We're going to have a privilege this week of spending a lot of time in the Word of God, and we're going to do that this morning for just a few minutes. So, let me invite you if you've not already turned to Numbers to do that. We're going to look at some passages in the book of Numbers as we begin our lesson this morning. Again, thank you for being here, we have a number of guests with us, and you're always welcome. We look forward to it. It's an encouragement to us when we have guests with us, which happens most of the time we meet. So, we're glad to have you this morning.
Numbers 22 through 24. There is a story. It's a rather lengthy story. It is a story that involves Balaam, who is a prophet of Midian. It involves Balak, who is the king of Moab. It involves Jehovah God. It involves some false gods. It involves a donkey that Balaam rode. It involves angels who spoke. It is a very exhaustive story, and if you just read through it, if you just read those three chapters, it's a bit hard to kind of put together, at least it is to me, and I've I've read that story, I've looked at that story for a long time, and still, the best way that I can keep in my head is to kind of do the cliff note version. Remember, do you remember the Cliff Notes? If you're my age, you remember the Cliff Notes. You never read the book. You just read the Cliff Notes. And Neil's laughing about it, because I know that's what he did. So let me give you the cliff note version, if I may, this morning, a little bit of the story of these people that I have listed. Balak, who was the king of Moab, he was concerned about Israel. He didn't want Israel to do to his nation what they had done to other nations. And so he contacts Balaam, who is a prophet of Midian, but God had, evidently, God had a relationship with him, because God talked to him, and God was using Balaam to do some things, to help create and to further challenge Israel and to do what God wanted done. But Balak came to Balaam and said, I want you to curse Israel. I don't want Israel to bother Moab. I don't want you to bother my nation. So I want you to curse Israel. And so he said to Balaam, I'll give you wealth and I'll give you honor if you do that. And Balaam, being the man who was moved by money and wealth and power, thought about that, and he said, Well, that's something to consider. And so he and Balak had several conversations, and Balak even sent messengers to Balaam and to try to persuade him. And during all this time, Balaam was talking to God, and God was telling him, don't go. And finally said, Well, go, but if you go tell him what he needs to hear that I'm going to do, and that is, I'm not going to curse, you're not going to be able to curse Israel. And so to make a, as I said, to make a long story very short, Balaam is conflicted. He doesn't really know what he needs to do. So he gets on his donkey. Here comes the donkey story. He gets on his donkey and he begins to ride. And while he's riding, the donkey begins to do strange things. He turns one way off the road, and he turns another way, and he smashes Balaam's ankle. And finally the the donkey just stops and sits down and turns and speaks to Balaam. That's strange enough. And the point of emphasis is that God is displeased, and you need to quit being wishy washy, if you will, about what you're going to do, and you need to just go tell Balak that God's not going to curse Israel. So that's what happens. He says God's not going to curse Israel, and you just need to understand that Balak.
But when you get to chapter 25 there's a different story, because Balak doesn't give up. And Balaam tells Balak, let me tell you what you need to do. You need to take your Moabite women, and you need to send them into Israel, and they need to seduce the men of Israel. And that will help you do what you need to do. God will be displeased with that, and God was displeased. And it wasn't just that the women and the men did that, the women of Moab and the men of Israel will engage in fornication, but they will also, the men of Israel, will worship these pagan idols, and they'll eat food that's been designated to these idols, and God's going to be very displeased. And boy, was he ever. Was he displeased.
But I want to share with you the plan that happened that Blake just read for us. He read for us from Numbers 25 this is the text, and this is what happened. "Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. And they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel." He was upset, as you would expect. And he was so unhappy that this, the legacy of Balaam, traveled on into the future. So as when Peter talks about in Second Peter two, beginning in verse 15, when he talks about the false teachers. Here's what Peter said about that event earlier, "They have forsaken the right way." Now he's talking about the false teachers, but he's using what happened to Balaam and Israel. Says, "they have forsaken the right way, and they've gone astray, following 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." in Revelation two to the Church at Pergamos, what the angel said to them, part of what he said was he said, "but I have a few things against you, because you Have there those who hold 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." I mean, what went on in numbers 25 to say it was illicit is about the easiest way to put it. I mean, there were things going on that we probably can't even imagine, and it was all because Balaam suggested Balak, here's what I think you ought to do, and God was displeased with it.
But I want to describe, and I want to read one particular incident in numbers 25. There was one man, his name was Phinehas, and he had had all he could take. And beginning in verse six, the text says, "and indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and 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 he 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." A man of Israel, we later find out his name was Zimri, and a woman of Moab, whose name was Cozbi, they literally go into a tent, and apparently, as they're engaging in this illicit activity, Phinehas goes in with his javelin, and he pierces both the man and the woman through and kills them. Well, the damage had already been done. Israel had already engaged in so much of this fornication and this pagan idolatry that God, the text tells us, killed 24,000. I want you to think about that. 24,000 and that the language would would indicate to me that these people were hung. I want you to imagine 24,000 people hung because they had engaged in this illicit activity. And I want you to just think about the impression that that would have made on everyone who was there. Then I want you to listen to what the Lord said to Moses after this happened. He said in verse 11, "Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned back my wrath from the children of Israel because he was zealous with my zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in my zeal. Therefore say, Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and his descendance after him, a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the children of Israel." Phinehas was the grandson of Aaron. And because of what Phinehas did, God said, he has my zeal. He understands what I was trying to accomplish, and he in essence, because he did what he did, he put an end. And he allowed the priesthood to perpetually be given to Aaron's descendants.
God praised Phinehas. And what I want to say to you about Phinehas this morning is this, he had the courage to act. I want you to think about it. And some of this may be speculation, but here is a man who apparently is God fearing. And he watches all this activity. He watches what Balaam and Balak's decision to integrate into Israel, these Moabite women, and he sees what they did to the Israelite men, and Phinehas has had enough, and he kills these two, apparently in the very act, and it stops the trend. And what I want to say to you about that, and this is kind of the jumping off place for a few minutes this morning, is sometimes you just have to act. Sometimes you just have to act. Now I'm not suggesting, don't take this too far this morning. I'm not suggesting when people are in violation of what God does, that we take it into our own hands to go kill those people. I'm not I'm not suggesting that any kind of way, but I'm saying there is something to be said here about what Phinehas did and about how God reacted to that. God was not upset with Phinehas. He praised him. He praised him for doing what he did. And what I what I've chosen to entitle this lesson this morning is It's About The Next Step. I mean, I don't know what would have happened had Phinehas not stepped in. We're not told that. I mean God may have, he may have let it go on. I don't know what he would have done, but what he said was, Phinehas stopped it. What Phinehas did was what I wanted to see. That's basically what he said about Phinehas. Because Phinehas took a step that others evidently were unwilling to take.
I want to ask you a question this morning. I want you to take, I want you to take a little self inventory. I've done the same thing. I want you to take a little self inventory this morning. And I want you to ask yourself this question, is it time for you to say enough is enough? Is it time for you to say you know what? This has been going on long enough in my life, I have done things, or I've not done things that for a long time I know have been something that God is not pleased with. And the problem is it just keeps going. It just keeps going. And there needs to be a Phinehas moment that just says, Enough is enough. But are there things in our life that drag on and drag on and drag on and bring us down and bring us further away from God when we know, we've known for a long time, we shouldn't let that happen to us. People are being hurt. There may be things going on in your life, and you're allowing those things going on in your life, and people are being hurt because of it. Oor another way to look that is, people aren't being helped because of it. Because you're letting things go on the way they've gone on, and it's time for you to say enough is enough. Sometime when we refuse to take action, it just doesn't, things just don't get done. There's no zeal to take action. There's just kind of an apathy and a lethargy that just says, You know what, it's going on. It's just what I'm going to keep doing. That is dangerous people, and I think it's dangerous because it's time, maybe for you to take the all important next step. I've been telling this, it's about the next step. It's not about what's happened in the past. I'm gonna get to that in just a minute. It's about what you're gonna do next. There needs to be a change for some of us. There needs to be a reversal for some of us. There needs to be a new direction for some of us. And there are all sorts of applications in this. I gave you one, I just just kind of popped into my head. Let's say that you're not the best, not the best student that you need to be. And when the when the new school year starts back up, Imma tell you what you have. You have an option. You just keep being a less than good student. You can just be an average student, or you can take the next step and say, I'm going to change it. I'm going to go a different direction. You can do that. Or you can just keep doing what you're doing now. That's a fairly benign kind of thing, not really, but in terms of what's really important. That's kind of a benign kind of thing. But there are all sorts of applications. There are a lot of spiritual applications. We'll get to that in just a moment.
Let me give you another example. Another example. You know who said this? I'm going to read it for you. This man said, "I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons, both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness and all the counsel of the elders from whom I also received letters to the brethren and went to Damascus to bring and change even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished." That's what a man said. That's what a man did. He said it this way a little bit later in the book of Acts, he said, "Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints, I shut up in prison having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities." First Timothy one, this same man said, "I'm the cheifest of sinners." It doesn't get worse than me. I've done some horrible things. I'm putting words in his mouth, but I think he would say unto us if he was standing here, I've done some horrible things. Nobody has done worse than I have. I'm the chiefest of sinners. We know who that is. Can you imagine Paul's life after the fact? After he had turned from this kind of thing? Can you imagine his life after? Can you imagine him sitting down and writing the letter to the Romans, or writing the letter to the Corinthian churches, or writing the letter to the Galatian churches? Can you imagine him sitting down and writing that, and as he's writing, his pen just drops and his head sags, and he begins to think about, you know what? I don't even, I'm not even worthy to be writing these things. I'm not even, I'm not even worthy to be doing that. Paul took a very hard life changing direction in his life. Now it's not the same as Phinehas, but what I want you to see is the drastic way in which you said, you know, I was this, but now I'm going to do this, and here's why I'm mentioning that to you this morning. Some folks, some of us, us, some of us, need to take some pretty drastic measures today. Some of us need to be saying to ourselves, all right, I'm tired of doing this. I'm going a different direction. I'm going a different direction.
Let me tell you. Let me share with you. And you know this too. Let me show you what Paul learned. Here's what Paul said about it. He said, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I pressed toward the goal for the prize and the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." That's what Paul did. I just want to mention these three things. He mentions three things here that they did. I want to mention them to you, and I just want you to think about how this would play out in your life, if you need to make this change, if you need to take a step in this direction, and it may be drastic. You need to forget the past. If you're sitting here going, Kenny, you're talking to me, and I hear what you're saying, but my past is so bad. Okay. It's not, it's not worse than what Paul went through. He Paul said, it nobody's as bad as me. He said, I forget the past. How does he forget the past? Don't you imagine he had his moments? I imagine he had his moments when he just put his pen down, and instead of writing, he prays to the Lord, I don't I still don't understand. I still don't get it as bad as I've been you have shown grace and mercy to me. I tell you how. I know he felt that way, because in first Timothy says, "although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus." That is exactly what God and Christ will extend to you and me. I don't care how bad it's been. I don't care how bad your past has been. Because of God's mercy and because of his grace, He will extend His mercy to you. So, you don't have to you... you're going to remember the past. There's no way that Saul, later named Paul, here, there's no way. There is no way the rest of his life, he forgot what had happened in his early years. There's no way he forgot that. But he put it behind him. He did put it behind. He didn't forget it. He says, I forget, but let's just be real practical. You don't forget, but you but you can put it behind you so that doesn't affect what happens to you moving forward. That's what, that's what Paul did. And that's what we have to do.
And then the text tells us, in this same text, that he reached forward. You know, I never thought, I never thought of this before I started looking at this lesson. Thinking about these verses. Have you ever tried to reach backward? You know how hard that is? I'm almost tempted to have everybody stand up and just try to do it. You know how hard? You know how unnatural is to reach backwards? I mean, I can put my arms back, but to actually reach. If I reach backwards long enough, I'd fall back, I'd fall out, I'd tip over. It's unnatural. Paul said, I don't reach backwards. I reach I reach forward. I reach forward. Isn't that interesting? I don't know if there's anything else to say about that, other than his pursuit was about what was in front of him, not what was behind him. And then he says, And when I do that, you know what I did? Then I press. This is what he said, after I get all this, after I do all this, I forget the past, and I reach forward, and he says, and then this one thing I do, I press on. I remember Dee Bowman, one of his favorite lessons. You know, all of us have our favorite lessons to preach. One of D Bowman's favorite lessons to preach, and he preached it here at least twice, at least twice, because I've heard it here at least twice, and I've heard it in other places too. It was called I Press. That was the title of it, I Press. And it was taken, of course, out of this context. And his point was, I press. I keep pressing. No matter what's happened in my past, I keep pressing forward. That's the one thing I do. And I would encourage you today to do that.
Now, what is it that you need to do today to take the next step? Don't leave here this morning and for the next week or a month or year, just keep doing the same things you're doing when you know you need to forget that. You need to give that up. You need to go in a different direction. You need to make a change. You need to do something different. Don't keep going back. Don't just keep being lethargic and apathetic about it. Don't let that happen to you. Let me just mention a couple things before we close. What do you need to do today to help the relationships that you have? Let me just start here. If you're married today and your marriage is not what that ought to be, what steps are you taking? Are you just going to let it go on? You just going to keep going? It's just going to keep going? And instead of getting better, it just gets worse and worse and worse? Or can you determine today, if your marriage is not what it ought to be, can you determine I'm going to reach forward? I'm going to reach forward. I'm going to forget what's happened. I'm going to forget what it's been. But I'm going to reach forward, and I'm going to offer some help in this relationship, to reach forward and to make this thing better. How about that? Or let's say you don't have a really good relationship with your parents. Okay? You can keep that going. You can make it worse. Just keep making it worse. You keep doing as little as you can to try to make it better. Just keep doing that, and it's just going to completely implode if you're not careful. It won't get better until you take the next step. And you take that next step in a positive direction, and you make a difference. You make the difference. See what happens.
Maybe with a friend, you've lost a relationship, or a relationship has been hurt, then you need to change that. Or maybe, as I said, as a parent with children, it hadn't been the kind of relationship that it needs to be. Well change. I realize it takes two in a relationship, but you be the initiator. You be the initiator of that. Or maybe you just need to have a better outlook. Here we go. You're thinking that, now, Kenny, you're off into something else. No, I'm not. Maybe you just need to have a better outlook about life. Maybe you're just negative. Stop being negative. Nobody likes to be around you if you're negative, I'll tell you that. Don't come crying to me if you're negative, I don't want to hear it. Negative people are not good people to be around. I'm not talking about realistic people, but understand if that's who you are, if you're a Christian, you've got this joy and you've got this hope to be with God forever. Then pursue that. Help others pursue that. Maybe, how about this? Maybe, maybe socially, you're talking about right now we're getting off in the weeds. Well, maybe, maybe socially, you're not what you ought to be. Hard for you to deal with people socially. Well, let me tell you something. If you're a Christian, you have to deal with people socially, and you need to deal with people socially. That's not been something that you've been very good at. Do better. Take some initiative. Take the next step, and don't go backwards, go forward. Help that.
And then you knew I was coming to this: spiritually. Spiritually. Maybe you're not what you ought to be spiritually, and you know that. And you've been that way for a long time, and you've known that you've been that way for a long time, but you just keep being that way. Don't be that way anymore. Maybe you need to commit to being better spiritually. And there's steps that you can take, and the next steps going to be the most important step. The next step is going to be the most important step for you. And I will tell you that the point, really, the point for me just talking to you this morning about this is, I'm going to say it this way, I want this to be a little pep rally. You remember what those were? Remember on those Friday afternoons, you know, the school turned out, you know, sixth period would cut out about 30 minutes early, and everybody go to the auditorium. That's the way it was back in the day in Bald Knob High School. When the Bulldogs were playing on Friday night, we had a little pep rally. And we'd walk in, and the band would be playing, and the cheerleaders would be screaming, and you know, you'd be pumped up pretty good for 30 minutes, and you might go out that night and win a game. You might go out and get your brains beat. But for that short amount of time, you are ready to go. And I just want this lesson, I just want this lesson to be maybe a wake up call to you to say, You know what, I'm moving forward from this point on, I'm not moving backwards. I'm not reaching back anymore. I'm reaching forward, and I'm going to do what I need to do in my life. That's what I'm hoping that this would be. And of course, my main concern, my main application this morning is, is that you would be what you ought to be spiritually. Because if you're that, then these other things will come into play. So I would simply ask you this morning, are you what you ought to be spiritually? And if you're not, then you need to take a step toward making yourself what you ought to be spiritually, we'd like to help you do that. We're not pointing you out. I don't know about you. You know about you. But all of us have weakness, and all of us have things we need to change, but we just have to take the step to make those things happen.
This morning, if you need to take that step, take it. It may be that you need to step out, even as we sing this song in just a moment, and just give yourself to God in obedience to Him. Maybe that you need to do that, or it may be that you just need to consider your circumstances and begin to make changes in your own life. Then do that. But if it's something spiritual that we can help you with, right now, we really want to do that, if you'll allow us to help you and allow God to help you. Make it known while we stand, while we sing.
