Beware Those Like Balaam

All right, let's pray Lord Jesus again as we open your word

We ask that you would send your spirit to open our hearts and minds that we may rightly understand it Give us the light of your word that is a lamp to our feet so that we may know

What it is that we are to believe to confess and to do we ask this in Jesus name. Amen We have been working our way through Exodus and like I've noted

We've been really pausing here and working our way through the Ten Commandments We've taken a look at the sin of idolatry

We are continuing with a careful look at what it means to take God's name in Vain, which is the second commandment that you should not be doing this and today we're going to do an in -depth study

You know one class it will actually might end up being two Taking a look at the epistle of Jude at the epistle of Jude as it relates

To contending for the faith and in the epistle of Jude We're going to note that there are three major prototypes given for false teachers

And so a good way to think of that is that every false teacher in one way or another

Has one or all of the different ingredients of the prototype of false teacher and in looking at what

Scripture? Teaches us in this regard. We will know how to protect ourselves

We will know how to contend for the faith and we will be able to rightly Identify a false teacher and of what type of stripe that they are

So we're in in Jude and if you ask me which chapter I will laugh at you because there's like only one chapter in Jude Here's what it says

Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James important to note this

Jude is the half -brother of Jesus But he says he's the brother of James doesn't even note the fact that he's the brother of Jesus That should tell you something right there.

We know from the Synoptic Gospels and when I say synoptic Gospels, do you know what

I'm talking about when I say that when we there's four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke John The three beginning ones are called the synoptic

Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke and there's a reason why is they all kind of be Synchronized to each other they pretty much seem to be telling the same stories the same miracles

And then if you read the Gospel of John, it's very different than the other Gospels and John himself

Set out he wrote his gospel a lot later and he set out specifically to give us some of the information and more

About Jesus that were not in the synoptic Gospels And so we we pick up more of Jesus's, you know

Some of the stories that didn't quite make it into the other three But when you look at Matthew Mark and Luke, they seem to be saying the same type of miracles same teaching

There's kind of a rhythm two of them. That is very similar where John is a little bit of an outlier

So in the synoptic Gospels, we learned that Jude was not a believer in Jesus he thought

Jesus was cuckoo and at one point actually with with his other brothers and Mother came to collect

Jesus up and take him away and get him safely in a place because they thought he'd lost his mind

But now By the time we get to this epistle He's a believer in Jesus Christ and you got to think how difficult that must be, you know, you grow up with somebody

Yeah, right. You're the Son of God now granted you never get in trouble, you know Mom never spanks you and you always say yes, ma 'am.

And yes, sir, and I can't stand that about you But you know, but yeah, so he this is a stumbling block for him that his brother is the

Son of God That's kind of trust me when I tell you my brother is 100 % convinced.

I'm not the Son of God and he's right So Judah servant of Jesus Christ brother of James To those who are called beloved in God the

Father and kept for Jesus Christ So this is the two portion who is this epistle to?

Christians, yes The epistle of Jude is part of a body of work within the

New Testament called the Catholic Epistle epistles Catholic meaning universal and the reason why it's because they're not addressed to a particular church

They're addressed to Christians in general to the church Catholic the church universal in other words

This is specifically written to you You know My wife always marvels that when she sees that little number at the bottom of my email screen how many emails

I haven't read This one is this is an email written to you from Jude. Have you read it yet?

And he has flagged as read or unread keep that in mind So Jude writes may mercy peace and love be multiplied to you

Beloved, although I was eager to write to you about our common salvation.

I found it necessary to write Appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the

Saints So what is Jude? Admonishing you to do to contend for the faith and you say

Wow Do you not wear the armor of God? So you brothers and sisters me included we are all together as Christians Called by the

Holy Spirit Through this epistle, which is part of the Word of God to contend for the faith and notice what it says once for all

Delivered to the Saints does the faith change from generation to generation?

Nope Nope, a good way to think of it is that the faith is like well one of those baton races in the

Olympics You know I'm talking about it's We have to pass the baton. So it's a relay.

So first guy He he runs his course and he takes the baton. He passes it to the next guy

He grabs it and he does his race and he you got to faithfully pass the baton on but we live in a day

When you pass the baton on the guy goes, whoa, whoa. Whoa, what's on this thing? What?

Somebody give me a hacksaw. Would you we got? Cut off portion of it throw that away maybe put my own stuff.

Oh, we got to cross that out and do our own thing. No The faith once delivered to the

Saints you pass it off to the next generation disciple them They then pass it off to the next generation

No touchy on the con on the content. It's the same from generation to generation.

That's what we want So Why did the reason for the rainbow change that was not because of Christ The rainbow is the sign of the know it no attic

Covenant, which basically says God Sees the rainbow and he says alright,

I promised I wouldn't wipe everybody out with a flood of the whole earth again So it's the sign of the no attic

Covenant now people have changed it it's now the sign of Pride Right.

Yeah that that should be changed to shame not pride and So, you know the the rainbow does not belong to them

Does not belong to them but that's a different subject altogether here. So notice it's the faith once delivered to the

Saints so if the if the body of Content of the faith of the doctrines of the teaching of what we believe teaching confess

Changes from generation to generation. Are you believing the faith once delivered to the

Saints? No, and You'll note this about the

Lutheran Reformation the Lutheran Reformers were meticulously Conservative the question always came down to is what we believe teach and confess

Catholic small C Universal can we find this doctrine in the writings of the

Church Fathers? Clearly expelled explained in the scriptures and so we always and again are accused of being like flunked

Roman Catholics Okay for the very reason that you know, we didn't go overboard with other parts of the

Reformation. No. No, we said no Our doctrines this what Scripture says and what the church is historically taught if it ain't that it's not the faith once delivered to the

Saints straight up So you get the idea? So we're to contend for this faith to contend that sounds very non -norwegian but that's what we're called to do and Here's the reason why?

for Certain people have crept in Unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation they are ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into Sensuality and deny our only

Master and Lord Jesus Christ So we are to contend for the faith because according to the

Holy Spirit through Jude People have crept into the church into the visible church and they have perverted can literally change the grace of God into sensuality a license to sin and they even deny our only

Master and Lord Jesus Christ, I Think we all can point to examples of this, you know,

I would say within the liberal mainline Denominations we see great examples of this

For instance, have you ever heard the Easter sermon of a pastor who doesn't believe in miracles?

I want you to think about that So there's a pastor who believes that Miracles are not possible that a miracle is the breaking of the laws of nature

Therefore miracles cannot happen and now he ascends to the pulpit. It's Easter Sunday And what does he say?

Does he say he's risen? He's risen indeed No, he doesn't believe that Jesus actually rose bodily from the grave.

He doesn't believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary That's that's crazy talk We live in the day where we have electric razors and electric razors prove that you know

Raising from the dead and virgin births are just not possible. So what does the person preach then on Easter Sunday?

We are very thankful that today that we are remembering the ways in which God has given us

Hope that our dead dreams can rise again within our hearts and that we can have hope again

For a better universe in a better community Just empty platitudes, right

You've heard that sermon haven't you? or they take the the the preaching of the text of the valley of the dry bones from Ezekiel, which is a clear prophecy of the resurrection from the grave when

Jesus returns we'll hear that next week by the way and What do they say? Well, you see these dry bones they represent your dry marriage

And so God is going to bring moisture to your marriage Okay, really

Wow when somebody preaches like that They deny

Christ. They don't believe the faith. They can't preach the text as it stands now within the liberal mainline denominations also

You have men and women who are openly impenitent

Homosexuals, what's going wrong there? They've taken the grace of Christ and turned it into a full -blown license to sin you want to Do the same sex thing.

No problem. Oh God blesses that No, he doesn't and we're gonna hear that in this text.

No, he doesn't That's a perversion of the grace of Christ has

Christ set you free from slavery so that you can be a slave No He has not

So let's continue. So we have to contend for the faith because these people according to Jude They're in among us and they seek the pulpit

They seek the place of teaching so that they can teach others these perverted and perverse things

They are not teaching the faith once delivered to the Saints. They are teaching stuff that is

Twisted and that's what Jude says. So we all of us are to contend for the faith

So Jude then writes I want to remind you Although you once fully knew it that Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt Afterward destroyed those who did not believe who led the people of Israel out of Egypt according to this verse

Jesus now if you have an older translation, it'll say God or Lord, but the new that the

Since like the NIV has been published. We have found older Manuscripts of the

Catholic Epistles and in the oldest manuscripts, it doesn't say God or Lord. It says Jesus Who's the one who led the children of Israel out of Egypt?

It was Christ Let me give you a good cross -reference on this too Our good cross -reference is going to be found in Hebrews 11

Talking about Moses down in verse 24 by faith

Moses when he was grown up Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God Than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ Greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking to the reward

Moses was a believer in Christ Huh important stuff there

Oh, yeah, they knew about it prophetically and so we now know from the New Testament That Christ is the one who led the people of Israel out of Egypt Moses believed in Christ Hmm now notice what it says then

So I want to remind you although you once fully knew that Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterwards destroyed

Those who did not believe This is a warning to us and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority

But left their proper dwelling. He's kept in eternal chains in utter gloomy darkness until the coming of the great day just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued

Unnatural desire serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire

If you've ever heard a mainline liberal Pastor pastor X priest priestess

Talk about the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. There was a recent TED talk done by a couple of these

People and what do they claim was the great sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? lack of hospitality

I'm pretty sure that Homosexual gang rape would be inhospitable

Yeah, that would show lack of hospitality to your guests I'm pretty sure that's the case but notice what

Jude writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says that Sodom and Gomorrah that they indulged in sexual immorality and that's of every stripe as Well as and you can think of it and they also pursued a natural desire

What is that referring to same -sex attraction same -sex intercourse?

They serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire so according to Jude we know for a fact that a big part of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah Was their sexual immorality which also included homosexuality

This is what scripture says and God does not bless this they serve as an example of punishment of fire pointing to the fires of hell itself and So now

Jude then continues yet in like manner these people who are these people? These are the people who've crept in among us that are in the church right now

That he we are to contend for the faith because they are now in among us yet in like manner these people

Also and watch the list relying on their dreams Defile the flesh reject authority

Blaspheme the glorious ones now. We're starting to get some characteristics of these false teachers

Relying on their dreams This is talking about where are they getting their doctrines in their teachings from?

Are they getting them from the written Word of God alone? No They are relying on their dreams and visions.

They're claiming. Oh the Lord spoke to me last night I when I had a dream I had a dream of the world's largest

Big Mac and It had pickles on it and I don't really like pickles I'm not sure what the

Lord was trying to tell me because this Big Mac had a pickle on it This is literally how they talk. I wish I was making this up Relying on their dreams claiming to receive direct revelation from God Let me give you two examples that we would all recognize as people who are like this

Muhammad of Islam, where did the Quran come from?

Huh? Huh Yeah, his own he claimed that it was revealed to him by the angel

Gabriel How about Joseph Smith of Mormonism claimed to be a prophet of God?

So the idea here is is that they'll sit there and say well, we believe that the

Bible is the Word of God but But and then they add to it

We also believe that God is speaking through modern -day prophets and apostles that God is speaking through my dreams

About food and other things that God is speaking through angelic encounters and stuff like that and Jude is warning us these false teachers they rely on their dreams not the

Word of God and as somebody who keeps a very close eye on what's going on in the visible church and Reviews a lot of the sermons being put out there in the name of Jesus.

Oh, this is exactly what's happening today exactly and What do

Christians do when they hear a pastor ascend to the pulpit or on a stage now? And he says

I'm the Lord is saying to me this and he's laid this on my heart And he wants me to tell you this and all this kind of stuff.

What do Christians do? Okay, let me take notes as Soon as a pastor opens up a different body of work than the

Bible to tell you that God is speaking to you Turn him off He's one of the people that Jude is warning about Yes These are the same people that are teaching their kids that if you have a conviction on your heart you pray about it earnestly, and if you still believe it then you should speak it and Yeah, this is nonsense.

This is nonsense. It's the faith Once delivered to the

Saints, where's the only place I can go to find the faith once delivered to the

Saints? Scripture period Now, let me talk about Mormonism because it's kind of us in the same vein here

Mormonism they what's their their primary book aside from the Bible. They claim they they believe the

Bible It's the Book of Mormon, right? Have you ever read this thing? Oh Is it? horribly dry and boring

Man anyway, and it claims to be a history it claims to be a historical narrative of Jews who built a boat and then sailed across the

Mediterranean in the Atlantic and landed somewhere in South America You know what's missing at the back of every

Book of Mormon a map There's no map. And so it and you sit there and go where's this city?

We're not sure. How about that one? Well, we don't know where that one is either How why am I to believe that this is true and here you want to know what the

Mormon says? When it comes to knowing that the Book of Mormon is true. Here's what you've got to do You've got to pray to Heavenly Father to ask you to give a testimony within your heart or your bosom

That the Book of Mormon is true. So lock yourself up in your bedroom and say Oh Heavenly Father Please show me that the

Book of Mormon is true And if you get a strange warming feeling sensation inside of your inside of your bosom, it's called a burning in the bosom that's the proof that the

Book of Mormon is true I I Wish I was making this up. It's totally subjective and Years and years and years ago.

I learned Mormonism from the Mormons Okay, the my first year at Christ College Irvine, which is now

Concordia University. I was taking Greek and you know Christina had just been born and you know

Our lives were crazy and the Mormons come knock on our apartment door and like a moron

I'd let him in but you know, they came in and I thought well, let's let's go for this You know, it's like all right.

They gave me a Book of Mormon said I needed to read it I said well, it's gonna take me a few weeks and I'm in school. They said no problem We'll come back in like four or five weeks and and they did

So they came back and I read it So first question out of their mouth when we came back and they sat down so did you read the

Book of Mormon? Yes How did it make you feel? My answer

What's the weirdest thing? Every time I opened the Book of Mormon it was like the room got darker and colder and I felt the presence of sure evil and as soon as I would close it it

Would go away and the sunlight would come back up and no joke. The guy looked at me and says you're not reading it, right?

He explained to me how it was supposed to give me a warm feeling inside of my heart and I said well Here's the thing your subjective experience is different than my subjective experience

So we're not going to be able to determine the truth of this thing based upon our feelings so that led us into a multi -month study

Looking at the objective evidence and their bishop yanked them out of that After a while, yeah get they literally took him out of Southern California and send him to like Arizona You know get him as far away from me as possible never gave us their phone numbers

So because as we moved along these guys are starting to really get shaky and you know Rattly because the wheels were coming off objectively.

Yeah Yeah Mormonism Yeah, there's there's there's no basis to believe any of this stuff is historically accurate

Right, here's the problem Yeah, and this is the same kind of logic that creeps into liberal churches well, do you have feelings towards another?

Fellow well, you just you know You got to go with that because that's who you are. Well scripture says we're all born dead and trespasses and sins

We're all sinners and that sin manifests itself in just all kinds of vomitous ways

And so I can sit there and say yeah, I'm a sinner but when I'm thinking or feeling these things inside of me that's sinful and In and it should shock me that I would say that I am this way

Rather than saying I just need to embrace and be who I am which by the way is like the theme of the Barbie movie Not the

Bible Just follow your heart Okay. No, my heart's the problem.

Jesus says it's out of the heart comes these things So this this nonsense, you just got to be what you are because what you truly are is what you feel

Well, no, that's like saying there's no such thing as a false or bad or sinful feeling

Scripture says Oh contraire Notice when it was describing those in Sodom and Gomorrah they were pursuing what?

unnatural desires That's a feeling We all know what it's like to have a crush right, you know, you get that wibbly -wobbly feeling inside you every time she's in the room

But then the feelings go away sometimes and you wake up I mean have any of you older people here

Thought oh, I am so glad I didn't marry him or marry her

You know what? I'm saying Okay But you had those wibbly -wobbly feelings inside of you and when you were like junior high or high school and now you're thinking oh

Man, I just saw a photograph of that guy and oh lord. Thank you for helping me dodge that bullet Am I being too real

Yeah, okay So Coming back to this these false teachers among us.

They rely on their dreams They defile the flesh. Here's the important one.

They reject Authority and we're going to talk a little bit more about this in a minute and the primary authority

The one they really reject is the authority of God himself through his word If you ever are in the presence of a pastor who's saying, you know, listen, you know

There's lots of different ways in which God speaks to us and the Bible is just full of errors and contradictions And why should we take this thing?

Seriously run? Because nothing good is coming from this fellow's mouth because he rejects the authority of God in his word

He's trying to find a way when the person who is undermining the authority of Scripture as soon as they get

Scripture out of the way They're gonna replace Scripture with their own doctrines and believe me. They're not going to be pretty so they reject authority

They blaspheme the glorious ones. Now. This is a fascinating one here within the new apostolic

Reformation Which is really running rampant through evangelicalism now. It's all about doing warfare with the demons and tearing down and decree and declaring and binding and Attacking and all this kind of nonsense you think of Kenneth Copeland remember a couple years ago the the very first Paris attack

Recently within a few years ago Well that you know the terrorist attack in Paris and Kenneth Copeland no joke the week after the

Paris attack He stood up on his stage and he bound the demon in the territory over Paris and I'm thinking well that Cow left the barn a while ago.

Why didn't you do it a week earlier? You could have saved a few people, you know nonsense

We're not sure we're not sure No, but he does become one right after the resurrection the resurrection kind of changes everything

So they blaspheme the glorious ones But watch what it says when Michael the Archangel contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses He did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but he said the

Lord rebuke you but these people They blaspheme all that they do not understand and they are destroyed by all that they like unreasoning animals understand

Instinctively, where are they getting their doctrines and their ideas from? Their own instincts, but they're unreasoning animals.

They are completely Irrational and scripture says woe to them pay attention when scripture calls down woes

Jesus called down woes on the Pharisees. Whoa, you scribes and Pharisees you hypocrites you whitewashed tombs

You're beautiful on the outside, but inside you are full of dead men's bones. Jesus said right? Whoa, that's a calling down of judgment

These people and this is where we're gonna spend most of our time now Woe to them for they walk in the way of Cain Abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's heir and they perished in Korah's rebellion verse 11 here reveals to us that there are kind of like three primary categories that false teachers fall into Cain Balaam or Korah Now, let's take a look at Cain real quick We know the story of Cain and Abel Cain is the one who killed his brother

Abel and if you know the beginning of the story We get there in Genesis 4

Here's what it says Adam knew Eve his wife Genesis 4 1 she conceived and bore

Cain saying I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord and Again, she bore his brother

Abel Abel was a keeper of sheep Cain was a worker of the ground in the course of time Cain brought to the

Lord an Offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock of their fat

Portions now if you've ever heard bad teaching on this the bad teaching would go Why did

God not accept Cain's offering? Well Cain offered a salad rather than a sheep

That's not actually the problem when we look at the Mosaic Covenant. Are there grain offerings?

Are there first fruit offerings? So is giving an offering of a salad forbidden in Scripture is it considered sinful?

No So the problem isn't the contents of the sacrifice

What's the problem? We need a good cross -reference to this and our cross -reference is going to be

Hebrews 11 Such an important passage of Scripture verse 4 by faith

Abel Offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.

How did he do it? Yes, but that's later revealed in the

Mosaic Covenant we don't have the Mosaic Covenant at this point Close very close.

You're in the ballpark Faith By faith and you'll notice

Hebrews 11 is the great hall of faith passage by faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice

That means he trusted God and he believed in the promise of the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent

But he didn't believe his brother was that person But he had faith so by faith he offered a sacrifice an acceptable sacrifice and more than Cain through which he was commended as righteous

God commending him by accepting his Gifts and through his faith though he died

He still speaks and you'll notice verse 6 and without faith. It is impossible to please

God For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and he rewards those who seek him

What did Cain lack Faith he had no faith and you can see this then in the

Hebrew text when you go back to what it says in Genesis 4 so Cain brought to the

Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground Abel also brought of the first fruit of his flock their fat Portions and the Lord had regard for Abel notice the person the

Lord had regard for Abel Abel has faith and And then his offering

But for Cain and his offering he had no regard He had no regard for Cain nor his offering the most important person is

Abel and Cain in this sense God had was a regard for the person. So what does Cain lack faith?

But was he not doing a religious thing offering a sacrifice to God?

But his heart wasn't in it He had no faith This is going through the religious motions and expecting a blessing from God well

God, you know got to tell you I Really am looking forward next week because the baseball season begins and you know, it's really going to put a

It's really gonna be a sacrifice for me to come to church and you know Preach and go to Sunday school every Sunday.

And so I you know Baseball is really important But I'm just gonna show up anyway, because I know that by showing up that I'm gonna be blessed by you

But believe me the whole time I'm gonna be thinking about the sports scores checking Twitter and my fight my

Facebook and stuff like that It's a mechanical Christianity and this can happen in any denomination or any church

Within Roman Catholicism when it comes to the efficacy of the mass It's kind of say it that way it works ex opera operato, which means by the working of the work

You don't even have to believe you don't even have to have faith if you go and you have the Lord's Supper The Eucharist it works ex opera operato by the working of the work.

The grace is given to you. You got it It's in the bag. All you got to do is just go through the motions. Uh -huh

Yeah This is scary stuff This literally turns church into like magic

It turns it into magic now. It's a little harder to see when the outward shell

Still maintains what used to be there that the substance with the with the form

But when the form exists without the substance, it becomes a little bit trickier to spot, but I'll give you another another example

Those who believe in real magic, you know things like that voodoo or so So, you know you got the hots for such -and -such a person over there

So you go you go to the the voodoo which which priest is and she'll give you a love potion or something like that And you know a tarot card

She'll give you a spell to work or give this offering to this little, you know You know this this little deity likes cigarettes and alcohol you give him a little bit of a this this and that But then what happens when you go to South America?

Have you ever seen the weird mixing of voodoo and the magical worldview with Roman Catholicism?

Oh It is crazy Okay, so you have the little statues of the different Saints and Mary and all this kind of stuff mixed with this

This magical worldview and this is there's no faith here It's all by casting the spell saying the charm making the sacrifice

Paying the money the working of the work. You don't have to believe anything It's just walk through it on Friday On my program

Lance Wall now of the New Apostolic Reformation. This guy's a major fellow within the the charismatic circles

He was doing a periscope session. I don't know if you know what periscope is It's like if I had periscope on my my phone

I could talk to my peeps and people can watch you know Kind of I would broadcast myself to my audience to you know, whatever and I can talk to them or whatever

So he was doing a periscope session and he says let's let's do prayer requests Does anyone have any prayer requests?

And so the the prayer requests were coming up through his feed and he saw a lady there She says please pray for my son.

He needs deliverance from homosexuality Rather than pray For this woman.

Here's what Lance Wall now said. Well, let me tell you the testimony I heard about these 2x hookers who used to work in a bar and they baked their boss who was gay a cake and it

Was an anointed cake and as soon as he ate the cake, he was delivered and set free from homosexuality What So if you have a child who's struggling with same -sex attraction

Just go find those 2x hookers and they'll bake you an anointed cake and they'll cure that kid right up Apparently, I don't

I don't know, you know, I just don't know This is magic

This is this requires no real faith This is something totally different and so Christianity when it loses the substance and what remains is the shell

Then all I got to do is do the thing that God demands for me to do and I can have my arms crossed and look

At my watch and can't wait to get out of there and then God will bless me because I did what I was supposed to Do yeah scary.

So this is one major prototype then of false teacher next prototype

They've abandoned themselves. What a great way of describing it for the sake of gain.

That would be money to Balaam's error Abandoned themselves

Wow. Have you ever watched TBN during like their praise -a -thon?

Oh My word it is whole it is just like crazy

So you get the guy up on stage and he's got the cloth and he's dabbing his forehead Oh, the

Lord is telling me that he's gonna release triple blessings to you right now You're gonna have a triple breakthrough anointing if you just send in your anointed seed offering of more than $1 ,000

Whoa, you know whatever and this is kind of the way they do things and you watch this fell on the on the television and you go

You have totally abandoned yourself you have no shame This is spiritual prostitution.

It's what this is Mm -hmm

Yeah, and so you'll notice when you read the scriptures read the New Testament, yeah read the

New Testament, okay the demonics real absolutely real all right, there are demons and And when you watch the encounters between the demonic and Christians, it's almost like a non event

You think of Paul in Philippi? There's this gal who has the spirit of who

Thona Which just means she had something to do with the Oracle of Delphi and she's out there.

She's just obnoxious This is a fortune -telling girl who's demon -possessed and they're make she's making lots of money for her owners because she's a slave and she's

Following after Paul these men are telling you to follow after the one true God, you know

And it's like in the when the devil's preaching like this there's always a hook and this goes on for several days and Paul says enough and you just Cast the demon out of her and ends up in prison for this and it's like a non event

So we do come up against the demonic absolutely, but if you know your

Bible, then you know this that the Strongest of demons the ones that not even the

Apostles can cast out while Jesus was on earth Jesus says, you know how you deal with them

Prayer and fasting It's like a non event so yeah, we're battling against these things our battle isn't against flesh and blood

But I don't know I've I don't know their names. I don't need to know their names when the devil is working against us

What do we do we get on our knees? We pray and we fast That's what we do.

We we preach the truth So the idea here the person who's out there, okay,

I've done a genealogical survey of the demonics Entities in this region and because the

Sioux nation was here in this part of the world and they worship this God and this God therefore

I need to bind and lose and like Totally decree and declare against these particular demons because the

Sioux worship them in here This is nonsense This is absolute gobbledygook

Preach the word proclaim Christ All right coming back.

So these folks they've also abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's Error now, we've all heard the person say well if God could use a donkey he could use me

You know the story right that's where we get the idea of Balaam from this is it's

Balaam's donkey that did the talking So let's take a look at Balaam and I'm actually

I'm gonna do a quick word search on this because there's several passages I want to look at when it comes to Balaam's error.

We're gonna start in Numbers 22 we're gonna pay close attention to Balaam What he is

The people of Israel set out camped in the plains of Moab Beyond the

Jordan at Jericho Balak the son of Zippor Saw all that Israel had done to the

Amorites and Moab was in great dread of the people Because they were many

Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel Moab said to the elders of Midian this horde

Will now lick up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field

So Balak the son of Zippor who was king of Moab at the time Sent messengers to Balaam.

He's probably better pronounced Yeah, we'll call it Balaam The son of Beor at Pethor which is near the river in the land of the people of Ammah To call him saying behold the people has come out of Egypt They cover the face of the earth and they are dwelling opposite of me

Come now curse this people for me since they are too mighty for me Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land for I know that he whom you bless is

Blessed and he whom you curse is cursed is cursed So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand

How much do you think I charge for fees for divination? It's not a product that I sell

Balaam does think of it this way. This is a guy who is a prophet for profit He's in it for the money.

And so the idea is this is a guy who claims that if you need somebody cursed Oh, you got come to me

I've got the mojo and the magic and I've got the hookups with all the different deities around here

I can call them up and talk with them and we can curse whoever you need to have cursed if you need a blessing Oh, we can get that for you too.

But here's my fees for divination so that we can do this We got to talk to these different deities. So you need to talk to Baal I can talk to Baal for you need to talk to a

Shira or Molech. No problem I've got them on speed dial on my smartphone This is what the guy is claiming

So there's a fee for divination now in this particular case, which is the deity which deity is the one he needs to phone

Yahweh and Here's the thing Guys like Balaam are great actors

Hang on a second. Let me call up bail ball. Hey ball. This is a bail. Yeah. Yeah things are going great How are things going?

Oh good. Good. Good. Yeah. Yeah that person we need cursed over there. You remember that guy? Uh -huh. I got the fees for divination over here.

Could you curse that person for me? No problemo and the whole time the phone's going so Balaam knows he's got a connect with Yahweh But here's the weird thing

Yahweh picks up there's someone on the other line here.

Okay, watch how the story goes So the elders of Moab they brought the fees for divination they came to Balaam and gave him

Balaam's message He said to them lodge here tonight and I'll bring back word to you as Yahweh speaks to me and that's

Yahweh. That's the name of God right there So he's expecting to have a conversation with Yahweh But so the princes of Moab stay with Balaam and God came to Balaam So there is

Yeah, this is Yahweh what Yahweh says who are these men with you

Balaam said to God Balak the son of Zippor king of Moab has sent me

Saying behold the people has come out of the land of Egypt It covers the face of the earth now come and curse them for me

Perhaps I'll should be shall be able to fight against them and drive them out. He wasn't expecting to have this conversation

He's having to explain himself here. And so God said to Balaam. You shall not go with them You shall not curse the people for they are blessed click

Err What just happened This is not gonna be good for business just saying

So you see you can't curse them because they're blessed so Balaam rose in the morning and said the princes of Balak Go to your land

Yahweh has refused to let me go with you So the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak and said

Balaam refuses to come with us He's turning down the fees of divination here, man

You know, I'm sure it was and you know what Balak thinks that this is he thinks this is a negotiation tactic

So, all right. So the reason why Balaam didn't take our money and help us out is because I sent our third level princes and We need to send some people who are more honorable and maybe we need to sweeten the kitty a little bit bring a little bit

More money. He's they think this is a negotiation tactic on the part of Balaam. It's not

He didn't expect to actually have a conversation with Yahweh so once again Balak sent princes more in number and more honorable than these and They came to Balaam and said to him dust says

Balak the son of Zippor. Let nothing hinder you from coming to me For I will surely do you great honor and whatever you say to me,

I will do come curse this people But Balaam 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 command of Yahweh my God and do less or more

So you too, please stay here tonight that I may know what more

Yahweh will say to me And so he phones Yahweh again Yahweh picks up God came to Balaam at night and said to him

If the men have come to call you rise go with them But only do what

I tell you So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab now comes something very fascinating, but God's anger was kindled because he went and the angel of the

Lord This is Jesus And wait, do you see the cross -reference of this the angel the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary now he was riding on the donkey and his two servants were with him and the donkey saw the angel

Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand and the donkey turned aside out

Of the road and went into the field Balaam struck the donkey to turn her into the road

Then the angel of the Lord stood a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on either side And when the donkey saw the angel the

Lord she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall So he struck her again then the angel the

Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left and when the donkey saw the angel of the

Lord she laid down under Balaam and Balaam's anger was kindled Mm -hmm sounds like a fellow who has anger management problems hmm

And he struck the donkey with his staff Then Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam What have

I done to you that you've struck me these three times and Balaam said wait a second donkeys can't talk

That's not what he said Balaam said to the donkey because you've made a fool out of me

I wish I had a sword in my hand for then I would kill you and the donkey said to Balaam Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life long to this day?

Is it my habit of treating you this way and he said? What no, it's a great conversation

So then Yahweh opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel the Lord Standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand and he bowed down and fell on his face and the angel

Lord said To him. Why have you struck your donkey these three times behold? I've come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me

Notice in this story. We see God's view of those who are like Balaam God opposes them and their ways are perverse before the

Lord your way is perverse before me the donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times if She had not turned aside for me.

Surely now I would have killed you and let her live Then Balaam said to the angel the

Lord I have sinned For I did not know that you stood in the road against me now Therefore if it is evil in your sight

I will turn back and the angel the Lord said to Balaam go with the men But speak only the word that I tell you so Balaam went out went on with the princes of Balak Fascinating stuff we're only like Halfway through kind of unpacking what these

False teachers are like that already you got you get the idea the prophet for profit The guy who's abandoned himself for the sake of gain and will engage in all kinds of religious and spiritual

Chicanery in order to make a buck Do we have those in the visible church?

Yeah, we do There's more we're gonna talk about Balaam because there's a second part to this and our cross reference is going to be in the book

Of Revelation regarding the church at Pergamon, but we'll get to that next week.