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Alright, if you want to keep your place here in Numbers 24, we're going to be coming right back to it. Continuing on the series I started last week, going through the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, so we're going to flip back to Revelation chapter 2, we're going to read about Pergamos, and then we'll be coming back to Numbers chapter 24. I don't want to read Revelation 2 every week, every service that we're doing this, so we're going to just read other relevant passages that we're going to be turning to as well to get those in context. Alright, Revelation chapter 2, we're going to start reading here in verse number 12, the Bible reads, And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges. I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. And thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate? Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. So that's the letter to the church at Pergamos, and that's what we're going to be going over today. As far as I mentioned this last week when we started this, that we're looking at the various warnings and messages to the churches, because it's all still relevant ultimately to New Testament churches today. There's the same problems that churches were able to fall into in the past, can still fall into these same types of problems today. And we also see things that are being exalted as being good qualities within many of these churches as well. They're doing some things good, some things bad. So we're going to analyze all of these letters and look at how these churches are doing and see what we can learn from these churches. So we're going to start back up there where it says, and of course they're all addressed to, I mentioned this before, to the angel of the church, which I believe is just the pastor, the elder, the bishop, the person who's overseeing the church, the one who has the responsibility of what is going on within the church. It makes sense to send letters to the person who's in charge that's going to be able to handle the business and the direction that the church is taking. So verse number 13 of Revelation 2, the Bible says, I know thy works, and that's how every single one of these starts off, all the letters of the churches. I know your works. I know what you've been doing. I know basically your works, right? He says, and where thou dwellest, and this is what's interesting here, and where thou dwellest. So where you reside, where you live, even where Satan's seat is, and holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. So twice it mentions here that this church is located in an area where Satan literally is dwelling. Like Satan has his dwelling place on earth, and it just so happens to be right by this church. So they're living in what could only be perceived as a very spiritually dark place. If you're in a place where Satan kind of has his stronghold, where he has his position of his home, his throne, his power, whatever, that he's running here on earth, that's gonna be a hard place to be at just in general. So just remember that as we're thinking about these things, because the persecution that that church was facing was also significant. Last week we saw also a church that didn't have any problems that was called out by God, but that they were warned also that they were gonna be receiving a lot of tribulation from Satan, and that they were gonna be thrown into jail for 10 days, and admonished to keep faithful unto death, and they'll receive a crown of life. But notice here that they even, this even, the persecution has gotten so bad that they even had someone martyred, right? Antipas, named by name, saying, you know, he's not denied the faith, he was slain among you, and it's inferred, obviously, for the cause of Christ, because Satan is attacking them, and this man is even martyred. Turn if you would, keep your place in Numbers 24, because we will be going there, but turn if you would to Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1. I just wanna, I wanna make sure everyone's clear about this also. A lot of times people are confused about where, you know, about Satan in general, and where he's located, and kinda, a lot of people will look to Revelation and think that Satan's been cast out of heaven, because that is written in the book of Revelation, that Satan's cast out of heaven, and the third part of the angels are cast out with him, right? And um, but that hasn't happened yet, and I don't wanna get into all of the details around the prophecy of Satan being cast out of heaven, but I wanna show you in Job, because Job's probably the easiest book to see this in, that Satan has the ability to travel between the earth and heaven. That he still has access to heaven, and what actually kicks off the great tribulation is when he is literally cast out of heaven, and then he gets really angry, and he makes war with the saints, and I don't wanna get too deep into that, because that's a whole nother in-depth sermon that would take significant time to go through the timeline events, but, you know, people will argue that believe that Satan's already cast out of heaven, because you say, well when did that actually happen? Well, it couldn't have happened before the book of Job, because we see very clearly here that Satan is, ends up showing up in heaven, so look at Job chapter 1 verse number 6, the Bible says, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. So here we see very clearly, Satan comes presenting himself before the Lord, in heaven, right? If the sons of God, the sons of God are gonna be believers, people who are in heaven already, they passed on, they're in heaven before the Lord, they're presenting themselves before the Lord, and then Satan just shows up, right? He shows up with these other people in heaven before the Lord, the Lord has a conversation with them, and said, Hey, where are you coming from, Satan, where have you been? And he tells us clearly, Well, I've been down in the earth. I've been walking up and down the earth, I've been, that's where he's been. So obviously, he has access to be able to travel back and forth, and at least he did during the days of Job, for sure, 100% for sure, there's no doubt about that. There's no question that Satan had access between heaven and earth, to walk to and fro in the earth, as well as to present himself before the Lord in heaven. In chapter two, basically, there's another reference to the same exact thing. So you can look that up. It basically tells you the same thing. I don't want to, you know, go through that again. But the fact that Satan isn't restricted from heaven, because we don't see any other thing up until you get to Revelation where it talks about Satan being cast out of heaven, that's going to indicate that Satan is no longer allowed in heaven. So I just want everyone to be aware, just to have a little bit extra knowledge on that, that Satan isn't, Satan, first of all, isn't bound in hell. Some people think, oh, Satan's ruling and reigning in hell. Nope, he's not in hell. I don't think he's ever been to hell. Satan does exist. He roams the earth. He's as a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour. That's what Satan does. He's the enemy. He's the adversary. That's what his name literally means. He's our adversary. He's against the Lord, right? He's very proud and is against the works of good churches, and he's trying to stop that. So this church at Pergamos is in a real hotbed of satanic activity, because this is literally where Satan dwells, and they're getting, I think, they're getting encouragement and they're being praised that they have faithful people that are in that church. I mean, there's people willing to be martyred in that church for the name of Jesus Christ. So that's a great thing to have, first and foremost. I think that's one of the reasons they're even considered to be a righteous church, because there's people in it that are, hey, I'm willing not to back down. I'll be martyred for the cause of Christ. So that's great to have people like that within the church. But there is a problem in the church, and it mainly has to do with doctrine. And this is pretty much, and there's a few things that are mentioned, but it's the doctrine of the church that God has a problem with. And, you know, people today want to have this shallow Christianity where, oh, doctrine's not that important, and we should all just come together, and we can all just have one big Christian family, and everyone all is just, you know, let's not worry about all these other little things and all these minor things about, look, things that are written in the Word of God, first of all, are not minor things. If God took the time to say it and preserve it, then it's important. It is important. Now, are there things that there's a scale of importance? I'm sure there is. I'm not going to deny that. There are some things that are more important than other things. But any doctrine, any truth you're going to find in the Scripture is going to be a very important doctrine. It's going to be a very important truth, understanding to know from God. And the doctrine that is taught in church is extremely important. Now, before I get into all the rest of that, because I'm jumping a little bit ahead of myself, we're going to cover a little bit about who Balaam was, because verse 14 in Revelation chapter 2 says, But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. Now, when you look at Balaam, turn if you would back now to Numbers 24, where we started reading in the passage. Balaam can be a confusing character if you don't really kind of study it out a little bit. On the surface, you might think that Balaam was a pretty good guy when you read the story. Because there's some subtleties that you could easily overlook, and I can understand how people can overlook them when you're reading the whole story. So the story of Balaam, and you can go back later on and read the story. If you remember the story of the ass that was speaking with a man's voice, that's included in the story of Balaam. So basically what happens is the king of Moab sees the children of Israel are approaching, and he wants them to be cursed. He's afraid of them. He doesn't want them to come in and destroy them or anything like that. So he wants the children of Israel to be cursed. So he sends his servants to go and hire Balaam to come in and curse the children of Israel. So Balaam is a prophet. Now I believe, and I'm going to teach, that Balaam was a false prophet, and I think it's evident from scripture that he was a false prophet. But he's known as a prophet. The king of Moab knows him to be a prophet, and he wants this guy to come in and bring a curse upon the children of Israel. And he's giving them all these promises, you know, I'm going to pay you real well, I'm going to give you this and give you that, and he's trying to hire him to come and curse the people. Now the reason why it could be a little confusing is because Balaam says a lot of things that are the right things, they're definitely the right things to say. So he tells them, well look, whatever God tells me, that's what I'm going to do. That's what I'm going to say. I could only do that. And he sticks to that, and that's actually completely right. That is the right attitude to have, and that's the right attitude we all should have, is hey, I'm not going to add anything to what God says, I'm not going to go against what God says, but it's just whatever God says. So for that very reason, and when we look at Revelation 24, look down at verse number 10, this is where you can get confused thinking that Balaam's a good guy because he's actually saying the right things here. Verse number 10, the Bible says, And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together, and Balak said unto Balaam, Balak is the king of Moab, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. So three times he's trying to get them to curse them, but three times Balaam actually ends up blessing the children of Israel instead of cursing him. Verse number 11 says, Therefore now flee thou to thy place. I thought to promote thee unto great honor, but lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honor, and Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers, which thou sentest unto me, saying, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord to do either good or bad of mine own mind, but what the Lord saith, that will I speak. So that's the, you know, and that's kind of the summary of what had happened previously. Basically what happened is he called Balaam, Balaam said, Okay, well, I'm going to see God. God speaks to Balaam and tells them that the children of Israel are not cursed, that they're blessed, right? And that should be enough to just say no, right? But then he tells them no, but then they're like, Well, wait a minute, no, you know, like, Well, are you sure, you know, come on back? And they're trying to just convince him to go and to curse him. And he's like, Well, all right, let me just see what the Lord says again. It's like, you already know what he said. So he goes back to ask him again. And then the Lord tells him, he says, Well, if they call you in the morning, basically, when they if they come to you, and they call you, then you can go with them. And what we read in the story is that Balaam doesn't wait for anyone to come and call him, he just goes, he just takes that as like, Okay, well, I'm going then, why? Because he liked the wages of unrighteousness. We'll see that in a little bit, we'll see the New Testament completely spell that out. But that's not the only thing that he does. Even though Balaam doesn't curse Israel here, and even though he actually is communicate like the Lord is telling him what to say and to bless the children of Israel. He is receiving a vision from God, which you can say, Well, how could a man possibly speak the word of the Lord or have a vision from God and still be a false prophet? How can that even happen? Well, we have another example of this happening in the New Testament. You remember that Caiaphas being the high priest in the New Testament, Jesus Christ was they were conspiring to put Jesus to death. And he made the statement that it was necessary that one man should die for the people. And the Bible very clearly says that he didn't say that of himself. But being the high priest that year, you know, he spake the Holy Ghost use him and spake the Word of God through him. Now, we know that he was not saved. I mean, a guy put Jesus Christ to death and was an evil, wicked devil. But God can still use evil people, wicked people to get for his will to be done, even to reveal the word of the Lord through the human instrument can be I mean, if you think about it, if you really think about it, I mean, we're all sinful and inappropriate vessels at the end of the day to be used of God because we're not perfect, right? So you know, God using different people now I can understand you still saying, well, no, you've got to be saved. I mean, there is a very clear distinction between saved people and unsaved people, you know, having the Spirit of God and things like that. But we have examples, you know, and that's one of them. And I believe this is another one where we see and then once you once you start seeing more of the evidence about Balaam here, you start to understand like, yeah, this guy was not a good guy. He was not a good prophet of God. He actually ended up causing a lot of damage to the children of Israel anyways, even though in that one specific instance, he was saying, nope, you know, he blessed him basically. He could not I mean, God just made sure that he wasn't going to curse him. God just wouldn't allow it. I think Balaam would have cursed him if God didn't step in and intervene and just reveal this to him. You know, we'll see that because that's the motivation behind Balaam and that's the pattern that he has ascribed in Scripture here. Now flip over to Numbers chapter 31. Because even though Balaam didn't curse Israel there, that is why he went to the King of Moab was to curse them. But then he also taught Balak how to get God to curse them anyways. He taught Balak what it would be. And we started off in Revelation 2 verse 14, it says, but I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam. So first of all, people are holding the doctrine of Balaam. That's a bad thing. And that's the thing that God's saying they need to repent of that. And it describes a little bit about the doctrine of Balaam, it says, who taught Balak to cast the stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and commit fornication. So Balak instructs, or excuse me, Balaam instructs Balak and says, okay, well I, you know, he didn't, and we don't see all this written out in a conversation, but we know that it happened because the Scripture says that he taught Balak to do this. So even though he couldn't curse them with his own mouth, basically what he goes and says to the king, well, hey, if you want them to be cursed, if you want them to be punished, they can bring it on themselves and here's how you do it. You just got to get them to commit fornication with the ladies, with the women of Moab and to eat things offered unto idols. And those two things go hand in hand. And again, this is kind of a deeper topic, but when you look up the reasoning behind not marrying the heathen women and not taking wives of the heathen women back in the Old Testament, the reasoning was because they're going to turn your heart away from the Lord. And that's something that's taught consistently in Scripture, is that when you're finding a spouse, you need to find a believer, someone who's a believer in the Lord, because otherwise it's going to have the likelihood of them turning your heart away from God. If they're not already a believer, if they're not already saved, and that was the teaching there as well, that they're going to turn your heart away from the Lord. And what happened here is through that fornication, these women are turning them into doing things like eating things offered unto idols and starting to go after these strange gods and do these other customs that is not right for them to do, is sinful for them to do. So he taught Balak how to do that. In Numbers 31 verse 15, the Bible says, And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel through the counsel of Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. So he's saying that, you know, the women, he's saying you left the women alive. Those are the women that caused the children of Israel to sin. But those are the women that that through the counsel of Balaam, through Balaam's advice, through Balaam's counsel, taught them to fornicate with the children of Israel in order to bring a curse on the children of Israel. And that is what happened. And a plague went through, flip back to Numbers 25, we'll read about that plague. And you'll see the damage that was done all through the doctrine, through the teaching, through the counsel of Balaam. And you'll see where his heart really was. And when you understand how, I mean, Balaam had this experience with the Lord, where he saw the visions, he was in a trance, his eyes being opened out of his own mouth, said that, you know, and knew that the children of Israel were blessed, yet he still does things after that to bring a curse on the children of Israel. That's a wicked person. I mean, you have an experience and a vision of God saying my people are blessed, you cannot go out and curse. And then you just go out and say, okay, well, I'm not gonna curse them with my mouth, but I'm gonna do all these other things to get them into sin, to bring a curse upon them. That's a wicked person. And you cannot understate that, that those intentions and that motivation to go and do that is extremely wicked. And his personal motivation was the love of money. He was greedy. That's why he did it. In Joshua 22, 17, I'll just, you know, because he's brought up multiple times in the scripture, and it's never a positive thing, because you can look at the story and go, well, what? I mean, he said, I'm only gonna say what God said. But every time he's brought up, it's always a negative, always a negative. So don't get fooled by the thing that sounded good out of his mouth, because you know what, the thing that sounded good out of his mouth ultimately wasn't true in his heart at the end of the day. And false prophets have a tendency, have ability to come in and say a lot of really good things. That's how they gain confidence in people to begin with, is they'll be able to say things, wow, that sounds really good. Oh, he sounds real strong in the faith. He sounds real bold. He's taking a good stand. But they're wicked in their heart, and then their actions later will end up showing their true intention. And we saw and we see Balaam's true intentions end up unfolding, even though at the beginning he sounds pretty good. He seems like a good guy. And that's what we need to be aware about with false prophets. And false prophets is a warning. They have a long impact. Balaam had a significant impact throughout history, because even in Revelation, you've got people in that church at that time, which is way after Balaam even lived, following the doctrines of Balaam. And it's not that Balaam came up with that, came up with greed or whatever, but he's just typified as that type of a false prophet. Joshua 22 17 says, is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day? Although there was a plague in the congregation of the Lord. So this is when Joshua's bringing this up. Now this is a lot closer in time, right, from when it actually happened. But he's saying, we're still not cleansed from that event. We need to be doing things right, because that happened, and there was that plague, but we're still not cleansed from that event. We need to remember not forget about that. Numbers 25, verse number one, here is what happened. Here's the plague. The Bible says, and Israel abode and shit him, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods, and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. So what you have happening here is you've got the Israelites mingling with the Moabites. And the Moabites had false gods, false religion, and they start committing whoredom and fornication with the women of the land to the point to where now they're sacrificing unto their gods, and they're bowing down to them, and they're eating this stuff, and just getting completely turned away from the Lord. Verse four says, and the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal Peor. So he was saying, anyone that's guilty in this sin, he's like, they need to just be killed. I mean, he's trying to stop a cancer from spreading throughout the children of Israel and saying, you know what, they need to be put to death. It was that serious of a problem, them going after these heathen women and eating things like sacrifice on idols and just going down that path, where he's saying, they need to be killed. And look, this isn't my judgment, this isn't Moses' judgment, this is God's judgment. This is what needs to happen. It says in verse six, and behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianite-ish woman in the sight of Moses. This is how brazen they become that even in Moses' sight, he just doesn't care at all, he's got this woman with him and he's just living in fornication with her and just like, what, what are you going to do? And in the sight of all the congregation and of the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he rose up 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 belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. That's a, you know, this is a graphic event. This is a disturbing event, right? This isn't pleasant to think about and read, like, man, can you believe that happened? I'm like, I never took a javelin and just, you know, killed his people. But that's what it took for that plague to be stayed. This demonstrates the gravity of the sinfulness of these actions. Of course, this demonstrates also the end of sin. The wages of sin is death, right? Lust once conceived bring forth sin and sin when it's finished bringeth forth death. And this is that, that, that literal playing out of that sin. See, people want to think, oh, I, what's the big deal? I love this woman, right? I'm going to, you know, and they commit fornication, but they call it love. They say it's not a big, a big problem, but it is. It is a big deal. And then God dies. It's a really big deal. And it ends up getting people killed and committing whoredom and, oh, what's the big deal? We're just going to, you know, offer the sacrifice and eat this food and what, you know, no, it's a real big deal. And it cannot be overstated. I mean, when you've got people being pierced with a javelin and that's what's going to stop the plague, that's pretty serious. Verse number nine, and those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. Twenty four thousand people, that's a lot of people, twenty four thousand people died in the plague, which was a punishment from God because of their sinful activities. And all of that was brought about because Balaam taught Balak what to do to get them to be cursed. Balak wanted their numbers dwindling by twenty four thousand because militarily that's going to help him if you don't have twenty four thousand people on the opposing side, then he's hoping that he can have an advantage or whatever. But twenty four thousand people died and that was all, ultimately, now look, everybody is responsible for themselves, right? All those twenty four thousand that was in that sin and committing iniquity, they all have their own personal responsibility. However, there's still a great influence that false prophets have and false teachers to go in and help people get into that sin. Which is one of the reasons why we got to be real careful with the doctrine that we choose to believe and the prophets or preachers that we choose to listen to. Because you don't want to be led astray and to be as one of these people who's just going off and getting into sin and getting into wickedness, it's going to end up potentially losing your life as a result. I mean, that is how serious this is, you know, people say, oh, who cares what church I go to? You know, it's all the same. No, it's not all the same. It's not all the same. I mean, there are many churches that teach damnable doctrines, doctrines of devils, terrible heresies, and they might sound good on the surface, but underneath is death, like literally death. And this is the type of thing that Balaam was preaching here and teaching. Now one other thing, and this wasn't in my notes, but Joshua 13, 22, this is in my notes. The Bible refers to Balaam as being a soothsayer. Now does a soothsayer sound like someone who's a real godly person, or does it sound like someone who uses witchcraft and enchantments? In where we started reading in Numbers 24, the very first verse, the Bible says, and Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not as at other times to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. So even when he was trying to communicate with the Lord, how was he doing it? He's trying to use enchantments. He's using witchcraft to try to determine what the Lord is telling him. That is the first huge red flag going, this guy ain't right. I mean, if he's really a prophet, if he's really this big prophet, this big name prophet of the Lord, and someone's gonna make this real strong stand, what in the world is he doing using enchantments? And why is he known as a soothsayer? We have examples of God using unsaved, wicked people to deliver his word, but we have zero examples of people involved in witchcraft and called soothsayers being prophets of the Lord. This would be the only example, and the reason why is because he's a false prophet, because he's into that stuff. He's not a righteous person. The Bible says, flip back if you went to Deuteronomy 23, I kind of covered this a little bit already, but I'll show you the verses, you know, Joshua 13, 22, I started reading, Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them. So when the children of Israel finally defeated Moab, they went in and had war, it's not like they rescued Balaam and they saved him because he's a prophet and he's only gonna say the things the Lord says, no, they killed him with the rest of them. In fact, they killed him, I mean, he's a soothsayer. They killed Balaam the soothsayer who taught Balak how to get them cursed when God wouldn't allow Balaam himself to curse them. Deuteronomy 23 verse 4, the Bible reads, because they met you not with bread and with water and the way, talking about Moab, when you came forth out of Egypt and because they hired against the Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse thee. So that was their intent, they hired Balaam, but look at verse 5, nevertheless, the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam. So it doesn't sound like Balaam wants to curse him, that in Balaam's heart, he wanted to curse them, but God's saying, you know what, I didn't listen to Balaam, because that is what happened. Even though Balaam's saying, oh, I'm only gonna do what God said, he's going because he wants to get the reward, he wants to get the accolades, he wants to get the result of cursing them, so he's going to God, basically going, can I curse him, I'm gonna, you know, he wants to curse them, but God didn't listen to him and says, but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee because the Lord thy God loved thee. So God made sure they got a blessing, but that's not what Balaam wanted. And in the end, he still found a way to be able to curse them. Even in the New Testament, those are all Old Testament examples, but in the New Testament, we've got, you could turn to 2 Peter chapter 2, both 2 Peter chapter 2 and Jude, the book of Jude are parallel passages, and what that is is, you know, they basically cover the same content. And you'll find other passages like that between Colossians and Ephesians, you'll find these, you call them sister passages or whatever, you know, they're related, they're correlated passages that cover the same exact topics and you can look through and there's a lot of huge similarities between 2 Peter chapter 2 and the book of Jude, and they both deal with the subject of false prophets. So there's a lot to learn about false prophets in both of those passages, but both of those passages also bring up Balaam. Balaam's name, if he wasn't a false prophet, why would he be, I mean, the two chapters that are just dedicated to telling us about false prophets, they bring up Cain, right? Cain was a false prophet, Cain sold his birthright, Cain was a wicked person. They bring up Balaam and they bring up Korah from the Old Testament as well, it's another wicked person withstood Moses and causing rebellion and things like that, and those are all listed as false prophets. We're going to look at verse number 12 here in 2 Peter chapter 2, well, verse number 1 says, but there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. So the warning just from the beginning of the chapter is saying, you know, hey, there is false prophets among the people and there will be false teachers among you too. And you need to watch out for them because they're going to try to come in privately, they're going to come in secretly and bring in their damnable heresies. And that's one of the ways they're going to try to destroy the church, because as we see, the damnable heresies are brought into a church, that's going to threaten that church from even having a candlestick before the Lord. Because if you don't repent, he's going to say, I'm going to remove your candlestick, and that's what we're dealing with this morning. So jump down to verse number 12, the Bible says, but these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed again in reference to the false prophet, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption, and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime, spots they are in blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, and heart they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children, which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked for his iniquity, the dumbass speaking with man's voice, for bad the madness of the prophet. So these reprobate false prophets, they're following the wrong way. They've gone astray from the right way, and what is the wrong way? The wrong way is typified by Balaam. He said they're not following the right way, they're following Balaam's way. So he's describing false prophets, and he says they're following Balaam's way, oh but Balaam's not a false prophet. Yeah, right. Why would he be the one being brought up as the example of the false prophet, that they're all following his way? And think about this too. What did he use to teach Balak to cause the children of Israel sin? The guy was perverted, and was trying to teach, whatever it was that was perverted, he was getting them to commit fornication, and it would make sense that Balaam had eyes full of adultery, like we see there in verse 14 about the false prophet that cannot cease from sin, beguiling or tricking unstable souls. You know some of them, you have a lot of people who can be unstable souls, but younger people tend to be more unstable than people who are older. And also the sins of fornication have a higher propensity among younger people than they do among older people. Of course it affects everybody, but there's just younger people, they're more unstable, and they've got a lot more going on in their own bodies that's gonna lead them to be more likely to give in to these sins, and that's who the false prophet attacks. They have eyes full of adultery, they can't cease from sin, they trick the unstable souls, they have an heart, they have exercise with covetous practices, so their heart is concerned with getting more things, getting more money, getting things that they don't have, that they shouldn't have, but they want it, that's a covetousness, they're cursed children. And that describes Balaam perfectly because he loved the wages of unrighteousness. It was unrighteous to try to curse the children of Israel, but he wanted those wages, he wanted that payment, he wanted those riches from the king of Moab, and he wanted them so bad that even when God just clearly said, no, they're not being cursed, he still found a way to be able to curse them and bring all that evil and death and destruction upon Israel, upon God's people, because he loved the wages of unrighteousness, because he was a false prophet. Jude, verse number 10, the Bible reads, but these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally is brute beasts, and those things, they corrupt themselves, woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perish in the gainsaying of Corey. So what's the doctrine of Balaam? Loving the wages of unrighteousness, covetousness, being a sellout, loving money, being greedy. These are the things that are being taught by Balaam. These are the doctrines. And what are we being warned about, or what is the church being warned about in Revelation 2, was there were people within the church, verse 14, again, I'll read this for you again, but I have a few things against thee, because that thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam. So one of the problems that they need to fix is that there were people within the church that were holding to this doctrine of Balaam, and the doctrine of Balaam revolves around selling out and the wages of unrighteousness and having covetousness and fornication and the eating things sacrificed unto idols. All of those things are being taught by Balaam. It also says, when it comes to the doctrine, verse 15, so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Now the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, I don't know what this is, okay, I don't know what the doctrine is. It's brought up a few times in scripture. We already saw this once in Revelation 2, verse 6, it says, but this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. In that verse it says the deeds of the Nicolaitans. In this passage it says the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, I would assume the two are linked together, right, their doctrine is tied in with their deeds. Similarly, you can see the doctrine of Balaam is also tied in with the deeds, with the fornication and eating things sacrificed unto idols. I've heard theories, I've read theories and seen things, I just don't think we could know exactly what it is. And people were saying, well, who are the Nicolaitans? Obviously it's a group of people that are holding to a doctrine and they're known as Nicolaitans because they're following someone named Nicholas, right, they're Nicolaitans because they're following a man or following a person, a cult leader, a false prophet named Nicholas, and they're bringing in this doctrine and it was someone that was around at the time that sounded good. I've read things saying, well, maybe that was, you know, one of the, one of the deacons that was, you know, like Stephen, Nicholas was one of the people at Antioch that was ordained to be one of the leaders there. There's no evidence of that. We don't know that that's that person. I wouldn't want to bring a slander upon his name. I've read that, but again, there's just a total lack of evidence in scripture itself and I don't like going to extra biblical materials to try to determine who these people were because if it was important to know specifically who it was, I think then God would make it clear who that person was. What we need to learn is why is this in the scripture? Why is this important? The reason why is because churches can succumb to these people, these false prophets and bring in this damnable heresy and cause a church to die, cause a church to be no longer a church in God's eyes. Doctrine is extremely important and it has an emphasis in New Testament as well that we need to have good doctrine. Turn if you would to First Timothy chapter four. First Timothy chapter four, I'm going to read for you from Romans 16. Romans 16 verse 17 says, Now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. Then mark the people that are causing divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned. So you've learned good doctrine, right? He's saying in here specifically it's a letter to the Romans, right? The apostle Paul knows he gave them good doctrine. You have solid doctrine and he says, you know what? These people that are trying to bring in this other doctrine that's causing this division, he says, you know what? Mark those people, mark them, avoid them, have nothing to do with them because they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly. Watch out for the people who are going to come in with different doctrine trying to say, oh, but look at this, you know, then the doctrine you know to be good that you've taught that's been proven and then people come in trying to change that and cause division within the church, watch out for people like that. Says here that they serve their own belly and it's basically the same motivation as Balaam as well. 1 Timothy chapter 4, look at verse number 6, the Bible says, if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine whereunto thou hast attained. Jump down to verse number 13, Bible reads, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. So this is what's being instructed to Timothy by the Apostle Paul, he says, hey, you need to be paying attention, make sure you're reading, make sure you're exhorting people and make sure you got your good doctrine, having good doctrine is all throughout the scripture. Verse 14, neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. We cannot underestimate the importance and power of doctrine. You need to have good, clear, solid doctrine. In order to have that, you need to be reading your scripture. You need to be looking at it, studying it, reading it for yourself. You need to be coming to church regularly and getting fed and getting doctrine and getting stuff taught, things that you might not have picked up in your own reading that you can hear and learn and understand and get your doctrine down. If you don't even know what doctrine you believe, it's going to be a lot easier for you to be deceived by people who are teaching false doctrine because it's going to sound good because people will cunningly devise fables and try to get people to believe lies because they're bad people. False prophets are bad people inherently down to the bone, down to their heart. They are wicked, bad people, and they want to destroy. Balaam was a bad person. He was a bad person down to his heart, and I have no problem saying that. I think the evidence is plentiful in scripture describing who Balaam was. Don't be deceived by the few chapters where he was saying the right thing because he had a wicked heart. He was a false prophet and he caused all kinds of damage under the children of Israel because he was able to deceive them through his false doctrine that he was bringing in. We need to watch out for the same type of false doctrine that's going to promote promiscuity and who cares, that Old Testament law, we're free under grace. We don't need that law anymore. We don't need to follow that. That's what's known as maybe the hyper-grace people sometimes that we'd be accused of because we believe in free salvation that was bought and paid for by Jesus Christ, but not to be confused with people who say, well, let us sin that good may come, right? And that's wicked. But that would be the way of Balaam. Let us sin that grace may abound. That's their doctrine, which is completely contrary to scripture. And Jesus said, go and sin no more. Of course, 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, very famous passage says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect through the furnish and all good works. The whole Bible, all of scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's all the word of God, and it's all profitable for doctrine. We need to make sure our doctrine is right. Doctrine from the Old Testament, doctrine from the New Testament. We're not throwing out any of it. It's all given by inspiration of God. It's all important. We study it, learn it, and give our, you know, seek wisdom and knowledge from God so that we wouldn't be deceived by the false prophet that's going to come in and try to ruin the doctrine of the church. And then the last point I wanted to make about this church, in verse 16 of Revelation 2, the Bible reads, repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. So the letters instructed to the angel, to the church, right, to the leader of the church. And it wasn't the whole church because the church had some good people in it that were willing to be martyred for the cause of Christ. They were facing the persecution because they literally lived where Satan was dwelling on the earth at that time, right in that same vicinity. So they're experiencing these attacks, but they also then had some within the church that were holding on to the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. So these false prophets were having these influences within the church. And he tells him, repent, right? Why is he telling the leader of the church that, oh, there's some people in his doctrine? Because he needs to be preaching and teaching good sound doctrine within the church and making sure that the church is in one accord and in unity in their belief and taking care of that problem. Obviously these problems of having these doctrines, we can all disagree on various things on how we understand scripture in different areas, right? There's that openness and freedom, but at the same time, there are certain doctrines that if you don't believe in this church, you don't belong in this church. Go find a church that believes those things. If you're going to be hardheaded and stubborn and say, no, this is what you know, this is that I'm a Nicolaitan, the Nicolaitans got to get out. And again, we don't know the specifics about that doctrine, but obviously it was big enough of a deal to say, yeah, you need to take care of that. You can't have those people spreading that doctrine in the church because it's a damnable heresy. So we can have disagreements on end time stuff, on other things, those aren't what this is talking about. This is talking about getting people to sin, sins unto death. That's what the doctrine of Balaam was teaching. And that is unacceptable in church and we're not going to allow it here. And that's not what I believe. And again, if you're not going to go and just join yourself unto a church like that, I'm just going to think you're here for one reason then otherwise would be to destroy and to be like Balaam. That's what those people do. But again, we're talking about real serious things. So it's talking about major doctrines. I'm not saying you have to agree with every single thing that I say, because that's not the way it is here. But he says, repent or else I will come unto thee quickly, the singular, going to the head of the church there, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Now when he says he's going to fight against them, those are the people who are holding the false doctrine, those are the people who are clinging to these, you know, these Nicolaitans and people following the doctrine of Balaam. And when he says he's going to go against them with the sword of his mouth, he's not referring to giving them scripture. When he's talking about the sword that comes out of his mouth, this is also mentioned in Revelation 19, the last place you could turn if you want to look there, Revelation 19, the sword that goes out of his mouth. When we talk about the two-edged sword, the sword that comes out of his mouth, oftentimes you may look at that as symbolic as the word of God, but in this context, this isn't symbolic of just being taught right doctrine. This is the Lord bringing death unto these people. He's given them space to repent, he's given them opportunity to get right, and if you don't, these people are going to end up dying. Revelation 19 verse 15, the Bible says, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And then verse 21, there's another reference to the sword coming out of his mouth, it says, and the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. Their flesh died, they were killed with the sword that came out of his mouth, of course this is talking about Jesus Christ being on the horse, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Revelation 19, and he's literally killing their flesh. That's the reference, same type of context, same thing that is being threatened in Revelation chapter 2, and saying, look, you need to get this right, you need to teach the sound solid doctrine or else there's going to be a plague and people are going to die. That's what happened with the children of Israel with Balaam, who is also referenced here. There's 24,000 people there, I mean, I doubt this church was that big, but it still was going to be a significant thing. But we also see in God, you know, he wants people to get right and repent. Even with these serious things, he's like, you know, we need to get this right. God didn't want to go and kill them, if he did, he wouldn't give them an opportunity to get right with them. But he's going to do what he's going to do, he's still righteous, just God, and he says, this can't go on, this has to change. We need to make sure in church that we don't allow ourselves to get slack when it comes to good doctrine and solid doctrine, because that is, I mean, that could literally bring death to people, I believe that. You call me crazy or whatever, but if that was a warning to this church in Revelation, I'm going to take that as a serious warning here. We need to make sure we have good doctrine, we need to make sure we're studying to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, and that we can just believe and hold to good, solid doctrine. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for all the warnings and admonitions and the things we can learn from these various churches in Revelation 2 and 3, and I pray that you would please help us to learn the things that we need to know as a church today, that we can be pleasing in your sight and that we can try to avoid the pitfalls that other churches have gone through, Lord. Help us to grow, and I pray that you please help us to do a lot more works, that when you view our works, that our works are good before your sight, Lord. Help us in the areas that we need help and help us to understand and bring to our attention the areas where we lack and where we fail so that we can fix those, Lord. I know we're not perfect, and sometimes, God, for us, it may be kind of hard to see our own faults, so, Lord, I pray that you would please expose those to us and help us to learn them and know them so we can get them right. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.