Revelation 22. Appreciate you coming tonight. It's getting harder and harder to come back to church on a Sunday night. That easy chair's got claws in it. You sit down in that easy chair and it kind of reaches up and kind of grabs a hold of you and kind of pulls you down in here. Easy chairs are like bad habits. They're easy to get into and hard to get out of. And you get home, man, and you get to thinking, man, something's gotta be wrong with me. I think I feel a cold coming on. I'll just watch it tonight on the thing. This morning the thing was down, so I guess you'd be up the creek without a paddle, but I appreciate you coming back. It's an encouragement. You gotta fight that flesh in these last days. Flesh that says, you know, I can just get it another way. And the Lord says, well, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, even more so such as you see the day approaching. Well, I'll just assemble in my living room, you know. And the Lord said, well, okay, but I may not come by your living room. I may go by the church house. So I appreciate you being here. I don't take it for granted. I know it's an effort for you to be here. I know some of you have to come here and you stay all day long while you got stuff going on at home and dogs that have to be taken care of and animals that gotta be fed and stuff, and I appreciate it. I appreciate the sacrifice. Some of you leave here tonight, you got an hour, some two hours, some a little more than two hours drive home before you ever even get home. Just trust me when I tell you, God'll redeem you. He'll give you per diem for your mileage. When you get up there, the Lord will say, we owe some per diem for mileage. You won't get anything by Him. He knows what you're doing, he sees it, and he appreciates it, and he'll make sure other people know it. I know you don't think it's much, but God knows it, and it matters. All right, Revelation 22, we've already got, we got down to verse number 15. For without our dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you that these things in the churches I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star, and the spirit and the bride say, come, and let him that heareth say, come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. Father, we'd ask now that you might help us as we look into these passages again, and we thank you, God, for the blessing of having a Bible, and having a complete revelation before us. Ask now that you might help us as we look into this. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. All right, if you're marking your Bible now, we'll come down to verse number 15, and in that verse that we were on here this morning, we talked about, come to 2 Peter chapter number two, it says, for without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Now, the reason I bring this thing to you about dogs up is because of this, because whether you like it or not, the Lord makes a comparison to you being an animal. Before you're saved, you're considered to be a dog if you're male and a pig if you're female. That's not very kind, is it? If you think about it. But that's what he refers to you as. You're a dog. You say, what is a dog? Just a wild animal. But some dogs have more sense than people do sometimes. 2 Peter chapter number 2, notice what he says, verse number 22. But it has happened unto him according to the proverb, The dog has turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that washed in her wallowing." Now, what he makes there is, is that, for instance, dogs. Dogs don't like to be washed. You say, well, I got an inside dog. They like it. No, they don't. They're lying to you. They've just learned to take it. Dogs don't like to be washed. You think I'm kidding you? The next time you wash a dog, get you a good, get you a dead frog. One's been dead for a while. And put it where the dog can pick the scent up of it. Okay? Don't go hide it or nothing. I mean, if you want to know the real truth of the matter, get him after he's all foo-fooed up and all cleaned up and all smelling sweet and pretty, and get his nails clipped and trimmed and all that other kind of stuff, and you got all the little powder on him and all that stuff, and he don't smell like a dog anymore. He smells like a perfume pillow or something running around. Right? And when you hit him like that, it's like a pillow that's been sent with dust because that stuff flies all over the creation. You know, flea powder and stuff in their breath and all. Dog's breath is supposed to smell like a dog, not scope or mouthwash or something. Brush your dog's teeth. You know what, I can see dogs out in the forest, you know, out there, yeah, brush it. I know you gotta pay attention to their teeth. I know, I understand that. My dogs, thank the Lord, somebody's been watching over their teeth, and I'm sure that's why he's still around nowadays. Except that I think he cares about my wife so much that he's just staying around to make her happy. He's afraid if he dies, she'll leave me or something. I don't know, but I better stay around. Mama, I'll leave him if I'm gone. She won't have any reason to stay home anymore. But at any rate, you think I'm kidding you now. You get you a dead frog or a dead squirrel, something like that, and put him out there in the front yard where the dog can pick it up. and then wash him and get him ball dried, blowed out, and all that other kind of stuff, and then turn him out in the yard and see where that dog goes. You know where that dog will go? He'll go right, make a beeline for that dead frog, and he'll lay that head down on that thing, and he'll start scootin' on it on this side, and scootin' on it on this side, and scootin' on it, and then he'll look at you like, what's your problem? Why ain't you down here on this frog? Dogs don't like to be washed. They weren't made to be washed. They have dogs outside, they're out in the woods. When's the last time you saw a deer wash out there somewhere? For all the deers to go out there so they're washing their young and all that kind of stuff. They don't go jump in a creek, it's cold. Unless they want some water or something like that. It's not natural. Dogs are naturally filthy animals. They get fleas and they get ticks and they get diseases and they get stuff. Now you've domesticated them and that's the best pet that I could recommend that you have. They'll beat the fire out of a cat any time. Amen, that's a good place to say amen. You say, well, what about a dog? A dog, when somebody finds somebody, says, I found somebody that'll love me and take care of me, and somebody that I can worship and care for. When a cat gets into somebody's house, you know what that cat says? Huh, they finally found somebody they can worship. That's how a cat thinks. The cat's in his attitude, I'll let you know when I want you to pet me. In the meantime, get your cotton picking hands off of me. The cat runs around all over the house and has to have a litter box in the house and all that kind of, you can train a dog to poop outside. A cat, you gotta get a litter box, and inside, they ain't gonna do nothing outside. You people don't think about that. So they give you kitty litter with, you know, this odor synthesizing stuff so you can't. Now if you got a cat, God bless you. I'm glad you got a cat. I'm glad you have a cat. And I'm glad you are enjoying that cat. I don't care for cats. Might be because when I was a kid we had a cat and I got ringworm from the cat and I could have wrung his neck. But the bottom line is, is that, yeah. But I'm not saying you ought to go out and shoot your cat or nothing like that. And if you have a dog, you're good. And if you have a cat, you're bad. But in the Bible, you're likened unto an animal. And so the thing that you want to remember is, is that dogs don't like to be clean. Don't ever forget that about yourself. One of the things, let me ask you a question. A fellow said to me one time, he said, what's the point of going to church? I mean, you know, I got to church and I said, okay, what's the point of taking a bath? Are you bathed once a week? At least, I hope you do anyhow. Some of you need a little bit more frequently than that. God for deodorant if you don't. I'd rather get over and talk to this side. They're not looking at me too nice. What's the point in a bath? You say, well, when you get dirty, you got to get washed up at least once a week. It kind of gets you, well, you're just going to get dirty again. Why bother? See? Well, preacher, why do I come to church? You're just going to get dirty again. Yeah, so you get clean for a while and then you may have to get bathed once a week or once a couple of times a week or whatever. But he's called the washing of the water by the Word. You're a dog. You don't naturally like to be clean. Your flesh doesn't like to be clean. Come here, Peter, I'm gonna wash your feet. Oh, if you don't wash me all over. And he says, no, listen, if I don't wash your feet, then you're not clean, cause why? It's where your feet are taking you that's messed you up, Pete. Now put your feet in the water and hush your mouth. Now what you gotta realize is, is that he's making a comparison there when he says without our dogs, those are individuals that don't want anything to do with God's way of doing things. He's not talking about literal animals there, he's making a comparison. If you notice a strange thing about a dog, When a dog gets sick, he throws up in the yard. A lot of times, you'll catch him eating grass and stuff. Now, I'm not an animal expert or nothing. I've just learned some things watching dogs. I've watched poodles. They get all fluffed up, and then they prance around all the time, like Christians sometimes. They think they're something they're not, and they prance around and stuff. But at any rate, you watch dogs, no matter who they are. That'll work. Some of you are like pit bulls. You're just mad at everybody and can't wait to bite the seed of the britches out of everybody. God bless you. So what happens with that dog? That dog gets over there and he gets that stomach going, you know, and he starts heaving and heaving and heaving and heaving and the next thing you know he throws up. Now if I throw up, I flush the toilet. I hate to throw up. Really. And if I can't make it to a toilet, if I'm somewhere out in the woods or whatever, and the car, I don't want to puke in my car. I want to get away from it, right? Well, you know what happens? He says the dog will return to his vomit. You say, why? That dog will throw up and then he'll go stick his nose in it. Right? I'm sorry if you already had dinner. Some of you are like, I feel like I'm going to puke. Just throw up in your mouth and swallow. You'll be alright. Unless it's green pieces. Don't swallow the green pieces. But now here's the thing. Here's what the point that he's making here. The dog will return to its vomit. You say, what? That stuff that he threw up, he goes over and he puts it back down again. The very stuff that made you sick, you go back to it again and you get sick all over again. That's the point that he's making. And then he says the sow, that's a pig to the water. Waller, years and years ago, I used to go to the, or I had to work the fair. That's the thing that comes on Duval Street once a year. That's as close to fair as you're gonna get in life. You say, what's fair? It comes on Duval Street once a year in Jacksonville. It's called the county fair. The rest of life ain't fair. Wake up and smell the coffee. That's how life is. Life ain't fair. So get over it. Build a bridge and get over it. So here's the thing. So we would go there and I like to go back where the livestock and all were. They'd have cows back there, man. They'd be washing them and drying them and they'd be polishing their hooves up and stuff like that and brushing their teeth and combing out their tails and stuff like that. And they'd have pigs out there. And pigs didn't look like the pigs I grew up around or the pigs I'd been around. Them pigs smelled like good enough you could put them in the house. They didn't smell like bacon or something, man. I mean, them pigs were foo-fooed up. You could go buy a pig pen right there and you couldn't even smell what a pig normally smells like. Any of y'all ever been around pigs? Oh, well, praise the Lord. I'm talking about any of y'all ever been around somebody raising pigs? Okay. Pigs stink. You wanna get rid of your affinity for bacon? Go to a pig farm. That stuff gets in your nose, it gets in your clothes, I mean, it gets in your toes, man. I mean, it stinks. Pigs stink. Well, you go by that place at the county fair, them pigs didn't stink, man. I mean, they'd just look as pink as a newborn baby out there, and they'd bring those pigs out there, and they'd get them all cleaned up and fixed up. And one day I'm back there walking around and stuff like that, and this pig has got mud all over him. I mean, he's covered. I mean, this little girl's crying and bawling, I don't know what happened to my pig. I don't know what happened to my pig. She's crying and stuff. I said, what's the matter there, honey? What happened to the pig? It's a little bitty thing. And she said, my pig got out. My pig got out. He got in my ear. My pig's messed up. I'm going to lose. I'm going to lose. I'm going to lose, she said. And I looked up at her, probably her grandpa there. He was an older fellow there, stuff like that. And I said, what happened, man? He said, well, the pig got loose. And he said, you know, we had a little bit of rain. And he says, you know pigs, don't you? And I said, yeah, he found the first hole. He said, exactly. That's what happened. He said as soon as he got out, the first thing he did, he said, he didn't run off. We didn't have to worry about him running out in the street and everything. He said all he did was looking for him a place to waller. The sow returned to her waller. talking about what you lay around in, what you mess around in, and what you got cleaned up from. And then as soon as you got cleaned up, you go right back to the mess you got in. If you're here tonight, can I just give you a piece of advice here, just something for you to consider? One of the greatest pieces of advice I ever heard an old preacher give to a bunch of guys was, he says, when you get out of this place right here, don't ever go back to where you came from. You know why? Because I know from the FBI statistics that the recidivism rate, the return rate of prisoners back to prison is upward of 80% right now. And the reason it is across the board, bless you, is the reason it is across the board is because they go back to the same crowd they were hanging around with before. The Bible's true. It's always those guys that get you in trouble. Why don't you get away from them? It's natural in your flesh. If you don't walk in the Spirit, you'll go right back to that kind of stuff. And this time you'll go back and you know what you'll think? I got it this time. I got it this time. And the next thing you know you're kinked in mud and covered in mud and you're eating vomit and stuff like that and you're going, how did I get back in here? Because you went back to it. So he says without our dogs, what he's doing is he's making a comparison there for you to understand those people that don't make the right choices, they don't get to enter into the city of Jerusalem there during the millennial kingdom. All right, come back if you will, please, to the book of Revelation. That help you any? Book of Revelation, he makes a strange statement there. He says this, and I won't preach on this too long, and I'll move right on through it, but notice he says this, he says, sorcerers, that's witchcraft. That's also, they'll give you this fancy word. They'll say that that word sorcery comes from the word pharmakeia. And they'll say what that is is it talks about drugs and conjuring and so on and so forth. Sorcerers, people that mess around with drugs and people that make drugs and things like that. In the Old Testament it's likened to witchcraft and potions and wizards and those kind of things. Sorcerers, people that mess around with drugs for the intent of getting you out of your natural state. Getting you into another world, something to replace the Holy Spirit with another spirit. And when you start messing around with that stuff, what a lot of people may not realize is, any of you here, I'm asking you some personal questions tonight. Any of you here ever seen anybody going through, say, DTs or anything like that? You ever seen that? That was real common back a long time ago. That was when they came off of alcohol. How about coming off of drugs? All right, that's maybe a little bit more common. You watch what happens, and all of a sudden they'll start telling you, do you see that over there? Do you see this over here? I remember stopping a girl one day in the middle of 8th and Main Street. literally right out in the middle of 8th and Main Street, and she had run the ends of her fingers off, but she was digging in the pavement out there, and pulled up, and had a couple cars there, and turned the lights on to try to keep people from running over her, and she's screaming to beat the man, and she's scratching, and she's clawing, and she's scratching in that thing, and when we got a hold of her, I mean, she's got this look of horror all over her, man, skin poppers all over her, man, I mean, just looks something like the cat drugged in. And we finally get her in the car, and she said, keep him away from me. Keep him away from me. And I said, what are you doing? She said, I'm trying to get away from the devil. I'm trying to get away from the devil. I'm trying to get away. And she's digging. She's clawing down there. And she's trying to claw her way into that thing. She's thinking in her mind, she really sees him. Well, I hate to tell you, she probably saw something real. Say she's hallucinating. Said who? She's in another dimension. By the way, you're in the fourth dimension. Did you know that? That's what a preacher, now hold on a second. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, there can't be a fourth without three other parts. There's a past, there's a present, and there's a future. So where you are right now is a combination of those three things. Because without those three things, nothing else exists. If all you got is a past and a future, you don't have any present, you don't have the third leg. You gotta have three parts of everything or it doesn't exist at all. You're in it. This existence right now is a combination of those three things. That's getting pretty far out there. Talking about sorceries, talking about drugs, and talking about those kind of things. They're coming off of that stuff or they're seeing stuff. You say, what is it? It's to try to transport you. It's a cheap imitation of coming into glory. It's a cheap imitation of spiritual things. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit, for they are spiritually discerned. Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. But we have the Spirit of God and therefore we know them, he says. What do you know? The things of God. That's in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He's saying there's certain things you know from another dimension, something that's out there in the future, something that's going to happen out there. And this world's trying to tap into it. There's your liquor and there's your alcohol and there's your Denver dope smokers and everybody else. What are they trying to do? Get out of the frame. That's all your Eastern religions. What are they trying to do? Get out there into another world, a spiritual world, sorceries. and those things are still going on in the millennium with Jesus Christ sitting right there on the throne, and there's still people out there trying to do out, you know what that does? That's appealing to you. Now a lot of you, you don't do drugs, and you don't do drinking and stuff, but what you do is, is you escape through the television set, or through computer games. Honey, it's time for dinner. Honey, it's time for dinner. Honey, I said it's time for dinner. Hey! It's, what are you hollering about? I said it was time for dinner. Well, all you had to do was say so. I did! Three times! And the next thing you know, you disappear into that thing. Sorceries. I don't want to spend too much time on that kind of stuff, but that's what you have to watch. This nation right now, they say better than 70% of people are on some kind of pain medication or some kind of hallucinogenic drugs now. 70% of the people, if that's true. I don't know if that's true or not. That's a statistic that comes from the FBI, but that's what they push all the time on the box. Who would ever thought that you'd see advertisements for all kind of different drugs all the time? You say, what? It's the Bible, man. They're trying to replace the thing that'll give you peace in your soul with a pill. I'd say it's a problem if you take a pill. Doctor tells you take a pill. Take the cotton-picking pill, man. Don't be hurting. Guy said, I just believe God will take care of me. And he's over there and he's got an abscess in his tooth and things like that. He says, it's all in your head. He goes, yeah, where you think my tooth is? It's in my head and it hurts. Take an aspirin. Take a pill. Well, you know, I just thank God, okay, go ahead and hurt, stupid. And doctor gives me a pill and tells me to take it, man, I'll take it, fine, if it'll make me feel better. If I've got something hurting, I don't do good. I busted that stinking finger off right there, and the guy said, well, I can give you something. Give it to me, man. You got a needle? Stick it in there. I wish they'd give me some of that stuff they gave me when I played ball, man. I messed up my hands playing ball. I'll go over to that doctor. He said, I'll fix you up. And I said, OK, man, is it legal? He said, I'm a doctor. I said, OK. He said, give me your hand. He put it over there, and he stuck jammed that needle right up in there. And boy, I mean, before long, I could have hit a nail with that thing, and it wouldn't have bothered me. I could have hit a whole sack of concrete or whatever. It wouldn't have bothered me. I was smacking people in the head all the time. You say, why? Busting my hand all to pieces because I couldn't feel nothing. It felt good until it started hurting. Sorceries, what are you talking about? Talking about even in the millennial kingdom that stuff is gonna be rampant. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you nowadays what's going on in your country is this obsession with getting you out of the frame. They're looking for peace and there ain't no peace unless you got the king of peace. If you would be honest and sit down and talk to some of these kids that have been messed up on that stuff and all that other kind of, you know what they'd tell you? Yeah, it's fun for a while, but boy does it cost you. That's what they'd tell you if they were honest with you. You know what they'd tell you? I sure could have done without it, wish I had have done without it, but some idiot was pushing it on me all the time and I thought it'd help out and started off pretty good, but after a while it took its toll. Liver messed up, teeth falling out of your head, problems got different things going on in your life for the rest of your life, just for a little bit of fun. No, you're trying to escape something. You're trying to escape the Lord's what you're trying to get away from. Well, you're not gonna escape it, you're gonna meet him one day. This helping you at all? It's right here in the passage here. Sorceries. Stay away from the stuff. Go to a doctor. If you go to the doctor, the doctor tells you you need something, take it. Don't go out here and say the preacher said if you're taking pills there's something wrong with you. I know a lot of people need pills. I had a friend of mine years ago, a long time ago, and what would happen is he said, I got to go find my brother, I got to go find my brother. I said, what's wrong with your brother? He said, I better not tell you. He said, I just got, I got to leave. And so he said, can I have, I said, sure man, take off, see you later. And he signed his leave slip and took off out the door. A little bit later on he came up and he said, well, we found my brother. And I said, well, where was he? He said, well, he was in the closet, sitting in the closet naked. And I said, what? And he said, yeah, bless you, sitting in the closet naked. And I said, well, what in the world's wrong with him? And he said, well, he's got this particular thing, and I won't say it for the risk of offending some of you, but he said as long as he takes this particular medication, he's as normal as me and you. But the second he comes off of that stuff, he said, he's apt to be anywhere at any time doing anything. And he said what he did was he got convinced he didn't need it anymore, and he didn't take it, and so he walked off of his job, walked away from his wife, walked away from his kids, and we found him naked sitting in the closet over here and, you know, and in a mess. And so I said, well, good night of lives. What did that guy need? He needed somebody to monitor him, give him medicine. I had a preacher come through here years ago, years ago, and he said, you know, if you're taking any, no, we were at a camp meeting, Drina Lynn and I were at a camp meeting, was preaching at a meeting there, and the guy got up and he made this stupid statement. He said, if you're taking pills, there's something wrong with you. Well, I had to walk out on that one. You say, why? I ain't no medical doctor. I don't know what it takes. I watched my wife go through menopause. I wish I could have give her something. She's a good sport. She takes it. But boys, if you ain't never been with a woman going through that stuff, you're helpless. You are helpless. You're just there to watch the show, man. You don't know what's going to happen. You can't tell from one minute to the next what they're going to do. Really, they'll wake up one morning crying and they're serious like, what's the world I do now? I just got up. You know, you didn't do anything. I just love you so much. You just, I really love you. You mean everything. It's like, okay baby, well good. You have a different way of showing that. You don't have to show it with your tears. And the next minute, you know, she's sitting there in the chair and she says, I feel like I'm outside my body. I look down at Zeke like, Okay, here we go, man. Somebody get the straitjacket, you know. Here come the guys in white or whatever. And she goes, do you know what that's like? I said, I have no idea. She said, well, well, well, well, well, I said, when you get back in, let me know and I might be able to help you. That poor old thing would just sit there, man. It was pitiful. I felt sorry. She couldn't help it. But if I could have give her something, I would have. I'd go to the doctor and the doctor would say, oh, well, it's just menopause. Yeah, easy for you to say, buddy. Just menopause? Whoo, Lord help me. Sometimes you wish that somebody has that stuff to help you out with that stuff. I didn't mean to get off on all that to get on a little further here. Notice he says, sorcerers, whoremongers. That's still going on with the Lord sitting on the throne. Not jumping one girl to the next or one guy to the next and thinking about whoever they can be with and don't have any moral values whatsoever. bongers, that's what that word is, just obsessed with it. That's the state of the nation you're in now, just obsessed with it, just constantly all the time. There's no relationship anymore, it's all physical stuff. Kids are nowadays, these young kids are nowadays, what they're taught is it's all about the physical, the physical, the physical, the physical. You're supposed to develop a relationship, get to know the person and the spiritual parts, the rooting and the grounding of that thing before the physical ever takes place. Nowadays, they're teaching in churches that, you know, well, you might better take it around the block for a test drive, make sure you're compatible. My foot. That's contrary to the Bible. Enough on that right there. The Bible says in murderers, people still killing people. There's a lot of way to murder somebody without just a gun or a knife or a baseball bat or something like that. You can murder somebody with words. That message I gave you this morning, they're sure as I'm standing here, they were gonna murder Joseph, whether they beat his brains out or left him in a pit to die. Murderers is listed in the passage right there. And then we come on down where he says, idolaters, that's the ones that worship things. Right now, the greatest golden calf we have is the one on two legs that looks at you in the mirror every day. It doesn't say moo, it says me. That's pretty good. It doesn't say moo, it says me. You heard about the cow that was out in the pasture and was worried that there wasn't gonna be enough hay to get it through the winter, so it mooed itself to death. Joni liked my joke anyway. Joni's like, I'm not laughing at the joke preacher, I'm laughing at you. You're making a fool of yourself. All right, now you wanna catch this one right here. Whoso loveth and maketh a lie. Did you get that? Whoso loveth and maketh a lie. Not just the one that makes it, but the one that loves to hear a lie about somebody else. You know, the greatest lie that's ever told is 90% truth. I told you the other day, a truth and a lie went swimming one day, and they both hopped in, went skinny dipping, and came out, and lie jumped out first and grabbed truth's clothes, and has been running around in truth's clothes ever since. And truth has been trying to tell somebody that lie stole it, and nobody will believe the truth anymore. That's the greatest lie that there is nowadays. It's 90% truth. You have to watch that stuff. If I were to put a glass up here in front of you right now, take the glass they fixed for me back here with a little bit of water in it, and I put just, say, a couple of drops of strychnine, is there just two drops of strychnine to a whole glass of water, well, that means that 99% of the water is water, right? Would you drink it? It's funny how people gobble that stuff up nowadays. It's funny how people who believe the King James Bible or say they do and then they get out there and they get in the social circles and they say all of a sudden it changes. Well, you know, one Bible is as good as another Bible. The only reason we believe this Bible is because, you know, it's easier to understand. Hey, can I just tell you something? You're misinformed because whenever you take away the authority of the Bible, you make yourself the authority. You replace the authority with yourself or whoever you choose to believe as a person. I'm not your authority, the Bible is. Say, but you're the pastor. I know, but I'm under his authority. I tell you what the Bible says, and if you don't like what the Bible says and your problems with the Bible, if it's my opinion, I'll do my best to tell you it's my opinion, and don't take it if you don't wanna take it. But if it's the Bible, you're under the Bible's authority. The Bible's authority. Ladies and gentlemen, the most important thing that I could tell you it all is, is whenever that authority right there is removed, you're headed for trouble because then the person becomes authority. And I'll be jumped if you're not living in the book of Judges right now, I'll kiss your foot. That is Laodicea if I've ever seen. You say, well, every man does that which is right in his own eyes. God ain't gonna tell me nothing. I'm my own authority. One of the Bibles is as good as another Bible. I can't even argue with somebody like that because they don't recognize an authority. They go to some internet place and find somebody that agrees with them. Hey, just because they got Scripture, a fellow told me one time, well I got Scripture for this, and I got Scripture for this, and I got Scripture for this. As if because he said he had Scripture, that made it right. Well, the Charismatic got Scripture for tongues. Church of Christ got Scripture for baptism. Catholics got Scripture for sacraments. Mormons got Scripture for believing that when you're up there, you're still married and you're gonna have all this eternal junk up there. The Jehovah's Witness believe that 144,000 applies to them. That's gonna leave a lot of them out, but they got Scripture for all that. You take that Scripture away, rightly divided, you're headed for trouble. I don't know about you. I don't trust me. No matter whether I trust you or not, I probably trust you more than I trust me. You say, why? I know me. I know me has lied to me before. I know me has told me a couple of times. My wife and I were out the other day and we were messing around a little bit with some weights and stuff like that and this thing said to me, you can handle that, you can handle that, flip it up, you can handle that, you can do that, sure enough. And I'm like, uh, uh, uh. And as soon as I got it off of me, I said, you lied to me, man. Made me think I could do something I couldn't do anymore. You say, why? Because I ain't what I used to do, could be anyway. I was a legend in my own mind for a second. I was in a time warp. I thought I was 25 years old again. Boy, did I find out that ain't true. All right, now loveth and maketh a lie. Make sure that you don't love to hear lies and gossip about other people. You say, why? You say, preacher, this has to do with the millennium and people being without. Yeah, but if you want to bust your fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you just be guilty of those things right there, and you won't have any fellowship with him, and you'll be without fellowship. even though you're still saved. All right, verse number 16. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto me that these things are the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. I gotta stop right there. You say, why? Because the Lord makes clear that he's the bright and morning star. Would you agree with that? Come to 2 Peter chapter number one. 2 Peter chapter number one. Now this is an important thing for you to grab a hold of about your Bible. 2 Peter chapter number 1 and verse number 19, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Are you with me? I'll wait until you get there. Are you there? All right, 2 Peter 1, verse 19, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. More sure than what? He's talking about the Lord up there in Matthew 17 where he's transfigured. And he's saying, you got something more sure than us seeing the Lord transfigured in front of us. What is it? The Bible. We have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto you do well to take heed as a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. That has to do with the millennial promise that he makes there, and that's Peter that's preaching there, but he just said to them, until the day star arise in your hearts. Now, who would the day star be? Well, it'd be Jesus, wouldn't it? Didn't he just say, I'm the bright and morning star? So who would the day star be? Well, are you sure about that? Come to Isaiah chapter 14, and I'll show you what they do with your Bible. This is what they call a trick of the trade. A lot of times what they do, ladies and gentlemen, is they get a Greek scholar to take a Hebrew text and turn it into Greek so that they can get the proper tense that they're looking for and then turn that Greek word into an English word to make that Bible say what they want it to say instead of what it says. That's a trick. Now you have to know a whole lot about what they do and how they put the notes there and all this kind of stuff, but you don't have to have an education to understand this. You never interpret Hebrew with Greek. You don't do that. You say, why? The Lord wrote the Old Testament in Hebrew and He wrote the New Testament in Greek. They're not the same. If He wanted to write it all in Greek, He could have, but He wrote it in Hebrew and Greek. You say, why? Because the Greek words are different than the Hebrew words. When you transliterate a word out of the Old Testament into the New Testament, you better make sure that you transliterate it in the proper tense or you'll get it to come out a different way. And that's all you need to know about it. You say, well, you know, can you show us all that stuff? I can't even draw the little figures anymore. But the bottom line is this, I do know their tricks. And I know that it is always to do a couple of things. Number one, to cast doubt on the Word of God. Number two, to set themselves up to the authority. You ever hear these guys get up and preach? They're soft, they're polished, they're great speakers. They never yell, they don't get red in the face. They talk very educated in there. They talk all this psychological babble stuff and all, make you feel real good about yourself. And then they'll say this. Now in the original Greek there, that word would really mean And what they're doing is, is saying, now see, I've got this information that you can't have because I know there's not a Greek scholar sitting out there, and you wouldn't even know how to check it if I was saying something wrong, so now you're just gonna take my word because I'm a Greek scholar. As soon as somebody says that, I start watching something. I'm thinking, ah, wait a minute, man. If the Lord wanted me to know it in Greek, he wouldn't let me be able to speak Greek, number one. Number two, he wouldn't have written it in English. See, common sense, right? So when somebody says that, or in their Hebrew, the word should have been so and so, and it should have been such and such, why don't you just leave it in English? Just give me the English rendering of the word and let it stand like it is. All right, now come over and let me show you what they do here. In Isaiah chapter 14, it's a chapter on the devil. Verse number 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? Transliteration. Daystar. If you've got an old Scofield Bible, it's down there in the bottom part of your note. If you have another Bible, it might be in the center part of your margin, where they'll say Daystar. They take those three words, sun of the morning, and make it Daystar. Then how come you think the Lord Jesus Christ, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, made a direct reference to Jesus Christ, having been there on the Mount of Transfiguration in 2 Peter 1, and said, until the day star arise in your heart, unless it was to show you that anybody tried to make Lucifer the day star was trying to make a god out of the devil. The Holy Spirit was ahead of them when that was done. That's no scribal error. That's no, oopsie, we made a mistake. That's somebody looking at it and saying, well, if we take that Hebrew phrase and turn it into a Greek phrase, well, what he's saying there is, is let's short it down, son of the morning, what he's saying is, is day star, and then the Lord said, wait a minute, that's my name. What are you doing calling the devil by my name? In the margin of your Bible. And you wouldn't even know it, except you read your Bible and you go, now wait a minute, which one is it? The Bible says that the day star is Lucifer, okay, until the day star, oh, so Lucifer's really the Jesus that I'm looking for, so now Satan is the good guy and the Lord's the bad guy. That's what a true Satanist believes. A true Satanist that follows Aleister Crowley's writings and those kind of things and that kind of stuff, what they believe is, is they believe that when it's making references, they believe Jesus and the devil were brothers. Jesus was a human being, is the third part of the Trinity. He's a part of the Trinity and manifests in the flesh. The devil never was a human being and he never was a brother. He was a cherub until he was cursed as cattle and turned into a seven-headed red dragon. He was never a brother as the Mormons teach. I'm not saying that and you get offended by the fact that, well, you know, the Mormons... No, they teach their brothers. They're not brothers. God didn't make those two guys and now they're having this big fight over who's gonna be the number one and this and that and the other. They're not brothers, first of all. Second of all, when he makes a reference to son of the morning, he is not referring to him as the day star. You say, why? Because that's making the devil Jesus Christ and you got a problem. So the Lord says, I'm the one, I'm the morning star. I'm the one that rose up right there. I'm the day star, 2 Peter chapter number 1. And you should make a note there, you say, why? Because your Bibles change that where he says, son of the morning, if you have something besides the King James Bible, they've started replacing that with day star. Now, who would do something like that? Why would somebody who thinks that they're translating things, why would they even do that? I give it to Scofield, at least he put it in the margin, he left the text alone. But Scofield even messes it up every now and then. Why? Just enough fleas to remind you of the dog you are, that's why. But let me ask you a question. Why would somebody try to do that to you unless there's something wicked behind trying to change translations and trying to get you to follow somebody other than who he wants you to follow? Can I ask you a question? How come when you come to Mark chapter number nine over there, how come it'll read over in the margin of most of the newer Bibles now, not in the newest, or not in the most reliable texts? When he's talking about there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, and that's Jesus speaking, and that whole entire thing of that passage is out. How come they take the baptism after salvation out of Acts chapter number eight over there with Ethiopian eunuch? Why would they do that? Why would they call Joseph Jesus his father? Why would they take out the verses on the blood of Jesus Christ? Why would they mess with the Bible like that? What would be the point of somebody doing that if it's not demonically inspired? You say, what is it? It's somebody wanting to be in charge of your life instead of letting the Lord be it. That's the one, authority, the authorized version. 1611, I've showed some of you this before. What is 6 plus 1 plus 1 plus 1? What's that? Count the letters in Holy Bible. Nine, right? Count the letters in King James. It's nine. You say, why is that important, preacher? Nine's the number for perfect fruit. It can't be improved upon. Just coincidence that 1611, King James, and Holy Bible are nine, and three times nine is what? 27, and what's two plus seven? Wow, okay, so now we got four nines. Four times nine is what? And what's three plus six? Really? Let's go a little further. Now we got five nines. Five times nine is what? Four plus five is? Six times nine is? Five plus four is? Shall I continue or do you want to go? You can't stop it. It goes on and goes on and goes on and goes on. You say why? Because it's perfect. Now you may call that coincidence. I don't call it coincidence at all. God wrote it the way he wanted to write it and keep your cotton picking measly mugs off of it. The only reason they do that stuff is to make money off of stupid people that go out and say, well a better rendering. Hey stupid, the way you understand the Bible is you get spiritual. It's a spiritual book. It's not a book that you understand in your flesh. It's spiritual. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, for their spirit shall not... Neither can he know them. And I'll add this, neither can the carnal man know them. Because you're walking in the flesh. It's a spiritual book. I just don't understand the Bible. Well, it's not like reading your instructions to put your coffee maker together or something like that with illustrations and stuff like that. Sometimes you've got to read it several times to get it. Sometimes it depends on how your heart is at the time you read it. Sometimes you get it one time, the next time you don't get it at all because there's a block in there where you can't see what it's saying because you refuse to accept the truth He already gave you. That's in 1 Corinthians chapter number 2. Alright, come back now if you will please to that thing about the day star. Can you give me just another second or two here? I know it's 6 o'clock. Is this boring you to death? Revelation chapter number 22. I wanted to try to at least get you through this right here so you can see where we're going, all right? That'll be a tribulation passage there where he says that, where he comes back. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. Tribulation. I'm the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. And I want to make you a note there about 2 Peter 1, verse 19. and then all of a sudden he breaks out of going from the advent, the advent, the tribulation, the millennium, the tribulation in 15, the tribulation in 16, and then all of a sudden he jumps to the church age in verse 17. The Spirit and the Bride say come, that's you, and let him that heareth say come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Now that has to do with what you call the last invitation. He says, listen, now you're coming to the end of your Bible here, and he's saying, my last invitation to you is, is come on now, come on now, don't wait. Today's the day of salvation, come on now. Get right with God now, come now, come now, come now. In the book of Isaiah, he says, come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as wool. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as snow. Come now, let us reason together. Come now, you that have no money and have no butterer or third. Come now, come now, don't wait. You know what the devil says? Ah, tomorrow be good. Ah, tomorrow be good. Just put it off. Why do today what you can put off to tomorrow? That's a lady, can I just help you with something? That's a man's attitude about pretty much everything in life. Why do it today if you can put it off to tomorrow? That's how we think. Well, the roof's leaking. Well, it ain't raining. Thank the Lord for that. Past potatoes. Really? Well, there's a spring busted in the chair. Okay, we'll get out another chair. Nobody's sitting in it anyway. We'll fix it when company comes over. I'm sorry I'm outing you fellows, but it's true. You ladies get upset because you're always preparing for what might happen. You ever realize how much time you spend worrying about stuff that'll never happen? That's Jake this morning, he's thinking about stuff that'll never take place. You get consumed with something, you think, what if it ever happens? You go out and buy hurricane shutters for the hurricane that might come and it never comes, but you got them in case it does. Right? Some of you probably got chains in there in case it snows again and ice, so you got chains for your tires. I mean, it probably won't ever happen. Just leave it parked in the garage till it melts. But women are, they're security driven. They think they get everything covered. You can't buy enough ammunition, you can't get enough insurance to cover everything, lady. I hate to tell you that. It ain't gonna happen. You never get it all done. About the time you think you got it ready, then whatever you prepared has done war out. You know, well, I painted the house for the last time. Get Rhino Shield, never have to paint again. Yeah, if you move in seven years, you live in Florida, man. You're gonna paint again. The house will rot and fall down, then you have to rebuild the house and paint it after that. You may not want to paint it, but a woman, the house is fading. It's like, well, we gotta paint the house. The house needs painting. Why? It ain't leaking. But because it's fading, so it's going to leak. It might leak. It could leak. Maybe it'll leak. There's a crack. A termite will get in there. And the next thing you know, the whole house will fall down. We need a termite bond. We need fire insurance. We need burglar window. We need alarm system. We need, we got to have, I saw a bug in the grass. We better get the whole yard, best spray everybody. Spray the neighbor's yard. That means something's going to happen. Am I telling the truth? How much time do we spend worrying about stuff that never happens? I mean, men, we are obsessed with getting ready. The bank crash is coming. Okay. What are you going to do against it? Well, I'm going to stock up money. If the bank crashes, it ain't going to be good for it. Well, I mean, I guess you use it for toilet paper, but it ain't going to be good for nothing else. Buy gold, you know. Why? You'll drown with it. Somebody come in, you buy all that gold and store it for them, and they come in and stick a gun in your face and say, I appreciate you storing this for us. Thank you very much. See you later. Thank you for all the food, too, while we're at it. You can either get out of the way and let us take it. You ever stop and think about it? Women, you're the worst. You are. I hate to tell you, I'm just being kind. I know you're worried and care. You want to take care of everything. But you try to make sure every base is covered. You need to talk to some of these old saints. You know what they'll tell you? Honey, quit worrying so much. All the stuff I used to worry about and gave me all these gray hairs, guess what? It didn't come true and I worried and spent all that time where I wish I'd just enjoyed life and not worried about it. Most of you got enough food put up, you could survive for, I don't know, six months if you rationed your food, but it's there just in case. Spice drawer. In case. You need pumpkin spice once a year for Thanksgiving, but you got it in case. Well, buy a little amount and throw it out when you're done with it. You say, why? Because the next year's gonna come around. Well, it's old. It's a year old. You're gonna buy it anyway. So buy it, use it, throw it in the trash, and don't worry about it no more. And then if Thanksgiving don't come, you don't have to worry about it. They probably don't like your pumpkin pie anyway. And be like, well, I ain't making them no pumpkin pie no more. You'll see about it. Throw that stuff away, you know. Right? I didn't mean to offend you there, sir. Here's what you've got to understand. Listen, the Lord says there's some things that are important in life, and when I talk to you, that's the most important thing. When I tell you to come, you come now. Don't hesitate, don't stall, don't hang around, don't even reason. When I say come, get it right, come right then. and get it done right there. We'll stop right there. I'm already after six o'clock, and then we'll get into 18, 19, 20, and 21 on Wednesday night. And I appreciate so much you coming tonight and being here. I appreciate you listening. And I hope and pray that our study of Revelation's been a help to you, and not only doctrinally that you've learned some things, but you learned some things practically. Try not to worry so much. In the Bible he tells you this, be careful for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication give thanks unto God. Be careful for nothing. That means don't worry so much. Don't get so ed up with worry, consumed with what might happen. Can I give you an inside straight here for just a second? Give you a little tip. Your country right now is driven by a news media. And that news media thrives on you worrying. They know how to control you by getting you jacked up about a storm that's coming, or about a military takeover, or about a plague that's going to strike, or a bank that's going to collapse, or some idiot with a gun that's going to run through in your next movie theater next time you decide to go somewhere. They continually spend time all the time making things what they're not. You say, why? They're living off of you worrying. So the grocery business starts going down and not doing too good and they got too many things that are fixing to expire. Bad snowstorm coming, you better get your stuff, get your stuff, get your stuff. Everybody runs down there fighting over food and all that kind of a deal. And nobody sees that all of a sudden, did you even pay any attention? your perishable goods, the prices on them, went skyrocketing through the roof and nobody said a word about it. They started gouging you at the gas pump because they told you and you didn't care because I've got to get gasoline in case I can't get in there. What if the pumps freeze up? Then I won't be able to get gasoline. I won't be able to go anywhere. And I've got to get oil for my furnace. And I've got to get some wood. And I've got to go to the grocery store. And I've got to buy groceries. And what am I going to do? And you went out there and spent all that money And then the storm comes and it goes and it melts and it's a bad one. It was a terrible storm. It's horrible. And it melted in about three days. And in the meantime, you've depleted everything you had put up because they had you in a panic and you were worried. And you bought the store shelves out and guess what? The economy gets a little bump in there. Because retail sales are down because the weather has been so bad. People won't get out and go buy a bunch of junk they don't need. You say, no preacher, surely that's not, oh yeah, you pay attention to it next time. You watch Florida the next time they start talking about a hurricane coming. They'll start talking about that thing 10 days or two weeks before it ever comes around. You say, why? To get you to go out and buy stuff. I didn't say don't prepare. I'm not that stupid. But you get worried about it. What if? What if? What if? Oh, it's miraculous. It turned off and went out into the northeastern way. We're not going to have to worry about it. I guess you'll be eating beans for the next six months. Well, don't worry about it. You and the cows will have something in common. You'll have methane that's preventing the ozone being, everything's gonna be fine now. Don't worry about it. Global warming, you're okay. It's gotten hot, that's why it's cold. And people are like, oh. Now, I'm letting you in on something. Be careful for nothing. God's got it. He knows if a sparrow falls, You think that's something? He knows the hairs on your head. Even if you ain't got them, he knows the hole they go in. Yeah, he does. It don't mean he loves some of us more than others. You know what he says to you? I got it. Quit letting the media control your thinking. Stick with the book. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm looking for a deception. I'm looking for things to start to fall out and all that kind of stuff happening. And if you hadn't got a Bible and the Holy Spirit, if you're not careful, you're going to fall for it. Don't get too wrapped up in that stuff. People projecting things and predicting all kinds of stuff. There's one thing that's come through 100%. Those people that predict that stuff, ladies and gentlemen, if they were a biblical Old Testament prophet, you'd take everyone out and mount and stone them. You'd say, wow, they had to be 100% correct. They're worse than weathermen. I mean that with charity. Weatherman, he don't hit it once in a week telling you the weather. Once in a week, and he's still got a job. It's a good thing you ain't betting on him. You'd lose your shirt. Those people come up and they say, this is going to happen, this is going to happen, I'm positive this is going to happen, and this is going to take place and all that. And you read all that stuff and you're thinking, oh my God, I've got to get ready. They now have the thing on there where they've got doomsday preppers going on. Where do you think they got all that? The media stirred him up. And the more they show you that stuff, the more you think, well, maybe I better start getting ready in case that happens. And the next thing you know, see? See? The only thing that comes true 100% of the time is right there. And why you spend more time on the internet and Faceplant and all that other kind of foolishness than you do in that book. He's never missed it yet. Let me give you a thing. I found this. You don't have to open it up. I'll give you this right here. I made a note of it. The Lord's coming is mentioned 318 times in 260 chapters in the New Testament. That means it occupies one in every 25 verses from Matthew to Revelation. That's pretty important when you say one in every 25 verses. And he never missed a single one of them. They come true right on it. So just occupy yourself with that and you won't be so nervous. Get up in the morning and read your Bible instead of flip the news on. You need to see the weather or whatever. I get all that kind of stuff. You say, what's going to be? Oh, so-and-so said so-and-so, and she's going to run for office. And oh my God, if she runs for office, what are we going to do about that? Well, I don't tell you if he's going to run for office. We're going to have him run for office, and he will knock her off her pedestal. Well, I just think, well, I didn't believe so-and-so. You're still two years away from the cotton-picking thing. And they're already talking about it. You know why? Because they know you'll turn in tomorrow to see who's now winning the race that hasn't even started yet. Because you're already beginning to wonder which one is going to affect where I'm at and what I got the least. And they're feeling you out. You're guinea pigs. They're checking you out to see what it is you want, and then they'll adjust their candidacy accordingly. Well, I say keep them in the dark as long as you can and let them be what they're claimed to be. If they're really real, let it be revealed to them. Don't give them any extra information. Tell me what you are, what do you want? I ain't saying. Tell me what you plan on giving me. Well, how about if I give you this? How about if I take that? Well, how am I supposed to know to get elected? I don't know. Why don't you try honesty? Be who you are instead of what you think I want you to be. But that's not how it's run. It's a conspiracy to deceive you. So turn it off. Don't worry about it. You see what happened? No. Too busy. All right. Let's stand together and be dismissed.