Num 23:19, "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? 
    	In this morning’s reading, we followed the details of how Balak was trying to get Balaam to curse the Children of Israel in order to stop them from attacking the Moabites. Balak knew that military might was useless against the army of the Hebrews, so he was trying to defeat them through the manner of a curse that would cause them to be destroyed by spiritual means. He had purchased the expertise of Balaam, one who was practiced in the mantic arts of animal divination in order to accomplish his goal. However, every time that Balaam was prepared to curse, the Lord stopped his mouth and brought forth a blessing on His people instead. 
	As we saw last week, God opened Balaam’s pagan eyes to see more than what he wanted to see. Balaam thought that he would find a way to control this Deity of the Israelites. He practiced his vile sacrifices as the antithesis of what the Lord required from His priests. Balaam and Balak were enmeshed in seeking after their core practices of divination with all the animals that were slaughtered and used for their foul deeds. 
Yet God showed His sovereignty in the truth that He put His words in Balaam’s mouth and Balaam could do nothing but give voice to what the Lord required of him. No matter how much Balaam wanted to curse the Hebrews, he was only able to bless them. He even pronounced only that which was put into his mouth concerning Who God is in our morning’s verse. 
	This did not mean that Balaam was saved from his pagan beliefs. He was shown the truth and he even spoke the truth, but he still considered the Lord as but one of the countless deities to be controlled by Balaam’s antics. The reality was that this is evidence that God uses whomever and whatever people or nation to accomplish His plans and purposes. Just as He eventually moved nations and empires to bring forth that which was always His plan, so here God used this pagan sorcerer to befuddle the schemes of Balak. The Children of Israel were blessed because they were the people of God’s choosing and that could not be brought to an end because God was the One protecting and blessing them.
	As we have in our passage, God put into Balaam’s mouth the truth of Who God is. God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? 
The issue with Balaam was that he while could only give voice to what the God of Israel made him say, he did not seem to truly believe it. He continued, as we will read in the next chapter, to work against God and against His Chosen People. He tried to find any means to bring them and their God into submission to his mantic arts. While Balaam did not believe what he spoke, we do know that this is the truth of God and we should take this time to immerse ourselves in the reality thus voiced.
	In 1 Samuel, Chapter 15, we have the detailed recounting of the moment that Samuel announced to King Saul that the kingdom would be taken from him because of Saul’s disobedience. The Prophet then reinforces the fact of Saul’s disinheritance with the finality declared in verse 29. 
1 Sam 15:29, And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind." The Prophet refers to God as the Glory of Israel, for so He is. He is the One Who had chosen, freed, kept, and gone before the Children of Israel at each step of their national existence. He was the One to Whom the nation owed their allegiance and their every obeisance. Therefore, what God decreed concerning Saul would concretely come to pass.
	The Psalmist knew this surety of God and His Word as recounted in the 89th Psalm, if you would please open to it. Psalm 89, we will begin with verses 1-6. 
Ps 89:1-6, I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever; To all generations I will make known Thy faithfulness with my mouth. For I have said, "Lovingkindness will be built up forever; In the heavens Thou wilt establish Thy faithfulness." "I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant, I will establish your seed forever, And build up your throne to all generations." Selah. And the heavens will praise Thy wonders, O Lord; Thy faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies is comparable to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty is like the Lord…
   	God could never be considered in the same light as a man. Thus are all the other deities whom man puts forth as merely reflections of himself. All the rituals and the customs and the belief systems are patterned after the thoughts and the means of human behavior and character. 
	But God, the Lord God Jehovah, is not a man and He is not limited by human resources and means. Neither is His Character and Nature of Being fraught with the fickle and self-serving malleability which is constantly in flux, twisting and altered by the every report of the latest poll and the fluctuating social currents of the day. 
	Continuing with verses 33-37 in this 89th Psalm, we are shown the reality that God will do faithfully all that He has said He will do, unlike the faithlessness of humanity. Here we have the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, forever and forever. 
Ps 89:33-37, "But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. "My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. "Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. "His descendants shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me. "It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful." Selah. 
    	The Prophet Isaiah continues this revealed essence of the faultless truthfulness and accuracy of everything that God does in Is 25:1. Isa 25:1, O Lord, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will give thanks to Thy name; For Thou hast worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. 
    	Later, in Isa 45:21-25, the Prophet articulated the very voice and heart of God as He declared again that He is not bound by the frailties and the fickleness and the faithlessness of man. God is so far removed from the schemes and the manipulations and the deceitful practices of what men create in their selfish motivations. The Lord God is the only means of our salvation from the sinful nature under which all mankind is born. Man will never be able to save himself. Only God can save and that is what He has promised to do in the fulfillment of His very faithfulness.
	Isa 45:21-25, "Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. "Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. "I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. "They will say of Me, 'Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.' Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him shall be put to shame. "In the Lord all the offspring of Israel Will be justified, and will glory." 
    	The Prophet Malachi succinctly gave voice to the fact that God is not like men who waver in their convictions and vacillate in their actions and responses to the treatment that they have received. As faithless as the Children of Israel were to the Lord, Mal 3:6 was His response. 
Mal 3:6, "For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. The Lord worked to manifest His everlasting faithfulness through all that the nation endured. He was always faithful to His covenant relationship with them because from His Chosen Nation would come the Savior of the whole world.
	We next hear Our Beloved Savior as He declared that all that was promised from of old, and all that was written in the scriptures and all that Jesus, Himself, spoke would never cease to be true. It will be reliable and life to everyone who will call out to Him. This certainty is recorded in Luke 21:33. Luke 21:33, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. 
    	God’s faithfulness to His promise, even through the adulterous nation of Israel, was delineated for us by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Church at Rome, Chapter 11, verses 25-33, if you would please turn to it. Here is described why all that happened with the Jews only served to accomplish that which God had ordained. He never changed from His plan and purpose. His people turned away from Him, even when they were fully warned of what their apostasy would do, but God remained true to Himself and to His Word of both the blessing and the curses through all the turmoil and idolatry of the Children of Israel. He was ever faithful and His blessing still came forth from them to include the peoples of all the nations of the earth in the gift of the salvation of His Only Begotten Son.
	Rom 11:25-33, For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob." "And this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, in order that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience that He might show mercy to all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 
    	The Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy and encourages us, in 2 Tim 2:11-13, as to the fact that God is ever faithful. It does not depend on our actions, but wholly and thankfully on His Nature and Character of Being. 
2 Tim 2:11-13, It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself. 
	This is such a joy-filled anchor against all the storms and gales of this life. While we have to deal endlessly with all the issues and failures and selfishness and deceitfulness of humanity, we are so manifestly blessed to know that God cannot deny Himself. He will do all that He has promised and so much more. His calling and His blessing in Jesus Christ are certain and the foundational bedrock for our assurance that He has all things well in hand despite our faithlessness at times. It does not depend on us. It is anchored in Him!
    	Again hear the reality of our guarantee that God will be true to Himself and to His Word as written to Titus by the Apostle in Titus 1:1-3. Titus 1:1-3, Paul, a bond-servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior… 
    	The Writer to the Hebrews also expounds upon this in his Letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 6, verses 17-20, if you would turn to it. Heb 6:17-20, In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. 
	God cannot change and God cannot deny Himself. His Word of blessing is ours in Jesus Christ, now and forevermore. While we have our ups and downs, our bouts with doubt and depression, our emotional binges and destructions, God is true! He is our ready source of comfort and wisdom and grace and mercy and love and blessing. Everything, thank God, rests on Him and not on our capacity to earn or to keep or to merit or to buy or to maintain our spiritual essence. 
	James recounts this for us in James 1:16-18 as he lays before us the measure of the great gift of God’s faithfulness in accordance with the fact that God gives us every good thing in the complete fulfillment of His Word. James 1:16-18, Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures. 
    	Finally for this morning, we return to the Old Testament, the Book of Joshua, Chapter 21, verse 45. Here we see that all is summed up in the way that God faithfully carried out and completed His tremendous blessing upon the Children of Israel. As was so true of them, so will all the promises of God be ours forever in Jesus Christ. Josh 21:45, Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass. 
The words from God, even spoken through that pagan mantic, Balaam, still echo true in the course of the blessing voiced upon the nation that Balaam was supposed to curse. God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 99:2+3. The Lord is great in Zion, And He is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise Thy great and awesome name; Holy is He. Amen.