When God Stands in the Way

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♪ This we know ♪ ♪ We will see the enemy right ♪ ♪ This we know ♪ ♪ We will see the victory come ♪ ♪ We hold on ♪ ♪ To every promise you ever made ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are a family ♪ ♪ A guide through the wilderness ♪ ♪ My joy in the coming days ♪ ♪ Our way, we see there is no way ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ This we know ♪ ♪ We will see the enemy right ♪ ♪ This we know ♪ ♪ We will see the victory come ♪ ♪ We hold on ♪ ♪ To every promise you ever made ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are a family ♪ ♪ So we trust you ♪ ♪ We trust you ♪ ♪ 'Cause your ways are higher than our own ♪ ♪ But we trust you ♪ ♪ We trust you ♪ ♪ Your ways are higher than our own ♪ ♪ We trust you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we trust you ♪ ♪ Your ways are higher than our own ♪ ♪ We trust you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we trust you ♪ ♪ Your ways are higher than our own ♪

♪ This we know ♪ ♪ We will see the enemy right ♪ ♪ This we know ♪ ♪ We will see the victory come ♪ ♪ We hold on ♪ ♪ To every promise you ever made ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are a family ♪ ♪ This we know ♪ ♪ We will see the enemy right ♪ ♪ This we know ♪ ♪ We will see the victory come ♪ ♪ We hold on ♪ ♪ To every promise you ever made ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are a family ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are a family ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are a family ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh, Father everlasting ♪ ♪ They are creating one ♪ ♪ God Almighty ♪ ♪ Through your Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ You are receiving Christ the Son ♪ ♪ Jesus, I say you're the clear church ♪ ♪ I believe in God, I gather ♪ ♪ I believe in Christ the Son ♪ ♪ I believe in the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Our God is three and one ♪ ♪ I believe in the resurrection ♪ ♪ That we will rise again ♪

♪ For I believe in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I believe in the Spirit ♪ ♪ No one will believe ♪ ♪ Oh, sing it together ♪ ♪ Aren't you getting our need ♪ ♪ I believe in the suffering crucified ♪ ♪ For goodness is in you ♪ ♪ Do you see me? ♪ # You rose in glorious light # # Forever still alive # # I believe in God, our Father # # I believe in Christ the Son # # I believe in the Holy Spirit # # Our God is free and white # # I believe in the resurrection # # Then we will rise again # # For I believe # # In the name of Jesus # # I believe in you # # I believe in God again # # I believe # # That Jesus Christ is born # # I believe, I believe in you # # I believe in you rose again # # I believe that Jesus Christ # # Is born # # I believe in God, our Father # # I believe in Christ the Son # # I believe in the Holy Spirit #

# Our God is free and white # # I believe in the resurrection # # That we will rise again # # For I believe # # In the name of Jesus # # I believe in God, our Father # # I believe in Christ the Son # # I believe in the Holy Spirit # # Our God is free and white # # I believe in the resurrection # # That we will rise again # # For I believe in the name of Jesus # # For I believe in the name of Jesus # # For I believe in the name of Jesus # # For I believe in the name of Jesus # You know, sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees. Sometimes we get fooled by our own intellect and we can miss the obvious. Such is the case today with an interesting enigmatic figure. He's an enigma to many. His name is Balaam, Balaam the son of Beor. Balaam is a false prophet who is given much time and space in the book of Numbers. He's mentioned 60 times in the Old Testament and three times in the New Testament. And the New Testament makes it very clear that Balaam was a false prophet. We would call him an Old Testament wolf in sheep's clothing. He would appear like this. But many people don't see that about him.

Many people get fooled by Balaam because God speaks prophecies over Israel through Balaam. It's really surprising. You're like, "Lord, I don't understand." You think about all the many, many references to Balaam. He makes up almost 8% his story, his account makes up almost 8% of the book of Numbers. He's mentioned way more than the disciples save Peter and Paul, way more than even John, this man, Balaam. And the Bible says in Second Peter, chapter two, talking about false teachers, says for taking the right way, these false teachers have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but he received a rebuke for his own transgression speaking with the voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. Now, people who know a little bit about the Bible, they know when you mention Balaam, they know about Balaam's donkey, and Balaam has a story and his account where his donkey speaks to him. And so we wanna learn today what God has for us from this account, and we're gonna devote two sermons to Balaam because the amount of scripture is heavy when it comes to Balaam. But for this first message, we wanna look at Balaam and his talking donkey

and what led to him trying to curse Israel. Numbers chapter 22 says, "Then the sons of Israel journeyed "and camped in the plains of Moab "beyond the Jordan opposite Jericho." Now, Balaam, the son of Zippur, saw all that Israel had done to the emirites. So Moab was in great fear because of the people, for they were numerous, and Moab was in dread of the sons of Israel. Moab said to the elders of Midian, they were their neighbors, and now they're gonna form an alliance. Now this horde will look up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field, and Balaam, the son of Zippur, was king of Moab at that time. So we sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Bior, at Pethor, which is near the river, probably the river Euphrates, in the land of the sons of his people, to call him saying, "Behold, "a people came out of Egypt. "Behold, they cover the surface of the land, "and they are living opposite me. "Now, therefore, please come curse this people for me, "since they are too mighty for me, "perhaps I may 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 the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand, and they came to Balaam and repeated Balaam's words to him. Balaam and his story serves as a warning to us, and so I want to share three warnings this morning. Warning number one, beware of letting fear control your life and your decisions. Don't let fear control your life and control, especially your decisions. Everybody deals with fear to some degree or another, but you can't let fear dominate. You can't let fear control. Now, what was Belak the king of Moab so afraid of? Well, he was afraid of the Israelites because in chapter 21, they had fought three battles. They fought with the king of Arad. Arad attacked them, and they fought back, and they defeated the king of Arad. Then they were attacked by Sihon, king of the Amorites, and they defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, and then they were attacked by Og, king of Bastion, and they defeated Og, and that's a big deal to defeat Og because Og was a giant. He was a giant king. We read about Og's bed. It was 13 and a half feet long and six feet wide. Well, the only reason you'd have a bed that was 13 and a half feet long is because you're a big fella.

And Og was a big fella, and the Bible talks about, they'll mention the fact that God gave Israel victory over Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bastion because those were two huge victories. But they all came about because those guys attacked Israel. Now, to give you a picture, so you show you on the map where we are. So, here you have, you remember from last week, they were at Mount Hore, that's where Aaron died, and they had to go around the horn. They remember they had to go from, they were getting from the thumb to the pinky, but they had to go around the elbow to do that because God wouldn't let them go through the land of Edom. So, they go up to that circle there, Mount Nebo, that's where Moses is gonna go and see the promised land. He doesn't get to go into the promised land, but he's going to see the promised land from Mount Nebo, and they're camped opposite Jericho. Well, that's the land of Moab, and the king of Moab, Balak, is very afraid because these guys are just mowing everybody down. And so he says, I need. I'm going to do. I'm going to hire the prophet for hire, the soothsayer, this mysterious soothsayer, this fortune teller, this guy named Bala. And so he gets the Midianites together and they form this a life. We're going to go and we're going to bring some money, some, you know, the money for divination and we're going to hire Balaam. He's going to come and curse Israel so that I can defeat them. Now it's not like going to say, you know, we're going to go down the street and find Balaam. Balaam, yeah, Balaam lives far away. He lives by the river Euphrates. We have a map that shows how far they had to travel. So he is there in Moab. He's going all the way to Pethor,

which is about 360 miles away to get this guy. Balaam, who had a reputation, whoever he blesses gets blessed, whoever curses gets cursed. Balaam was a prophet for hire and he would just call upon whatever God was in that region and he would be able to work his magic, so to speak. And so he built this reputation. You know, if you were going to travel 360 miles from here and just said, I'm going west, 360 miles, you'd come to Abilene. Can you imagine? Hey, we got a guy in Abilene that we really want to get to come to first Baptist Texarkana. Quinn, would you and Chris, you know, saddle your donkeys and go to Abilene? I mean, it take like a month to get there and it takes a month to get back and it's a long trip, but we're bringing money because we're going to pull this guy in and we're going to get him to curse Israel. All of that came about because Balaam was afraid. Now fear is often rooted in falsehood, often rooted in falsehood. And what was the falsehood that Balaam had? Well, it wasn't that they didn't, I mean, in chapter 21, they had defeated Saohon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bastion. They had done that and they were numerous, but he said in verse 4, "Now this horde will lick up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field." What he felt to realize was Israel wasn't going to do that because this is what God had told Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, he says, "And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab, then the Lord said to me, 'Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given it, have given art to the sons of Lot as a possession.'" Moab is the descendant and the Moabites, the descendant of Lot, Genesis 19, when Lot's daughters got drunk. The eldest daughter slept with him and she conceived by her father and she had a son named Moab, the father of the Moabites. They came about their ancestry as because of an incestuous relationship, that one-night relationship between Lot and his eldest daughter. But the Lord said, "Hey, Moses, don't do anything to them." So, Baylach, he starts this whole thing with Baylam because he was afraid and his fear was unfounded because nothing was going to happen. He didn't have to do anything and he would have been fine. As you know, fear has been described as false evidence appearing real and that is so true much of the time. I was reminded of a sermon illustration I heard when I was in college. Adrian Rogers was sharing about how when he was pastor in Merritt Island, Florida, he said, "We were building onto the facility and building..." I think it was an educational wing. And he said, "It was one evening as the sun was going down."

He said, "I wanted to check and see how things were going. Every all the workers had left for the day." He said, "I was just in the building by myself." And he said, "I went into this one room and somehow the door closed behind me and there was no handle on this side of the door." So I was like, "Oh, I don't know. I'm going to get out." And then all of a sudden he looked and there in the shadows was a man. Adrian said, "Man, it's good." and he said, "I look to this guy, this guy was big, "this guy was scary." He said, "This guy was ugly, and I'm looking at this guy, "and I say to him, 'Hello?' "He doesn't answer." Said, "Excuse me, what are you doing here?" He doesn't answer. And Adrian's having a hard time focusing, a hard time seeing, and he's saying his heart's beating, you know, his palms are starting to sweat, and he's saying, "I may have to get into a fight." It's not good for the pastor to beat somebody up, but he says, "I may have to get into a fight." And so he was praying, he said, "Lord, I need light, "so if I have to fight, I can fight. "This guy might be coming at me." And so because the guy wouldn't respond, Adrian started walking toward him, and when Adrian started walking toward him, the man started walking toward Adrian. And Adrian said, "As I got closer, I realized "I was looking in a mirror." (audience laughing) He said, "The man wasn't as big as I thought, "but he was as ugly."

And so he said, "I was getting all riled up and praying, "and you know, my heart beating so fast, "and it was false evidence appearing real." You know, we fear things that the Lord says over and over, do not fear, do not fear, do not fear. Fear is often rooted in falsehood, and fear can cause bad decisions that bring devastating results. Did you know because of Balak's fear, he's going to get Balam, this false prophet, involved in Israel's life. He's going to end up, as we fast forward a little bit, he's going to end up telling Balam, or Balak, the king, how he can get Israel in trouble with God through idolatry and sexual immorality. And because of Balak's fear, that's set in motion, these actions that end up costing tens of thousands of people their lives. 24,000 are going to die in Numbers chapter 25 because of sexual immorality in idolatry, 24,000. And then there's going to, God's going to command his people to wipe out the Midianites and Balam and tens of thousands are going to die. Fear can cause bad decisions that bring devastating results. Think about Herod. When Herod learned, where is the king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and come to worship him, and Herod was afraid, and so what does he do? He sends his soldiers to kill all the babies in Bethlehem, two years old and under.

Jeroboam who becomes king of the Northern Kingdom and the Old Testament. God says he was going to bless Jeroboam, but Jeroboam got afraid because he said, the people are not going to follow me if they have to go to Jerusalem three times a year for the great feast, so he built false idols and altars for the people to go and stay in the confines of the Northern Kingdom, and that cost him big time. It was because of his fear. You know, the parable of the talents, five talents, two talents and one talent, the guy with one talent that buried it in the ground. When the master came to settle accounts with them, he wanted to know why he just buried it in the ground. He said, because I was afraid. Fear brings devastation to your life. Beware of letting fear control your life in your decisions. Warning number two. Beware of greed and the enticement of money. Jesus said in Luke chapter 12 verse 15, "Beware and be on guard against every form of greed "for not even when one has an abundance, "does his life consist of his possessions?" The word for greed in Greek, pleonicia, means the desire for more and more and more Proverbs 27 says the eyes of man are never satisfied. He always wants more and more and more and more. So verse seven, the elders of Moab

and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand, and they came to Balaam and repeated Baylax words to him. He said to them, "Spend the night here, "and I will bring word back to you as the Lord, "yaw away, may speak to me." And the leaders of Moab stayed with Balaam. Then God came to Balaam and said, "Who are these men with you?" Balaam said to God, "Behold, there is a people who came out of Egypt "and they cover the surface of the land. "Now come, curse them for me. "Perhaps I may be able to fight against them "and drive them out." And God said to Balaam, "Do not go with them. "You shall not curse the people for they are blessed." So Balaam arose in the morning and said to Balaam's leaders, "Go back to your land "for the Lord has refused to let me go with you." Then the leaders of Moab arose and went to Balaam and said, "Balaam refused to come with us." So he sends this on to Raj out to Pethor, which is like us going to Abilene. And so they go to Abilene and they see Balaam and they say, "Hey, we come with our fees of divination "and the king's gonna pay you handsomely "if you will curse this people." And so he says, "Well, I need to inquire of the Lord." And then the Lord tells him very straightforwardly,

very clearly, "Do not go with them. "You cannot curse them, they are blessed." And so he dejectedly tells them, "I can't go with you. "The Lord has refused to let me go with you." Now Balaam, you need to understand. He was a greedy, mercenary prophet for prophet, a PRO, P-H-E-T prophet for PRO, F-I-T. He was in it for the money. He loved, as Peter said, the wages of unrighteousness. He was a greedy guy. And we know from Colossians chapter three, verse five, "Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body "as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, "evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry." Why does greed amount to idolatry? Because when you're greedy for gain, you make money and possessions your God. Balaam is a greedy guy. Balaam wants the money. But the Lord tells him, "No." And it's very clear, "I prayed, and God said, "No, and so I can't go." So they go back to Balaak, said, "Balaam's not coming." And that's a long, those guys travel a long time. So they travel four weeks to get to Balaam, and they travel four weeks back to Balaak. He ain't coming. And then Balaak said, "Well, I'm gonna send more people. "We're going to sweeten the pot." So it says in verse 14, "The leaders of Balaam,

"of Moab arose and went to Balaak, "and said Balaam refused to come with us. "Then Balaam again sent leaders more numerous, "and more distinguished than the former. "They came to Balaam and said to him, "Thus says Balaak, the son of Zippur, "Let nothing I beg you hinder you from coming to me, "for I will indeed honor you richly, "and I will do whatever you say to me. "Please come then, curse this people for me." Balaam replied to the servants of Balaak, "Though Balaak were to give me his house full of silver "and gold, hint, hint. "I could not do anything, either small or great, "contrary to the command of the Lord, my God, "of Yahweh, my God, Yahweh, my Elohim." Well, the Lord wasn't his God, but he calls him that. Just because a person tells you they're a believer and the Lord is his God, just saying that doesn't make that so. And he says, "Now please, you also stay here tonight, "and I will find out what else the Lord will speak to me." Balaak was a greedy mercenary, Soussayer, and he tries to manipulate God to fulfill his sinful desires because his God is gold, his creed is greed, his motto is get all you can, can all you get, sit on the can and poison the rest. He wants to get money for himself, and he doesn't want to see this big payday go away. So he says, "Well, let me see what else the Lord will say." Well, let me ask you this.

Has the Lord been unclear? No, the Lord told him, don't go. Because there is money involved, and he wants the pay. Be careful with doing that. Be careful of money becoming, getting first place in your heart. Beware and be on guard against every form of greed. Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have. For he himself has said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." So God told him no, but he tries to manipulate the situation. He tries to manipulate God. God is not his God, but he says so. He says, "The Lord, my God." He's going to call on whatever God you pay him to call on. And see, people back then, in the Old Testament times, they had this idea that the God, God was God over a region. And so if you were in Egypt, who's the God of Egypt? Well, we worship Osiris. We worship Ra, the sun God, and Egypt had lots of gods. The ten plagues that came upon Egypt in the book of Exodus were all coming upon their gods. They worshipped frogs in Egypt. And God would make a mockery and say, "Oh, you like frogs here in Egypt. I'll give you some frogs. You're going to have frogs coming out your ears." And God showed that he was God, the real God, who was the Lord that I should obey his voice as Pharaoh said. And God said, "I'm going to show you who I am." But those areas had their own God. So the God of Moab was kimosh. And the God, as we know in Canaan, was Baal, and they worshiped the Bales. And most of those cults, especially the Canaanite cult, was a fertility cult.

And so God told them, "When you come into the land, you drive all those people out." Why? Because their worship is very sensualized and sexualized. And you're not going to be able to handle that. It's too much temptation. What does the Bible say about sexual immorality? Fleet. Because you can't handle it. It's too strong. So you're going to need to drive those people away. So here is Balaam. And he's like, "Well, okay, so the God of the Hebrews, that's Yahweh. I'll just call upon Yahweh." And God in His mercy and in His grace and in His sovereignty, He chooses to do whatever He does, wants to do. He answers Balaam, which seems odd to us because He says, "Well, I would God answer this pagan prophet, but he does." And the pagan prophet gets the idea that he can manipulate God. And he can somehow maneuver to where he can still stay in God's good graces, but curse Israel and get His payday from King Belak. And so he prays again, verse 20, "God came to Balaam at night and said to Him, 'If the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them, but only the word which I speak to you shall you do.'" So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the leaders of Moab. But God was angry because He was going, and the angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against Him. Now He was riding on His donkey and His two servants were with Him. People read that and say, "Well, wait a minute. Why is God angry that He's going? He told him he could go."

Well, I like what Warren Wiersby said. He said, "Well, He was going with a heart that said, 'I'm going to curse Israel. I'm going to get my pay.'" And he tried to manipulate the situation, and God was angry with Him because that was in His heart. Listen, the Lord gives us free will, apart from what some people will tell you that man doesn't have a free will. Man obviously has a free will, and man can use his free will rightly to trust the Lord and follow Christ, or he can use it wrongly to go in the wrong direction. And Balaam is using his free will wrongly. And God knows that that's in His heart. That's what He wants to do. He's pushing against the boundaries here. And so God for some reason says, "You want to go? You want to go so bad? Okay, go." But only what I tell you, and it's obvious, though the Lord doesn't want Him to go, because what does He run into, as we're going to see, He runs into the angel of the Lord with the sword drawn. Balaam tried to manipulate God to fulfill His sinful desires. "Hey, have you ever prayed about something, and God told you no?" [BLANK_AUDIO] You know, Moses did that when he said, "Lord, please let me go into the Promised Land." And the Lord said, "Enough. "Don't ask me anymore about this." I told you no. You know, sometimes the Lord tests us by putting some barriers there and putting some distance there.

As we talked about the siro-finician woman, the Lord helped my daughter. She's cruelly, demon-possessed. And Jesus appeared, he never told her no. He would just tell her, "I was sent only to the lost sheep "of the house of Israel. "It's not good to take the children's bread "and throw it to the dogs." He was testing her, and she kept in pressing him. "Lord, please, please help me. "Lord, yes, you're not to take the children's bread "and throw it to the dogs, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs "that fall from their master's table." And he loved that, because he would not, she would not let go as Jacob said when he wrestled with the Lord. "I will not let you go unless you bless me." God loves that. When our heart is in the right spot, Balaam's heart is in an evil spot, and Balaam is fighting the Lord. And the Lord's already told him no, but he keeps on, keeps on, because he wants to get a different answer. Now I was thinking about this, when it comes to finding a spouse. Listen, as you get older, then you're not thinking about that like you were. But when you're in that age,

in the probably early 20s and up, you want to be married, many, many want to be married. I mean, there's some people that are assigned by God to be celibate, but that's very few. And I remember when I was in college, that would be a prayer, please God, don't make me a celibate. I don't want to be in the CIA, celibates in action. I want to get married, I want to have a family. That's most people, it's not everybody, but it's most people. And so you can, you find somebody that you like, and all of a sudden your heart wants that person, but that person has major red flags all over them. That person, people who love you will tell you, know on this person, but you keep pressing, pressing. I'm going to keep praying about it and praying about it. There's no point to keep praying about it. I had a guy call me. And he said, young guy, he's in love, and he called me and he said, "Hey, I'm going to get married." I said, "Really?" He goes, "Yep." I said, "And who are you going to marry?" He said, "So-and-so." I said, "You're going to marry her?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Isn't that the girl that got mad at you a few months back and went after your truck with a hammer?" He said, "Well, yeah, yeah, it is." I said, "You might want to rethink that."

And he said, "Well, I love her." And I said to him, I said, "Listen, I get that. You're in love, but marriage is a real eye opener. Love is blind, marriage is a real eye opener, and you need to rethink that." I said, "You are, think about it this way." I said, "It's like buying a car, and you're getting ready to buy this car that's been through a flood that has major engine damage, that's being sold as is, and you just need to know that if you want to marry that girl and you're willing to go the distance with her, knowing she's going to be in the shop a lot, you know, that's your business, but you need to know that with your eyes wide open. She's not the only car on the lot. There are other cars there." "Well, I love her." It's like, "I don't have any choice, I love her." That's about four months later. How's it going? "Well, we didn't make it." I was like, "I'm shocked. I mean, you were just made for each other." You know, but we have people, they just push and push, 'cause they want to do what they want to do. They want their sinful desires. Somehow, I'm gonna finagle this situation to where it's, I can say, God told me. God told me to divorce my wife and marry my secretary.

No, he didn't. You're trying to manipulate things. That's what Balaam was doing. And the Lord let him go, but the Lord was angry that he was going, and that brings us to warning number three. Beware of the blinding power of anger and rebellion and pride. It will blind your eyes to the truth. Verse 22, "But God was angry because he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against him." Now, he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, the donkey turned off. Struck the donkey. Remember when it said that Moses struck the rock when he was supposed to speak to the rock? Same word. It's a hard blow. It's not a tap. It's a man. He is beating that donkey. And says in verse 24, "Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path of the vineyards, with a wall on this side and a wall on that side." And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed herself to the wall and pressed Baylam's foot against the wall so he struck her again. The angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn to the right hand or the left. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she laid down under Baylam so Baylam was angry and struck the donkey with his stick. And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Baylam, "What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?" Then Baylam said to the donkey, "Because you have made a mockery of me, if there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now." The donkey said to Baylam, "Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?" And he said, "No." Then the Lord opened the eyes of Baylam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his sword, drawn sword in his hand,

and he bowed all the way to the ground. Interesting. Such an ironic situation here. Baylam is a big time prophet for profit. He's the soothsayer for hire. He's the guy. They called him a seer. That's what they would call the prophets, even the pagan prophets. They were seers. They could see something you couldn't see. But now here is Baylam. He can't see what his lowly donkey can see. And the donkey could see the angel of the Lord with the sword drawn. Remember this. The spiritually blind cannot see spiritual realities. When you're spiritually blind, you can't see spiritual realities. Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Second Corinthians chapter 4. If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the eyes of the unbelieving. They can't see. Jesus goes on with Nicodemus. He said, "Are you the teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things? You can't see these things, these realities." Well, Baylam can't see. He's blind to these things because they're spiritual truths. And Baylam gets very angry. Now, the anger of man often blinds him of rational thinking. You know, we have this thing called temporary insanity. You get somebody gets so angry that they just can't see straight. We talk about that. You know, we have that expression. I was so angry, I couldn't see straight. I think you see football coaches on the sidelines sometimes. They just go berserk. I mean, it's just, to me, it's like, "Man, you're showing yourself to be like a three-year-old throwing a tantrum." One of the greatest college football coaches I'll not call his name, Nick Saban. He would get so angry that it'd be like, "What are you doing? How do you have no self-control Bobby Knight? He throws a chair onto the court. I was talking to my old basketball coach just this past week. And we were talking about a coach that was in our district back when I was playing basketball. And he was my coach for a year, big old guy, built like a bear, about six foot six. And he would just so nice until the game started. And then he would just totally lose it. And my friend Tom, who played on the team, he said, "Man," he said, "Coach, he was just getting really mad at Pete Carr. And this guy Pete Carr was playing. And the coach, I'll not say his name, but he was just yelling from the sidelines, "Pete, don't ever shoot it again." Well, that's pretty rough. And so, a few minutes later, Pete shot the ball and the coach yelled, "Pete, I hate you." That's a little rough. He's a sophomore in high school, and you know, but he would just lose it. Well, Balaam is losing his mind. And the Lord opens the

Now, the Lord is talking through the donkey. It's more like a ventriloquist thing. It's not all of a sudden the donkey is like, and I've been able to talk all this time, and now I'm talking, and I'm reasoning, and he's not doing that, but the Lord is talking through the donkey, and it's going to show up when the Lord talks through Balaam, because just as I talk through this donkey, I can talk through this donkey, right? And the King James puts a little different spin on the word donkey, and so the Lord says, "I can do that," and so all of a sudden, you would think that he would be like, "Whoa, how are you talking to me?" But he doesn't, he has a conversation, gets into an argument with his donkey, and he loses. That's really bad, and I'm this big shot. I can't see anything. I'm so angry. We can lose it when we allow ourselves to get so angry. That can blind you of rational thinking, and that's what Peter said. Second Peter, chapter two. He said, "Having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Bior who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but he received a rebuke for his own transgression for a mute donkey, a dumb donkey, speaking with the voice of a man, restrained the madness, the insanity of the prophet." This guy was going insane.

He wanted to kill his donkey. Have I ever done this to you before? No, and then all of a sudden the Lord speaks to him. And the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with the drawn sword in his hand, and he bowed all the way to the ground. The angel of the Lord, verse 32, said to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary because your way was contrary, perverse to me. But the donkey saw me and turned aside from me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, I surely would have killed you and just now and let her live." Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, "I have sinned for I did not know that you were standing in the way against me. Now then, if it is displeasing to you, I will turn back." You're a little slow on the uptake, aren't you, Balaam? If it's displeasing to you, he's standing with his sword drawn, ready to cut off your head. I would say it's displeasing to him in the manner where you're going. But the Lord said to him, "See, he so hell-bent on going. But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, "Go with these men, but you shall speak only the word, which I tell you, so Balaam went along

with the leaders of Balaak. The anger of man will blind him of rational thinking and the pride of man brings opposition from the Lord. God is opposed to the proud. James 4, 6 says, "He's opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." And did you know two times in this passage, it talks about the Lord was an adversary against Balaam? You know what the Hebrew word for adversary is? Satan, Satan is the Hebrew word for adversary. The Lord was Satan against him. He was his adversary. That's why we call Satan, Satan, because he's the adversary, and that is the Hebrew word for adversary, Satan. But the Lord was standing in the way because the Lord is going to oppose him, because the Lord hates pride. And when we go in a perverse way, we go against him. And he lines up, I always think about James 4, 6, God's opposed to the proud, he gives grace to the humble, I always think about it this way. It's like going up against God in football. You know, football practice you'd have between the tackling dummies, you'd have one-on-one drills, who's tougher? I'm going to go up against you, you're going up against me. Travis Maldon, who is our only, to my knowledge,

our only member of the church that's won a national championship, he won it with Arkansas back in the day when he played with Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones and pretty impressive. They didn't have rings back then, they just gave him a box of cracker jack. I don't know what they gave him, but he didn't have a national championship ring, but he told me, he said that Tommy Nobus was playing for the University of Texas way back in the day. And when they would do those drills where somebody had to go up against Tommy Nobus, he was so big, so bad, so tough. He said grown men would be in the bathroom throwing up because they had to go after lunch, I have to go up against Tommy Nobus. He's opposed to the proud. He's going to be the adversary for you if you're going in the wrong direction. But if you're going in his direction, guess what? He gives grace to the humble. He gives grace to you. Balaam is going in the wrong direction. He is an enemy of God. And I want to ask you as we close out, which direction are you going? Does God stand as your adversary? Is he opposed to you because you're walking in rebellion?

You're walking in pride? You're walking in the love of money? You're making all your decisions based on the fear of man? Years ago, I heard a sermon about a lot. Abraham's nephew lot. He was the guy that pitched his tent towards Sodom. He moved in the direction of Sodom and wrecked and ruined his life. And the sermon point was this. There are three people sitting in your chair. Person you are right now. The person you can be for God if you start walking with Him. And the person you can be for evil if you go against Him. See, God is not so concerned about the perfection of your life, but He's very, very concerned about the direction of your life. So I want to ask you as we close out today, what direction are you going? Balaam serves as a warning to you and to me. Do not walk in pride. Do not walk in greed. Do not walk in anger and rebellion against the Lord. Walk in the light as He Himself is in the light. Hey, are you heating the warning of Balaam? Now we come to the most important question of all. Have you turned from sin and selfishness and given your heart and life to Jesus? Listen, if not, today is the day for you. Just pray this simple prayer from your heart. Lord Jesus, I need you. I know that I'm a sinner and I can't save myself,

but I believe Jesus that you are God in the flesh. I believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. And right now, I ask you to forgive me and save me, come into my life, change me, make me the person you want me to be. I surrender my life to you and I promise to follow you all the days I have left. Now if you pray that kind of prayer and mean it, the Lord will come in and your life will never be the same. Listen, I would love to hear from you. So please contact me and share with me what's going on so we can pray for you. And if you are ever in the Texarkana area, we would love for you to visit us live and in person at FBC Texarkana. Listen, you really are important to God and you're important to us and we're here for you. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) You [BLANK_AUDIO]