Understanding Fear and Faith in Believers

Start. Thank you. Anybody? Do you want some? Well, good morning, ladies. Can you hear me? Awesome. Fear characterizes life outside of Eden. Fear is a negative emotion caused by a real or perceived threat to our well-being. As I was driving over this morning, I thought that that's God's goal and intent for as believers who are concerned about their spiritual welfare, that our reaction when we're in danger spiritually is discernment, not fear. And so as I was thinking about this and thinking that God has done nothing to contribute to our fear, that he, from the promise of the seed at the very beginning of the story of the Bible, he's demonstrating his goodwill toward us. man. In the whole creation event, God is creating an environment so that man would never need fear, never need to fear provision because God created everything according to its kind to reproduce according to its kind so there would be plenty. When he put them in the garden, he placed them in the garden that was abundant, abundantly full of anything that they would call and recognize as beautiful and also that was good for food. You see, after Adam and Eve sinned, what did God do? Because they were now where the... But they were naked and they were experiencing fear. So as they experienced fear, when they experienced the fear of now what have we done? When you stop and think about what must it have been like for Eve after she had eaten from the forbidden fruit and passed it off to her husband. And it says the eyes of... Both of them were opened, and they were aware that they were naked, and they were ashamed. So therefore, as a response of alienation from, since in that alienation on a spiritual level, they responded by hiding from God. because they were prompted by fear. Fear characterizes all of life outside of Eden, has always since. But the believer, the one who walks with God by faith, need never fear. So we're going to talk about this morning is that what then is the problem with fear? Why fear? Because fear is a manifestation of spiritual brokenness. It drives irrational behavior like hoarding, eating disorders, theft, unforgiveness, not entering into Canaan, and the use of sorcery, which we're going to see. in the story this morning. So fear is the natural response and sinful default for which we respond to our well-being physically. We feel like it's being threatened. So let's open this time in prayer and ask the Lord to speak to us right where we are. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you that it does not return to you void, but it does accomplish what you please and prospers in the thing that you sent it. Lord, I thank you that you said, fear not, I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. Lord, and I thank you that you sent me. Lord, I thank you that you to thank you that because we know you that we can live a life free of fear. Help us, Lord, to walk in discernment, that we really do discern what will hurt us on a spiritual level, that we would discern those things and we would be people who would take heed to our hearts and walk in self restraint and submit ourselves to you and to believe your promises. So, Lord, we're just crying out to you, Father, that you would, as we've been errant in our day with our emotions and not saying down-grilled to them, submitting them to the truth of what we know about your character. about your goodness and what you're seeking to do in our world. I pray, Father, that we would be people of peace. And we ask this in the mighty and holy name of Jesus. Amen. All right, so fear is a manifestation of spiritual brokenness. We are afraid of what we see. We are afraid of what we see. We are naked. We feel guilty. We're broken. We're hiding from God. We're hiding from others. We hide from spiders and snakes and storms, and we need to hide from the news. We are afraid of what we cannot see as well. We cannot see in the dark. We cannot see God because he is invisible, but he's very real. We cannot see the consequences of ours and others'actions towards us, and it creates fear in our heart. So today's coronavirus manifests the fear that resides just below the surface in all of our hearts. It's, you know, and I'm not making light of and not finding a lot of humor in the sense of when I went to Costco this week and I'm like, they're wiping down every single thing. People had their mask on and, you know, and they're like keeping a meter distance between each other and people were filling their space and trying to measure how close are you are to me and see if there's any, you know, do you spit when you speak and all these things. You know, I'm very aware that people are aware of their personal space. And why is that? Because they feel their physical well-being is threatened. So the tendency is when we fear is to act out of that fear by other behaviors having to do with hoarding and all the other things. I saw this cute little meme on Facebook yesterday and it says, people are so afraid right now that you could rob a bank with a booger. I don't know! I don't know. But what you see in our reading from this last week and thinking about it, you see that fear has driven Israel by what they see. They hear the report of the 12 spies who come back, the 10 spies who gives this negative report that we're just grasshoppers in their eyes. And so what are they doing? They're acting out of fear based on what someone else sees and projects for them. Instead of believing the promises of God in the report that the two spies, Joshua and Joshua, and Caleb bring back to them. And so the fear drives Israel when they see or hear about the giants in the land of Canaan. When they cannot see God's supplies, they experience the wilderness landscape with this lack of food and water and so on. So what they see directs the fears of Israel's enemies as well. And we see this with the story of Balak and the Moabites and the Midianite peoples and those who live east of the Jordan River. So what they see directs their fear. So a large people group on the borders, and they're like, whose stories that they've heard about this God, the God of Israel, and they've seen this mass of people, brings terror into their hearts. They are deeply afraid. So what you see is the tendency when you're afraid is to do two things. It's to fight or to flee. They call it fight or flight. But there is a third option. It's the way of faith. It's the simply believing God's promises, appropriating his presence, and walking out who God's character is revealed to be in Scripture. and exercising your spiritual muscles to know and understand that God is present at all times, that nothing can touch you except though it comes through the hands of a loving God. We live in a broken world and there's much to be afraid of, but not for the child of God. Fear ought not to be a part of who we are, not to characterize our lives. So how do you deal with fear? Fear in itself is not a sin per se. Fear is actually... A manifestation of a deeper problem, that's where the sin lies. So the sin is not trusting God, not believing God's promises and acting on His Word. So you see, we either respond to fear by fight. You see Balakar's Balaam, why? Because he's fighting what he sees. And you have the flight of Israel, they reject the report of the two spies in favor of the bad report of the ten spies. So what do they do? In their fear, they flee. And you know, as I was thinking about the story of Balaam and Balak, and you'll find this in Numbers chapter 22, 23, and 24 if you want to go ahead and look in your Bible, so that will mainly be in chapter 24, and look momentarily at a couple of those texts. So like Job, you have Job starts out with this conversation occurring in heaven to which he's not privy, but his life is absolutely turned upside down as a result of this conversation to which he's not privy. And in the same way, you have this conversation that occurs between Balaam and Balak, Balaam's donkey and God, and Balaam, that all of Israel's not privy to. And in fact, reading some of the theologians, especially interesting reading some of the rabbis, and their take on this story is very, very insightful. And so one of them I read, he talked about how did Moses know this report? Because Moses was not up there on the mount. He was not a part of the conversation. He didn't have his ears to the wall per se listening in. as an interloper unto this conversation. So what happened here? Obviously, when later on in the story, when you see when Balaam is actually killed, as a result of the Midianite deception of bringing the women in and they're sleeping with the Israelite people and 24,000 of them perish. But what he imagines is when Balaam is taken captive, Balaam tells him about what happened there up on the mount. And so it's a recording of scripture. So why this story? Why is it important for us to understand this story for ourselves? And so you have you have the character in the Balaam's narrative and I actually switched my notes around and punted them forward so if you're looking think she's not following her notes you're right I'm not following my notes. I actually shifted them quite a bit and so what you have is you looking at the characters within the story let's look into Exodus in Numbers chapter 22. Reading from chapter 22 verse 1 it says then the children of Israel moved and camped in the plains of Moab. on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho. Now Balak, the son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel. So you had to say, all right, so what has happened here? Just previously in the previous chapter, and you read this in this week, is the king of Og was destroyed and his cities were taken. So as a result of that, you have this Moabite king, Barak is like, oh my gosh, we're toast, we're next. What do we seek to do? Because again, what do you do when you're afraid? You either fight or you flee. And he's obviously a fighter. He's not going to flee. And so it says, it describes him, Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because there were many. And Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel. And it's interesting because what you see here is Israel's failure to enter into the land God had already... God had already promised that God was going to make them afraid of Israel 40 years earlier. And here, what you have is every time we're introduced to the people of Canaan, the Moabites and the Amorites on the eastern side of Jordan, they're deeply afraid of the children of Israel. Oftentimes, our fears are totally unwarranted. Our enemy is more afraid of us than we are of them. And this is what you see here with this situation. So it says in verse 4, So Moab said to the elders of Median, so he comes up with a strategy. Now this company will lick up everything around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at this time. Then he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the river in 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 are settling next to me. Therefore, please come at once. Curse this people for me, that they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them. and drive them out of the land. For I know he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. And it's interesting because when he makes this statement, he's exalting Balak. Because if you remember when God introduced to Abraham, he made this promise, I'm going to bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you. And so what you see with Balak, the elevation of God in their midst is this false prophet. Because what is he saying? Balaam, Balak is established for Balaam. I know that the one that you bless will be blessed, and I know that the one you curse will be cursed. And so what is he assigning to this false prophet? Attributes of God. Now it's interesting, so what you have here is you have the Moabites are terrified as they observe Israel, and when they hear about the Amorites, you have Balak. Balak, he rounds up all the elders and he comes up with this strategy to hire Balaam. And what you see about Balaam is Balaam is so full of himself and full of his own self-importance because he thinks he's like their God. Okay, so what does he do? He stalls for time. Not because he doesn't know what to do, because he's so full of his own self-importance that he wants them to wait on him. Have you ever been in a situation where a person has been in a little power play with you and they're like forced waiting when they're staying busy just to put you off so you'll know how important they are? Anybody? Yeah, I was at the post office yesterday. So the elders of Moab and the elders of the Midianites departed with the definer's fee in their hand, and they came to Balaam and spoke to him in the words of Balak. And he said to him, Now it's not that he was going to seek the Lord or that he knew the Lord. It's very critical for us to understand that he was a false prophet. He was a soothsayer. He was one who divines in spirits of darkness. He was not God's representative, would never be God's representative. So you see here, he's stalling for time saying, I'm going to bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me. Then in verse 9, and God came to Balaam and God said, who are these men with you? So Balaam said to God, and he was probably stunned that God even spoke to him, Balaam, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has said to me, saying, Look, a people has come out of Egypt, and they cover the face of the earth. Come now, curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to overpower them and drive them out. And God said to Balaam, You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princess of Balaam, Go back to your land, for the Lord has refused to give me permission to go with you. And the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak, and they said, Balam refuses to come with us. Then Balak sent princes more numerous and more honorable than they. And they came to Balam and said to him, Thus says Balak, 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. Then Balam answered and said to the servants of Balak, Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more. Now therefore, please, you also stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me. And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, If the men come and call to you, rise and go with them, but only the word which I speak to you that you shall do. So Balaam rose in the morning, and he introduced the next player in the scene, his donkey. He saddled his donkey and went with the princess of Moab. So what you see is God confronts him. and God is the one that's confronting him because what he's revealing to Balaam is you have no power and no ability to do and contradict the blessing that I've placed upon my people. And so he lets him know that his God is a sovereign one, that Balaam has no genuine power. And so in the same way that God dismantled Egypt before the children of Israel so that they would know the Egyptians were absolutely powerless, they were simply people in the shadow of a mighty God. So what God is going to do is God's going to strip all Balak's hope in this false prophet and also Balak's confidence in his own ability to bless and to curse. So God is going to break this man down in a major way. And he does it in a very humorous way and also in a very public way. So let's look at this. So you have four oracles in his response. So as you read the rest of this chapter, you'll notice several things that are repeated. You have the anger of the Lord is aroused against. Balaam because he goes. And then you have the angel of the Lord stands in the way as an adversary against him. And so then you have repeated throughout this whole scene where you have the angel of the Lord confronting Balaam as he's on his mission. And you have the donkey is more sensitive in the situation and recognizes the angel of the Lord when Balaam does not. So you have in verse 23 the angel of the Lord standing in the way and the donkey sees the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turns his sight out of the way and went to the field. So Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back on the road. You have the angel of the Lord that stands in the narrow path. So you have this conflict occurring between, now the angel of the Lord is obstructing Balaam's way. The donkey sees the angel of the Lord, but Balaam doesn't have spiritual eyes to see that his way is being obstructed by the angel of the Lord. So you have this situation that's occurring. And there are, one of the rabbis that I was reading, very interesting, he says, so what's happening here is you have Balak's emissaries, they're on the scene. And so they're leading the way back to this pinnacle where he's going to attempt to curse the children of Israel, and God's going to prevent him from doing that. And on this way, you have this encounter with the angel of the Lord. And so he's trying to go through this narrow path. So either Balaam's men are just before him or just after him. And imagine in your hindsight, looking in your rearview mirror, and you have to turn around and think, what happened to the prophet? And he's muttering to himself because they can't hear the conversation between the angel of the Lord and the donkey, and neither can Balaam. And so you have this, it's kind of humorous. He's got this thing going on there looking back, who in the world is he talking to? So again, what do you see? The dismantling of this revered prophet before Balak. That he is not all that. He appears to be a dithering idiot, having a conversation with the unknown, the unseen, talking to his donkey and his donkey talking to him. So you have this scene that just speaks of a bit of a humor of his dismantling this false prophet. So what you see through this story in chapter 23 and 24. is you see that Balaam cannot curse the people of God, that God prevents him from doing that. But in the same way, when God... curses the serpent in the garden embedded in that curse is the first messianic promise there's going to come a seed who's going to crush the head of the serpent who in turn will bruise his heel so what you have in two of the oracles you have messianic promises are given in the midst of his attempt to curse, but he winds up actually blessing Israel. And you find these in verses, in chapter 23, verse 21, he says, he has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has he seen wickedness in Jacob. wickedness in Israel. The Lord is God is with him and the shot of a king is among them. So you have this prophecy of what's there with Israel. There's the shot of a king amongst this people group. You have again in chapter 24, verse 17, he says, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of the tumult. So one of the things that I love. love about the metanarrative and the global truths that you see as you continually marinating in what's going on in the storyline of the Bible, you see a pattern. You see a continuation of principles that exist in the scripture. And they're more, they're bigger. and more critical than just a principle, but it's something about who God is that we can embrace that will help us, say, down-girl to the fears that surface in our lives. And it's this idea. You cannot die before your time. You just cannot. I think about Abraham, because Abraham, before he entered into the land of promise, you see this in the patriarch here, before he entered into the land of promise, he came up with this strategy, and he said, honey, I know that you're beautiful and men are going to want to take you because you're so beautiful and they will kill me so I need you to protect me by pretending to be my sister and so you see the exodus what happens in exodus when this actually the strategy works He's released, and they go back to Canaan. It happens again with Abimelech. And so he says, pretend to be my sister because, you know, I feel in danger, so you've got to protect me. Now, here's the deal. God had made a promise to Abraham that he was going to have a son through whom he was going to build this great nation. So it was an absolute impossibility for Egypt to take his life. And it was the same way with Abimelech. What protected him? the promises of God. God's promises obligated God to protect Abraham. And then you see this repeatedly throughout scripture, but you also see it with the children of Israel. Why? Because God had obligated himself to be for Israel. And we saw this, we see this in our reading for tomorrow. I'm reading a day ahead because you verses like skip leap, didn't skip leap day. And I, and so neither did I. And so I'm a day ahead in my reading. I don't know. Thank you. But what you have in the early part of Deuteronomy, we're going to deal with this more this next week, is you have God saying, I have chosen you as my people. Okay, and it's a specific assignment that he has for them as a people. So it is impossible for the people of Israel to be destroyed. So what you have here taking place is unbeknownst to Israel, God is protecting them. They don't know that God's having a conversation up there on the mount. They don't know about the... the whole donkey scene. They don't know that the angel of the Lord has appeared in the midst of the situation. They don't know till later. How many times in our lives do we only see 2020, God's provision and his protection? See, we don't have the capacity to see it. We're in the midst of it, but we can see it by faith. Because when we have the promises of God, it will assure us of his presence and we can have supernatural peace. It's pretty amazing. So you see this all through scripture. You see it manifest in this story and so on. And so what you have is you have in chapter 25, if you want to flip over to chapter 25. So what's happened is Balaam comes to understand that he cannot impose. Speak forth a curse on Israel. And he's pretty frustrated because what you see in his negotiations with Balak, he's deeply concerned with making a profit. If you offer more, I would not even. It's like, why would he even say that? It's like he's manipulating. He's a manipulator. In fact, what you see is behind all manipulation is demonic in its orientation. Why? Because the person who walks with God by faith doesn't need to scheme or manipulate. a false prophet. They manipulate. Manipulation is part of their scheme. I saw this not long ago in a situation that, and I'm like, he was just manipulating the people. And I thought he'll stand before Jesus one day and give an account for that manipulation because God never manipulates his people. He gives them a promise and he teaches them to trust him, to walk with him by faith. So it says here, chapter 25, now Israel remained and Acacia growed. 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 Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. Then the Lord said to Moses, Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. So Moses said to the judges of Israel, Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal. of Peor. And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to the brethren a meeting night woman in the sight of Moses, in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Now when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand. And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. And those who died in the plague were 24,000. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Phinehas, well, we won't get into that part. But so what you have here is he couldn't win. He could not defeat the children of Israel. And we'll see later what he did. He says, no, I can't get God to curse him, the children of Israel, but this is what you can do. God will move against his people if they're involved in sexual sin and idolatry. So this is what you need to do. You need to like get your women to like unbutton, sashay in the camp, and seduce the men. And that's exactly what happened. Even the leaders were caught up. Some of the leaders were caught up and they committed sexual sin in the midst of all of this. And one of the other things I love about understanding and immersing in the stories of the Old Testament is you see that God always sees. He always assesses what he sees. And you see him, he will move in judgment when it's concerning his own people. Because what has he already established when he called them up out of Egypt? I'm your God and you're my people. I am holy and I've made a way for myself as a holy God to dwell amongst you who are unclean and unholy people. And I appreciate Steph as she taught on the Day of Atonement and talked about the differences between the clean and the unclean a couple of weeks ago. So what you see here is God wants to dwell amongst his people. Okay, and you have God's desire to dwell amongst his people, but a people who exercise zero self-restraint in the area of their sexuality and also misrepresenting God by making an image and then bowing down to it, God moves against. So you have this occurring here in this text. So it is interesting when you stop and you go back to the first part of your notes that this narrative is referred to by Joshua. Micah, Nehemiah, Peter, and Jesus. You have the reference in Joshua when he mentions this narrative in chapter 13, verse 22, and chapter 24, verses 8 through 10. He says in chapter 13, verse 22, The children of Israel also killed with the sword Balaam, the son of Beor, the soothsayer, among those who were killed by them. So it was recorded. Why? Why was this recorded? Romans chapter 15 verse 4 is my life verse. It helps me seize everything that's been recorded in scripture to go back and look at those things and say, all right, whatever things were written before were written for our learning so that we through patience and the comfort of the scriptures might have hope. So what you see with Joshua, he's capturing this event, reminding them again of this event that what? Balaam died. He died. And why did he die? He was a soothsayer. He was a false prophet, and he was killed by the sword. In chapter 24, verses 8 through 10, he says, I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and he sent and called Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam, therefore he continued to bless you. So I will deliver you out of his hand. Why did Joshua feel it was important to review by mentioning this event? Sorry, I got a little cough. I'm not running any fever. Why is it recorded? Because God will move against anybody who seeks to curse his own people. Thank you. Thank you so much. The God, He is the Sovereign Lord. He rules and He reigns. No man has the authority of God to do what he will at will. He is harnessed by God to accomplish God's own purposes. So he records it, why? For future generations to know this is what God did and it's important to pay attention. The prophet Micah also refers to the Balaam narrative in Micah chapter 6, verse 5. He says, What Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Acacia Grove to Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness of the Lord. The holiness and righteousness of God is not to be trifled with. I think so many times we make lightly that he is God, that he is a holy God, and that he does oversee human affairs. He does assess human affairs, and then we who are not privy to what's taking place in the heavenly realm, the spiritual battles that are occurring, for us to understand that God is always fighting the battles for us, that we can absolutely trust him. We don't have to live a life of fear. So Joshua is recording this. Why? Because now the next generation are going to be without a leader. He's going to die. The elders are going to die, and they need to know who is God. for them. Later, when Micah prophesies, he's prophesying to northern Israel. And if you take in the 14-era teaching, we deal with this in detail. The northern tribe of Israel has developed this false religion, and they apostatize, and they depart from the living God. They succeed as a nation, and they eventually go into captivity. And so we don't hear anything from them. They show up. a few people. You have Anna, I think it's from the tribe of Issachar, Simeon in the Gospels. So you have God still working in their lives, but what is God doing? He's preserving Judah because he's promised that through Judah are going to come kings and lawgivers until Shiloh comes. That scepter that Balaam refers to in his hand, that he will come. So he's reminding the people who are moving towards captivity themselves to remember. Remember what happened, what it cost Israel when what they embraced idolatry and the sexual sin of the nations around them, 24,000 people perished. Nehemiah refers to the Balaam narrative in chapter 13, verses 1 through 3. Reading from Nehemiah 13, 1 through 3, it says, On that day they read the book of Moses and the hearing of the people. And it was found written that no Ammonite... a Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but instead they hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into the blessing. So it was when they had heard the law that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel. So what do you have here? He pulls back this story and he teaches it to the people. And as a result of that, they think we've done the same thing. And what do they do? They put away their foreign wives. because they see how detrimental it is for their own well-being. Peter refers to the Balaam narrative in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 12 through 16 and he says these like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed speak evil of things they do not understand. and will utterly perish in their own corruption and will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime their spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you having eyes full of adultery and they cannot cease from sin enticing unstable souls they have a heart trained in covetous practices and are cursed children they have forsaken the right way and they've gone astray and they follow the way of Balaam the son of Beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness But he was rebuked for his iniquity. A dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet. Why is Peter recovering this story? Because Peter is writing to an audience who's struggling under deep persecution and suffering during the times in which they live. And it would be so easy because of the pressure of suffering to abandon their place. and just be like the peoples around them. Why is that? Because when you live a holy and righteous life before others, because he talks to them in his letter that we're priests and royal priesthood and all these things, never forget whose you are. Because when you forget whose you are, this God who dealt and moved against his people because they embraced sexual sin and idolatry. Why this warning? Why pulling this story up? Because God sees and God knows. Just because we belong to him doesn't mean that he turns a blind eye to our sin. He didn't with Israel, and he won't with his people in the New Testament church, and he will not with his people today. Jude refers to Balaam in his little book, and he says, But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe, and the angels who did not keep their proper domain, But left there on a boat, he is reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh. They reject authority, and they speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, says, Do not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. But these speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally like brute beasts. And these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, for they have all gone the way of Cain. They have run greedily in the era of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. So what might the early church understand about this story about Balaam? Balaam was driven by making a profit. Balaam wanted to be a celebrity leader, to be well-known and exalted and have characteristics that only God possesses. He was a greedy man. And one of the things that you see in false religions, false preachers are all about passing the hat. I need your support for this ministry and that ministry. And you see people who fall prey to that. Why? Because a mark of a false prophet is a greed, a greedy heart, and a greedy man. And so why does he sing warning in Jude? Because they've always existed. They've always existed. False prophets have always existed. People who'd be willing for a small price or a significant price, even under the guise of their spirituality, move against. the true children of God, to curse the children of God if they possibly could. And you think, well, I don't see this because there's nothing greater as a curse to not have a good understanding who God is. The blessing of God is knowing him. A curse from God is having the inability to not know him at all, to have a heart that's dull of understanding, ears that cannot hear. Ops they cannot perceive. That's the greatest strategy of all, being led astray by a false prophet. To believe that God's lesser than he really is, that life is just here now. Lastly, Jesus uses this story. He uses this story in the book of the Revelation. So you have seven letters are written to seven of the churches. And this is the letter to Pergamos. These things he says to him who has a sharp two-edged sword. I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold fast to my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold to 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. Thus, you also... Thus, also you... He had those who hold to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has the ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except for him who receives it. Why is Jesus bringing it up? Balaam in this letter, because of what is being characteristic of the people in this church in Pergamos, sexual immorality. And I think in a day where we're against this and we're against that, especially in the area of social justice, we need to be against sexual immorality. There is nothing that defiles the people of God more than sexual immorality and idolatry. See, we can have a care for the world and social justice, and we ought to care about the needs around us. And I hope I didn't offend you by my little mask and so on. I want to be sensitive of that because people have genuine fears, and we move towards them as people of peace to show them there is a living God that they can know and tuck themselves up under the shadow of his being and find peace. But sexual immorality mars the image of God and his people. They misrepresent God to a lost world. They demonstrate that you can live a life of unrestrained behavior. And you will be okay spiritually. You will not. You see this repeated through all of scripture. And it's so easy, I think, to throw a scripture towards someone, hey, you know, fornicators are going to enter to the lake of fire, you know, there's going to be idolaters and so on. And we make light of it. But is it sinful today as it's always been? And so what do you do when you're living in a culture like ours, when people are afraid? Talk about sexual sin as a response to fear. What is sexual sin? I'm afraid of being alone. I'm afraid of not connecting. I'm afraid of not being accepted. A lot of our immorality is driven by fear. We're just simply afraid. The person... Psalm 119 verse something says, Great peace have they who love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Nothing causes them to stumble, one translation says. Why? Because the peace of God... when your heart encounters the peace of God, it is revolutionary. You won't settle for lesser things. That doesn't mean you won't be tempted. But what God does when the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of a believer, he comes to overcome the gravity of sin. He gives us a new power to energize us to say no to sin and yes to the Spirit of God, to welcome his work in our lives. Well, what are some global truths that we see from this narrative? You see comprehensively that God continues to work unseen behind the scenes. Actually, he named the title of this message, The Scene of the Unseen, The Scenery of the Unseen, because you have to understand that God continually works unseen. unseen behind the scenes, on the scenes. So to reckon God's activity when you, like, I don't know what's going on. You know, I remember I was driving through Germantown, and I just had finished the time of teaching. Maybe it was at Corey's house back a couple of years ago. And I was on a high. I was just so excited. I just love God's word. I love being with younger women and seeing them, like, you know, grapple with tough issues and come to more of a consensus and saying, oh, oh, God's way is right and true, and I submit to that. And it's just, I don't know, it's exhilarating. And also exhilarating, my foot got heavier on the gas pedal, and I didn't even know it until I saw blue lights in my rearview mirror. And fear arose in my heart because I was guilty. But it's amazing how you can be driving down the road, and you can see people, like, they hit their brakes, and you see a police ahead, and they're like, is 60. 65 and they dropped to 55. I'm like, bless God, I'm going 65. Anything that meets passing him. Why? I can do that because there's no fear. There's absolutely no fear. Why? I can live with the parameters that God has given me with total peace of mind and peace of heart. That's how God wants us to be as people who belong to him. We so know his goodwill towards us. And that is the interpretation of all that occurs in and around us so that we can be people of peace in a very... tumultuous situation, unknown situation like what we live in today with the coronavirus. God reveals the greed and sexual sin that characterizes professional sorcery and false religion. He's dismantling this thing right in Israel's sight and recording it lest they ever forget. So you have different ones through the Old Testament and in the New Testament drawn back to this scene. Why? Because we're prone to forget that somehow we can be involved in the things that define us. profile us. And it will not have any consequences long term on our lives. It always has, and it always will. You see that God reveals the fear of the enemy and their reliance upon false systems of power. Why is this? Because everyone has fear. So what do we seek to do when we're struggling with fear? We're looking for power to overcome that fear. You have the massive reach of government controlling. Creating a fear and then reaching in to control people in the midst of their fear. Now, I'm not an anti-government person. I don't see a conspiracy everywhere. But when you're afraid, you can be easily manipulated. And you can be controlled. It becomes a crowd pressure to conform. Man naturally lacks discernment. We don't enter this world through the... biological bypass of our mother with total peace. We enter this world and we are afraid. You know why kids wake up afraid of the dark? It's not something you teach them. It's the characteristics of people who live outside of the presence of God. We are broken. We are fearful people. Fear can overcome and overtake our lives and we could be known as people of fear. The whole Bible talks about that we are people of peace, to manifest peace in the midst of this, to know that God is fighting our battles for us. The last thing you see is that the best the false can do is reinforce the good that God intends. I love this. It's so freeing. The best, the very best that the false can do is reinforce the good that God intends. Because he is determined that he's going to go up on that mount and he's going to curse the children of Israel and God prevents him from doing that. Because he cannot take back, revoke the blessing that God has already placed upon his people. Only God can do that. And then you see God moves against his people. Why? Because they embrace sexual sin and idolatry. So you see the best the false can do is reinforce the good that God intends. What I love about this is when I am afraid, the psalmist validates that. Psalm 56, he says, whenever I am afraid, I trust in you. He didn't say, shame on me for being afraid, I repent of being afraid. No, he says, whenever I'm afraid, I will trust in you. That psalm is written on the heels of David being taken, he's in Gath and he's afraid of his enemies. Fear is a natural part of living life. In this world, he was afraid of Saul. He, I mean, fear. He had fears, but what did he do with his fears? He instructs us and demonstrates what we do with our fear. What time we're afraid, we will trust in the Lord. There's something compelling to people who are afraid to be around a person who has tremendous peace. We just want to tuck ourselves up under their arm and go out wild with them, because we long for peace. We are people of peace when we know this kind of God. fights our battles for us. So as we close this time in prayer, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 says, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. Paul uses this illustration when he talks about the seed of our bowels, our compassion. That's where our emotions rule us. For instance, if I'm getting all stressed out and my stomach gets upset and all these things. Why? Because we're directly connected in our emotions to what we know. So he says, put on the belt of truth. Because it is truth that will hold our emotions in place. And so the truth, the children of Israel heard the truth when the two spies came back and gave them the fair and right report that matched the promises of God. And what happened is they didn't apply the truth. and they allowed their emotions to lead them, and as a result, they all perished in the wilderness. So in the same way, Balak, the enemy, is also moved by fear, nay, seeking power, and he's still destroyed in the midst of it. And why is that? God is letting us know that there's no movement against us that will be successful. So therefore, we can like... I do this with Corey all the time. There's this little gif, and it's this little bear. He's just walking happily and singing. Well, that captures my life. I want to have a spirit that says, I am not troubled by this world. It doesn't mean I'm not concerned. Oh, I need to pray. I need to be an intercessor. But it doesn't leave fingerprints on my life. I'm not of this world. I'm not long here. You see, that whole generation perished in the wilderness because they didn't, God's big, God's big, he's awesome, I can trust him. No, they're looking around and thinking, where's the water going to come from? Where's our food going to come from? We just look at the past. Well, we got the leeks and onions back in Egypt. And so they're looking around them instead of up at this great and glorious God who's majorly dismantled. Egypt and freed them and liberated them. And they can't trust him. Why? When I'm afraid, I can trust in him because he's absolutely proved himself trustworthy. That's why all these people refer to this story, exhibiting that God is absolutely trustworthy to take care of us, that the God of Israel is the God of Ivo Me. And because he's the God of Ivo Me, I can have great peace. Amen? Father, Lord, we thank you for your word. Father, we thank you that you're God. You're the God of all peace. Lord, I think that we can have peace that passes all understanding because we're anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer with supplication, we make known our... our concerns to you, and then your peace just takes over. We invite, Lord, a manifestation of your peace in our midst, that we would be people of peace in the days of fear. God, that we would be able to use these days of fear. to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, that people can know the Prince of Peace. I pray that you would give us many opportunities, Lord, during this time to express your peace to other people, to express our hope in the gospel. Father, we're crying out to you as a people. Lord, help us to be the people that you envision for our generation. We ask this in Jesus'name. Amen. Fox News. Yeah. Seriously, I mean, but we're listening to the wrong voices. People listen to the wrong voices. Seriously, I'm worried about all those people who haven't been washing their hands all...

Start. Thank you. Anybody? Do you want some?

Well, good morning, ladies. Can you hear me? Awesome.

Fear characterizes life outside of Eden. Fear is a negative emotion caused by a real or perceived threat to our well-being. As I was driving over this morning, I thought that that's God's goal and intent for as believers who are concerned about their spiritual welfare, that our reaction when we're in danger spiritually is discernment, not fear.

And so as I was thinking about this and thinking that God has done nothing to contribute to our fear, that he, from the promise of the seed at the very beginning of the story of the Bible, he's demonstrating his goodwill toward us. man. In the whole creation event, God is creating an environment so that man would never need fear, never need to fear provision because God created everything according to its kind to reproduce according to its kind so there would be plenty. When he put them in the garden, he placed them in the garden that was abundant, abundantly full of anything that they would call and recognize as beautiful and also that was good for food.

You see, after Adam and Eve sinned, what did God do? Because they were now where the... But they were naked and they were experiencing fear.

So as they experienced fear, when they experienced the fear of now what have we done? When you stop and think about what must it have been like for Eve after she had eaten from the forbidden fruit and passed it off to her husband. And it says the eyes of... Both of them were opened, and they were aware that they were naked, and they were ashamed. So therefore, as a response of alienation from, since in that alienation on a spiritual level, they responded by hiding from God.

because they were prompted by fear. Fear characterizes all of life outside of Eden, has always since. But the believer, the one who walks with God by faith, need never fear.

So we're going to talk about this morning is that what then is the problem with fear? Why fear? Because fear is a manifestation of spiritual brokenness. It drives irrational behavior like hoarding, eating disorders, theft, unforgiveness, not entering into Canaan, and the use of sorcery, which we're going to see. in the story this morning.

So fear is the natural response and sinful default for which we respond to our well-being physically. We feel like it's being threatened. So let's open this time in prayer and ask the Lord to speak to us right where we are. Father, we thank you for your word.

Lord, we thank you that it does not return to you void, but it does accomplish what you please and prospers in the thing that you sent it. Lord, I thank you that you said, fear not, I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. Lord, and I thank you that you sent me. Lord, I thank you that you to thank you that because we know you that we can live a life free of fear.

Help us, Lord, to walk in discernment, that we really do discern what will hurt us on a spiritual level, that we would discern those things and we would be people who would take heed to our hearts and walk in self restraint and submit ourselves to you and to believe your promises. So, Lord, we're just crying out to you, Father, that you would, as we've been errant in our day with our emotions and not saying down-grilled to them, submitting them to the truth of what we know about your character. about your goodness and what you're seeking to do in our world. I pray, Father, that we would be people of peace.

And we ask this in the mighty and holy name of Jesus. Amen. All right, so fear is a manifestation of spiritual brokenness. We are afraid of what we see. We are afraid of what we see.

We are naked. We feel guilty. We're broken. We're hiding from God. We're hiding from others.

We hide from spiders and snakes and storms, and we need to hide from the news. We are afraid of what we cannot see as well. We cannot see in the dark.

We cannot see God because he is invisible, but he's very real. We cannot see the consequences of ours and others'actions towards us, and it creates fear in our heart. So today's coronavirus manifests the fear that resides just below the surface in all of our hearts. It's, you know, and I'm not making light of and not finding a lot of humor in the sense of when I went to Costco this week and I'm like, they're wiping down every single thing.

People had their mask on and, you know, and they're like keeping a meter distance between each other and people were filling their space and trying to measure how close are you are to me and see if there's any, you know, do you spit when you speak and all these things. You know, I'm very aware that people are aware of their personal space. And why is that? Because they feel their physical well-being is threatened. So the tendency is when we fear is to act out of that fear by other behaviors having to do with hoarding and all the other things.

I saw this cute little meme on Facebook yesterday and it says, people are so afraid right now that you could rob a bank with a booger. I don't know! I don't know. But what you see in our reading from this last week and thinking about it, you see that fear has driven Israel by what they see.

They hear the report of the 12 spies who come back, the 10 spies who gives this negative report that we're just grasshoppers in their eyes. And so what are they doing? They're acting out of fear based on what someone else sees and projects for them. Instead of believing the promises of God in the report that the two spies, Joshua and Joshua, and Caleb bring back to them.

And so the fear drives Israel when they see or hear about the giants in the land of Canaan. When they cannot see God's supplies, they experience the wilderness landscape with this lack of food and water and so on. So what they see directs the fears of Israel's enemies as well. And we see this with the story of Balak and the Moabites and the Midianite peoples and those who live east of the Jordan River.

So what they see directs their fear. So a large people group on the borders, and they're like, whose stories that they've heard about this God, the God of Israel, and they've seen this mass of people, brings terror into their hearts. They are deeply afraid. So what you see is the tendency when you're afraid is to do two things.

It's to fight or to flee. They call it fight or flight. But there is a third option. It's the way of faith. It's the simply believing God's promises, appropriating his presence, and walking out who God's character is revealed to be in Scripture.

and exercising your spiritual muscles to know and understand that God is present at all times, that nothing can touch you except though it comes through the hands of a loving God. We live in a broken world and there's much to be afraid of, but not for the child of God. Fear ought not to be a part of who we are, not to characterize our lives.

So how do you deal with fear? Fear in itself is not a sin per se. Fear is actually...

A manifestation of a deeper problem, that's where the sin lies. So the sin is not trusting God, not believing God's promises and acting on His Word. So you see, we either respond to fear by fight. You see Balakar's Balaam, why? Because he's fighting what he sees.

And you have the flight of Israel, they reject the report of the two spies in favor of the bad report of the ten spies. So what do they do? In their fear, they flee.

And you know, as I was thinking about the story of Balaam and Balak, and you'll find this in Numbers chapter 22, 23, and 24 if you want to go ahead and look in your Bible, so that will mainly be in chapter 24, and look momentarily at a couple of those texts. So like Job, you have Job starts out with this conversation occurring in heaven to which he's not privy, but his life is absolutely turned upside down as a result of this conversation to which he's not privy. And in the same way, you have this conversation that occurs between Balaam and Balak, Balaam's donkey and God, and Balaam, that all of Israel's not privy to. And in fact, reading some of the theologians, especially interesting reading some of the rabbis, and their take on this story is very, very insightful.

And so one of them I read, he talked about how did Moses know this report? Because Moses was not up there on the mount. He was not a part of the conversation.

He didn't have his ears to the wall per se listening in. as an interloper unto this conversation. So what happened here?

Obviously, when later on in the story, when you see when Balaam is actually killed, as a result of the Midianite deception of bringing the women in and they're sleeping with the Israelite people and 24,000 of them perish. But what he imagines is when Balaam is taken captive, Balaam tells him about what happened there up on the mount. And so it's a recording of scripture.

So why this story? Why is it important for us to understand this story for ourselves? And so you have you have the character in the Balaam's narrative and I actually switched my notes around and punted them forward so if you're looking think she's not following her notes you're right I'm not following my notes. I actually shifted them quite a bit and so what you have is you looking at the characters within the story let's look into Exodus in Numbers chapter 22. Reading from chapter 22 verse 1 it says then the children of Israel moved and camped in the plains of Moab.

on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho. Now Balak, the son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel. So you had to say, all right, so what has happened here?

Just previously in the previous chapter, and you read this in this week, is the king of Og was destroyed and his cities were taken. So as a result of that, you have this Moabite king, Barak is like, oh my gosh, we're toast, we're next. What do we seek to do? Because again, what do you do when you're afraid? You either fight or you flee.

And he's obviously a fighter. He's not going to flee. And so it says, it describes him, Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because there were many.

And Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel. And it's interesting because what you see here is Israel's failure to enter into the land God had already... God had already promised that God was going to make them afraid of Israel 40 years earlier. And here, what you have is every time we're introduced to the people of Canaan, the Moabites and the Amorites on the eastern side of Jordan, they're deeply afraid of the children of Israel.

Oftentimes, our fears are totally unwarranted. Our enemy is more afraid of us than we are of them. And this is what you see here with this situation. So it says in verse 4, So Moab said to the elders of Median, so he comes up with a strategy.

Now this company will lick up everything around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at this time. Then he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the river in 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 are settling next to me. Therefore, please come at once. Curse this people for me, that they are too mighty for me.

Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them. and drive them out of the land. For I know he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.

And it's interesting because when he makes this statement, he's exalting Balak. Because if you remember when God introduced to Abraham, he made this promise, I'm going to bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you. And so what you see with Balak, the elevation of God in their midst is this false prophet.

Because what is he saying? Balaam, Balak is established for Balaam. I know that the one that you bless will be blessed, and I know that the one you curse will be cursed.

And so what is he assigning to this false prophet? Attributes of God. Now it's interesting, so what you have here is you have the Moabites are terrified as they observe Israel, and when they hear about the Amorites, you have Balak. Balak, he rounds up all the elders and he comes up with this strategy to hire Balaam.

And what you see about Balaam is Balaam is so full of himself and full of his own self-importance because he thinks he's like their God. Okay, so what does he do? He stalls for time.

Not because he doesn't know what to do, because he's so full of his own self-importance that he wants them to wait on him. Have you ever been in a situation where a person has been in a little power play with you and they're like forced waiting when they're staying busy just to put you off so you'll know how important they are? Anybody?

Yeah, I was at the post office yesterday. So the elders of Moab and the elders of the Midianites departed with the definer's fee in their hand, and they came to Balaam and spoke to him in the words of Balak. And he said to him, Now it's not that he was going to seek the Lord or that he knew the Lord.

It's very critical for us to understand that he was a false prophet. He was a soothsayer. He was one who divines in spirits of darkness.

He was not God's representative, would never be God's representative. So you see here, he's stalling for time saying, I'm going to bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me. Then in verse 9, and God came to Balaam and God said, who are these men with you? So Balaam said to God, and he was probably stunned that God even spoke to him, Balaam, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has said to me, saying, Look, a people has come out of Egypt, and they cover the face of the earth. Come now, curse them for me.

Perhaps I shall be able to overpower them and drive them out. And God said to Balaam, You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princess of Balaam, Go back to your land, for the Lord has refused to give me permission to go with you. And the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak, and they said, Balam refuses to come with us.

Then Balak sent princes more numerous and more honorable than they. And they came to Balam and said to him, Thus says Balak, 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.

Then Balam answered and said to the servants of Balak, Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more. Now therefore, please, you also stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me. And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, If the men come and call to you, rise and go with them, but only the word which I speak to you that you shall do. So Balaam rose in the morning, and he introduced the next player in the scene, his donkey.

He saddled his donkey and went with the princess of Moab. So what you see is God confronts him. and God is the one that's confronting him because what he's revealing to Balaam is you have no power and no ability to do and contradict the blessing that I've placed upon my people. And so he lets him know that his God is a sovereign one, that Balaam has no genuine power.

And so in the same way that God dismantled Egypt before the children of Israel so that they would know the Egyptians were absolutely powerless, they were simply people in the shadow of a mighty God. So what God is going to do is God's going to strip all Balak's hope in this false prophet and also Balak's confidence in his own ability to bless and to curse. So God is going to break this man down in a major way. And he does it in a very humorous way and also in a very public way.

So let's look at this. So you have four oracles in his response. So as you read the rest of this chapter, you'll notice several things that are repeated.

You have the anger of the Lord is aroused against. Balaam because he goes. And then you have the angel of the Lord stands in the way as an adversary against him. And so then you have repeated throughout this whole scene where you have the angel of the Lord confronting Balaam as he's on his mission.

And you have the donkey is more sensitive in the situation and recognizes the angel of the Lord when Balaam does not. So you have in verse 23 the angel of the Lord standing in the way and the donkey sees the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turns his sight out of the way and went to the field. So Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back on the road. You have the angel of the Lord that stands in the narrow path.

So you have this conflict occurring between, now the angel of the Lord is obstructing Balaam's way. The donkey sees the angel of the Lord, but Balaam doesn't have spiritual eyes to see that his way is being obstructed by the angel of the Lord. So you have this situation that's occurring. And there are, one of the rabbis that I was reading, very interesting, he says, so what's happening here is you have Balak's emissaries, they're on the scene. And so they're leading the way back to this pinnacle where he's going to attempt to curse the children of Israel, and God's going to prevent him from doing that.

And on this way, you have this encounter with the angel of the Lord. And so he's trying to go through this narrow path. So either Balaam's men are just before him or just after him.

And imagine in your hindsight, looking in your rearview mirror, and you have to turn around and think, what happened to the prophet? And he's muttering to himself because they can't hear the conversation between the angel of the Lord and the donkey, and neither can Balaam. And so you have this, it's kind of humorous. He's got this thing going on there looking back, who in the world is he talking to? So again, what do you see?

The dismantling of this revered prophet before Balak. That he is not all that. He appears to be a dithering idiot, having a conversation with the unknown, the unseen, talking to his donkey and his donkey talking to him. So you have this scene that just speaks of a bit of a humor of his dismantling this false prophet.

So what you see through this story in chapter 23 and 24. is you see that Balaam cannot curse the people of God, that God prevents him from doing that. But in the same way, when God... curses the serpent in the garden embedded in that curse is the first messianic promise there's going to come a seed who's going to crush the head of the serpent who in turn will bruise his heel so what you have in two of the oracles you have messianic promises are given in the midst of his attempt to curse, but he winds up actually blessing Israel.

And you find these in verses, in chapter 23, verse 21, he says, he has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has he seen wickedness in Jacob. wickedness in Israel. The Lord is God is with him and the shot of a king is among them.

So you have this prophecy of what's there with Israel. There's the shot of a king amongst this people group. You have again in chapter 24, verse 17, he says, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.

A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of the tumult. So one of the things that I love. love about the metanarrative and the global truths that you see as you continually marinating in what's going on in the storyline of the Bible, you see a pattern.

You see a continuation of principles that exist in the scripture. And they're more, they're bigger. and more critical than just a principle, but it's something about who God is that we can embrace that will help us, say, down-girl to the fears that surface in our lives. And it's this idea.

You cannot die before your time. You just cannot. I think about Abraham, because Abraham, before he entered into the land of promise, you see this in the patriarch here, before he entered into the land of promise, he came up with this strategy, and he said, honey, I know that you're beautiful and men are going to want to take you because you're so beautiful and they will kill me so I need you to protect me by pretending to be my sister and so you see the exodus what happens in exodus when this actually the strategy works He's released, and they go back to Canaan. It happens again with Abimelech. And so he says, pretend to be my sister because, you know, I feel in danger, so you've got to protect me.

Now, here's the deal. God had made a promise to Abraham that he was going to have a son through whom he was going to build this great nation. So it was an absolute impossibility for Egypt to take his life.

And it was the same way with Abimelech. What protected him? the promises of God.

God's promises obligated God to protect Abraham. And then you see this repeatedly throughout scripture, but you also see it with the children of Israel. Why?

Because God had obligated himself to be for Israel. And we saw this, we see this in our reading for tomorrow. I'm reading a day ahead because you verses like skip leap, didn't skip leap day.

And I, and so neither did I. And so I'm a day ahead in my reading. I don't know.

Thank you. But what you have in the early part of Deuteronomy, we're going to deal with this more this next week, is you have God saying, I have chosen you as my people. Okay, and it's a specific assignment that he has for them as a people. So it is impossible for the people of Israel to be destroyed. So what you have here taking place is unbeknownst to Israel, God is protecting them.

They don't know that God's having a conversation up there on the mount. They don't know about the... the whole donkey scene. They don't know that the angel of the Lord has appeared in the midst of the situation.

They don't know till later. How many times in our lives do we only see 2020, God's provision and his protection? See, we don't have the capacity to see it.

We're in the midst of it, but we can see it by faith. Because when we have the promises of God, it will assure us of his presence and we can have supernatural peace. It's pretty amazing. So you see this all through scripture.

You see it manifest in this story and so on. And so what you have is you have in chapter 25, if you want to flip over to chapter 25. So what's happened is Balaam comes to understand that he cannot impose. Speak forth a curse on Israel. And he's pretty frustrated because what you see in his negotiations with Balak, he's deeply concerned with making a profit.

If you offer more, I would not even. It's like, why would he even say that? It's like he's manipulating.

He's a manipulator. In fact, what you see is behind all manipulation is demonic in its orientation. Why? Because the person who walks with God by faith doesn't need to scheme or manipulate. a false prophet.

They manipulate. Manipulation is part of their scheme. I saw this not long ago in a situation that, and I'm like, he was just manipulating the people. And I thought he'll stand before Jesus one day and give an account for that manipulation because God never manipulates his people. He gives them a promise and he teaches them to trust him, to walk with him by faith.

So it says here, chapter 25, now Israel remained and Acacia growed. 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 Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. Then the Lord said to Moses, Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.

So Moses said to the judges of Israel, Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal. of Peor. And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to the brethren a meeting night woman in the sight of Moses, in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Now when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand. And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her body.

So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. And those who died in the plague were 24,000. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Phinehas, well, we won't get into that part. But so what you have here is he couldn't win. He could not defeat the children of Israel.

And we'll see later what he did. He says, no, I can't get God to curse him, the children of Israel, but this is what you can do. God will move against his people if they're involved in sexual sin and idolatry. So this is what you need to do. You need to like get your women to like unbutton, sashay in the camp, and seduce the men.

And that's exactly what happened. Even the leaders were caught up. Some of the leaders were caught up and they committed sexual sin in the midst of all of this. And one of the other things I love about understanding and immersing in the stories of the Old Testament is you see that God always sees.

He always assesses what he sees. And you see him, he will move in judgment when it's concerning his own people. Because what has he already established when he called them up out of Egypt?

I'm your God and you're my people. I am holy and I've made a way for myself as a holy God to dwell amongst you who are unclean and unholy people. And I appreciate Steph as she taught on the Day of Atonement and talked about the differences between the clean and the unclean a couple of weeks ago.

So what you see here is God wants to dwell amongst his people. Okay, and you have God's desire to dwell amongst his people, but a people who exercise zero self-restraint in the area of their sexuality and also misrepresenting God by making an image and then bowing down to it, God moves against. So you have this occurring here in this text.

So it is interesting when you stop and you go back to the first part of your notes that this narrative is referred to by Joshua. Micah, Nehemiah, Peter, and Jesus. You have the reference in Joshua when he mentions this narrative in chapter 13, verse 22, and chapter 24, verses 8 through 10. He says in chapter 13, verse 22, The children of Israel also killed with the sword Balaam, the son of Beor, the soothsayer, among those who were killed by them.

So it was recorded. Why? Why was this recorded?

Romans chapter 15 verse 4 is my life verse. It helps me seize everything that's been recorded in scripture to go back and look at those things and say, all right, whatever things were written before were written for our learning so that we through patience and the comfort of the scriptures might have hope. So what you see with Joshua, he's capturing this event, reminding them again of this event that what? Balaam died. He died.

And why did he die? He was a soothsayer. He was a false prophet, and he was killed by the sword. In chapter 24, verses 8 through 10, he says, I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you.

But I gave them into your hand that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and he sent and called Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam, therefore he continued to bless you.

So I will deliver you out of his hand. Why did Joshua feel it was important to review by mentioning this event? Sorry, I got a little cough. I'm not running any fever.

Why is it recorded? Because God will move against anybody who seeks to curse his own people. Thank you. Thank you so much. The God, He is the Sovereign Lord.

He rules and He reigns. No man has the authority of God to do what he will at will. He is harnessed by God to accomplish God's own purposes. So he records it, why?

For future generations to know this is what God did and it's important to pay attention. The prophet Micah also refers to the Balaam narrative in Micah chapter 6, verse 5. He says, What Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Acacia Grove to Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness of the Lord. The holiness and righteousness of God is not to be trifled with. I think so many times we make lightly that he is God, that he is a holy God, and that he does oversee human affairs. He does assess human affairs, and then we who are not privy to what's taking place in the heavenly realm, the spiritual battles that are occurring, for us to understand that God is always fighting the battles for us, that we can absolutely trust him.

We don't have to live a life of fear. So Joshua is recording this. Why? Because now the next generation are going to be without a leader. He's going to die.

The elders are going to die, and they need to know who is God. for them. Later, when Micah prophesies, he's prophesying to northern Israel.

And if you take in the 14-era teaching, we deal with this in detail. The northern tribe of Israel has developed this false religion, and they apostatize, and they depart from the living God. They succeed as a nation, and they eventually go into captivity.

And so we don't hear anything from them. They show up. a few people.

You have Anna, I think it's from the tribe of Issachar, Simeon in the Gospels. So you have God still working in their lives, but what is God doing? He's preserving Judah because he's promised that through Judah are going to come kings and lawgivers until Shiloh comes. That scepter that Balaam refers to in his hand, that he will come.

So he's reminding the people who are moving towards captivity themselves to remember. Remember what happened, what it cost Israel when what they embraced idolatry and the sexual sin of the nations around them, 24,000 people perished. Nehemiah refers to the Balaam narrative in chapter 13, verses 1 through 3. Reading from Nehemiah 13, 1 through 3, it says, On that day they read the book of Moses and the hearing of the people. And it was found written that no Ammonite... a Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but instead they hired Balaam against them to curse them.

However, our God turned the curse into the blessing. So it was when they had heard the law that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel. So what do you have here?

He pulls back this story and he teaches it to the people. And as a result of that, they think we've done the same thing. And what do they do? They put away their foreign wives. because they see how detrimental it is for their own well-being.

Peter refers to the Balaam narrative in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 12 through 16 and he says these like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed speak evil of things they do not understand. and will utterly perish in their own corruption and will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime their spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you having eyes full of adultery and they cannot cease from sin enticing unstable souls they have a heart trained in covetous practices and are cursed children they have forsaken the right way and they've gone astray and they follow the way of Balaam the son of Beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness But he was rebuked for his iniquity. A dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet. Why is Peter recovering this story? Because Peter is writing to an audience who's struggling under deep persecution and suffering during the times in which they live.

And it would be so easy because of the pressure of suffering to abandon their place. and just be like the peoples around them. Why is that?

Because when you live a holy and righteous life before others, because he talks to them in his letter that we're priests and royal priesthood and all these things, never forget whose you are. Because when you forget whose you are, this God who dealt and moved against his people because they embraced sexual sin and idolatry. Why this warning? Why pulling this story up? Because God sees and God knows.

Just because we belong to him doesn't mean that he turns a blind eye to our sin. He didn't with Israel, and he won't with his people in the New Testament church, and he will not with his people today. Jude refers to Balaam in his little book, and he says, But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe, and the angels who did not keep their proper domain, But left there on a boat, he is reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh. They reject authority, and they speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, says, Do not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you.

But these speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally like brute beasts. And these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, for they have all gone the way of Cain. They have run greedily in the era of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. So what might the early church understand about this story about Balaam?

Balaam was driven by making a profit. Balaam wanted to be a celebrity leader, to be well-known and exalted and have characteristics that only God possesses. He was a greedy man.

And one of the things that you see in false religions, false preachers are all about passing the hat. I need your support for this ministry and that ministry. And you see people who fall prey to that. Why?

Because a mark of a false prophet is a greed, a greedy heart, and a greedy man. And so why does he sing warning in Jude? Because they've always existed. They've always existed.

False prophets have always existed. People who'd be willing for a small price or a significant price, even under the guise of their spirituality, move against. the true children of God, to curse the children of God if they possibly could.

And you think, well, I don't see this because there's nothing greater as a curse to not have a good understanding who God is. The blessing of God is knowing him. A curse from God is having the inability to not know him at all, to have a heart that's dull of understanding, ears that cannot hear.

Ops they cannot perceive. That's the greatest strategy of all, being led astray by a false prophet. To believe that God's lesser than he really is, that life is just here now. Lastly, Jesus uses this story. He uses this story in the book of the Revelation.

So you have seven letters are written to seven of the churches. And this is the letter to Pergamos. These things he says to him who has a sharp two-edged sword. I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold fast to my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold to 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. Thus, you also... Thus, also you...

He had those who hold to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has the ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except for him who receives it. Why is Jesus bringing it up? Balaam in this letter, because of what is being characteristic of the people in this church in Pergamos, sexual immorality.

And I think in a day where we're against this and we're against that, especially in the area of social justice, we need to be against sexual immorality. There is nothing that defiles the people of God more than sexual immorality and idolatry. See, we can have a care for the world and social justice, and we ought to care about the needs around us.

And I hope I didn't offend you by my little mask and so on. I want to be sensitive of that because people have genuine fears, and we move towards them as people of peace to show them there is a living God that they can know and tuck themselves up under the shadow of his being and find peace. But sexual immorality mars the image of God and his people.

They misrepresent God to a lost world. They demonstrate that you can live a life of unrestrained behavior. And you will be okay spiritually. You will not.

You see this repeated through all of scripture. And it's so easy, I think, to throw a scripture towards someone, hey, you know, fornicators are going to enter to the lake of fire, you know, there's going to be idolaters and so on. And we make light of it.

But is it sinful today as it's always been? And so what do you do when you're living in a culture like ours, when people are afraid? Talk about sexual sin as a response to fear. What is sexual sin?

I'm afraid of being alone. I'm afraid of not connecting. I'm afraid of not being accepted. A lot of our immorality is driven by fear. We're just simply afraid.

The person... Psalm 119 verse something says, Great peace have they who love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Nothing causes them to stumble, one translation says. Why?

Because the peace of God... when your heart encounters the peace of God, it is revolutionary. You won't settle for lesser things. That doesn't mean you won't be tempted. But what God does when the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of a believer, he comes to overcome the gravity of sin.

He gives us a new power to energize us to say no to sin and yes to the Spirit of God, to welcome his work in our lives. Well, what are some global truths that we see from this narrative? You see comprehensively that God continues to work unseen behind the scenes. Actually, he named the title of this message, The Scene of the Unseen, The Scenery of the Unseen, because you have to understand that God continually works unseen.

unseen behind the scenes, on the scenes. So to reckon God's activity when you, like, I don't know what's going on. You know, I remember I was driving through Germantown, and I just had finished the time of teaching. Maybe it was at Corey's house back a couple of years ago. And I was on a high.

I was just so excited. I just love God's word. I love being with younger women and seeing them, like, you know, grapple with tough issues and come to more of a consensus and saying, oh, oh, God's way is right and true, and I submit to that. And it's just, I don't know, it's exhilarating. And also exhilarating, my foot got heavier on the gas pedal, and I didn't even know it until I saw blue lights in my rearview mirror.

And fear arose in my heart because I was guilty. But it's amazing how you can be driving down the road, and you can see people, like, they hit their brakes, and you see a police ahead, and they're like, is 60. 65 and they dropped to 55. I'm like, bless God, I'm going 65. Anything that meets passing him. Why?

I can do that because there's no fear. There's absolutely no fear. Why? I can live with the parameters that God has given me with total peace of mind and peace of heart.

That's how God wants us to be as people who belong to him. We so know his goodwill towards us. And that is the interpretation of all that occurs in and around us so that we can be people of peace in a very... tumultuous situation, unknown situation like what we live in today with the coronavirus. God reveals the greed and sexual sin that characterizes professional sorcery and false religion.

He's dismantling this thing right in Israel's sight and recording it lest they ever forget. So you have different ones through the Old Testament and in the New Testament drawn back to this scene. Why?

Because we're prone to forget that somehow we can be involved in the things that define us. profile us. And it will not have any consequences long term on our lives. It always has, and it always will.

You see that God reveals the fear of the enemy and their reliance upon false systems of power. Why is this? Because everyone has fear. So what do we seek to do when we're struggling with fear?

We're looking for power to overcome that fear. You have the massive reach of government controlling. Creating a fear and then reaching in to control people in the midst of their fear.

Now, I'm not an anti-government person. I don't see a conspiracy everywhere. But when you're afraid, you can be easily manipulated.

And you can be controlled. It becomes a crowd pressure to conform. Man naturally lacks discernment.

We don't enter this world through the... biological bypass of our mother with total peace. We enter this world and we are afraid.

You know why kids wake up afraid of the dark? It's not something you teach them. It's the characteristics of people who live outside of the presence of God.

We are broken. We are fearful people. Fear can overcome and overtake our lives and we could be known as people of fear. The whole Bible talks about that we are people of peace, to manifest peace in the midst of this, to know that God is fighting our battles for us. The last thing you see is that the best the false can do is reinforce the good that God intends.

I love this. It's so freeing. The best, the very best that the false can do is reinforce the good that God intends. Because he is determined that he's going to go up on that mount and he's going to curse the children of Israel and God prevents him from doing that.

Because he cannot take back, revoke the blessing that God has already placed upon his people. Only God can do that. And then you see God moves against his people.

Why? Because they embrace sexual sin and idolatry. So you see the best the false can do is reinforce the good that God intends.

What I love about this is when I am afraid, the psalmist validates that. Psalm 56, he says, whenever I am afraid, I trust in you. He didn't say, shame on me for being afraid, I repent of being afraid. No, he says, whenever I'm afraid, I will trust in you.

That psalm is written on the heels of David being taken, he's in Gath and he's afraid of his enemies. Fear is a natural part of living life. In this world, he was afraid of Saul. He, I mean, fear.

He had fears, but what did he do with his fears? He instructs us and demonstrates what we do with our fear. What time we're afraid, we will trust in the Lord.

There's something compelling to people who are afraid to be around a person who has tremendous peace. We just want to tuck ourselves up under their arm and go out wild with them, because we long for peace. We are people of peace when we know this kind of God.

fights our battles for us. So as we close this time in prayer, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 says, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. Paul uses this illustration when he talks about the seed of our bowels, our compassion. That's where our emotions rule us. For instance, if I'm getting all stressed out and my stomach gets upset and all these things.

Why? Because we're directly connected in our emotions to what we know. So he says, put on the belt of truth. Because it is truth that will hold our emotions in place. And so the truth, the children of Israel heard the truth when the two spies came back and gave them the fair and right report that matched the promises of God.

And what happened is they didn't apply the truth. and they allowed their emotions to lead them, and as a result, they all perished in the wilderness. So in the same way, Balak, the enemy, is also moved by fear, nay, seeking power, and he's still destroyed in the midst of it. And why is that?

God is letting us know that there's no movement against us that will be successful. So therefore, we can like... I do this with Corey all the time.

There's this little gif, and it's this little bear. He's just walking happily and singing. Well, that captures my life.

I want to have a spirit that says, I am not troubled by this world. It doesn't mean I'm not concerned. Oh, I need to pray.

I need to be an intercessor. But it doesn't leave fingerprints on my life. I'm not of this world.

I'm not long here. You see, that whole generation perished in the wilderness because they didn't, God's big, God's big, he's awesome, I can trust him. No, they're looking around and thinking, where's the water going to come from?

Where's our food going to come from? We just look at the past. Well, we got the leeks and onions back in Egypt.

And so they're looking around them instead of up at this great and glorious God who's majorly dismantled. Egypt and freed them and liberated them. And they can't trust him. Why?

When I'm afraid, I can trust in him because he's absolutely proved himself trustworthy. That's why all these people refer to this story, exhibiting that God is absolutely trustworthy to take care of us, that the God of Israel is the God of Ivo Me. And because he's the God of Ivo Me, I can have great peace.

Amen? Father, Lord, we thank you for your word. Father, we thank you that you're God. You're the God of all peace.

Lord, I think that we can have peace that passes all understanding because we're anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer with supplication, we make known our... our concerns to you, and then your peace just takes over. We invite, Lord, a manifestation of your peace in our midst, that we would be people of peace in the days of fear. God, that we would be able to use these days of fear.

to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, that people can know the Prince of Peace. I pray that you would give us many opportunities, Lord, during this time to express your peace to other people, to express our hope in the gospel. Father, we're crying out to you as a people. Lord, help us to be the people that you envision for our generation.

We ask this in Jesus'name. Amen. Fox News. Yeah.

Seriously, I mean, but we're listening to the wrong voices. People listen to the wrong voices. Seriously, I'm worried about all those people who haven't been washing their hands all...

Transcript for:Understanding Fear and Faith in Believers

Transcript for:
Understanding Fear and Faith in Believers