the wrong church. And he says, I've been coming and hearing the messages and listening to the radio broadcast. And he said, I would take what the Bible would say and go to my Catholic priest. And he would deny it. He said, you couldn't take the Bible literally about the second coming and about salvation. And so he said, I'm here as an answer to prayer. I think I'm in the wrong church. And so I had the joy of leading him to the Lord. And I thank the Lord for it. He was he was real excitable type fella. He was so excited that he leaned up over my desk and stuck his hand out and said, Oh, thank you, Father Arrowwood. We have we have trained him better. He does call me pastor now. Pastor Taylor, wherever you are, thank you for that wonderful message. I appreciate it. I've never heard Pastor Taylor preach that he did not stir my heart and teach me something. And that's what happened today, and I thank the Lord for it. Would you stand with me, please, as we read the first 15 verses of this great chapter? And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. And the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Belpior. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Belpior. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto the brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And when Phinehas, and that's the key character that we're gonna study today, and when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, He rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand. And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. Look at verse 14. Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Selu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites. And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was caused by the daughter of Zer. He was head over a people and of a chief house in Midian. Now back to verse nine. And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consume not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, Behold, I give him my covenant of peace. Well, that's strange, isn't it? To be such a militant action, and now a covenant of peace is given to him. And he shall have it and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel. Father, help us as we learn about this great man of God, Phinehas. Help us to get from this passage of Scripture, the principles that mean most to us, that we might be able to establish them in our lives if need be, or be encouraged by them. Help us to learn about leadership and about not following the mandates of culture, but rather Scripture. And help us, Lord, when we leave here, we will have a definite decision in our heart to follow what you have taught us already through Brother Taylor's message and what you would have for us through the reading of your word today. In your name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Of course, by now you will realize that this is certainly not Eli's son. Finney has. Phinehas and Hophni, of course, rebelled against Eli. They were unrestrained sons, and they brought great abomination to the priesthood. However, some 500 years earlier was this Phinehas, and he had God's hand upon him. It was very evident from reading the scripture this morning. He chose to stand against the modern cultures of his day. We find his life was woven with great moral fiber, righteous indignation, unwavering character, unrelenting convictions, excellent discernment, fine integrity, and wisdom that exceeded his years. He is mentioned 18 times in eight books of the Bible. It's interesting, when I did my research, I contrasted these two phineases. And it's interesting how we find their lives parallel, but yet they went in such opposite directions. For instance, both of them were sons of preachers, sons of priests, yet one went the wrong way, the other chose right. Both had a bright, promising future, as we understand in Hebrew culture. Yet one chose one path of wrong and shame, and the other chose a path of right. Both exercised their volitions, and by their choice we see which one did right and which one did wrong. And both went down in holy writ as our examples. One is how not to live your life, and the other one is how to live your life. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, as a young man, on many occasions was found willing to do the right thing. Most of the people that I read after agreed that he was probably in his early 20s when this took place. And many times we find his name throughout scripture. I made an entire series about his name. Certainly not going to preach the series this morning, but Moses recorded his birth and strong character. Samuel and Ezra record his family tree. Joshua speaks of his wisdom and discernment and settling a dispute among the brethren. Judges speaks of his faith and also his unrelenting attitude in the face of enemies. And it was David in Psalm 106 who commends this Phineas for his stand against immorality and apostasy and refers to what he did as a great deed of courage for the cause of righteousness. It's interesting that Phinehas was able to make right choices young in his life, early in his life, and I believe one of the reasons why is because when you check his record, you'll find that he was a son and a grandson of great men of God. And also, he witnessed some specific things. At an early age, he possessed the keen ability to understand that God always deals with sin and apostasy. We almost find that absent from some people's thinking in today's culture. He knew his firsthand of the wilderness wanderings and the purpose for waiting for all the rebels to die. He was part of that new generation, under 20 probably, that arrived in Kadesh Barnea. He was told about the failure of his grandfather Aaron on one occasion with the golden calf and how God was so jealous of that and how God dealt with that. He was there when the ground opened and swallowed up Korah and his band of rebels and how the people blamed Aaron and Moses for their death. And he remembered that plague killing 14,700 Israelites until Aaron, his grandfather, stood in the gap. and stayed the hand of God. He knew about these things. He witnessed the awful judgment of the fiery serpents. He witnessed Balaam endorsing and encouraging mixed relationships against the plan of God and the will of God, even though God had commanded the Israelites not to marry the Canaanites. And it's interesting that Balaam had a great part in the whole context of this story. If we could go to that, we could find that out. You know, in today's media, Phineas would certainly be a bigoted, narrow-minded, prejudiced person. Too militant, maybe even for some fundamentalists. But he was a man with balance, and we'll find that out before the end of the message. With these events, we can see how God used these circumstances in his life to build his character. You see, character cannot be purchased. Character is what we are by God's grace and through His power. Character cannot be bought. Consider with me by thought this morning the scene there in Shittim. Look back in verse 1. And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Boab. This was the last stop before crossing the Jordan and possessing the land. Isn't it interesting how sometimes we only have a short way to go? And the greatest temptation comes. The greatest trial comes. Many times because we can't see the whole picture. We don't see the greatness of God's blessings coming. And many times when we find ourselves just a short way to go, if we're not careful, we could yield to compromise and sin. And that's exactly what happened in the life of the Israelites under the leadership of Balaam, who was a wicked man. who did wrong in the face of God and in the face of his people. The sin, notice it in verse 1, it talked about physical whoredom, the daughters of Moab, but it went much further than that. Look at verse 2. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. Now we're talking about spiritual whoredom. And the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. In verse two, the Hebrew word they is in the female gender, referring to the women of Moab. Balaam could not curse Israel, so he advised these unholy unions what a compromise. Balaam is a beautiful picture of someone who had an opportunity to do right, but failed to do so. Belpior is a pagan god of Pior that required prostitution for worship. But in verses 4 and 5, we have a solution given. Look at it with me. The Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of all the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal Peor. There was a lot of heartache that day. Men had made good people with families, had made wrong decisions. Keep in mind, we do not live under an Old Testament economy and God does not deal with us as hanging our heads up in the sun. Hanging them out in the sun was in broad daylight for everyone to see that God hates sin and apostasy. And that's basically the two sins He was dealing with here. The physical whoredom and the spiritual whoredom. And these two sins angered God at the children of Israel. And now we find him asking Moses to take their heads and hang them. You know, as you read the Old Testament and you follow, when God was angry at the children of Israel, he was saying, Moses, get out of the way. I'm going to kill them all. And Moses would say, no, Lord, don't do that. You're promised. And then Moses would get frustrated. And then Moses would call upon the Lord and say, Lord, go ahead and kill them all. They deserve it. And God would say, no, I can't do that. Well, I'm glad they never got together. And you and I have a great example before us. Here's a public example. And may I say, when you choose to compromise in your ministry or in your life, it becomes public knowledge. It gets hung out in the sun for everyone to see, most of the time. Even if it's twisted or turned, and I'm not saying that that's right to do, but that's what happens. That's why we must live our lives as Phinehas did, guarding his life and guarding his testimony for the Lord. And then I want you to notice the sacrilegious mockery. Verse six, it begins, and behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the congregation of the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. My, what audacity. Here is an Israelite, while everyone was praying, the congregation was in the tabernacle praying, while this great plague was striking people dead, one after another. Something had to be done because of this awful sin under this Old Testament economy that they were living under. How horrible, what audacity. to bring someone in in the midst of a prayer meeting when people were weeping and praying for God to remove the plague and commit such abomination. Sacrilegious mockery. Consider with me three thoughts about this man, Phinehas, as we look at him clearly from Scripture. I'd like for us to consider his leadership, his loyalty, and his life. We'll find that his leadership is exemplary, his loyalty is extraordinary, and his life is exceptional, and went down in holy writ for you and I to investigate and to take the principles and apply them to our lives. Number one, his leadership was exemplary. In verse six and also in verse seven, we find him a young leader with a heart for righteousness. Notice after verse 6, verse 7, He was a person who loved moral righteousness. Remember all of the things that had happened in his life with his father and his grandfather. All of what he had learned that God judges sin and apostasy. And now all of a sudden people were dying. His relatives, his family, his kinsmen according to the flesh were dying in this plague. And he had already witnessed one plague with his grandfather staying finally at the hand of God. Someone had to stand. Someone in his economy had to stand. And he saw it. He was a person who loved holiness and righteousness. And young people, may I say, we cannot be afraid of personal holiness and righteousness. We cannot think for a moment as the world would think and have us old-fashioned. Be old-fashioned. Do what is right. The Word of God never changes. And we need to live our lives above reproach, without a handle on our lives as men and women of God. As a young leader, he determined to love righteousness. And may I encourage you and myself, we need to be lovers of righteousness. What is right from God's Word. We'll always make good decisions and good judgment calls and have good discernment when we make them on the principles of God's Word and not our emotions or our feelings, but on the facts of the very Word of God. And then, secondly, as a leader, a young leader, he rose for the occasion. I like this part. Notice what it says in verse 7, the B part of the verse. He rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand. Maybe perhaps he was praying with his eyes open. I've done that several times. We had a lady in our church in West Virginia stand to give a testimony and she was a new member and she began to say things that I began immediately to pray. And I didn't kneel and pray, I prayed with my eyes open, Lord, please stop this lady's mouth. I wanted her to be quiet and I was going to have to fix some things after she got through. So there are times we pray with our eyes open and perhaps this is what he was doing. But as a young leader, he rose up for the occasion. Someone has rightly said, those who will arise to the occasion always stands out. And that's true. We are not told where his father Eleazar was, the high priest at this time. I have him in my heart and mind on his face praying and asking God for deliverance. He was God's man in charge there. His son had not exceeded him yet. And maybe perhaps Phinehas saw an opportunity that his father did not see. And while his father was weeping with Moses and all the congregation, this young man of righteousness decided to rise to the occasion. Thirdly, he was a young leader who was willing to stand in the gap. In the face of sin, he stood. In the face of opposition, he stood. In the face of peer pressure, he stood. He stood in the face of all of these things. Fourthly, as a young leader, he was unwilling to forfeit the promised land. Now this shows this young man had tremendous depth. He believed the promises of God, every single one of them, to the point that he knew the promised land was theirs, and he knew that this hand of God's judgment upon his nation needed to stop. He was unwilling to forfeit what God had for him in the future. Now there's a tremendous lesson in that, young people. If you choose to compromise with sin in your own personal life, personal holiness and righteousness, your purity, if you choose to compromise, it becomes very difficult for you to enjoy the future. God has great things for you. You are here training for the Lord's work. You yield to your flesh and there's no good thing within it. You yield to your flesh, and you do what your feelings want, and your heart is already black with sin. Even though you're saved, we still have black hearts. We cannot trust ourselves. And you yield to that, and what you do is you forfeit all of the future promises of your ministry. How sad. There's tremendous potential sitting in this room. Great men of God and women of God that can leave here and do wonderful things for God. Not that you'll be published in the sword of the Lord or get your name printed somewhere, but that you're just serving God in the will of God. And yet, great temptation comes along and our black hearts justify it. And if we are not walking with God, good people do bad things. And it costs them all the future blessings of their ministry. And God has to raise someone else up to take your place. to go to the gap for you. This young leader was unwilling to give up his promises that God had given him. He wanted to live within them, and he did. He wanted to enjoy the promised land. It's interesting that Balaam was the human instrument, and I call him a real toad, because he really interrupted the will of God for a lot of people with his compromise. And it's interesting, in my study I found this out. When Balaam got ready to leave, he could no longer live with the Israelites. You know where he settled? He settled in the land of Midian. And that's where the compromisers have to go. Because see, when you compromise, you lose your place of security because of your shame and your sin. How awful. Fifthly, as a young leader, he was taken and overwhelmed with this wickedness. Yet with great zeal and determination, he followed the prompting of God. Look at verse 8. And he went after the man of Israel unto the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. And those that died, verse nine records, in the plague were 24,000. He had watched 14,700 fall And he was determined that this wicked couple would not be the occasion of God's future judgment upon God's people. What a young man he was. He was militant in his actions. Yes, he was. For there, for the purity of the faith, for the sake of standing for right, to get rid of apostasy and compromise. With javelin in hand, he thrusts them through. In verse 14, we find the names of these people, and their names are interesting because names come with meanings. And sometimes we can learn from those meanings. The Israelite man in verse 14 is named Zimri. Now if you're from the north, maybe it's Zimri. But Zimri, his name means, and listen to this carefully, his name means to stroke the strings of a musical instrument. He was a charmer. See, he was the ladies' man. He was the one on campus that always was testing the waters, trying to find the most weak, little lamb, someone he can destroy, someone he can share his sin with. And may I say this, that when your hearts are not right, it's amazing how a Zimriah can raise his head up over here and a Qazbai will find him. Water seeks its own level. Sometimes we say this, they deserve each other. How sad. Here's a young man that knew how to talk to the ladies, who had not living for God and doing right and having his ministry and his life right with God, but what he himself in his flesh could get out of a relationship. And may I warn every young man and all the men here, including myself, I have three fingers pointing back this direction, that we need to be very careful when it comes to the opposite gender. Very careful when it comes to the opposite gender, because you will show who you really are to those who have any discernment about your conduct. And this place is wise to that, and you could be filtered out quite easily. And you'll give up all the future promises of your ministry. That's why I want us to have the heart of Phineas. so that we will not have that heartache. Cause by, it's interesting, this Midianitish woman, her name means deceiver. I said water seeks its own level, and that's exactly what happened here. These two rebels knew in their hearts they were rebels, and they gravitated toward each other, hand in glove. Phineas chose to stand between the living and the dead, as did his grandfather. When it comes to the truth, when it comes to the preservation of God's people, from the inroads of compromise and apostasy, there is no room for cowardice. There's no room for peaceful coexistence. The crisis called for action and Phineas rose to the challenge. May God give us a tribe like that. Men who would be willing to contend for truth and not be contentious about it. We desperately need a generation of believers like Finney has that will have the zeal of God, but not without knowledge. Zeal without knowledge will get you in trouble. But zeal balanced with truth and love will help you be for God who you need to be in a balanced way. When the dirty devil raises his head up in your life, you can use scripture, as did our Lord, to help yourself through that temptation. by that temptation. His leadership was extraordinary and exemplary. Notice his loyalty in verses 10 and 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake. And I want you to notice it said, for my sake, for God's sake, not for his sake. He wasn't zealous so that people could recognize him. He wasn't zealous so he would be seen. He rose to the occasion not to be seen, but he was seen. In other words, he did not have an ulterior motive to cause attention to himself. He just did what was right in the sight of God. He followed what God told him to do. Now I'm glad we do not do this in New Testament dispensation. If so, we would have to have ushers and deacons and trustees and a burial committee. Because that's what was happening here. 24,000 of them died. just as important as Phinehas' actions is equally important to know why he did it. And verse 11 teaches us why he did it. Notice what it says. Again, hath turned my wrath, this is God speaking now, and he's speaking this to Moses. He's letting the leader know what this young man did. Has turned away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy." He had a keen ability to discern, as I said in the introduction. And he acted. And his action was justified because of the degree of severity. And that's really important for you to understand. I remember when I first got into the ministry, I have this saying, there was a great day in my life when I learned. I say that from time to time when something I can relate to our church. And I remember there was a great day in my life when I learned that thumbtacks did not need 20 pound sledgehammers to be pushed in. In other words, to the degree of severity we act, we just do not get up and scream and yell. We just do not have a fit so that people think we're wonderful, great Christians. We do not preach loud because we want people to think that we know what it says. And so often we allow our flesh to lead us instead of the Spirit of God. That's why we're to have a right position, but we're to have a right disposition with that position. And it's important for us to have that balance. If we don't, all we're gonna do is draw attention to ourselves. Most people who spend the first part of their ministry, if they get through Bible school, and get into a ministry, and let me tell you what happens. You go kind of from congregation to congregation because after about two years, you're all burned out all over again. You're not studying, you're not learning anything new, and all of a sudden, people get tired of you. And it's all because of immaturity. May the Lord help us to not drive those thumbtacks with sledgehammers. He remained loyal to God and his commandments. You know what number seven is? Thou shalt not commit adultery. Still in the Bible. And he remained loyal to the truths of God's word. I'm preaching a series on Wednesday night on prayer. And it's interesting, do you know God will not hear our prayers if we disregard his commandments? Preach the whole message about that. It's important. That means a small commandment. I'm not talking about something is great and this is a great commandment, but even a small commandment. how horrible it is when we yield to our flesh and throw the commandments and principles of God's Word out the door. To Phinehas, loyalty to the principles of Scripture became thicker than blood. It did not matter who these people were. Go back to verse 14 and let me show you. Zimriah was the son of Salu, a prince of the chief house among the Simeonites. It did not matter that his father was a leader among the people. It did not matter who he was. There was no politics involved here. There was no shading over. There was no sweeping underneath the carpet. Sin and apostasy was being dealt with. And you did not become an exception to the rule because of who you were or what your last name was. Notice in verse 15, the daughter observed the head over chief house in Midian. He did not overlook their sins because of their names or their positions. He was loyal to the truths of God's word. Then lastly, consider the life and testimony. So exceptional. On more than one occasion, God needed a man with great integrity to stand in the gap. He entrusted Phinehas. Phinehas became his man. If you study his life afterwards, you will find many things in the scripture about this young man. As a young citizen of righteousness, he led in the cleansing of Israel, as we've just read. As a chief of the Levites, he succeeded his father as high priest. As a priest, he accomplished, under Moses' leadership, a great battle against the Midianites, Numbers chapter 31. As a faithful leader, he secured to his house the succession of the priesthood. That's in verse 13. That's that covenant of peace to him and his seed because he did right. As a sent ambassador, he reported the false accusations and misunderstandings between Reuben Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. You remember the trial in Numbers 31. And he contributed to the solution. So as a strong separatist and as a militant person, he was a very loving person. And when within the structure of Israel itself needed someone to settle a great dispute, who did God call? Who did God lean upon? when the battle was great. So whether it was the battle with the Canaanites or whether it was settling something internal, he chose Phineas. A man militant in his fundamental position, absolutely, but not without love and compassion. Strong, absolutely, but not without speaking the truth in love. A strong, strong person with balance. As a patriarch, lastly, he was buried with his father in Ephraim, Joshua chapter 24. Here was a man that God used all the way through his life to do great things. He called him to the occasion. of whether it was external fighting for the promised land, standing against sin in the camp, or settling a tremendous disagreement among the brethren. God used Phinehas. Why? Because Phinehas had character. The Great China Wall zigzags its way through the mountains, and if you would plot it, it would go from Chicago all the way to the West Coast. It was built some 125 years before the birth of Christ. It is the only man-made edifice that can be seen from outer space. Large as it was, every city block was a four-story tower manned by the Chinamen to keep out the Mongols. But you know, history lets us know that the Mongols raided China many times. How did it happen? Did they become so strong that they built catapults and catapulted themselves over the wall? No. Did they climb it? No. Did they go all the way around it on either end? No. Did they dig under it? No. How did they do it? They did it by bribing the gatekeepers. Men with no character. And over and over, read the history, over and over, you'll find them. How sad to be bribed. This man was not going to be. Unusual discernment guided this young man. unbigoted heart and motives, producing unbending loyalty to the principles of God's word, making him unblameable in his character, unrelenting in his convictions, unflinching in his fidelity, and unwavering in his integrity. God give us some Phinehas. Let's stand, please.