The third law
The first two laws consider the force applied to one object. The third law says that a force never exists on its own.
Newton's third law
For every action there is a reaction, equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
Action and reaction
Action
The force applied by one object on another object.
Reaction
The force applied by the second object on the first.
They come as a pair. If one exists so does the other — always.
The point that matters most
The action and the reaction are applied to two different objects — not to the same one.
Which is why they do not cancel each other out. If they did, nothing in the world would ever move.
How this differs from balanced forces
When you pushed the table, the force you applied and the friction acted on the same object and cancelled out. An action–reaction pair acts on different objects. They can look alike from outside, but they are two separate things.