We Need More Jealousy - Numbers 25

What a phrase, in Christ. We read it so many times in the Bible. In the Bible, but to be able to say that you are in Christ. There's nothing greater than that. People boast in the world they're in a certain group or they went to a certain college, but here we the Christians, we can say we're in Christ. We're heirs of God with Christ seated in the heavenlies right now. Well, in some way. Well, turn in your Bibles to Numbers. Chapter 25. While you're turning there, let me ask a question. Who here this morning longs to be more jealous? Who here looks at your life and you say, I wish I had more jealousy? Jealousy. I'm not jealous enough as I should be. Now, when we hear that word jealousy, it tends to carry connotations of something negative, right? You hear jealousy, something negative. We're going to find in this chapter, it's not something negative. It's something you want more of, I want more of. Not a single one of us this morning can say we have a perfect degree of jealousy for the Lord. We all lack. There's some area in our life where we need a greater degree of concern for what matters to God. We need more jealousy for the things that matter to the Lord. And obviously, the big thing with jealousy is what are you jealous for? Is it something that God is jealous for? Then you being jealous for it is a good thing. It's not a negative. So, I want to read Numbers 25, the whole chapter, and as I do that, I'm going to give a couple comments as we go to explain a couple of things here. Numbers 25. Let us pray before I read. Father, Lord, You're good. You are a good God, and Lord, we read that You are a jealous God. And Lord, I pray, would You use this message in the Christian's life? My brothers and sisters here who are in Christ, Lord, would You use it in some way to stir them up, to have more jealousy, to have a greater concern, to be more careful and guarded in the things that matter to You? Lord, that we would be consumed with a zeal for You more than we have right now. Lord, we want to be stirred up more and more. Lord, Your Word says we even come here today to stir each other up to love and good works. And so, Father, would You use this message, would You use this chapter to stir up my brothers and sisters in me? Please, Lord, help come. Father, give me Your Holy Spirit. Lord, I need Your help right now. Lord, I pray You'd be with Zeke at the prison as he is speaking there. Lord, help Zeke. God, give us grace in all of our weakness. In Jesus' name, Amen. So Numbers 25, verse 1. While Israel lived in Shittim, why were they there? Where were they on their way to? Who knows? How many more stops did they have until they got to the Promised Land? Next stop, the Promised Land. Canaan to conquer the land. While they lived there, the people began to whore. That's physical adultery, sexual immorality, with the daughters of Moab. Moabites, Midianites, who are allies. They are near where Israel's at right now. And so, the daughters of Moab are coming in there. Men in Israel are committing immorality. Verse 2, they've already committed the immorality. In verse 2, these women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. So they're taking it a step further. Not just the sexual sin. Now, let's invite them to the sacrifices of our gods. And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Ate and bowed down. In Psalm 106, it says the sacrifices were offered to the dead. Here, verse 3. By doing this, Israel yoked himself, the nation, to Baal of Peor. So to a false god, the Lord of Peor. They yoked themselves. They've now committed spiritual adultery. Physical, spiritual, things are not looking good here. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. You want to know what God's response is to their sin? His anger is kindled. Our holy, holy God. Verse 4, and the Lord said to Moses, take all the chiefs of the people and hang them. Meaning, execute them. Kill them. In the sun before the Lord. In the sun. Meaning, do it quickly before the sun goes down. Don't procrastinate. It's daylight. Get it done before the sun is down. Do this swiftly. Why? Why kill them? "...that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel." So your sin has brought God's anger. Kill these people. And then, I will remove my anger. Verse 5, and Moses said to the judges of Israel, each of you, kill those of His men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor. And now, I believe a space of time happens. Verse 6 doesn't instantly come afterwards, because we're going to see in a little bit that 24,000 people have already died at this point. Verse 6, and behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman. Not a Moabite. So now we have a woman who's a Midianite. Initially, it was the daughters of Moab, and now it's a Midianite woman, to his family in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel. You go a few chapters later, do you know what the census is? The least of the men, the census of this time? 600,000. This man took that woman in the sight of 600,000 people in this congregation while, verse 6 says, they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. He's doing this in the midst of what appears to be a repentance taking place in action based on what the Lord told Moses they should do. Verse 7, when Phinehas, and for those who pronounce it Phinehas, I'm going to choose today the pronunciation of Phinehas. When Phinehas, and this is not the same Phinehas as Eli's sons. That comes later. And that Phinehas probably was named after this Phinehas. You can have a name of a Bible character who's godly and it doesn't make you godly. Eli's sons, their end was not well. Verse 7, when Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, when he saw it, he rose and left the congregation. He took a spear in his hand and he went after the man of Israel into the chamber where they now got to, and he pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her belly. Thus, the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Verse 9, nevertheless, those who died by the plague were 24,000. Before we read verse 10, notice this word plague got introduced. Initially, there's no mention of some plague. Now that word plague could mean the word plague could be rendered to slaughter, to strike, or to blow. But it does appear like God is also involved here in executing this judgment. It's not just referring to the plague of the Israelites slaughtering those who yoked themselves to Baal of Peor. Verse 10, And the Lord said to Moses, so what does God think about what Phinehas did? Here it is. You ready? Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, so he's a priest. He's not even a judge, which were the ones called to do the killing, has turned back My wrath from the people of Israel. Why? How did he do it? What happened? In that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore, say, Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace. It shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel. Verse 14, The name of the slain man of Israel who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri, the son of Saul, chief of a father's house belonging to the Semionites. And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cosby, the daughter of Zer, who was the tribal head of a father's house in Midian. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying..." So here the Moabites had done this, and now the Midianite woman came in. Verse 17, "...harassed the Midianites." That's where Cosby was from. "...And striked them down." Why? "...For they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled, deceived, frauded you in the matter of Peor. And in the matter of Cosby, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor." So thus reads the Word of God. So what do we do with this chapter? How many of you have read this chapter recently or thought about it? Anyone? Diego has? Phinehas? Yeah, I love Phinehas. We're so close to naming a son Phinehas. And I heard you could pronounce it Phinehas and I just got confused if we named him Phinehas. But again, Eli's son had that name and he turned out to be a wicked son. In this chapter, I want to consider God, who is a jealous God in His jealousy. Phinehas, who was jealous with God's jealousy. And then third, the enemy, who is jealous and is greatly concerned and prowls around like a roaring lion to devour you and I. And we've got an enemy who we might be one stop away from the land of Canaan. Do you think that enemy is giving rest? No, he's not giving rest. And so I want to look at the jealousy of God, Phinehas, and the enemy. And to do that, we actually have to ask ourselves who the enemy is. And that gets tricky. The enemy is not who you would think if you just read this one chapter. So, let's think about those things. Now before I do that, I want to think for a moment about jealousy. So we're going to think about jealousy and then we're going to look at these three individuals. So, jealousy. Jealousy has many negative connotations. You should not instantly have something negative when you hear the word jealousy. Jealousy, what is it? One lexicon, it says it's someone being watchful or careful in guarding or keeping and defending something. Very careful in watching or guarding and keeping something. They are deeply concerned about something. Now the question is, is what they're deeply concerned about, is it in accord with God's desires or is it not? Because you have people who are jealous for something that God is not jealous for. Now another question to ask before I think of this question, think of this. Is jealousy an emotion? Is there emotion involved? Yeah, there is. When you think about needing more jealousy for the Lord, it does mean needing more of an emotion and a desire. Be all out for Christ. More than we are at this very moment. Now what about jealousy and zeal? Are they the same thing? Jealousy, zeal, is it the same? If I took a Greek New Testament or a Greek Bible, the Septuagint, the word in the Greek New Testament for jealousy in Numbers 25 is zealos. Zealos is the word they put there. And the Hebrew word is kanah. Probably not pronouncing that right. But different translations will render Numbers 25 with the word zealos. If you look at a literal translation of the Bible, when you get down to the verse where the Lord commends Phinehas, it says, He was zealous with My zeal among them, so I did not consume the people in My zeal. And zeal is obviously a strong desire, a strong concern for something. So jealousy and zeal are incredibly similar. I'm not going to say there are not distinctions, but for the purpose of this sermon, we could take jealousy and replace it with the word zealous. And there are Bible translations that do that very thing. Now think of this, when you hear the word zeal, does that bring good or bad thoughts? Good. But does the Bible use the word zeal to describe something bad that an individual is doing? It does. They had zeal, not according to knowledge. Paul was extremely zealous for the traditions of his father. So the Bible talks about jealousy in a bad way, it talks about zeal in a bad way, and it talks about both of them in a good way as well. So, the real question is this, what is motivating you with your incredibly deep concern to guard something? What's motivating you? Why are you jealous about a certain thing that is taking place? And what's Phineas' answer? Look at the text. Look at v. 11. He was jealous with what? Say again? He was jealous with whose jealousy? My jealousy. So he's jealous with the same jealousy God has. Phineas' desires were hand-in-hand with what God is desiring. And then he goes on and he says in v. 13, because he was jealous for who? His God. So Phineas was jealous for his God. So we can see where Phineas' zeal, his jealousy was for, is for God. So ask yourself this, when you think about jealousy and this deep concern you have for something, is this something the Lord is jealous about? Is my passion about this in accords with God's passion? Are my desires going hand-in-hand with God's desires? What does God think about my desire from His Word? A man who's jealous for God does not tolerate what God hates. We're in a generation of people, we just got to tolerate everything. Did Phineas have a lot of toleration for the sexual immorality? And the idolatry? He didn't. And you know why he didn't? Because who before him did not have toleration for that? God. God sent a plague. God wiped out 24,000 of these people whether through Him killing them in the plague or physically the sword. God does not take sin lightly. And our God of the old is the same of the new. We're going to clarify that in a second though. So many in Israel committed physical and spiritual adultery. Phineas was rightly angry at such. He was right in his jealousy. Now, how did Phineas obey? Under this government of Israel in a theocratic nation with laws of adultery and idolatry, how was Phineas to respond to the problem? And what was God's command for him to do? To physically kill them. Right? Does that apply for us today? No, it does not. You do not find that in our New Covenant, that we find in our New Testament canon of Scripture. The closest thing that we would find of this type of jealousy is a church that sees sin among them and they're jealous to discipline the person out of the church. We don't find the New Testament commending us in violence in the physical realm. Our enemies are not physical Moabites and Midianites who we need to take their physical land. Our enemies are in the spiritual realm where we wrestle against principalities and powers and things that are not of this world. So asking why you're jealous is important. Now, let me show you an example of wrong jealousy. Flip over to Numbers 13. Numbers 11. Numbers 11. We'll be right back in 25 in a second. Numbers 11. Verse 26, Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad. And the Holy Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out of the tent. And so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, from his youth said, My Lord Moses, stop them! But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit on them. And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. Was Joshua's great concern and jealousy here good or bad? It was bad. Now it could appear for a moment you think this is good, right? I mean, it's for Moses. I mean, it's got to be good. Moses, he smells this out. This whole party spirit and one-man show. No, Moses, he doesn't want anything to do with that. He wishes everyone would be prophesying. There is a jealousy for your party to get all of the honor. Is that God's concern? Does that match up to God's desire? It doesn't. Does this happen in our New Testaments? Where does it happen? 1 Corinthians 1. I follow who? I follow Apollos. I follow Paul. Cephas? That's a party spirit. That being jealous for that like John's disciples were jealous for him was wrong. Because their desire did not match up to God. And so they were going with great zeal and jealousy for that which was actually sin because it was not according to God's desire. Their great concern was not something God was greatly concerned about. Their jealousy for their party was not something that God was concerned about. Many people have a zeal for God that's not properly informed. Romans 10:2 You can turn back to Numbers 25. Let me read a couple of verses. Romans 10:2 For I bear them witness that Jews have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Now listen to this. Galatians 1:14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age. My people... this is Paul speaking. "...So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my father." Paul was so extremely jealous for the traditions of his father. What was one of the traditions of his father? Who was someone from the past? Phineas. Did Paul ever do anything like Phineas? Did he ever see anyone yoking themselves to what he thought was a false god and he approved of them being killed? Yeah. Paul was there approving of Stephen being killed because Paul was an extremely zealous Jew who was rejecting the fulfillment of Christ being the Messiah. He had a lot of zeal that was not according to knowledge. And he could go back to Numbers 25 and say I'm just doing what Phineas is doing. They're yoking themselves to this false teacher named Jesus and we're going to kill them. And Paul did that. Paul was involved in killing. So that shows you the subtlety of how you can be wrong in your zeal. And in the transfiguration, you've got Moses, you've got Elijah, and what does God the Father say? In the end, it's just Christ there and He says this is My Son, My Chosen One. Listen to Him. Any Jew who doesn't agree that Christ is the Chosen One and they're listening to Christ now, they can go to Numbers 25 all day and they're going to be confused and deceived and apply it wrongly because that's not God's Word for today for the Christian. To go and physically kill those who yoke themselves to Baal. And the Christian is not yoking themselves to Baal. They're yoking themselves to the true God and the Jew is actually now the one yoked to a false god because they reject the Messiah. They reject the progressive revelation of Scriptures that makes it clear that Christ has come. So, you can be jealous and zealous and dead wrong. Or you can have zeal that's good. You can have zeal for a person and it is for God's honor. Think of 2 Corinthians 11 too. Paul says this, For I feel a divine jealousy for you. What type of jealousy? Divine. Who's this jealousy from? God. Well, let's say of Phinehas, he was jealous with my jealousy. So same thing, Paul says here, I've got a divine jealousy for you, the church of Corinth, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. This jealousy is divine of God and goes hand in hand with God's desires. 1 Peter 3:13 Now, who is to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? So the question is, is my jealousy for what is good and in line with God? Because if it is, you want more of it. You want more of a greater desire to defend the honor of the Lord. Now let me give a warning though. There are many, maybe among the young crowd, who have a zeal devoid of biblical love. They could hear a sermon on zeal and they go around and judge everyone and condemn everyone. That's not the point of this passage. That's not the point of my sermon. It's to encourage harsh, extreme, and balanced zeal. That's what the Pharisees did. And they thought they were being zealous for God and they were not. They're ultimately being zealous for the devil. So do we need to be jealous? Yeah, Titus 2 says, He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness, to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works. And I'm telling you, zealous and jealous, they're incredibly similar. He's saying right there to be jealous for good works, to be greatly concerned for good works that honor God, that are for the Lord. So, let's think for a moment about our God. God wants you greatly concerned. God wants you full of jealousy for Himself. I mean, if you're a Christian, you've experienced that. Something happens that dishonors God. And you're greatly concerned. Some of us have come from churches that did not practice church discipline, that allowed sin in the midst. Kind of like the sexual sin going on here among the Israelites. And the leadership there, they're not jealous for God. They don't care that it's going on. What should that provoke inside of you? Should you be jealous at that moment? Should you have a great concern to guard the honor of God and the sacred reality of what the Scriptures teach? You absolutely should. You should be full of jealousy for God. Zechariah 8, thus says the Lord of Hosts, I am jealous for Zion. With great jealousy, I am jealous for her with great wrath. Exodus 20, you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord am your God and I am a jealous God, visiting the sin of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me. It is right for Me to desire My wife's affection and her to long for My affection. It is right to be jealous that nothing be come between My wife and I. Because God desires that. He desires that. The same thing with our relationship with the Lord. There should be a jealousy there that I don't want anything to come between Me and the Lord Jesus Christ. Exodus 3, verse 14, for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4, verse 24, for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. God is pure, holy, and absolutely must be jealous for His name's sake. Men have a problem with God being jealous for His own glory. The real problem would be if He wasn't jealous for His own glory, that would communicate to Him that He is not a god worthy of worshiping. But because He is perfect and holy, we should expect He's jealous for His name to be honored because He's worthy of it. Think about this. Why do we need to defend God? Every accusation brought against your Lord is wrong. Tell me one valid accusation against our God. There isn't. He's perfect. He knows no wrong. He knows no sin. God is jealous. And what do we see in our text? What is God's jealousy for His own holiness and glory and ultimately for the people of Israel? God is jealous for you, believer. Just like He was for this nation of Israel, He's jealous. And when He sees sin in their midst, His jealousy for them to even make it leads to act. Just like a father who's jealous for their son disciplines their son. Hebrews 12 says, so does your father discipline you. We should be grateful that God actually has a great concern and jealousy for us. And what does that lead here? It leads to punishment. It leads to wrath coming forth. It leads to a serious execution of all these people who've yoked themselves to the ward of Peor. And then here comes Phinehas. He appeases that wrath. You know what that tells us about God? God has made a way for the wrath here to be appeased by one man standing up in the gap. And obviously, what does that make you think of? Think of Christ, right? God's wrath, John 3, verse 36, abides over those who do not obey Him. And God has made a way through the man, Jesus Christ, who is perfectly jealous for His Father's glory, for His Father's will. He lived a perfect life. He never sinned in word, thought, deed, or action. He never slept too much, never slept too little, never misspoke with one word. Perfect Son of God. And He went to the cross as our sacrifice to save us from the wrath of God. So there's so much more that could be said about God, about His jealousy and different arguments people might have. But we're going to think now about Phinehas for a moment. Phinehas, he's what you want to be like. Phinehas is the one that shows you things to imitate. Are you imitating him? How could you imitate him? Let's think about Phinehas. Number one, while thousands were compromising in sexual sin, was Phinehas? No, he was not. Why? The same jealousy for God that led him to stand up and go and spear those two, that same jealousy was already there in his life that kept him from going and falling into the lustful advances of these Moabite women. He already had a deep concern to honor the Lord. We don't need a jealousy for God after we sinned. We need it right now, our great concern and jealousy for Him so that we won't go and be deceived. Secondly, while thousands were weeping in repentance, it says the great congregation was there weeping in repentance. And we know after he stood up, 24,000 had already died. So just get a picture of that. 24,000 people are dead. 600,000 people are weeping. Is this a very emotional time for Israel? You know what happens? Some people, they get emotional and they lose their senses and they do not act. And they might say, well, I was really emotional so I didn't know how to respond rightly. Did those emotions prevent Phineas from responding rightly? No, they didn't. Phineas, he overcame the emotional, whatever you want to call it, the test that was happening right there. He didn't let emotion prevent him from going. And out of 600,000 people, one man stood up. And it says that Zimri and Cosby, they went in the sight of all the congregation. 600,000. One man stood up. Think about that. We've got 300 people here. Imagine 600,000. You've just got a command from God, from Moses through the Lord. I mean, this isn't like we've got to scratch our heads, what do we need to do? God has given an incredibly clear Word. There's no issue with interpretating what He said to do. Those who yoke themselves to Baal, kill them. And 600,000 people, already 24,000 dead. You know this is real. It's happening. It's not that no one had died yet and Phineas was the first one to act or first thing to happen to lead to someone die. And one man rose up. And the text says he did it because he was jealous for God. He was jealous. He had a great concern and a desire to guard and do everything that God hath said. He was jealous for the Lord. You know, you can imagine it. Maybe 1,000 people hesitated. Right? You know, someone's already got that brother. Okay. This is a situation they're weeping. The nation is being punished. It wasn't like who's going to get the door. It was like who's going to make atonement and stop the wrath of God from being poured out on us and all these people dying? That's the serious nature of it. And 600,000 people saw them go in front of the whole congregation, and one man stood up and intervened, as Psalm 106 says. One man. And it says in Psalm 106, when it talks about Phineas, it says he stood up and intervened. Meaning others weren't. There was something happening and it needed intervention. Someone needed to do something. 600,000 people saw it. They already had a clear word from God, and one man stood up and intervened and stopped the wrath of God as it was coming upon people through the plague and the judgments of God. And you want to think about Phineas' zeal here and jealousy for God? Phineas was of the priest. The text says the judges were to do the killing. You know what that tells me about Phineas? He didn't care about formality. People are dying. I don't care if I'm not in the right office that was told to go and do the killings. I'm going to go slay them anyways. And it says in Psalm 106, it was counted to him as righteousness. Meaning God imputed it to him, his motive as being right. Even though not being a judge, he went and did the killing. Psalm 106 in our text in Numbers 25, the Lord Himself commends Phineas. His action was righteous. It was so righteous, it stopped the judgment that was coming down upon them. So don't let formality get in the way of taking action to stop the plague. What's another thing about Phineas? To do what he did, where did he have to leave? Look at your Bible. When Phineas, the son of Eliezer, son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he rose and what happened? He left what? He had to leave the group. Imagine the 600,000 people looking at it. What's that guy doing over there? What's he doing? I don't know what they were thinking. Maybe they were glad he had the guts to go. It's not like that guy Zimri. He was high up. He obviously had an ability to fight. He could have tried to take Phineas out for all we know. It wasn't some easy slaughter. Phineas, what a man. And he acted because he was jealous with the jealousy of God. So, this reminded me, think about this saying, being jealous for God, it means you're going to intervene when you see there's something going on and you know this is according to God's desire. You're not the young Christian who's overly zealous and harsh on everyone and you think you're doing what Phineas did and you're actually being critical, judgmental, and harsh. But you're actually standing up for something that is right that is of God. And just to illustrate this all the more, my kids recently had a book on Omaha Beach. Was that World War I? World War II. Shows my lack of history there. They had a book and it talked about Omaha Beach. If you remember, at least this book expressed it that this was really an all or nothing. If Normandy was not won, the Germans would have advanced with such power. I mean, who knows what could have happened? And thousands of lives were lost in this attack. But on Omaha Beach, in the kids' book, and I looked it up on the Internet and the details were consistent, it says this, General Norman Dutch was watching the men through binoculars from a boat offshore. At 51, Coda was the oldest soldier at Omaha. As a general, he was supposed to stay on the ship and radio in commands. But this was crisis time. Dutch tossed out the rules, grabbed a gun. Notice the tossed out the rules. Phineas wasn't a judge. Tossed out the rules. Grabbed the gun and waded to shore. The men stuck at the seawall suddenly and looked out to see the stalking man running across the beach. He was fearless, a soldier recalled. At the seawall, Coda inspired the men into action. He spoke these now famous words, gentlemen, we're being killed on the beaches. Let us go inland to be killed. The Germans had put wire fences to obstruct the Allies' path off the beachway. A soldier placed a torpedo tube filled with high explosives under one fence. They blew it away. The first soldier through the breach was killed by sniper fire. The men following him froze. Coda saw what happened and raced into the breach. He led the surviving soldiers through the gap in the fence and up the steep bluff to overtake a German gun embankment. At one point, he got ahead of his men and stood waiting for them. There you just have an example from World War II of a man who is zealous and he intervened when he saw a problem. There he's on that boat and he sees there's an issue going on. These men are dying. And he acted. That's what jealousy does. A great concern for a cause. His great concern for the cause there was that they not lose that battle on Omaha Beach. And our great concern is for God and everything that He desires. We're a church jealous for the missionary cause because God is jealous for the missionary cause. That's why we have zeal to send out missionaries because God has told us to pray for the Lord of the harvest, to send people into the harvest. So Phineas, he didn't just take initiative. He took proper judgment. And it says, by his actions, he made atonement for the people. And the plague of God's wrath was turned back. Oh, how we need more people to deal with their sin like Phineas dealt with these two people here. So, let's think for a moment about the enemy. And then we'll close. Let's think about the enemy here. Who is the enemy? Who's the enemy? If you look at this text, while Israel lived there, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. Is it the daughters of Moab? When they came over there committing immorality, seducing these men? Is it them? What we're going to find is they were actually sent by someone. This is strategy in war. We're going to see in this that our enemy is very jealous and greatly concerned about deceiving you and I. And that ought to put a fear in us to cling very close to the Lord because we are very insufficient in and of ourselves and apart from abiding in Him, we can't do anything. The prime enemy, his name, is not even mentioned in chapter 25. If you just read chapter 25, you're not even going to understand who it is, but God hasn't just given us chapter 25. This enemy, his name is mentioned. Well, we'll get there in a second. So, let's just think for a moment. Maybe his name is in chapter 24. Right? Let's go to chapter 24. If that's the chapter right before, maybe chapter 24 will tell us who the enemy is. Look at chapter 24. Let's go to verse right at the beginning. When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, so we have this guy Balaam. Is it Balaam? Let's look at this person. Verse 2, it says, "...the Spirit of God came upon him." Okay, the Spirit of God came upon Balaam. That seems to the positive. Verse 10, "...in Balak's anger..." This is Balak the king of Midian, or the son of the king. "...Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam." Why? "...And he struck his hands together and Balak said to Balaam, I called you to curse my enemies, the Israelites, and behold, you have blessed them three times. Therefore, now flee to your own place. I said I will certainly honor you, but the Lord has held you back from honor. And Balaam said to Balak, did I not tell your messengers who you sent to me? If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord to do either good or bad of my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak." Does that sound positive? That made me think of church history. Martin Luther saying, I can do no other. Can't go against my conscience. Here, Balaam says right here, what the Lord speaks, that will I speak. "...And an angry son of the king did not cause him to fear away from saying what was true." So that's a positive thing. As we investigate Balaam, is he the enemy? The Spirit of God came upon him and he didn't fear the angry son of the king. And he says here, if you should give me his house full of silver and gold. So what's Balaam saying here? You give me all the money in the world and I won't alter and say something that God is not saying. Right? Is that what he's saying? Yeah, it is. Okay. So, v. 17, we have another prophecy. I see him, but now v. 17 says, I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of Israel. Shall crush the forehead of Moab. This seems even to be pointing to Christ. So is he even now prophesying about the Messiah? So the Spirit of God falls on him. He doesn't fear the anger of the son of the king. And he says, you give me all the money in the world, I'm going to say what God says. And now he prophesies, and it seems he's even prophesying about the Messiah. So should we scratch Balaam off our list of possible enemies? Come on, interaction. Stay awake. We scratch him off. These are a lot of really good things for him. And if all we had was v. 24 and v. 25, we might be inclined to do so. Maybe you could say this, well, the Moabites were obviously involved. They couldn't get a good word from Balaam, so maybe the king's son, he realized, we're not going to get a good word from him, so we're not going to have victory in the war, so how are we going to take him out? Let's use women. Get them in immorality. And once they've already been intimate with these women, then it's going to be a lot easier for them to take that offer from that woman with her smooth words to come to the sacrifices. Right? So maybe this was Balak's idea. Well, turn to Numbers 31. And we'll find out who it is. Numbers 31. 16. It tells us plain and clear. Here's a case, v. 15. Moses is rebuking them for letting all the women live of the enemy. And this is actually Midian. They've just taken out Midian now who at the end of chapter 25 they were told to go and take out. And they let the women live. And look at v. 16. Behold, these women, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor. So the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. So who gave the advice to Balak to go and get these women in? And that's a way to take out Israel. Balaam. A false prophet who said things that sounded incredibly good and zealous for God. And he was lying. And if you know your Bible, he is mentioned countless times throughout the Bible. Revelation 2. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak. That's the son of the king of the Midianites who taught the Moabites to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. Balaam taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual morality. So Balaam has this idea, get them in the immorality and then we'll get them over here eating this stuff and worshiping these false gods and they'll be yoked to Baal. And then guess what? God's wrath will now come upon them and you'll get victory because God is now angry with His people of Israel. That's the enemy's strategy. And it came from someone who was a prophet and who seemed to be saying things that were very good. Who seemed to be rejecting riches. Terrifying the deceitfulness of the enemy. What does it say of Satan? He does what? He disguises himself as an angel of light. Balaam's just putting a disguise on. It's pretty easy. You just walk out the door, put a disguise on, come back in, no one recognizes you. What did Jesus say? Beware of false prophets who come to you very obviously and they look like a wolf? Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they're ravenous wolves. Ravenous wolves. What a warning. One can make bold assertions that seem like godly jealousy and be entirely deceiving themselves. 2 Peter 2, forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor. Listen, this is his motive for why he did what he did. Who loved gain from wrongdoing. Balaam loved gain from wrongdoing. So he did what he did to gain something. Nehemiah 13, for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam. Hired. So there was money being given. Balaam against them to curse them, yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. And you see this monetary transaction in Numbers 22, 7-8. So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian, here they are together, departed with the fees for divination. So they brought money. They came to Balaam and gave him Balak's message. And what was Balaam's response? Get away, I don't want your money. And he said to them, lodge here tonight, and I will bring back to you the Word to you as the Lord speaks to me. So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. So there he is. He took money. And yet chapters later, he makes this statement. You give me all the money of your household? I'm not going to take that. I'm not going to change the Word that God has spoken. He's a snake. A liar. A deceiver. And so intricate to set people up to fall into sin. And it's not a light thing. 24,000 people died. Did you get a load of that number? 24,000 died. And who put the stumbling block there? Who initiated it? Balaam gave advice to Balak. And so our enemy is looking to put stumbling blocks before you. So that should make you, if you're jealous for God, say God forbid that I put a stumbling block before any of you. If I've already got an enemy out there wanting to put stumbling blocks before believers, I don't want to be doing that. And isn't that a reality in the New Testament? Paul constantly talks about not putting a stumbling block before a brother or sister. If you're jealous for God, don't abuse your liberties. If you're jealous for God, don't go beyond what is written. If you really are concerned about what God wants and not your own desires, honor Him no matter the cost. Die to yourself. So, there are enemies who are jealous for their own gain who will seek such at your expense. And honestly, in America right now, we've got so much false teaching, so much confusion, so many people who say they're Christians. It's just a big mess. And now all these people, even in reformed circles that seem to have good doctrine, and they're falling into all manner of immorality and sin, we need to be jealous for God. Because we can be the Phineas who when all these women are being sent by the enemy, we don't give in. You don't have to give in. You can be jealous for God. You can be greatly concerned about what God is greatly concerned about. In Numbers 25:18 in the literal version, it renders it this way. It says that they're adversaries to you with their frauds, with which they have acted fraudulently to you. So the enemy is seeking to defraud you of what? Your soul. He wants you damned. He wants you deceived. He prowls around like a roaring lion. And they use the scam of women to tempt men into immorality to lead to idol worship. Has that strategy ever worked before? Proverbs 7. It talks about the adulteress and she says there, I went to offer sacrifices. It's the same thing. She's got smooth words. And she's not always there on her own initiative. Often, it's based on the advice of someone who's demonically inspired and demonically motivated. And Hosea 9, another verse that talks about this incident. This incident in Numbers 25, it's all over the Bible. It's all over. Hosea says this, "...but they came to Belpior and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and they became detestable like the thing they loved." You will become like what you love. You will become. And if you're jealous and love and are greatly concerned about God and His glory and what honors Him, and Lord, is this something You desire? Then I'm all in. If this isn't something You desire, then I'm all out. We need to be jealous for God. 1 Corinthians 10 talks about this chapter. It says we must not indulge, and it doesn't say in idol worship because that's not the first sin they did. It says we must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23,000 fell in a single day. He puts the focus on the sexual sin. Lust is dead serious. It says the adulterous woman, how many people go to her door? But to fall into that sin, you have to first fall into the sin of not being jealous for God as you ought. Every sin you commit, believer, is because there was some concern for God that started to diminish and you let other things in that were choking out the Word, the cares of the world and the cares of this life. If you're walking like Phineas with a supreme jealousy and concern and caution to do what pleases God, to whether you eat or drink, to offer the glory of God, that's what the jealous person does. When these things come, you don't have to give in. You're already near to Christ. You're already having His help and experiencing the Spirit's power in your life. We should be scared to lose any jealousy to guard our relationship with Christ. Our enemy is zealous for our fall. And boy, sin can harden you. I mean, Zimri going in front of 600,000 people, bringing Cosby into the tent. These people are weeping. 24,000 have already died and he's so consumed with the passions of the flesh. It's unbelievable how stupid sin can make people. And the enemy will attack you when you're nearing the end. So, there are demonically inspired false prophets out there who are jealous for your destruction. And there is a God out there who is jealous for you to be kept. And you as a Christian need to be jealous for the things of that God. Another way to word it is simply this, there's an enemy who desires and is greatly concerned you perish. There is a God who desires and is greatly concerned that you make it to the end, and He will make you get to the end. And yet, they went out from us because they weren't out of us. People can fall away and prove they never really knew the Lord. So the warnings apply to the Christian. We don't ignore the warnings. And therefore, we don't take sin lightly. And therefore, we ask the Lord, Lord, give me more jealousy and a greater concern for the things that You desire. Think of this. You know what we find in this chapter? You know one thing we find? We see how much of a difference one person can make. One person. It took one false prophet to say something to Balak to lead to this whole thing unfolding and 24,000 people dying. One man. That's all it took. In the negative. Just like in the church, one lump of leaven does what? It rots the whole lump and messes it all up. And on the flip side, in the positive, what does the text focus on? How many people did it take to stop the plague? One man. He stood up and he intervened. You as a Christian, you're going to face situations in your life where you need to stand up and intervene and be jealous for God and not take sin lightly and have matching desires with the things that God desires. That's going to happen in the home with your kids. You're going to be in a situation there and something's going on and you've got to stand up and intervene and do what desires and honors God. Same thing at the workplace. You're at that company and there is deceit going on. There's lying going on and they're trying to get you to be okay with it, to be complicit with it. You've got to stand up and intervene and be jealous for what God is jealous for. It takes one righteous act to make such a big difference. So what is something in your life right now where you need to stand up and intervene like Phineas? I can't think of something in our church, so think about it in your life. Quick actions save lives. How many people hesitated? How many people saw Zimmery and saw Cosby and they sat there and did nothing? Look, I don't know about you, but it's right to want to be commended by God. What do you all want to hear in the end? Well done, good and faithful servant. That's a good desire to want to hear that from the Lord. So in this life, do things that get the praise and honor of God. It says in Romans 2 that we are to seek for glory and immortality. The Bible doesn't paint it as an all-negative thing. It's not glory ultimately for self. You know what we need more jealousy for? You know what we need quick actions for? To be jealous to guard the unity of the church, because God loves the unity of the church. And we need to be zealous and incredibly jealous to love our brethren because Jesus says this, as much as you do to the least of these, you do unto Me. So true zeal will lead you to be incredibly loving because God is very jealous that we love one another as Christ has loved us. And again, this passage ultimately points to the Gospel. One man came born of a woman over 2,000 years ago, born under the law. That's you and me. We're under the law. We're born of a woman and another man has come. The Son of God incarnate. Both man, both God. And that man, Jesus Christ, lived the perfect life. He was perfectly jealous for God. And He stood up and intervened for us, the enemies of God, who had God's wrath abiding over us. He stood up, took that wrath upon Himself on the cross that the plague could be stopped. And if you don't know Christ here today, you need to ask Him to intervene and save you from your sin because your sin is going to lead to death. It's going to lead to hell. And you've got an enemy out there who is very jealous and greatly concerned that you not believe the Gospel, that you fall into all sorts of different excuses. And it's not just that He's going to put stumbling blocks like sexual immorality. The devil is out there putting stumbling blocks, getting people to stumble and try to save themselves by their own works. That's satanic. That's demonic as we read in Timothy's letters, Paul's letters to Timothy. And you know what? Does this apply to us today? In Revelation 2. Turn there and we'll end on this. Revelation 2. I'm going to just read again. Okay, let's start in v. 12. Here this church is. The Lord's talking about these churches. "...To the angel of the church in Pergamon write, the words of Him who is the sharp two-edged sword. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is." So that's where they dwell. They're near the Midianites and the Moabites you could say. Near the enemies. Yeah, what were they doing? "...You hold fast My name, and you did not deny My faith." So that's a very good commendation. "...Even in the days of Antipas, My faithful witness who was killed among you." So people were being martyred and they were holding fast and it's described where Satan dwells. But look at v. 14. What a warning to us. "...But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual morality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon in war against them. With the sword of My mouth, he who has ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it." Look at v. 18. He goes on to another church and look what he says in v. 20. "...But I have this against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing My servants to practice sexual morality and to eat food sacrificed to the idols." The exact same thing. So here at the end of the Bible, we've got warnings to churches about the very thing that happened so long ago in v. 25. Does this apply for us today? You better believe it. The same enemy in v. 25 that was inspiring Balaam. That same enemy is alive today inspiring people like Jezebel, whether she was a person or represented a type of person, to lure people into lust, to lure them into worshiping a false god. There is a slippery slope that you can fall down. And the crazy thing is that first church, Pergamum, they were doing incredibly well. And yet that teaching got into their church. Another way to phrase it is this. There's no place for lust in your life for that which is forbidden. Unacceptable. As Ephesians says, one rendering, there should not be a hint of it. And there's no reason for you to ever lust and sin in that way. Be jealous for God, because He's jealous for you. And He's working in you to will and to work for His good pleasure. So if you've got lust in your life, repent. If your right hand caused you to sin, cut it off. Be radical. Christ is worth it. The devil wants you dead and in hell. Let's get to heaven and keep pressing on. Let me pray. Father, please, Lord, Lord, get us to the end. You began a work in us of regeneration. You raised us from the dead through the blessed Gospel of Your Son. You started a work. You've made us partakers in the Gospel. Lord, You've given us a desire to be part of advancing the Gospel. Lord, we're sure You're going to get us to the end. Living for You. Get us to the end. To the end, Lord. To glorification. To final salvation. Father, I pray, Lord, keep my brothers and sisters, keep me, keep all of us, Lord. We know there's an enemy, but Lord, we thank You that You're a jealous God. We thank You, Lord, that You're greatly concerned. You have zeal and jealousy for us. Lord, thank You. Such zeal and jealousy that You sent Your only Son to stand in the gap and intervene for us and remove Your wrath and save us. We thank You. We praise You. In Jesus' name, Amen.