what you say. Go away. Up to now, Balaam has done things just right, exactly what we do. We might ask God, Is this okay? We get the clear answer as we look in the Bible or counsel with someone, No, that's not okay. That's not the way to handle it. You know what? Okay, then we're not going to do it that way. We're going to do it God's way. We're going to do it the way he said. Balaam so far has followed that perfectly.

So verse 14, the princes of Moab rose. They went back to Balaam, and they said, Balaam refuses to come with us. So true to form, when someone is trying to get you to do something that is against God's will, they're going to approach you again and again and again to see if they can get you to break. Balaam again sent princes, more numerous and more honorable than they. And they came to Balaam and said to him, Thus says Balaam, the son of Zippor, Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me. For I will certainly honor you greatly, and I will do whatever you say to me. Therefore, please come. Curse this people for me. Basically, Balak is saying, you name your price, whatever you want, Balaam. I will give it to you. I just want you to curse those people. Just do that for me. Because his reputation obviously was pretty solid. That when he blessed, God blessed, and when he cursed, he cursed.

Now we can look at this and say, this is a pretty easy one because God was talking to him. But you know, when we read these things, and especially when we know that the doctrine of the teaching of Balaam is still among the churches of God today, that has been down through the ages, we have to put ourselves in this situation. No one is going to come to us, well I hope, and say, I want you to curse that church of God. I want you to go up and I want you to shake your fists at God and say, you know, blaspheme. No one is doing that, right? No one is going to do that to us. But we have other things that happen in our lives where people will try to get us to do something different. You know, the very first example that God gives after he uses the word presumptuously, number 15, is the Sabbath. So I'm going to use the Sabbath as an example because that's a common ground for all of us. We all have different backgrounds, we all have different jobs, situations, and life, but all of us have the Sabbath in common.

God's instructions on the Sabbath are clear. Come before me, keep the day holy, stay away from the world, don't do any work, rest from your endeavors, rest from your entertainment, rest from everything to do with the rest of the week, keep the Sabbath holy to me. And yet we might have some say, you know, that would come to us over time and say, well, can't you do this in the afternoon? It's not work. Can't you do this if you, you know, I mean, is that bad? And here's his family affair. Can't you do that? It's just with people. I mean, God doesn't want you to be with your family even though they may not be in the church. Well, you might want to say, he does say, keep our foot from the Sabbath in Isaiah 58. And that's kind of putting my foot on the Sabbath if I'm doing those things, so I might want to pay attention to God. And early on we may say, nope, nope, I'm keeping the Sabbath all 24 hours holy. It's God's day. I'm going to do what God says. But then the next year comes back, and you can even put Christmas in this, right? First, nope, not doing anything with Christmas. I don't want any presents. I'm not going to any Christmas parties. Not doing anything. But the next year's like, oh, it's just, it's just a party. We're not doing anything with Christmas. We're just going to kind of talk. It's just an opportunity to be together with your fellow workers. You see the family once a year. Can't you just do that? It's kind of like Beyla coming back and saying, come on, come on, you can do that, right? And we think, well, yeah, I guess, I guess God's okay with that. And as soon as we think, well, I guess God's okay with that. We might want to stop. We might want to stop and think, whoa, I might be going down a road that is too dangerous to go down. I don't want to go down that road. We'll see that Balaam kind of went down that road. Balaam comes back again. Balaam had the right answer the first time. Go home. I'm not doing it. But then they come back. And it's even a little more. And you know Balaam. I mean, here's a soothsayer. And you know they flattered him. They buttered him up and was like, you are the greatest Balaam. If you'll just do this, we'll give anything to you. Oh, they appealed to Balaam's pride big time here. And as they came back, we can see in verse 18, you know, he says, he says the right thing again. Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I couldn't go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more. I can only speak what God speaks.

Now, the destructive message for you and me, right? We only speak what God speaks. We don't add to it. We don't take away from it. We just speak what God speaks. Verse 19, here's where he makes his mistake. In verse 13, he sent them away. But in verse 18, you know, he says the right words, but it's like, you know what? Just spend the night and let me see if God might change his mind on this.

Now, therefore, please, stay here with me tonight that I may know what more the Lord will say to me.

Maybe God will change his mind. Maybe he didn't mean don't go with him at all. Maybe there's a way that I can do this. You can see what's happening in Balaam's heart. I really want to do this.

And I'll find a way, or maybe there's a way around what God said, that this can all work out. Verse 20, God came to Balaam at night and said to him, if, circle that word if, because whenever you see the word if, it usually means something, if the men come to call you, rise and go with them. But only the word which I speak to you that you shall do.

Don't put your interpretation on it. Don't add to what I say. Don't change it around. Only speak what I speak to you. And he says, if those men come to call you. But notice what Balaam does. He doesn't really wait for the men to call. It's like, good, that's the answer I wanted. I'm going. I'm going with them. So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey. He went with the Princess of Moab. Well, there's a presumptuous act. God said, if, if they call you, go with them. Moab just went.

Okay, I'm going to take that if and I'm going. I'm going. That's where I want to be. And we know that's the case because, look in verse 22, God's anger was aroused because he went. Because Balaam wasn't paying attention to the words. He said, if they, if they do, if they let call on you to go, go.

But Balaam just took it upon himself to go. I hear now what I, I'm hearing what I want to hear, go and do it. God's anger was aroused because he went. And the angel of the Lord, and sometimes when we say capital angel of the Lord, that could be Jesus Christ, took his stand in the way as an adversary against him. And Balaam was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him.

And I'm not going to read through, you know the story there of the donkey. Three times, three times that donkey stopped. It saw something that was dangerous in that road. And so it stopped and it moved to one side and then the way got narrower and it stopped again. And Balaam was like, no, I'm going. Just keep going. I don't care. This donkey is not going to keep me from going what I want to do.

It's going to keep going. Now a donkey is just a dumb animal, right? And so Balaam had to be surprised, although he doesn't act surprised when the donkey talks back to him and says, what? You know, what are you, you've eaten me these three times. There was something in the road. I was trying to tell you, stop.

You were being told, stop. Don't go down this dangerous path. You know, we may not have a donkey stopping us, but you know what? Some along the way, when we're going down a path that isn't right, we may have people. You may hear sermons. You may read in the Bible. You may read articles who tell us, don't go down that way. That's not the way to do it, right? This isn't right.

One or two or three people might do it. But you know what? When presumptuous is in our hearts and self-will is in our hearts, we do it anyway. God's okay with it. I'm doing it. I know it's okay. I can justify it to anyone who's here. It's okay. It's the same thing Balaam did. He just kept marching forward. I don't care what's in my way. I'm going there. I want to be with Balak, and I want to do what he says to do. And I'm going to say the right things along the way. I'm going to acknowledge God, and I'm going to do those things. But to us, we have to kind of listen.

Sometimes people, sometimes spouses, sometimes children, sometimes people in the church might say, that isn't the way to do that. That's not the way to do it. That may be the world's way. That may be the way they do things. And yeah, in your own reasoning, that might be what? That's not what the Bible says to do. And we're here to learn the way the Bible says do things, not the way we want.

We've got half us and half God propositions and all God propositions, all what he says. We might want to do well, or might heed what people say. Pay attention to it, and remember that donkey that spoke to Balaam that tried to get him to get off of that path several times, but he didn't listen.

And we have people telling you, it's not right. You might want to watch what you're doing. That's not the right way of thinking. You might want to take note and stop and think, oh, this might be the Balaam that God is warning us about. So if we come down to verse 31, after the donkey speaks to Balaam, in verse 31, the Lord.

The Lord opened Balaam's eyes. Look what's going on here, Balaam. And he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. Well, the donkey had seen that drawn sword. Right? Back in Revelation 2, if you put your finger there in Numbers 22, we see that drawn sword. Right when it's talking about Balaam to the Church of Pergamos, Revelation 2. Revelation 2, we read verse 14.

We talked about the Nicolaitins just briefly, but in verse 16, it says, to people who may be following this path, who may be following this teaching, or having that going on in their lives, repent, or else I will come to you quickly, and I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. There it was. The sword of God, the Word of God. Right there, on the way to Balak. Balaam on his way to Balak. The sword was right there.

Hey, Balaam! Follow the Word of God! This is the sword that will keep you from the wrong path. God says the same thing to the churches at the end time. Pay attention to the Word, or I will fight against you with the sword of my mouth. Hebrews 4, 12 says that sword is sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting right to the core of our being.

And so we have Balaam, and when he recognizes what he's done, he falls flat on his face. Right?

He bowed his head and fell flat on his face. He realized what he had done. Just like David did when he did it, but it didn't last as long with Balaam as it did with David.

Verse 32, the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Why have you run over him? Why didn't you pay attention to him? Behold, I have come out to stand against you because your way is perverse before me. What you're doing, Balaam, is perverse. It's evil. It's a trip that's very dangerous for you. Some of the newer translations translate it that way. When you look at the Hebrew word that's translated verse there, Your way, what you're doing is perverse before me. Do we begin to see what Balaam was doing? He thought he was doing God's will. I'm going to do this, but I am on this path, and I am going down this road, no matter what happens. God tries to get his attention, and he does. In verse 33, it says, the donkey saw me. He turned aside these three times. If she hadn't turned aside from me, surely I would have killed you by now and let her live. And Balaam says the words of repentance, I've sinned. I didn't know you stood in the way against me. Now, therefore, if it displeases you, I will turn back. Well, I think it's pretty clear that it displeased God, right?

Pretty clear. And then the angel of the Lord says something interesting to Balaam. Go with the men, but only the word that I speak to you that you shall speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balaam. You know, God doesn't make us do anything. Wouldn't it be nice if every time we were on that road to sin, God would come down and just knock our heads and say, Stop! I'm not going to let you do that. Life would be so much easier. You read in Isaiah 30, we're in the millennium. We'll tap someone on the shoulder and say, No, no, no, that's not the way. This is the way. Walk in it. If God would do that with us all the time, and His Spirit does try, because our consciences do convict us. Sometimes when we're going down a road and we just kind of march on passage, just like Balaam walked past that donkey, Well, okay, I'm going to do it anyway. It sounds okay to me. It sounds like the right thing to do and everything. But God knows what's in our hearts. And you know what? Sometimes He lets us go to the very end of it because we have to learn our lesson. And I think what happened here, probably, and this is my interpretation, God saw Balaam, he knew he did wrong, but I still want to go. I still want to go to Balaam. I still want to do it. So God said, No, go. You're going to have to see what the end result of it is. See what the end result of it is, because the only way we learn sometimes, is by experience, and Balaam would learn down the road what the result of this was. So we have Balaam and Balaak meeting, and then we see that they begin to do the things that they do. We've got, you know, Chapter 23, we have Balaak taking Balaam. Here they do, they build altars to sacrifice on. Balaam knows the right things to do, doesn't know the details of it, but they sacrifice animals on it and hope that God is going to say, Okay, I'll curse Israel, I'll stop him from you. But time after time, what God speaks through Balaam is a blessing on Israel, not a curse at all. And it angers Balaak. He's irritated, because he keeps trying, he keeps trying, but God is not allowing Balaam to say what Balaak wants him to say. And so three times, three times they, you know, three times they go through this, it's kind of reminiscent of the Great Temptation. You know, when Satan was trying to get Jesus Christ to sin, he, okay, well, that didn't work. He sent me away. Okay, that one didn't work. Okay, that one didn't work. And he finally realized he's not going to break. But, you know, Balaak thought, and oftentimes things will come back to us. Well, you know, maybe this time he'll bend. Maybe this time he'll do it. Maybe this time he'll see it my way. Maybe this, maybe this, you know. And we have to be people of resolve that know if our yes is yes, right? Our yes better be yes, and our no better be no. Balaam's no wasn't no. He was able to be talked into something that he shouldn't have done. And so in chapter 24, you know, we go through this again, all the blessings. And we come down to verse 25 of chapter 24, and Balaak, nothing happened. You know, that Balaak wanted to. So, verse 25, So Balaam rose and departed, and returned to his place, and Balaak also went his way. All that happened, but Israel was never cursed. Balaam could only talk what God had told him to do.

But then in chapter 25, we see, you know, something like an almost amazing turn of events. Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Balaapior, and the anger of the eternal was aroused against Israel.

And so, it's like, whoa! Balaam never cursed Israel, but all of a sudden Israel turns, and they bring a curse upon themselves by joining themselves to the people of Baal. They kind of did it. What happened? You know, what happened? Well, I can reference back to Revelation 2. Remember it said Balaam, the Bible does tell us, Balaam did teach the people how to sacrifice to idols and to commit adultery, right? That's what the Bible says. Let me read from Josephus. Josephus is interesting sometimes, because it fills in the blanks of where the Bible might...the Bible doesn't give us all the detail.

Let me read this from Josephus. It's about Baloch and Balaam, and it's from Chapter 5, Section 6 from Josephus. And it picks up right at the end of Chapter 24 here. It says, But Baloch, being very angry that the Israelites were not cursed, sent away Balaam without thinking him worthy of any honor. So here's Balaam, right? Okay, wow. He thought I was the greatest guy on earth, but I couldn't do what he wanted me to do. I couldn't give in to him. And so that had the kind of like, you know, Balaam's like, well, you were worthless.

There's nothing, no reason for anyone to come to you. This is kind of Balaam's claim to fame, who he was. Sent away Balaam without thinking him worthy of any honor. Whereupon, when Balaam was just upon his journey in order to pass the Euphrates, he sent for Baloch and for the princes of the Midianites and spoke this to them, O Baloch, and you Midianites that are here present, and Josephus has a parentheses here, says, For I am obliged, even without the will of God, to gratify you. So he goes back after this event, goes back secretly, if you will, to talk to Baloch, and says this, I'm here, here present.

It is true no entire destruction can seize upon the nation of the Hebrews, neither by war, nor by plague, nor by scarcity of the fruits of the earth, nor can any other unexpected accident be their entire ruin. For the providence of God is concerned to preserve them from such a misfortune, nor will it permit any such calamity to come upon them, whereby they may all perish.

But some small misfortunes, and those for a short time, whereby they may appear to be brought low, may still befall them, but after that they will flourish again to the terror of those that brought those misships upon them. So that if you have a mind to gain a victory over them for a short space of time, you will obtain it by following my directions. Do you therefore set out the handsomeness of such of your daughters as are most eminent for beauty?

So what he's saying is, you know what? You want to overthrow those Israelites? Let me tell you how to do it. Get your most beautiful women. Deck them out in the most extravagant way you can. Let those young men in Israel see them. They're beautiful women. Send them out there. I'll show you how to upend Israel.

I'll do that behind the scene where God is no longer involved and I'm on my way. Do therefore set out the... well, the daughters are as most eminent for beauty, and proper to force and conquer the modesty of those that behold them. And these decked and trimmed to the highest degree you are able. Then send them to be near the Israelites camp, and give them in charge that when the young men of the Hebrews desire their company, they allow with them.

And when they see that they are enamored of them, let them take their leaves. And if they entreat them to stay, let them not give their consent till they have persuaded them to leave off their obedience to their own laws. Let them beg you, and you know, okay, I'll stay if... if you'll do this, if you'll do this, then we'll stay with you.

Then we'll be your girlfriends. Let them not give their consent till they have persuaded them to leave off their obedience to their own laws, and the worship of that God who established them, and to worship the gods of the Midianites and Moabites. For by this means, God will be angry at them.

Accordingly, when Balaam had suggested this counsel to them, he went his way. And Balak followed the teaching of Balaam. What did Balaam do? Well, if you read on through verse 25, you see a plague came on Israel. 24,000 people died in that plague until one stood up and stopped the plague because of him standing with the Word of God and saying, This must stop. But Balaam, we can see what Balaam did. Later on in Numbers 31, we find out that he, the Israelites, killed him.

He was killed with the Midianites in a war with them. But what was the sin of Balaam? What can we draw from that? How does that affect us today? None of us are out teaching the world how to upend the Church of God. None of us are going to go and say, Do this to this person, and they're going to leave the Church, and whatever. How does it apply to us today? What did Balaam do that we might be guilty of? Well, one, he was presumptuous. He was self-willed. He was secretive in what he was doing.

He did it behind the scenes, and he could never separate God's will from His will. He could never do exactly what God wanted. He always had His interest at heart. I have to do this. It has to be done today. Another example that just popped into my mind.

This was from decades ago, someone, and there's the thing about breaking the Sabbath, and if your ox is in a ditch, well, of course, you go out and you help it, right?

Years ago, when I worked in healthcare, you'd have to be on call sometimes, and I learned really quickly, oh, no, I don't do any calls at all, and I'll do every Sunday, but I won't do them. But there was someone who began to pay attention to that and say, oh, it's an emergency. They called me and said it was an emergency. I need to go into work today. The first few times they didn't do that, well, no, that's what the Bible says. It's an emergency. No, no, no, it's not an emergency. And plenty of people said, no, that's not an emergency. That's not what the Bible's talking about. It's not employment. Just tell them you can't do it. Well, they left the church. They left the church, and last I heard, they don't even believe in God. So, you know, sometimes we've got to watch what we're doing and how we play with the words of God and what we do and the presumptions we take, and we think, well, we're special. This doesn't apply to us. Balaam put stumbling block. You put a stumbling block in front of Israel. The stumbling blocks the Bible talks about, right? All of us could be guilty of putting a stumbling block in front of someone. You know, it might not be that we tell them to go out and here's how you can get this person to leave the church. But if we are giving advice that's apart from the Bible and saying, I don't think that's that bad, I don't think you need to do that, or by our example, we're showing, well, you know what? I'm special. I don't have to do that. Yeah, that's a command of the Bible, but God understands my condition and my situation. I don't have to do that. I don't have to do that because. And then we teach others, well, if they don't have to do that because, well, I don't have to do that because. That's putting a stumbling block. We are all responsible to follow God 100% of the time and grow in that way and to help each other understand that is what we need to do. We can put stumbling blocks in front of each other through words we say, through examples that we set, for the things that we do, maybe even unwittingly. But people watch. And there are those who are really like, oh man, look, they did that. I want to do the same thing. I want to be able to do that on the Sabbath. I want to do that at this time. I didn't want to have to do that. I thought, oh, I'm glad they're doing it because now I can do it. That puts a stumbling block in front of people. Right? Matthew 18.

Matthew 18 verse 16.

Matthew 18 verse 16. Matthew 18 verse 6.

We each have a responsibility to be growing and living God's way implicitly. Every detail, every word of the mouth of God, Jesus Christ said.

Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. None of us want to do that. And when we're about to do something, we have to remember who we are supposed to be putting first.

Ourself or God. And to remember Christ's words, deny self. Deny self.

Nail it to the cross, he said. Easier said than done. We can all say the right words. Balaam said the right words, but when it came down to it, Balaam just couldn't overcome that self-interest, that self-will, that presumptuousness, that it's okay for me to do that. I want the accolades of Baloch. I want people looking at me in this way. I want that popularity. I want to do the things that the world wants me to do. I don't want to sacrifice that. I don't want to. And so I'll do that because God understands. God understands. He was also guilty of self-deception, wasn't he? He was guilty of self-deception. Let's look at Isaiah 44. Self-deception is like pride. We don't see it in ourselves. It takes someone else to point it out to us. When God talks about self-deception, he'll say, Listen, listen. Look what you're doing. How can you even believe this and what you're doing here? Isaiah 44. I want verse 20, but let's begin in verse 18. Because here in this chapter, God is talking about people and the idols that they build. Now, we don't have idols of wood. I'm not going to walk into any of your houses and find an idol of wood. But we do have idols in our lives, right? There are the things of man, things of man, things of the world. Verse 18 says, They don't know or understand. For He has shut their eyes so they can't see, and their hearts so they can't understand. Well, in essence, we shut our hearts. I don't want to hear that. I don't want to believe it. I'm not going there. I'm okay. I'm okay. I don't need to deal with that issue. I don't want to even hear it. And no one considers in his heart, nor is there knowledge, nor understanding to say, I burned half of this wood in the fire. I baked bread on its coals. I've roasted meat and eaten it. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination, an idol? Am I going to fall down before a block of wood? Come on, it's silly when you put it in the concept of what God is doing. That's what He's saying here. You're worshipping these idols of wood. And yet, you use it for all these other things, and then you're worshipping it? It's just silly when you look at it. And if we look at the things that we do, and we really are looking at the Kingdom, if we really are looking at what God wants us to do, it becomes silly to put our way in front of God, because look what we're sacrificing. Shall I fall down before a block of wood? Verse 20, He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned to Him aside. He's not listening. He's not paying attention. He's closed His ears. I won't hear it. I don't care what my wife says. I don't care what my husband says. I don't care what the Bible says. I don't care what the Church says.

I'm going to do it my way, because I really, really, really want to do it my way. And He can't deliver His soul, nor say, isn't there a lie in my right hand? He can't even look at that and say, yes, yes, I'm down the wrong path.

I might say all the right words. I might be there every week at Sabbath. I might do all the things that I need to do. But what is going on in my life? What are the things that are happening? Am I deceiving myself?

Because self-deception and Balaam did deceive himself. We read not too long ago in the book of James, James 1, about self-deception. James 1 and verse 22.

Be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Deceiving yourselves.

You know, we can hear all the words. Balaam spoke all the words. He heard the words of God. He spoke the words of God. He didn't do them, though. He didn't do them. He did His own thing. He did His own thing and made excuses.

We might do the same thing. Be doers of the Word. And hearers only. All we're doing is hearing and not making the changes in our lives to conform with what God wants. We're deceiving ourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it. And is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. He does God's will and doesn't just know it and hear it. This one will be blessed in what he does.

In verse 27, our goal. Pure and undefiled religion is this. That's the goal. That's what Jesus Christ, when He speaks to the messages of the seven churches, pure and undefiled religion, be aware some of you hold this doctrine, some of you hold this doctrine.

Next week we'll talk about some of the other things that are evident in the New Testament that aren't really necessarily the doctrine of Balaam that we can tie back to Him, but we can to other things that permeated, I won't say permeated, that some held to in the church.

Our goal is pure and undefiled religion. Open ears! Paying attention to what's going on. Paying attention to God and getting self out of the way.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this. Visit orphans and widows in their trouble. Keep oneself unspotted from the world.

That's a big order, keeping oneself unspotted from the world, because we all have part of that world with us, and all of us kind of know and have to separate that and live in the world, but come out of the world. You know, Balaam was guilty of not listening. He had a donkey. Stop three times, right? Stop him. And then he didn't even listen to God. He didn't listen to a donkey. We might even understand that and think, well, I don't know that I'd pay attention to my donkey either, but I might want to be paying attention to my conscience when it's telling me, you know, I'm feeling kind of uneasy about this, but I'm going to just march forward. I don't care about it.

That's okay. I'm just going to kind of like keep going. We might want to pay a little attention to those little signals in our head that say, this may not be what you want to do. You may want to get rid of self and put God first and sacrifice that what you want to do for what he says to do.

So we want, you know, we do want to pay attention to those things, and certainly if our friends and spouses and whatever telling us certain things about us, don't close your ears and just say they're just picking on me. Listen. Listen. You know, God tried to get Balaam's attention through a donkey. So he might be trying to get our attention through our friends and our spouses, our children even.

Might want to listen and just not discount him and say, I'm going ahead anyway. I don't have to pay any attention to any of them.

And you know what? The other thing that Balaam didn't do, well, I mean, he taught by his way, you know, the secrecy and some of the things that we read early on, he simply wasn't loyal to God. He simply wasn't loyal to God.

You know, loyalty to God is more than just Commandment 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. That's part of that. That's the love of God.

Loyalty to God is all our heart, all our mind, all our soul. Right? And Balaam wasn't. What did he do at the end? Okay, you know what? I had to do it. I had to say the right thing. God didn't let me say anything else. But you know what? I'm going to go back and I'm going to betray God after the fact.

Just like Judas betrayed God, right? He went back and he told Balaam, here's how you can do it. Here's how you can do it. He betrayed God.

And we can do that same thing, too. We might not ever put ourselves in the same sentence with Judas or Balaam.

But sometimes we can betray God by the things that we do. If we're whispering to each other and saying, you don't have to do that. Okay? That's not that important.

You know? That's okay. God makes allowances for us today in the 21st century, and this is okay and that's okay.

You know what? Pay attention to the Bible. Follow the Word explicitly. Balaam was given the Word of God explicitly.

He couldn't do anything but say it, but then he didn't follow it.

You could see in him, I still want to go forward. I'm still going to do my own way. I'm going to say the right things, but I'm going to do my will.

Let's not hold the doctrine or the teaching of Balaam. Let's conclude in Revelation again.

Revelation 2. And next week we'll talk about the Nicolaitans.

They were more of a New Testament group that held some of the same things, but different when you look at some of the verses in the Bible and what it talks about, the people who were departing from the church and causing problems in the church.

Revelation 2, verse 14.

I have a few things against you, God would say to us even today in the 21st century.

I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balaam to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.

Maybe we wouldn't teach anyone to eat things sacrificed to idols or commit adultery. There's other things we can teach them by our examples, too.

That are just as serious to God.

Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.