The doctrine of Balaam, which is characterized by corruption and an ungodly union with the world, drawing parallels between Balaam's attempts to curse Israel and the spiritual dangers faced by the church in Pergamos. Using Balaam's prophecies from Mount Pisgah and Mount Peor, the sermon highlights God's faithfulness to His promises and His perspective on His people, seeing them through the lens of Christ's sacrifice rather than their iniquities. It emphasizes that God's view of Israel, free from perceived iniquity and perverseness due to the blood of the cross, serves as a powerful encouragement for believers today, while also pointing to the prophetic vision of a coming star and scepter, ultimately signifying the reign of Jesus Christ.
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And verse thirteen. And Baelic said unto him, Come, I pray thee with me, unto another place, from whence thou might see them. Thou shalt see but the uttermost part of them, and shall not see them all, and curse me them content. And he brought him into the field of Zulfim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. And he said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt offering, while I meet yonder. And the Lord met Balam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again unto Balak, and say thus.
And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the Lord spoken? And he took up his parable and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear. Harken unto me, thou son of Zippur. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Has he said, and shall he not do it? Or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless, and he has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength of a wild ox. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, what hath God wrought? Now on to verse twenty-eight, please. And Baalek brought Baalem unto the top of Peor, that looketh towards Jessamon.
And Baalem said unto Baalek, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams. Baalek did, as Baalem had said, and offered... a bullock and a ram on every altar. And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents, according to their tribes. And the Spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his parable and said, Balaam, the son of Beor, have said, And the man whose eyes are open hath said, He hath said which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling, but having his eyes open.
How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel, as the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the riverside, as the trees of lion allows which the Lord hath planted, and the cedar trees beside the waters. He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted." Now I'd like you to go down, please, to chapter twenty-four.
and verse fifteen. Maybe we should back up to verse fourteen for the sake of the connection. And now behold, I go unto my people. Come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days. And he took up his parable and said, Balan, the son of Beor, hath said, Man whose eyes are open hath said, He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling but having his eyes open. I shall see him, but not now.
I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of the world. of Shad. The last verse, and Balaam rose up and went and returned to his place, and Balaam also went his way. Now could we read a parallel portion, please, in Revelation chapter two? Verse twelve.
And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, These things that he which hath a sharp sword with two edges, I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seed is. And thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith. Even in those days in and to pass was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. but I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there, them that hold the doctrine of Baalim, who taught Baalek to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate, repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Now I thought this evening we would look at the other parables that are so very important that we have here in this portion of the book of Numbers. The Apostle John is warning the people of Pergamos against the inroads of false prophets and against the doctrine of Balaam.
And although this church in Pergamos has much in it to be commended by the Spirit of God, how they have gone on so well in the things of God. Yet the Holy Spirit with his all-seeing eye can see that some of the people in that church in Pergamos were holding tenaciously and wrongly to the doctrine of Balaam. Now Balaam made his prophecies from three mountains and the word of God in the New Testament using the name and the character of Balaam gives three warnings against the inroads of false prophets.
So you have the prophecy from three mountains in the Old Testament and you have three great warnings in the New Testament to the Church of God. And this is to us. Now, the seven letters in the book of the Revelation give a dispensational picture of the church. And there we have the Lord Jesus Christ in judicial glory over the church, walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. And it's an amazing thing to me that those three prophecies from the mountain top, by the Highly Prophet, are responded to by the Spirit of God to make three definite warnings.
That's how important it is for us to underscore the Spirit's concern about the inroads of false prophets in our day. Now as we see in those letters a dispensational picture of the church, so the errors of every one of those churches can be found in the churches today and we need to be aware of that it's interesting to look at these prophecies and to see the hand of God in them but it's vital that the people of God would take a warning concerning these things now the prophecies in the Old Testament are given to a nation not a church but the prophecies in the New Testament and the warnings in the New Testament are given to a church and are given to churches and are given to us that we might be able to respond to them and to beware of them and
the Holy Spirit says from the pen of John he said repent or I will fight against thee with a sword of my mouth." It's ironical to notice in the Word of God that Balaam died by the sword of the armies of Israel. And this warning is vital to us as we have it in the letter to Pergamon. Repent. he says, who are holding the doctrine of Balaam, or I will fight against thee with a sword of my mouth.
What was the doctrine of Balaam? The way of Balaam we talked about this morning. The way of unrighteousness, a perverted way. The error of Balaam was the fact that Valem failed to see the children of Israel as God saw them. He thought they should be cursed, and God saw them in the light of the uplifted serpent of brass. They had looked and they had lived. But the doctrine of Valem that John speaks about in the Revelation is a doctrine of corruption. Valem taught the people of God or tried to teach them to corrupt themselves with the Moabites, to engage in fornication and was successful to an amazing degree.
But in John's writing to Pergamot, it's spiritual adultery. and fornication. That is meant there. It is an ungodly union with the world. And listen, as God's people we cannot form and keep an ungodly union with the world and prosper in the things of God. God says, I'll fight against you with the sword of my mouth. And that's what we have in the doctrine of Balaam. Now let's go back. into the Old Testament and just take a look at what he tells us in these tremendous prophecies that we have read together.
Now the prophecy that we read first of all, which is the second prophecy, was given from Mount Pisgah. And you and I know that this was the Mount from which God showed Moses the promised land. It was a particular vantage point. And it was in that area that God caused Moses to lay himself down in the everlasting arms of Jehovah, and he buried him there upon the Mount of Pisgah.
and so there's something very tender about that. But it's from this point now that Baalek took Baalem to view once more the fourth part of Israel, the uttermost part of the camp. We said this morning that it was the hinder part of the camp. It was composed of the descendants of Bilhah and Zilpah, the maids, and not the ones that Jacob first married.
Rachel and Leah were those that built the house of Israel, according to the word of God. But these were descendants from these two, and they were put behind in marching order. And so from the top of this mount, Balaam was taken to curse Israel. He had already been given a word from the Lord. Those covetous lips, those perverted lips of the soothsayer from Mesopotamia had been given a message from God.
And it was impossible to him to speak any of it. It was just as impossible for that ask to refuse to speak when God put the message in its mouth as it was for Balaam to refuse to speak the message of God. And so he said, Hearken unto me thou Samoth Zeta. This is what God has told me to tell you. He says, God is not a man. that he should go back on his promises. With God, you have no variable mess, no shadow of turning.
All God's promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Always were, always will be. With man you have broken promises on many occasions, probably on the majority of occasions. But God is true to his promise. Absolutely true. And this was the message that God had put in the hiring prophets' mouth. And there's the nation of Israel. There's its fourth part. There's its uttermost part.
Unaware of what's going on on the mountain top. There's a dialogue between the Lord. between Balaam and Balaak concerning the nation of Israel. This morning we saw them as a separated people. Now tonight we see them as a people of God's promises coming into the land regardless of hailing prophets, regardless of Pharaohs, regardless of the Amorites or whatever. They were coming into the promised land. God had told them it would be so.
Now, I'd just like to take you just for a quick aside to the fifteenth chapter of the book of Genesis and needn't turn to it. I hope I can quote it right. And Abraham has been given a vision by God. He's in a deep sleep. And God himself is walking up and down the pieces of the offering on the desert floor. God is telling Abraham in that horror of great darkness that the nation of Israel would be taken into captivity. And that they would come out of Egypt in the fourth generation.
and he told them because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. I want you to think about that. A prophecy given to Abraham so many years before this. Now at this point in time Israel were coming out of the land, into the land. Moses was a fourth generation man. and the iniquity of the Amorites is coming to overflowing. And at this particular point, God gives Moses instructions to completely annihilate them because they had fought against Israel so badly.
Or the accuracy of the word of God. It amazes me when I think about it. So many years ago to Abraham, Coming true now as Moses approaches the promised land in the fourth generation and overcomes the Amorites because their iniquity was now full. And then he takes up his parable. And as he looks out over that fourth part of the nation of Israel, he says, He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob.
Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. He have Jacob, he have Israel. Jacob the supplanter. Jacob the twister. Someone said about Jacob that the only straight thing he ever did... was when he pulled up his both legs into the bed and gave up the ghost. I don't know whether that's true or not, if he just said one. But here you have Jacob. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob.
Oh, surely there were much iniquity in the people that Jacob represented. The people of Israel in Jacob were guilty of the murmurings, were guilty of the complaining, were guilty of the sin of the golden calf, were guilty of the stone trying to stone Moses, making a captain to go back again to the land of Egypt. They were guilty of all that. But, Balaam said, as he saw the fourth part of the nation, he hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Why? Because he saw them under the blood. The brazen serpent had been lifted up in Numbers chapter twenty-one.
God had said, if you look, you live. And Jesus said to Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up to whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now God was seeing those people in the light of Calvary's cross, in the light of the blood of the slain lamb. And because of that, he had not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Now, he says, neither have he seen perverseness in Israel. Israel, the prince with God, the princely people, the people that God had blessed and made them great were full of perverseness, full of it as an egg is full of yolk.
But as God looked down upon them, He saw no perverseness in Israel for the same reason that he saw no iniquity in Jacob. Now you and I can take great courage from that. Although these prophecies are to Israel now, not to the church, yet you and I can look, we have the same God, we have the same Savior, we have the same blood that's redeemed us from all our sins. And as God looks down upon us now, he sees Christ. He doesn't see iniquity in us. That doesn't mean we can live as we want to live.
Far from that. But he does not see iniquity in us because he sees it under the blood. Then he said, the Lord, his God is with him. If God is for us, who can be against us? say the Apostle Paul. God is with Israel. God is with us. Nobody can be against us. Then he said, the shout of a king is among them. The shout of a king is among them. The shout of the shepherd boy had not been heard at this point in time. But David was coming to the throne and Balaam saw it and he knew it God had made it known to him, and there, when David comes to the throne with a shout of a king, he institutes and establishes the greatest dynasty that the world has ever known and ever will know, when the Lord Jesus Christ, David's greatest son, will bring that dynasty to perfection and reign on David's throne.
Wonderful prophecy. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. You see how important this is, these things that Balaam brought to our notice from the heights of Piskos Mountains. Now he takes him at last in desperation now. to the heights of Mount Peor. And this was a Moabite holy place. This was a place that God hated.
It was a place that faced the wilderness. The wilderness of Judea. And as you looked out over the Dead Sea like we did some time ago, and you see the desolation that the fire and brimstone had wrought in a previous judgment, Balaam looked out over that scene of desolation into the wilderness. And he was aware of the place of judgment. There was the Jordan River. empty itself into the Dead Sea and becoming absolutely dead, of no use, whatever.
And nothing but desolation was to be found and seen from Mount Peor. But between that desolation and Mount Peor, then the Highland Prophet was made to see the whole camp of Israel at this particular time. And Balaam's eyes were opened now. He was not blinded now. His eyes were opened now. It was brought in upon his heart and soul that God was speaking now. And he was speaking concerning the nation of Israel.
So he didn't go for enchantments now. There was no divinations to be brought. He said to work now to view the camp of Israel in its beautiful godly order. He saw the tabernacle in the midst. He saw the Shekinah cloud overshadowing it. He saw the Levites and the Gershonites all around it. He saw the tents of Moses and Aaron. He saw the tribes as they were lined up, going each way from the tabernacle in a perfect square, in godly, militant order.
And the Spirit of God came upon that man in a tremendous fashion. And he said, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles? Oh, Israel, the tents of Jacob were not always lovely as we look back, and they weren't always goodly as we look back at his career in the Old Testament. But now that the prophet looks down, he sees this beautiful order. Oh, he says, how goodly are thy tents, oh, Jacob.
And thy tabernacles, O Israel, what a beautiful sight. God's chosen people in godly order, being blessed by God. That's the thing that he saw. And God was bringing them now into the promised land. in Genesis chapter fifteen that we quoted from. That land was deeded by God himself to Abraham. And no force in this world either in the time that we're reading and right on to the future will ever be able to take that land away from them because it was deeded to them by God himself in Genesis chapter fifteen.
And then he goes on from there and he paints a picture of a beautiful land. He sees gardens. He sees trees, the trees of lion allows. He sees by the rivers of water. He says they're trees that the Lord had planted. He had a view of a coming millennial scene. isn't it amazing don't you think that God would allow this man to see into the future so far and God would put these words in his mouth that were a complete blessing to the nation of Israel for them how sad how sad he says I shall see him but not now.
I shall behold him but not now. What did he mean by that? Well, he just simply meant that the things he was speaking about were at least fifteen hundred years away. I shall see him but not now. And then how sad I shall behold him but not now. Brethren and sisters, when we behold him, it will be very nigh. In the person of his son will be as near as he, but not the hiring prophet, not the people in this present day that hold and bow down to the doctrines of Baalim.
And they are at work in this world in an amazing degree. And we warn God's people... against them. There's no nearness to the one that's holding in his bosom or her bosom the doctrine of Balaam. Corruption with the world and not a single eye to the things of God. And then he says these two tremendous things. Listen to them. There shall come a star out of Jacob And a scepter shall rise out of Israel.
Now, it was fifteen hundred years away, but a star did come out of Jacob. And the wise men followed it because they knew about it. They came from the east as well, and they knew about these prophecies. And they knew that there was a star coming out of Jacob. And as that star came and stayed over where the young child was, and oh, we're thinking about that now, aren't we? We're thinking about the Christmas season, the star of Bethlehem. But the real star of Bethlehem was the one that laid in the manger.
He was a star that came to give light to the Gentiles and be the glory of his people Israel the incarnation the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ prophetically given out of the mouth of the Highly Prophet and you know as I sat and studied this it amazed my heart to think that God would do this but I bless him because it has been done and it has been done in order to fulfill the promises of God, to prove that the word of God is true and reliable.
We don't need the promises for that, but we have them anyway. A star out of Jacob, he said, was coming and it came. And we're going to be thinking about it. But we're going to be thinking more of the one that was alight to the Gentiles and the glory of his people, Israel. And then a scepter shall rise out of Israel. This is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who reigns. Now since the first star appears, it is well nigh two thousand years.
And this day of grace is running its course. And we believe that this day of grace is about ended. And we believe it's about time for the scepter where the Lord Jesus Christ will come with his saints and rule and reign and sway the scepter from the river to the ends of the earth. He will do it as he brings to culmination the dynasty of David. there on his throne in the city of Jerusalem. To think that this man saw that and he prophesied that and brethren and sisters before that happens and it's very soon to happen we feel.
the church is going to be raptured away and the bride of Christ is going to be presented to the father in the father's house and sit down at the marriage supper of the lamb and then the things that follow in the last few verses that we haven't time to deal with nor the ability to do it either will be brought to pass in the end of this chapter we think that some of the things that you read about in the end of this chapter can be seen as a dress rehearsal in the Persian Gulf right now. That's how near we believe the coming of the Lord is.
We ought to be ready, and we ought to be warned against. the falseness of those that would lead us astray with their false teaching. God said, I'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Poor Balaam, instead of going down to the camp of Israel and joining Moses and repenting and turning his back on such a life, he went back to his own place. And he was slain by the sword of the nation of Israel. What a warning to us tonight. What a rejoicing we have that the king is coming very soon.
And he's going to reign from the river to the end.