Series: Questions
Title: What Men are These with Thee?
Text: Numbers 22: 9
Date: October 2, 2014
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
The next question in our “Questions” series is God’s question to Balaam. “And
God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee?” (Nu 22: 9)
Balaam
was false prophet. He an example of
those who once professed to believe Christ, who even preached in Christ’s name,
yet “which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way
of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.” (2 Pet 2:
15)
On each
side of Balaam was a company of men: to his left were God’s enemies Balak, the
Moabites and the Midianites and to his right, were God’s people: the children
of Israel and Christ our Mediator. When God’s enemies came to hire Balaam to
curse God’s people, Balaam told them to spend the night while he sought
direction from God, “And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these
with thee?” (Nu 22: 9)
We
could learn a lot from Balaam’s heresy.
But the key thing we will focus on is that believers should always keep
the company of Christ and his people, not that of God’s enemies.
GOD KNOWS OUR COMPANY
First,
God knows the company we keep in this world. God is the all-knowing,
all-present, all-seeing God, “For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he
seeth all his goings.” (Job 34: 21) “Though
the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth
afar off.” (Ps 138: 6)
God is
high—he is higher than all, in greatness, dignity, and power. Yet God has respect unto the lowly. The lowly
are his people: those the Holy Spirit has created new, with a broken and
contrite heart; they are lowly in heart to submit to and follow the Lord Jesus,
united with the Lord’s people. Caleb and Joshua were lowly men, true believers,
among the children of Israel.
Everything
God was doing here, he was doing for his people. God watches over his lowly
people with pleasure and protects them from evil. God came to overrule Balaam’s
madness because of his lowly people in Israel. It is because God everlastingly
loves his people in Christ. They are the
purchased possession of his darling Son. His people are those in whom the
Spirit of God abides.
But the proud he knoweth afar off. Proud men boast about their free will, they
speak blasphemously of God and his power.
Still, God knows them and God allows them (even makes them) to do only
that which glorifies him, only that which is for the good of his people. “And the afflicted people thou wilt save: but
thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down.” (2 Sam 22:
28)
So be
sure to understand: God knew who the men were that were with Balaam. And God
knew that Balaam knew who these men were.
God knew what was in all their hearts. But God will have Balaam to
answer this question with his own mouth—Verse 9, “And God came unto Balaam, and
said, What men are these with thee?”
That is
a good question for us to always answer about ourselves. “What men are these
with thee?” Am I in the company of Christ Jesus and God’s chosen, redeemed,
sanctified people? Or am I in the
company of God’s enemies? Am I seeking
the glory of my Redeemer? Or am I
seeking the mammon of unrighteousness which Balaam loved? If God took notice of the company that was
with this false prophet then God certainly knows the company that his people
keep.
DOES OUR COMPANY MATTER?
Secondly,
does it matter, before God, what company a believer keeps? It certainly does. Believers are instructed throughout the
scriptures concerning the company we keep.
We are taught by Christ our Wisdom to “walk in the way of good men, and
keep the paths of the righteous.” (Pro 2: 20)
By
nature, there is none good, but one, that is God. (Rom 3: 10-12; Mk 10: 18) Among
the sons of Adam there is: none, righteous, no, not one, none that
understandeth, none that seeketh after God, none that doeth good, no, not one.
But a
believer has been made holy by God: by God the Father in electing grace, by God
the Son in redeeming grace; by God the Holy Spirit in regenerating grace.
1 Peter 1: 13: Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ; 14: As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves
according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15: But as he which hath
called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
The
believer’s holiness is Christ with whom we have made one in the new birth and
our righteousness is Christ through faith in Christ. So “The Way” of good men
is Christ the Way. And “The Paths” of those made righteous in him are the old
paths of the gospel which our Master teaches us to walk in. Therefore, “Whoso
keepeth the law [Christ said, “Keep my words”, and those who keep Christ’s
words, obeying our Master] is a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous
men shameth his father. (Pro 28: 7) “He
that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be
destroyed.” (Pro 13: 20)
The reason
the company we keep is so important is because of what Christ has accomplished
for us. (1 Pet 4)
1 Peter 4: 1: Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for
us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 2: That he no longer should live
the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
From
the time our Redeemer entered this earth until Christ bore the sins of all
God’s elect people, he suffered for us in the flesh. He suffered rejection of God-hating sinners
and suffered rejection of self-righteous religionists. It all culminated in Christ suffering the
cruel death of the cross. This Christ did for us who are chosen and called of
God.
But now
Christ has ceased from suffering for sin. He is risen and lives unto God. So
have all those Christ represents. The
believer who has been made a new creation has ceased from living a life of sin
to the lusts of men. We are now living
unto God and seeking his will in all things.
Brethren,
serving Christ in this world will mean suffering: one company will reject us
because we refuse to condone their sin; another company will reject us because
we refuse to condone their false, free–will, self-righteous religion. But
Christ suffered for us so we ought to be ready to suffer for him. We should “live the rest of our time in the
flesh, not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.”
1 Peter 5: 3: For the time past of our life may suffice
us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness,
lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: 4: Wherein
they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot,
speaking evil of you; 5: Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge
the quick and the dead.
So we see,
believers are well-instructed throughout scripture that the company we keep
certainly does matter. We have to work, go to school and live alongside
sinners. Therefore, we should always be
ready to teach sinners the gospel and receive sinners. But we ought never be yoked with sinners or
approve of sinners who live in constant rebellion against God, whether they be
outside of religion or within religion.
DANGERS
Next,
let’s see some of the dangers of being yoked with unbelievers by seeing what
took place between these men and Balaam.
First, world,
sin, false religion, will offer you tempting rewards. They came with a reward for Balaam—“And the
elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination
in their hand; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words of
Balak.” (v7) Plus, these men were “the
elders”—this would make Balaam look wise. Also, these men were from two
different companies of men, “elders of Moab and elders of Midian.” These were
two companies of men who usually hated each other but for the sake of fighting
God and his people they joined together and were willing for Balaam to be their
leader. This would make Balaam’s position appear of utmost importance. Furthermore, these men were the “princes of
Moab” which would make Balaam look dignified.
Then when they came the second time, they came with more honorable
princes, offering very great honor—“And Balak sent yet again princes, more, and
more honourable than they. And they came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith
Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto
me: For I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever
thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.” (vv15-17)
So we see the danger of this world, of sin and false religion is that they offer
rewards, wages to tempt you.
Secondly,
the danger is that the only way to serve the world, sin or falsehood is to
forsake Christ. Notice, they told Balaam up front that they wanted him to curse
God’s people—“and spake unto him the words of Balak.” (v7) The only way to curse God’s people is to
curse God because Christ and his people are one. So knowing what they wanted,
what would have been the best thing for Balaam to do? Right then it would have
been best to say, “No. I’ll never do it. Go home and don’t come back.” But what did Balaam do?—“And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will
bring you word again, as the LORD shall speak unto me: and the princes of Moab
abode with Balaam.” (v8) The temptation overcame Balaam. He already
lusted after the reward of unrighteousness in his heart—that was bad enough—but
he went further and put himself into a position to get it in his hand. Why? Be
sure to get this: Balaam valued the reward of unrighteousness over the reward
of the Lord himself. Scripture says, “Balaam loved the wages of
unrighteousness.”
Brethren,
our unregenerate friends or those in false religion, who try to get us join
them, may not be as malicious as these, they
may only be the messengers of the devil like these men were the
messengers of Balak. And our unregenerate friends certainly will not tell us,
“Let’s do such and such a sinful thing because we want you to curse God.” Yet,
that is the essence of rebellion against God. If we choose the friendship of
this world and choose to sin against our God, rather than standing stedfast
with Christ, we are essentially saying we value the reward of unrighteousness
over the reward that Christ himself is unto us.
We cannot serve both God and mammon.
The Master teaches us in whom he dwells, “No man can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to
the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mt 6: 24)
Believer,
this world cannot offer us a better reward than we already have. Who is our Righteousness and our Reward but
Christ Jesus, the Son of God himself.
These men would make Balaam look wise.
But Christ is our Wisdom; there is no wisdom that can trump the Wisdom
we already have in the Person of Christ Jesus?
The world offered Balaam a position.
But Christ is our position; we are seated with Christ at God’s right
hand; what better position can there be than Righteousness and Holiness, complete
in Christ? None! The reward of
unrighteousness for Balaam was a place of dignity and honor in the world. But Christ
is our Dignity and Honor. By Christ
Jesus…
1 Peter 2: 9:…ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:\
10: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 11: Dearly beloved, I
beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war
against the soul;
We are
as the children of Israel, which these men were afraid of. These men saw how
Christ conquered his enemies for his people—“And the children of Israel set
forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho. And
Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.” (vv1-2) This world hears us speak of how Christ
conquered our enemies: our sins, our sin-nature, death in us and the devil for
us.
Christ
makes us to “set forward” and to “pitch” our tent in peace. We live without the
degree of worries worldly men have, even though our enemies are all around
us. We know Christ is ruling everything
in this world. We are resting in Christ by the power of Christ. Outwardly we
bear some of the same troubles they do, yet inwardly we have peace in Christ:
2 Corinthians 4: 8: We are troubled on every side, yet
not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9: Persecuted, but not
forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10: Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body.
We have
the greatest reward there is, Christ Jesus our Righteousness and eternal life
with him!
LESSONS FROM OUR MASTER
Lastly,
let’s learn from our Master. When our Savior was tempted of the devil, first,
the devil waited till he was very hungry—he had not eaten for “forty days and
forty nights.” Then the devil urged Christ to fill his belly with bread from
earthly stones. The reward was that his flesh would be filled. When we are
weakest spiritually is when we are tempted to feed our flesh with some earthly,
sinful, bread. But Christ answered Satan,
saying, “Man does not live on bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God.” (Mt 4: 4) So let us live more upon Christ and his word
and less upon the pleasures of this world.
The
second time, the devil, urged Christ to presume upon God by urging him to jump
off a high place. But each time Christ
was tempted, rather than do as Balaam and open the door, immediately, Christ slammed the door shut. He said, “It is written again, Thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God.” (Mt 4: 7) Believer, never presume upon God’s grace by
flirting with temptation. Instead, slam
the door shut on temptation right away. Never put yourself into a position to
be tempted further…as did Balaam.
The
third time, the devil showed Christ all the kingdoms of this world and their
glory. The devil said “I will give you all this, if you fall down and worship
me.” Christ said, “Get thee hence,
Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only
shalt thou serve.” (Mt 4: 10) In every temptation, our Redeemer valued the reward
of glorifying God his Father and saving his people and put no value on the
reward of unrighteousness. That is what it is to worship and serve God. Believer, value our Redeemer and his precious
blood and put no value on the rewards of unrighteousness.
Scripture
says, “Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto
him.” (Mt 4: 11) Christ will do the same
for us by his angels. Concerning believers and temptations of the devil, of
sin, of worldly companions, of false relgion or any other company, Paul said,
1 Corinthian 10:13: There hath no temptation taken you
but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to
be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way
to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Christ
is the Way, immediately flee to Christ, he is the Way of Escape which God has
provided for his people. “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith,” (1 Pet
5: 8) Resist stedfast in the faith by “casting all your care on him for he
careth for you.” (1 Pet 5: 7)
OUR COMPANY
Balaam
did not flee to Christ. He chose the wages of unrighteousness. He made his company to be the enemies of God.
But believer, “What men are these with thee?” Our company is Christ, the Friend
who sticks closer than a brother. We are in a company loved with an infinite, unchanging, unchangeable love of God. This
company is bought with the price of Christ’s precious blood. We are in a company delivered from a present evil world, saved by the Lord. Our company
is sustained by Jehovah Himself.
This is a company of pilgrims
on our way to heavenly Canaan—a
company who shall pass over to a goodly land!
Therefore, in every tempting situation, let us be
like Peter and John when they were released from prison by the enemies of God, “And
being let go, they went to their own company…” (Acts 4: 23)
Amen!