We're dealing with a subject of the prophecies of Balaam. Balaam was the false prophet of the Old Testament who told the truth. And Balaam stands in the epistle of Peter, his second letter, and in the epistle of Jude as an example of apostasy, as an example of ungodliness also. Now the last week we read the same passage that we're going to read tonight. Tonight, however, we're going to do something different. Last week I led up to this passage by giving the details of the time in Israel's history when Balaam was hired by Baalik, the king of the Moabites, to curse God's people. And we looked at the stature of Israel, where they stood in their relation to God, Numbers chapter twenty-one. Then we dealt with God's dealings with Balaam himself as a person, and how Balaam had no right whatsoever to even try to curse Israel. But if there is an outstanding example in Scripture of a lover of money, it was Balaam. The word of God says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And a love of money can get a person into real trouble. And Balaam stands out as an example. Now these prophecies of Balaam and therefore plus then his cynical things that he did which we'll notice in casting the stumbling block before the children of Israel. Tonight we're dealing with the first of these prophecies and they contain remarkable details about Israel's future as well as Israel's position in the consuls of God. And you and I can learn a lot concerning our own position in the consuls of God as we look at how God viewed his own people. Now in Numbers twenty-three we take up verse seven. And he took up his parable and said, Belek, the king of Moab, has brought me from Aram out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me, Jacob, and come defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him. And from the hills I behold him. O the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob and number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his. We want to begin tonight by noticing verse seven. I don't know if you outline along with me, but if you outline verse seven, you find we have a great imperative. The great imperative is very simple. Baram begins his prophecy by explaining his mission and his mandate. You'll notice, first of all, his mandate was from Barak, not from God. And anyone who goes forth with a mandate from man and not from God is sure to fail. And that's who his mandate was from. You see, Balaam's name is very interesting. It means devourer of the people. That's what the name Balaam means. And then he is also called in this passage the son of Balaam. And that means consumer or destroyer. In all probability, Balaam followed in the footsteps of his father. In all probability, his father was a soothsayer, and Balaam became a soothsayer, and his name, Devarah of the people, is a hint at the terrible power of the curses that he could pronounce. And then he came from a place called Pithor. And that place means interpretation. In all probability, there might have been a college of these men at this place. I said in all probability, I could not say for certain. But when you take a look at these names and the meaning of these names, it gives us a bit of an insight. Now the mandate that Behrom had was impressive when it comes to human terms. And I'm always interested when I listen to men being introduced. When men are introduced, they are introduced according to their resume that would appear on their desire for a position somewhere. I'd like one of these men to introduce the Apostle Paul. It certainly would sound different than the men that are introduced today to do certain things. But the mandate was impressive in human terms. His commission was signed by the King of Moab. And his mandate was sealed with a seal of the country of Moab. Now this gave him a wide scope. And it gave him a great promise of reward. But the problem was he carried no weight with God. If we were to apply this truth and doctrine that is just stated but not applied doesn't mean much. If we were to apply this truth in our day in which we live, why and from whom are we looking for a mandate? When I think of the rewards that are promised by the gods of our land, General Motors, General Electric, Westinghouse, Bendix and I can go down the list and now there's a lot more. Oh, they promise many rewards. But from whom do we get our mandate? Are we really where God wants us? It is a question that we should ask. God is not impressed by the signature of the king of Moab. And God is not impressed by the signature of the president of Chrysler Corporation. These things do not impress our God. And beloved God isn't impressed either by the school in particular that our man graduates from. He is impressed by that man's relationship to him and his willingness to do his will no matter what it costs. His mandate, by the mandate of this man was impressive. It might have impressed everybody, but God. And beloved, this is what is most important. Now his mission. When we think of the great imperative, he spoke of his mandate. He says in verse seven, Belek, the king of Moab hath brought me. You see, this is his mission. He says, Belek hath brought me. God didn't. Belem or Belek did, you see. And then he said, he said to me, Come, curse me, Jacob, and come defy Israel. Now when you look at those words at the close of verse seven, when we think of his mission, What a mission. You see, to defy Jacob and to curse Israel, it meant that he must defy Israel's God. And he must curse Israel's God. For God has declared Israel to be his people. And beloved, this is something that needs to be reckoned with. Now, Jacob was weak enough. And Israel was small enough for Baila to curse. But you see, they were linked to the divine omnipotent one of whom it is written. Even the heaven of heavens can't contain him. Tonight we began this meeting by singing that hymn, Rise, My Soul. Behold, tis Jesus. Jesus fills thy wondering eyes. Does he? Is your mind filled with him? Does he fill your eyes? Do you behold his greatness or are you impressed by the greatness of man? What impresses you? You see, Balaam had all the credentials, but God wasn't impressed and his mission was impossible. That brings us to the second thing. In verse seven we have a great imperative, but in verse eight we have a great impossibility. For verse eight says, How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied? You talk about an impossibility. Poor sinners. poor apostate, a man who had his eyes opened, but did nothing with the revelation he received. What did it involve? He says, how can I curse? You see, to be able to curse Israel would mean that he would have to countermand. He would have to countermand the counsels of God, the will and the purpose of God. Who can ever do that? For a man to be able to curse the people of God. Or to defy the people of God. He might as well tell the sun to stop shining. Or to tell Orion or Pleiades to disband their stars. It's a total impossibility. Now there are others who try to change God's mind. By the way, did you ever try? Don't say it didn't. Abraham tried. God has revealed to Abraham in Genesis chapter seventeen that he's going to have a son. And his son's going to be named Isaac. And in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And Abraham prayed, Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. Lord, I don't need another son. I have one. I have a son. Ishmael. Why can't Ishmael do? God said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now remember his son, Abraham had a son. His name was Isaac. Isaac tried to change God's mind. You see, before the two boys were born, Esau and Jacob, they were struggling already in the womb of Rebekah. And Isaac went to pray, and God says there are two children, there are twins in her womb. And she's going to beget two nations. The elder shall serve the younger. Isaac didn't like that. Because Esau was his boy. And Isaac figured a way that he can bless Esau instead of Jacob. Tried to change God's mind. But all the things happened. You talk about the ordering of events. to bring about the purposes of God. Just take a look at Isaac's family. It didn't work. It didn't work. When God has revealed His will, you cannot contraband the will and the purpose of God. Oh, how many have tried to change God's mind as to the revelation that God has given. So, you talk about the impossibility. This is what Balaam's task was. How can I curse whom God has not cursed? And how can I defy whom the Lord has not defied? You know, we can do that, and we can do it very easily. Now, we not only have... What did I say first here? What it involved? But who it involved? Who it involved? And this is important. On the one side stood Balaam, a false prophet with a reputation among the heathen as a man whom he curses is really cursed. On the other side we have the omnipotent God of heaven and earth. And Jacob, he used two terms to describe God. He says, How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? You see. And Balaam used two names to describe God. He used the name El, which is short for Elohim. And Under that title or under that name, God is described as a mighty God. And then he used the term the Lord or Jehovah. And Jehovah is the God, the mighty God of promise. In other words, he was opposing L, the mighty God of power. And he was seeking to defy Jehovah, the mighty God of promise. And beloved, you and I, who are the Lord's people, connected with us, is the power of God and the promise of God. God had made a promise to Abraham. And that promise to Abraham will effortlessly be fulfilled by the power of God. God has made promises to us. The promises that God has made to us are linked with that promise that God made to Abraham. That promise that God made to Abraham is linked to God's dear son, our Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the true seed of Abraham. Galatians chapter three and verse sixteen. And beloved, link to us who are the people of God today. are the promises that God has made. And God has promised unto us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. And he that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now here we have two immutable things. And the two immutable things are connected with the immutable names of God that are revealed. El and Jehovah. We have God's sovereign power, and we have God's sovereign purpose. Now, beloved, when Belem mentioned his impossibility, how can I curse whom God has not cursed, and how can I defy whom the Lord has not defied? Remember, Israel's future is as assured today as it was then, for it rests on two immutable things. not Washington and not Tel Aviv, it rests upon the power of God and the promise of God. And beloved, the future of every child of God, saved by the blood of his cross, rests upon two things, God's power and God's promise. His promise shall not fail, and His power shall never diminish. For the Lord Jesus said, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Therefore you and I can go forth, and we can go forth with assurance, and we can go forth with expectation, because the power of heaven is within us. for we are indwelled by our Lord Jesus Christ Christ liveth in me Galatians two verse twenty now that leads us to a third thing here in the twenty third chapter verses nine and ten and I call this a great impression verses nine and ten he says for from the top of the rocks I see him and from the hills I behold him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be as his. This is an impression that Balaam could neither deny nor defy. He's got an impression of the greatness and the grandeur of the people of God. Notice his perspective in verse nine. He was not down on the plains where Israel was. You got to keep that before you. He spoke from, not the plains, but from the top of the rocks and from the hills. He saw a host with a precision. of a military camp. Everything that he saw was in order. Well, you say, what did he see? He saw Israel as a nation and camped there in the plains of Moab, and in the center of their camp was God's tabernacle. It was in the center of the camp. And there, with its badger skins covering it, Or a better word now might be seal skins. Covering of seal skins. Covering the tabernacle. And above the tabernacle was the Shekinah glory of Jehovah that had led them from Egyptian bondage. Furthermore, as he looked at that, he saw on three sides of the tabernacle, the Levites dwelling there. And on the fourth side, the east side, where was the entrance to the house of God, there was a tent for Moses. And then, as an envelope of protection, as he looked, on either side, Israel, the tribes with their banners, were encamped on each side of the tabernacle. And you know, every individual in Israel... was where he was by divine decree. Judah didn't say, I'm going to be on the east side. Nor did Naphtali say, I'm going to be in the north side. They were where they were because God placed them there. That's very important. And everything they did was according to to their relationship with God. It should be so today. The life of the child of God should be regulated by his relationship to the Lord. Every detail of his life, where he lives, where he works, and we could go into other details. It should be his relationship to the Lord. That makes a difference. Most of us in deciding where we're going to work are like Lot was. Lot chose the well-watered plains of Jordan because he could make money. And we're raising a generation of Christians today who are more involved in making money. than in the glory of God. You may not like what I said, but you have to admit if you're honest, I'm right. It's where can I make the most money that becomes the guiding factor in our lives rather than where does God want me to serve him. And beloved, Israel, we're taught a lesson, and we have the same truth in the New Testament. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. God dwelt in the midst of his people in the Old Testament. And what they did and how they served was dependent upon their relationship to him. And it should be so with us in our day. My, what a picture. he saw. No matter where Balaam looked, as he looked from the tops of the rocks down upon those people, he got a perspective. He saw divine order. And the reason it was divine order, God ordered it. That's what he beheld. Oh, beloved, let me, and I'm asking myself this question. When God pears into my life, does he see divine order? Or does he see me doing my own thing? Divine order. That's the first perspective. The second thing he noticed was the people. I dwelt on this just a moment last week at the close. He saw two things. He had to say two things about the people in verse ten. Or really it's in verse nine, the middle of verse nine, excuse me. First he says, Lo, the people shall dwell alone. No nation would absorb them. It's amazing. God said, thou shalt dwell alone. When you read, I happened to talk with my friend David Morris this morning. And... I mentioned this to him and he said, when I was in college, I had to read Hebrew. I said, are you a Hebrew scholar? He said, no, but I have a little Hebrew in his studies. And he said, I took the book of Esther, two chapters in the book of Esther to read in Hebrew and to study and to exegete. And he said, the one thing in the Hebrew, the King James doesn't bring it on. But in the Hebrew, the very thing that bugged. Haman who tried to get the, have the Mordecai hanged as well as all the Jews in the realm of Persia was the fact that these people dwelt alone, that they couldn't absorb them like they absorbed the other people. And because of this, Haman wanted to have them executed. And you know, I sat, after we talked together a little bit, I sat and meditated upon this. Do you realize that the Jews were an ancient people already when Rome was founded? When you go to, if you were to go to Great Britain, you could visit places of antiquity, places of the twelve hundreds, of the ten hundreds. You could go back further. Israel was an ancient people at that time. You see, and you see, we still have them. They are in nations. They're in all the nations of the world, and they get involved in those nations. It's an amazing thing. I don't know of people who are so involved in the activities of a nation, economically, politically, and every other way than the Jewish people. Yet they're not absorbed by them. Usually they know how to make money, and they're despised by the people of the land in which they live. They get involved in the economic situation. You find them in all kinds of business. There are multitudes of Jewish people who are doctors in this land. They're economists or politicians, and I could go down the list and name some, whose names would be known to you. So we not only have the fact that no nation will absorb them, but here he says no nation will abolish them either. They won't be abolished. For in the tenth verse he said, who can count the dust of Jacob? You see, now there are many who tried. Haman tried it. He tried to hang them. Pharaoh tried it. He tried to drown them. He found they were waterproof. Hitler tried it. He tried to burn them. He found they were fireproof. Haman found they were stiff-necked. You see. He couldn't hang them. But no nation will abolish them. You see. But I want to leave you with something else. Balaam's prophecy ends with a prospect. He says, Let me die the death of the righteous. And let my last end be like his. As Balaam looked over the people of God, being paid to curse them. In his own soul, Balaam knew that in the tents below him, those people had faults. He knew they had failures, but he also knew that God had declared them righteous. And beloved, when we look at one another, we can see each other's faults and we can see each other's failures, but God has declared us righteous. And if you and I can grasp this, that we have been made the very righteousness of God in Christ. Balaam realized this in his own soul. There was a way of life that was taking root among these people that set them apart from all others. It was a fact that God was dwelling in their midst and God had declared them righteous. These are the people who alone have a hope beyond the grave. And like Israel in the Old Testament, We stand in the New Testament as a people of God. We have a hope beyond the grave. The world doesn't have any, but we do. You see, a great longing seized the soul of Balaam. He cried out, let me die the death of the righteous. You see, he wanted to die the death of the righteous. But in order to die the death of the righteous, You have to live the life of the righteous. And on the other hand, he loved the wages of unrighteousness. The life of the righteous had too high a price tag for Balaam. How sad. Too high a price tag. In the end, the wages of unrighteousness was a much, much, much, much higher price tag. The only way you can die the death of the righteous, you must be declared righteous by God. That's what we call justification. And to be justified means that we've come to the cross and by faith we have beheld ourselves as guilty sinners in the sight of a holy God who knows all about us. And God in matchless grace has provided a Savior in the person of Christ who took our sins in his own body. And who, when we come to him as guilty sinners, declares us to be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And when we're saved, declared righteous by God, God places within us a new heart which enables us to live the life of the righteous. To those of us who are saved, we don't need a cry out, let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be as his. Oh no, we'll do it. Because God has placed his life within us. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Brother McNeil told me the story of a man in Scotland who was a real rascal. He had been in trouble with the law time and time and time and time again. One night he had been out and gotten into trouble robbing a place and his dear old mother was in bed asleep. And the police had him. And he slipped out of his jacket and got away. And he ran home and he put on his mother's own clothes. And when the policemen were going up and down the street, he went out to the door and he stood in the doorway and looked at them, you know. The next day they came and got him because they found him there and they had his jacket. But one day this boy got saved. God moved in his life and saved him. Well, he went the first place he went was to the police department. And he went in and he gave his testimony. He said, Follows, you'll never have me as a troublemaker again. He said, God saved me. And it was so real. God worked in his life. The man died in a hospital ward. And just before he died, he got all these strength he could together. He said, fellas, I want you to look my way. I want you to watch me, because I'm dying. I want you to see what it is for a Christian to die. I'm going into the presence of the Lord. And if you'll watch me in the next couple minutes, I'm going to die. I'm going. So, fellas, if you want to meet me, you have to know Christ. Take a look at me. I'm dying. To me that's a testimony. Let me die the death of the righteous. The life of the righteous comes first.