FBCWest 705 | Evil Advice
Recorded On: 03/29/2026
Bulletin
Hymn # 30 “O Worship the King”
SCRIPTURE READING – Matthew 21:1 - 9
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Battle Belongs”
“God so Loved”
“Egypt”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Evil Advice”
“Your Love Awakens Me”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Sermon Notes
Numbers 25:1 - 3 Israel begins to play the harlot with the women of Moab and make sacrifices to Moab’s gods
Numbers 31:13 – 16 Balaam counsels to sin against God
1 Kings 11:1 – 13 Even wise men rebel against God for their love of foreign wives
Revelations 2:14 Jesus against the teachings of Balaam
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
contracted to curse the children of Israel. But because of Lord's intervention, he was unable to do that. But it doesn't mean that he stopped trying to collect on his contract. See the advice that he gives those who are against God's people, the deadly consequences, both for Israel and the people that were contracted with Ba'ala. And we should also have learned from that from this narrative a couple of things so that we might avoid the same mistakes. Sometimes the scriptures go from beginning to the end of the story.
And sometimes it's like the movies where they will give you a scene and then they'll move to the history back to fill into the gaps why this scene is relevant. And that's kind of what is going to happen here. So we're going to look at chapter 25 initially and then we're going to jump to chapter which is back before chapter 25 and the thing.
And so one of the things in the context is is that Ba'ala had been contracted by the king of Moab to curse and God told him not to. And then on his way there, God sent his angel to make a definite point that if the donkey had kept going that he would have killed Ba'ala and Ba'ala then said, okay, and the angel said, you can continue going but only speak but God tells you to do so he put. So the angel of the Lord put the fear of God into Ba'ala and so when he gets there and they do the sacrifices and stuff, now Ba'ala wants him to curse and so that he can benefit Ba'ala.
Ba'ala on seven different occasions instead of cursing the children, blesses them. And Ba'ala is really upset because he brought Ba'ala here to not to bless them. So the exact opposite is happening then what Ba'ala had intended because now seven times Ba'ala has blessed Israel.
But that's not the end of the story unfortunately. Chapter 25, I request that you turn there if you have your Bibles and you should. So it says this, and while Israel remained in shitton, the people began to play the heart with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices, their gods and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to bail a peor and the Lord was angry against Israel. Now I want you to, this is incredibly numerous until the children of Israel are going to enter the Promised Land. God has freed them from slavery in Egypt, He has delivered them through the sea, He has fed them, He has provided water, He has protected them, He has done all of these.
And it seems at every occasion they either seek to worship other gods like at Mount Sinai when they made a golden calf to complain about what God is doing and we should have been back in Egypt and we should have died in the wilderness and they're always complaining against God. And now the people have, and as it says, played the heart, because God views His people very uniquely. He views us like a bride. The Church of God is the bride of Christ. He expects His people to be faithful to Him. The first commandment is you shall have no other gods before me. And yet it seems that every opportunity the children of Israel had to body else rather than the true God they would.
And it's like, just in a short period of time you're going to be in the Promised Land where God is promised and you've seen the land flowing with milk. And yet they choose to worship other gods. And now we know why. So if you'll turn to numbers chapter 31 verse 13 through 16, it says this, Moses and Aliaz are the priests and all the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp.
For Moses was angry with the army, the captains of the thousands and the captains of the hundreds, who had come from service in the war. And Moses said to them, have you spared all the women? These caused the sons of Israel through the counsel of Ba'lem to trespass against the Lord in the matter of pure so that the plague was among the congregation of the Lord. What this tells us is that while Ba'lem couldn't get his money for cursing the children of God for the next best thing, I'll give you counsel, evil advice that says this is how you can get God to be upset with his people, worship other gods.
And that was his counsel. That was his advice. Because God is preventing me. But if you want the same result, invite them to a party. And they did. And the people played the hard.
Now what this is telling us that God was so angry with his people, he did a couple of things. He started a plague with ultimately killed 24,000. But he also sent an army to kill the Midianites and to kill Ba'lem. But the army didn't do all that started bringing the women back, which were the very ones that they had gotten trouble with, begin with because they were as a part of their sacrifices to Ba'lem was to have an orgy. And God is holding the women responsible and says, come out. But the captains of the armies decided that they would spare some of the women and not only spare them, but bring them back to the camp where the sin was to begin with. And so God basically tells them, all the commanders come with a sword because you violated what I told you to do.
And they did. So besides those who were killed by the plague, there was additional captains who were killed by the sword. And there's even a story that one of the men with his Midian one and Sineus is able to kill them both with the single, single thrust of his pike. Because there seems to be this weakness that God's people's heart for others.
Now, you might think, well, I'm smarter than that. I've read the scriptures. We're supposed to have no other gods before us. And I'm wise, so I'll pay attention. I want to share a story with a man who is considered the wisest man on earth or known as King Solomon. This is what happens to King's chapter 11, starting with verse 1. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughters of Pharaoh, Moebite. We just had a problem with Moebite.
Ammonite, Adamites, Scythionians, and Hittite women. From the nations, he had said to the sons of visual, you shall not associate with him, nor shall you associate with you, for they will surely turn your hearts away after their gods. Solomon held fast to these in love. And in matter what God's instruction was, he had 700 wives, transgressors, and 300 concubines in his wives turned his heart away. 700 wives and 300 concubines. That's a thousand women. That's almost three years of not seeing the same woman twice. Yet he loved them all.
The wisest man who ever lived can't figure it out what God says is even wiser than him. For when Solomon was old as one day after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David, his father had been. For Solomon went after Azeroth, the goddess of the Scythonians, and after milkcom that a testable idol of the Ammonites. In Solomon did what was evil in the side of the Lord and did not follow the Lord fully as David his father had done. In Solomon built a high place for chip, Chermouth, the testable idol of Moab on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem. And for Molech, the testable the sons of Ammon, Moelach, their God, they were sacrifice children to them. Thus also he did for all of his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrifice to their gods.
So not only did he love them, he allowed them to protect their worship and their sacrifices. Now Solomon, now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord to God of Israel who had appeared to him twice. God didn't just come to him once. God showed up twice.
And I commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods, but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon, because you have done this, you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I had. I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father, David, but I will tear it out of your hand of your son.
However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to you by servant, David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. God has told Solomon, cut away your foreign wives, and Solomon goes, no, I can't, I love them. What's the greatest commandment you shall love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength? The wisest man on earth could not follow that one simple directive. So one of the things that I say that we should do regularly, poorly, at least daily, where's my heart? Do I love God more than X? Do I love God more than Y? Do I love am I putting God first or am I allowing something else to take his place?
Need to understand that we should follow that one first commandment to love the Lord. And if you do that, then you will have no other gods before him because you love the Lord your God. And so don't think you're so wise that you can't do it. I'm going to talk to those of you who aren't married. I've seen a number, usually it's young ladies, but sometimes it's men who say, I want to marry a Christian, but then they date non-Christians.
And guess what happens if they fall in love. And the love is more important than the commands of God and the blessings of God. And so some of them will say, well, I won't get married until they make a profession that's not even expected to get baptized. And the guy or the girl will know, that's what I'm supposed to do, that's checks the boxes, play his or her game.
And I'll do his or her stuff. And then instead of saying, okay, I'm glad you did those things. Now let's wait a year or two to see that you're actually bearing fruit. No, no, they followed the check the boxes and and guess what happens most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time we never see those people again because the husband or the wife has no interest. They only had interest in you for whatever short period of time because there seems to be a whole lot of divorces happening. So my counsel to you, single people, is try not to date non-Christians. Now notice the Edmonton here was not to marry foreign wives. It isn't, we're not talking about ethnicity.
For instance, Moses married him. His second wife was not the Jew. It was not a Israelite. As a matter of fact, his first wife was a meetingite. The foreign women or foreign men believers. We have been instructed by the scriptures to be equally yoked. And when you marry a non-believer, you become unequally yoked and your heart because you love and love them perhaps more than God, you do what they want you to do. So even though this happened thousands of years ago, the story is very relevant today.
People who aren't believers will take your heart away from God. In Corinthians, it's interesting. Paul will be talking about the resurrection. Then all of a sudden, he puts this little bit that seems out of context.
This is don't be to see bad company corrupts good morals. You see, marriage is not a missionary institution. You don't get married hoping you'll convert them. There have been converts it already because no matter how spiritual you may be, you will probably be more affected than they will affect, than you will affect them. And so, while it may seem, well, if I don't get married to them, I may never get married. That's probably not true because there's a lot of, that's still saying there's a lot of fish in the sea. So, we'll probably find somebody. But the scripture also says it is better or on the rooftop than in a house with an angry woman.
So, you may love him or her, but your life may not be what you anticipated it to be. As Paul said, maybe it's better to remain single. So that's one of the tales. And that's the story that I've made emphasis that we need to, number one, whether we're married or not, where is my heart? And I'll tell you the truth.
That's a hard question. Because sometimes to go, well, if I have this, well, I deny that choice because I love God more. And if you're honest with yourself, sometimes, can you put some weight on the balance because I'm having a tough time here? You know, I can avoid all temptation but temptation. You know, and so sometimes you say, God, I am, so help me to love you more. So like I said, sometimes it's easier not to date a non-Christian so that you don't get tempted to do what you shouldn't do. So another to others.
And this is found in Revelation chapter 2 verse 14. It's Jesus speaking and He's talking to a church. He says, but I have a few things against you because you, because you have their thumb who hold to the teaching of the who kept teaching bad luck to put a stumbling walk before the sons of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.
You see, Jesus isn't necessarily condemning the people. He's condemning the teachers of the church for teaching things inappropriate. And unfortunately in our churches and denominations many of them today, they teach things that are opposite of the scriptures.
They will say things that do things like, is not really immoral. You got to love them. You know, you got to know that you love the sinner but you accept the sin. And they teach those things as if you're the problem. To say, you know, it's just cultural. That's what they did in those days and in that town or whatever.
And it doesn't apply here. That's the teaching of Ba'lem to say that whatever the scripture says, you don't need to pay attention to. For word or I can discount that. And the closer and closer we seem to get to the day of the Lord return, the more and more we see churches, denying the power of God.
Denying God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength, but instead to be culturally relevant. To be sympathetic and accepting of any immoral deed that might take place. Because after all, goodness. So the first warning is to we who are dealing with loving God. The second one is a warning to pastors in church to make sure you don't follow into that teaching.
Ba'lem is criticized twice in the New Testament. One because he loved money more and two because he taught things to eat things, sacrifice the idols. To have a, it just doesn't matter. If they feel good, do it. It's much better. I like much when I say God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. God's part of his wonderful plan for your life is to put guardrails.
And as I've said before, the purpose of a guardrail is not to hit it. The purpose of the guardrail is to keep you from going off the cliff. But driving our, not in our cars, but in our lives, we seem to want to bounce up against the guardrails. And it's not wonder where bruised and bloody spiritually.
Because instead of saying, okay, God, if you don't want to be, then I'll drive between the white line and the other line so that I don't go off into the opposite traffic or go over the ditch. I'm going to drive. As Jesus said, the way is narrow. But God didn't make these that you might have a miserable life. But you might have one more abundantly, more fruitful, more positive. There's a ham that says, those who trust him holy, find him holy. All too often we want to trust God partially. And thus, no wonder we never find him holy true because we only trust him partially.
So, yes, God loves you. And yes, sin, God will forgive you. And yes, if you married the wrong person, God still can bless. Yes, God took David's sin with Bashiba and ultimately gave Solomon. God can take things that are our mistakes and part a part of his plan. So grace is awesome.
Grace is so far beyond what we can comprehend. But again, grace isn't there for us to get God to give us more. But for us to fully live within his dictates, so that instead of being and for others, I am faithful to God. And if you are married or if you were married, you hope and you prefer your spouse to be faithful to you. That's who we are to God, his pride. And the awesome thing about our God, we come to him ugly, disfigured, deformed.
And he will take us and make us beautiful at his appearing. Why would we not want to love such a God? Who loves us so much, that he loves us even as we are, and make us to be like his son.
All God's people said.
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