I think we were in Revelation chapter 9. Revelation chapter 9. I think I'm going to just lay out one of these days. Revelation chapter 9. Go what? No, I'm going to go hide in a rubber room because if I lay out, I'd get hurt. I can tell you that right now. Man, yes. The Lord will tear me up. Revelation chapter 9 verse 7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle, and on their heads were as it were crowns, like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men, and they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. And their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollon. All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our most kind and gracious heavenly Father, we do thank you for the blessings you give us. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to come here tonight and to study your word. Lord, seriously, we do ask you to put a hedge of protection about those that are not here for whatever reason it may be. Lord, have mercy on them and keep them safe. Lord, bring them in to us again. Lord, we just ask that, Lord, you would look into our hearts and minds, help us to take the word in to discern it, And the Lord didn't use it for your honor and your glory in Christ's name, amen. And I got an eyelash or something. So John described these locusts. And really and truly he described them from head to tail. The locusts of the Great Tribulation, they kind of resembled a horse, kind of a deformed, I guess you would say, horse. Their crown symbolizes, according to one writer I was reading from, he said their crown, and I kind of tend to agree with him, he said their crowns probably symbolize their victory over unbelievers. I mean, they're having a victory going on. So, you know, maybe, maybe not. And their human faces probably indicated they had some sort of intelligence. which is, you know, I'll agree with that. The demonic locusts, it said they had long hair, suggested kind of like a wild man. You know, when they describe John the Baptist, you think about John the Baptist, when you describe him, the first thing that comes to my mind is some biker. You know, some burly dude out of California somewhere and ain't had a bath in a month and, you know, oil all over his jeans and long hair and a beard, bugs all in it. I mean, you know, honestly, John the Baptist wouldn't be welcome in most churches. I've been in some churches that they'd have escorted him out. Actually, I've seen it done. So it's pretty wild. And so I'm going to say the long hair probably represents their wildness. Like the tribes of barbarians, when you study back in the days of John and Peter and all of them, they had barbarians that lived out there in the sticks and stuff. And them guys were pretty rough. They didn't impress people, except in the wrong way. No offense, Dave, you got long hair. No, what hair you got left is pretty long. That was mean, wasn't it? Joe told me to say it, but anyway. I'll let you in on that joke one day. But anyway, so they had a ferocious appearance. You know, I'm just going to take a wild guess. I mean, if I seen something like that, it'd be like, hmm. But it said they had teeth like lions. That tells you that they're pretty mean. I don't know. Could you say appetites? And they had what appeared to be a breastplate of iron, so it kind of makes them sort of like they're untouchable, invulnerable, I guess is what you would say. And their wings sounded like many horses running to battle. I don't know if you've ever, well, you probably have on TV, but you can be out in a field somewhere, and I had, oh, I don't know, seven, eight, nine horses at one time, And they'd be all down there in the back of the pasture, and they're just grazing, calm. And all of a sudden, one of them sees a ghost. And here they come. And it is loud. Just a few coming across the pasture is loud. You look up like, whoa. I can't even imagine a whole army of them. The locusts that we know of, they swarm without any kind of direction. They just go. We got, isn't it locusts that's coming into the country right now, I think, causing all kinds of problems. They'll come into an area, and when they're gone, there isn't much vegetation. They kind of wipe it out. They go basically one green plant to the next. That's why you don't see a lot of them out here They ain't a lot of green And and really and truly they just strip it down clean Proverbs 30 27 talks about that now these demonic locusts though that is talking about in Revelation 9 if they marched in a battle and And they were under an order of a king We read that in what was that verse? 11 yeah and said and they had a king over them locusts that we know of the little bugs They don't have a king over them. They just kind of buzz around here and there That reminds me we need to Check out our bees again. They may be back now, okay, there was a little patch of them up there today, but During the day, so I don't know If you walk out that-a-way or walk around that-a-way, be careful, there's honey on the ground, because it's melting and running down the church, which church, sweet as it can be. So sweet, it's got honey dripping. There you go, yeah. Hey, that Mike would preach. Anyhow, so they were ready for a battle, and they had a king that was over him, over all of them, but this king is that angel from the abyss that we know as Apollon. Now, both names in the Hebrew and in the Greek mean the same thing. Whether you say Abaddon or Apollon, it means destroyer. Now, I'm just gonna step out on a small limb here and say, who else is called the destroyer? satan could be now it's a terrible judgment but it's really not compared well you can't compare it to the next woe that's going to come uh the sixth judgment that's yet to come uh so now look at verse 13 13 through what Where's it written at? There it is, 13 through 15. He said, then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel, which had the trumpet, loose the four angels, which are bound in the great river Euphrates. Ooh, them some bad dudes. They've been chained up for quite some time. they are gonna be anxious. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to slay a third part of men. Now that's a bunch of people. You see, these demonic four angels, they're released And since the holy angels are not bound, Scripture doesn't record any of that. It doesn't record why God imprisoned these demons. We sometimes, as we study, have an idea. But anyway, we'll assume from studying such that he chained them up as punishment. Perhaps maybe that was when Satan rebelled way back there against God, and he persuaded a bunch of the angels to go with him on his rebellion. So maybe at that time they went with him, but anyway. We're not gonna get into that tonight, but these four demonic angels, they've been kept in chains ready for this specific purpose. Now, I'm not gonna argue the point, isn't that the four that it mentions in Jude? There you go. These were special. They were very wicked. You know there's wickedness in the world, but now there's some wickedness. When you step out there, there's some real wickedness we don't even want to deal with. I watched this show one time, it was Charles Bronson. That tells you how old it is. I think it's, The Evil Men Do was the name of it. And now this was a 70s movie. And I've watched that movie, and I'm like, oh, wow. The things they come, but there's stuff goes on now that surpasses that. You know, but this is, demons are wicked, but there's demons running all around, they're in here tonight. You know, believe it or not, demons come to church. We open the door and let them in sometimes, amen? But they come, and they come for a purpose, and that's to stir trouble. Do you ever wonder why a child gives you grief in church? There's your answer. Do you ever wonder why you get mad at what I say that God told me to tell you? There's your answer. It's called a demon. They are loose, but think about these four. They're not allowed to ramble around out here freely. They're bad. They're pretty wicked. So they're kept in chains, but they're held for this specific purpose. Now, they'll be released at the appropriate time. not before, not after, it's gonna be at the appropriate time of the great tribulation, and that's going into the last three and a half years, and they're for one thing, they're gonna fulfill God's purpose, that's what it tells us in verse 15. In other words, their release will occur at the perfect hour, on the perfect day, the perfect month, and the perfect timing in the year, when God's, maybe that's where my wife gets it from. She got an alarm for everything. You know, God may have an alarm. Ding, ding, ding. Oh, turn them loose. No, I'm just kidding. But it'll be at the perfect timing of God. What if she's being a Democrat tonight? She's on the back. But it'll be God's perfect timing when they're gonna be turned loose. I'm kidding. Do you ever, Ask yourself, you ever had the feeling that things in the world just getting out of control? I mean, think about it. You ever just look around and think, man, this is all out of control. This is chaos. Or closer to home. Let's go into the home. Do you feel like the circumstances in your home life is out of control? Can't control my wife. You know, I was talking to Chester and he said, I don't know what to do, Pastor. I can't control. Oh, she's still in here. I know Larry told me that. He said, what am I? I'm out of control at home. You know, we can bring it down seriously. We can bring it close to home. When we look and say, you know, things are really out of control. But you know, the Bible assures us that God has a year and a month and a day and an hour on his calendar for everything to happen. He's got it down to the split second. That little twinkling of an eye when we're called up hither. Everything, be assured, God has a plan and he's working it out just the way he wants it. It's not gonna happen too fast. It's not gonna happen. You know, I'm one of those that, I was thinking kind of like John, the writer, even so come Lord Jesus, because it's just getting stupid. You know, hello, come on back. But then again, I have to back up and I'm like, wait a second. I know that we'll leave some people behind that ain't gonna make it to heaven if he comes right now. And see, God's long suffering unlike us. We get all bent out of shape and we get, you know, anxious and boom, we're ready to do it right now. And God says, they that wait upon the Lord. and we need to be waiting upon the Lord. But listen, nothing happens in this world, nothing happens to you, nothing happens in our country that takes him by surprise because it was all laid out. And it didn't happen until he wanted it to happen. And it really didn't. We looked at 2020 and said, Biden stole the election. Well, okay, but God allowed it to happen. And I think maybe to stir us up, maybe do a little more praying for our country because it's in a mess. Trump ain't gonna fix it. Jesus is gonna fix it or either let it go. And from the looks of it, it's heading in the direction of what we're studying in and it getting there pretty quick. So these four demonic angels, They were given permission to go out and kill a third of the surviving people on the face of this earth. That's a lot, listen, a fourth of the world's population died with the fourth seal, in Revelation six, seven through eight, a fourth of them. Yeah, they're gone, now they're given the permission to go out and take out a third. A third of what's left. There you go. How many people's in the world? Eight billion, well that ain't much. You could probably put them all in Texas. Eight billion people, so a fourth of them are wiped out. Then you got another third is wiped out. So it gonna be what? Four billion left? That ain't many people for the size of this world. It's just gonna be kind of empty. Now, how can four demons, Which is kind of a dumb question, but then again, not, because demons are, they're not quite as souped up as angels. You know, God's angel walked in and killed 85,000 people in one night. He was busy, just one of them. But these four demons, you know, you think about how can they accomplish such a really deadly worldwide mission that they've been put on? So, and John said they'll have a two million member army that's going to be at their disposal, which is quite interesting. Let's look at verse 16 through 19. It says, and the number of the army of the horsemen were 200,000,000. And I heard the number of them, and thus I saw the horses in the vision of them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jason, and of brimstone, and the heads of the horses as the heads of lions, and out of their mouth issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. By these three, was the third part of men killed by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths for their power is in their mouth and in their tails for their tails were like unto serpents and had heads and with them they do hurt so now Some people say that it's a large army, referring to it. Now, I'm not exactly sure what John was looking at. I don't even think John knew. John heard the exact number from somebody in heaven, is what the Bible told us. He heard the number, he didn't say who told him, So there's no reason to really look at it as symbolically. Think about this. China has 400 million men of military age. Well, maybe not 400 million now because part of them is over here. But they're still in the military. So nonetheless, China has about 400 million military age men, and they have about 300 million women that are also in that category. So it's not really hard to imagine that they could come up with a 200 million man army. It really isn't. The question you've got to ask, and it doesn't really give us a 100% answer, is it a human army or a demonic army? Or kind of both, I'm going to say. So, because you could argue it in both directions when you study it. You really could. Now, personally, I believe that this is a human army, and I believe it's empowered by Satan. And I'm not going to say it doesn't have any demonic things in it, but the armies described in verse 17, they have breastplates. And it says it had the, if you look at the color of things, it's got red, it's got blue, and it's got yellow in it. And maybe the breastplates represent different countries. I don't know. Part of a vast army. Maybe it represents different areas of service in the army. I don't know. John, he described these horses as having iron-like heads. And their appearance was fierce and bold, lions on the prowl. Normal horses, by the way, don't breathe fire and smoke. I've rode them. Don't matter how mad you make them, they don't do that. It sometimes sounds like they could. But they don't breathe out fire, smoke, and brimstone, but that doesn't mean that they can't. Because I'm going to tell you, they're demonic horses. Now, I've been on a few demonic horses. And they were mean. I really think they had it in them anyway. I don't know whether they had the devil in them or not, but they sure acted like it. We sent them to glue factory, but ain't no need to deal with them. Now, God used natural elements to bring the judgment on the Sodom and Gomorrah, did he not? When we read about Sodom and Gomorrah, God used natural elements. Personally, when you read about it and you study about it, I think John probably was seeing demonically, demonic, how would I say it? They're possessed human army. And I think they were probably using modern weapons of warfare. I've heard other preachers preach it, my father-in-law used to preach it. Now listen, you think about it, you gotta have a little bit of imagination with some of it, and think about if the Apostle John, he lived in the first century, they were still rowing boats. You know, we don't know exactly everything they had. I know Egypt had hot and cold running water, and they had toilets that flushed, and they could take showers and things with pressure. But when you look at what John is reading about them, we know what we have in the world. We got some unreal stuff. And we probably don't even know really what all the military has and may not want to know. So, use a little bit of imagination. You think about John being in the, he was living during the first century, and he was trying to describe weapons of modern warfare. And if you look at it and say, now what was he, you know, somebody holding a flamethrower, and they're shooting flame out. How's he going to describe that? Well, he was holding these sticks. You know, he's trying to, we got warfare such as tanks, helicopters. Helicopters, you get enough Hueys together, man, they can rattle everything. And they got a sound unlike any, they're kind of like a Harley. When you hear one, it's unmistakably, it's a Harley. I walked out the door, I think it was yesterday morning, pop, pop, pop, pop, and I'm like, there is a Huey, And sure enough, here he comes with the door open. Yeah, he knows what I'm talking about. There ain't a better sound. Depends on which side you're on. So you think about it, missile launchers. You ever seen something that you can go on YouTube and look up some of these missile launchers? And man, they shoot and fire comes out of this big wad or whatever and all these missiles. My favorite one of all to watch on YouTube is the A-10. Man, the A-10 comes flying in and all of a sudden you hear this. And it is, it leaves nothing behind. Them things are mean. And by the way, they're used for ground assaults. Day 10 comes zooming in there and he just takes out everything in its path. And so we don't know what all John was looking at and describing because it was, and like I said, we have new weapons that exist. We ain't even seen them yet. You know, and you think about what kind of language would he use? He don't know what they are, you know. So I think those verses 17 to 19, really they're describing a real war and real forces at work. Now, as a result of this judgment, a third of the earth's surviving unbelievers will die. They're going to die. Now, the sealed judgments in Revelation 6, keep it in mind, we've already left, we've already lost a fourth of humankind, you know, mankind. Now, another third dies, which means that more than half of the world's population is dead. So, now the first woe, of the fifth trump, it brought distress, we're going to read that, and the second woe brought death, we'll read that. You would think, when all of that, the first, a fourth of them all died, and there was kind of a pause, you'd think that people would have got it together and said, wait a minute, I'm on the wrong side. But they didn't. And now again, they still have it. Another third die. And I'm gonna be up front with you. They're not seeing, well, no, how do I say? They are seeing demonic forces as we see each other. They know that it's from God. It's not being hidden anymore. They do realize that, but yet they still will not repent and say, I'm in the wrong. You know, I'm on the wrong side. Now, I think I said this the other day, that's just stupidity. You know, but the devil, I heard a preacher years ago say, the devil is brilliantly stupid. He's brilliant what he does, but he's stupid, because he knows he's not going to win this. Ain't going to happen. Verse 20 of chapter 9, where we at? Verse 20 says, And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor talk. I wish I could call it ignorance, but it wasn't ignorance. Aaron, Moses' brother, builds a calf and then they fall down and worship it. That's like me, I'm gonna build a chair and have all you guys worship it. What's it gonna do? I'm the one that built it, who am I? But people do. They can't see, they can't hear, and they can't walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. You know, the hearts of unbelievers, they're kind of hard anyway, but they're gonna be so hardened against God during this great time of the tribulation that neither the five-month-long torture of the demonic locusts nor the genocide of this demonically inspired army is going to cause them to repent and turn from their evil. And instead, they want to continue just to go on like they're going. And they get more frequently and intensify in it. You see, the surviving unbelievers on the earth, they'll continue in their worship of demons. They continue into, it's what it says, they continue into worshiping demons. Because I'm gonna be upfront with you, behind every false religion is a demon leading the people away from God. Every false religion has a demon leading that person away from the truth of God. That's sad, but it's true. This might include satanic worship and demons. And it's not hard to believe there's people who do satanic worship now. You talking about an idiot. But they are, they're true. They worship Satan. Anton LaVey, you ever heard of him? He started the first church of Satan out in San Francisco. Of course, Anton's down there in hell thinking, boy, I messed up. But now he's got some other little moron up there running it because he's dead and gone. And he said, well, we don't really worship Satan. He said, we just worship herself. But that's what Satan wants you to do. What'd he do to Eve? He told Eve, he said, you can be like God. That's worshiping yourself, it's just worshiping Satan. That's all it is. I mean, we see satanic worship at an all time high in today's world. They got satanic kindergarten classes for in between when they get out of school and mom comes and picks them up. In schools. I know of a little town, and I can't say the name right now because it slipped my head. Right over here in Colorado, I think it was Ridgeway, but I'm not sure. Small little mountain town. And they offer, after kindergarten, the kids can go to satanic play school until mom gets home, comes by and picks them up. Now I don't, I ain't saying much for the mom. So it's at an all-time high. Verse 20 says that it includes worship of idols, gold, silver. And that's not just statutes, but money. It's not just gold statues, but it's money. How many people worship money? Oh yeah. Money to some people is everything. Matter of fact, money is so important, you can die for it pretty quick. And they got their possessions. And it's really when you boil down to anything that replaces God. Anything that replaces God. That's really what it is. And then it tells in here, unbelievers, they also, they refuse to repent of their murders. What are they talking about murders? Well, there's a lot of people getting murdered up here, but what do they do on a daily basis that's legal to do? Murder babies. They like to call it abortion. It's just murder. That's all it is. They go in there and rip them in pieces and drag them out. Well, they're getting to the point now they don't do that, they want to keep them whole. So they go in there and turn them around because see, when a baby's ready to come out, they come out head first. I want to see where I'm going. But they go in there and turn them around so they can't breathe air because, well, that's when they become a human. That's what they ruled it on. And they get them all the way out except up to about their neck, and then they kill them. And they do it all in the name of, oh, we're helping the woman and her body. Bless their heart, they ought to be shot in the head. But anyway, I didn't say that. I just thought it out loud. You see, it's murders, and then, oh, what's it say? Sorceries. Sorceries. That's dangerous stuff. There is a lot of it out there. You want me to tell you what sorceries mean? Pharmacy. You got one right down the road here, it's called a pharmacy. How many people do you know, you don't have to tell me, you ain't got to raise your hand, But how many people in here use some form of drug? See, I got off all mine. I done moved up. No, I'm... There's some of them we gotta have. You know, Jose's on blood pressure. Sandy's on blood pressure. You blood pressure? Cholesterol. I can fix that for you. Just tell me about it and I'll tell you how to get rid of it. And you don't need the pill to do it. I got off of mine a long time ago, but there's all kinds of, and that's needful, but then there's a whole lot of other stuff that they add in there. My favorite one, take this so you won't be so depressed, but now if it tries to make you kill yourself, we're going to have to give you this one. So I'm gonna take this pill because I'm depressed. which will help me feel better, but if, if, and it's not even a big if, if I decide I'm gonna start getting suicidal thoughts, I need to call my doctor so they can give me another pill to correct that problem, which in turn will give you that problem, and then before long, you're peeing in your breeches because you can't control that because of that pill, and that ain't no joke. That's the way, and it goes on and on and on and on and on. Sorceries. You see, they've got an entire society. When I was a kid, Mick Jagger come out with a song. And it's about, I think it's barbiturates. Nervous breakdowns. In the song, one of them he had, it's just her 19th nervous breakdown. And in the song, he said, doctor, please, some more of these. Outside the door, she took four more. What a drag it is getting old, but he forgot he's going to be old. And he is. He's 80. Poor fellow looks, hmm, ain't as bad as Keith Richards, but he looks rough. You know, when I was a kid, adults had some issues, and they were on pills. They've got children now strung out on pills from the time they get big enough to cruise around because it's easier to keep them tied into drugs. And if they can take a whole society and give them ... Well, guess who controls all that? The government. We'll cut you off. Oh yeah, yeah, that's right. I'll do what you need. That's what they do. They wrap you up in that. Verse 20 talks about all of that and goes into 21 with sorceries. And it's not just a cult worship, it's drug use that opens the way to the demonic world. And I wish I had remembered to look it up, but there is a girl years ago, wrote a poem on meth. Awesome poem. about how meth is sick. Heroin's bad stuff. Cocaine, bad stuff. LSD, bad stuff. But meth? All the drug dealers will tell you meth is straight out of the pits of hell. It is the devil's drug, and it has destroyed a lot of people. And it all goes into occult worship, every bit of it, because it opens the door to all of that demonic world. Why do you think? All right, I got to get into this. Indians used what they called peyote. It's a little bud on a plant, and they would smoke that stuff, and they'd hallucinate. And they used it back in the day because it would show them where the buffalo were. Who was showing them where the buffalo were? The devil was, so they'd keep using it. It ain't no way some drug show, I used to work with a guy, we named him Louisiana Jim. And he would take acid, he'd lay it on his tongue. And man, he'd be tripping. And we're out there framing still and he'd do some weird stuff. But he could see things before it was completed. And people loved him because he would lay it out for you, sit there and draw it. He said, that's what it's gonna look like. And ain't even seen the blueprint. And he's sitting there on acid and wasn't even sure what room he was in. You know, but all of that opens up different doors. You see immorality in this verse. It's a Greek word, pornea. It's all types of sexual immorality, including adultery, premarital sex, homosexual activity, pornography. It goes into all that. You see the threat of punishment is not leading people to repent. Supernatural signs don't lead people to repent. It doesn't. You know, the rich man says, hey, Abraham, send a ghost to talk to my brothers so they don't come to hell. He said, no, they ain't going to listen to them either. And it's true. They're not gonna do that. You see, if only I, you ever been, maybe you're not one of these people, but I've actually asked before, God, give me a sign. You know, it's a sin to seek a sign. You know, if you give me a sign, I'd turn to God. They ain't gonna turn to God. Millions of Old Testament Israelites saw a real miraculous display of God's power, but they still refused to believe. These people are going to be the same way. They're not going to believe. They're not going to listen. The final seven years Millions of people will witness supernatural judgments from God. They're going to understand and know, but yet they refuse to repent of their sins. That's scary, actually. Now, we'll finish this because I want to go into chapter 10 next time. But, you know, you might wonder, If the threat of eternal punishment or supernatural signs can't cause anybody to repent, then what can cause a person to repent? You know, you ask yourself, if these kind of things are gonna happen, and yet they will not believe me knocking on the door and saying, do you know Jesus? That's gonna work? You know, you think about that. Is that really gonna work? Hand in Bible, is that really gonna work? Well, there's only one thing that'll work. Only one thing that can change people. And that's the work of God in that person's heart. I can preach till I'm blue in the face. You can knock on doors. We can go corner people. I've seen Baptists. corner folk and driving them nuts to get saved. You need to get saved. You need to get saved. You need to pray and ask Jesus to save you. And they're sitting there like, will you shut up? You know, and then some of them will say, okay, okay, what I need to say? And they just say it to get you off their back. That's all they're doing. Listen, we fail too many times to just allow the Holy Spirit to open the door. And if you're paying attention, you can see when the Holy Spirit kicks in. I'm sitting right there in room six one day with two people. And the one's just hammering and hammering, because he had asked me to come in there with him. He's just hammering. You've got to get saved. You've got to get saved. You've got to get saved. Finally, I'm like, wait a minute. I'm seeing, the guy's, he's irritated. And I said, wait a second. I said, listen, man. I said, I'm going to tell you two truths. I said, for one, I said, you can't get saved if God ain't calling you. I said, you can try all you want, you can say all the prayers you want, but if God is not opening the door, you can't get saved. It says in the Bible, I think it's John 6, 44, that if God doesn't drag you up there, you ain't gonna get saved. The Holy Spirit's gotta be working. And I said, look, why don't you just think about I said, now, I want you to get it. I said, I don't want to be ugly. I said, but you may not make it home. I said, but you can't do it unless the Holy Spirit's working in your heart. And he said, you know, you're right. He said, I'm going to go home and think about it. And I said, you do that. And I said, you know what, we're going to have a prayer. I said, let's stand up. I said, we're going to have a prayer, and we're going to leave you alone. And the Lord laid it on my heart to say something. Now, he's frustrated. You can see it. And I said, listen. I said, the Lord laid it on my heart to say this one thing. I said, I'm going to leave you alone. I promise. Because we just prayed, actually. And I said, I got to tell you this one thing before we walk out that door. I said, if me and you were both in an airplane and you got a parachute and I got one. And I said, and the plane's crashing. Ain't no chance of landing. We're 14,000 feet. And I said, and we're fastly losing that. I said, and I'm fixing to jump out of the plane and you are too. And I said, but I see a problem with your parachute. I said, would you want me to tell you? Well, yeah, I don't want to jump out the door without my parachute working. Be careful going home," I said, your parachute ain't working. And he stopped, and all of a sudden his eyes swelled up with tears, and he asked the Lord Jesus to save him. You see, it's not the hammering, it's waiting for the Lord Jesus to work in a person's heart. Because I've talked to other people, I just ain't ready. Okay, don't get, you know, but you might not make it home. Stood right, sat right out here in my pickup truck with Mike Thomas. And he went to get out of the truck and he closed the door and he said, I got to ask you a question. I said, what? He said, if I die right now and I don't know Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I'm going to go to hell, right? And I said, right. He said, well, you preach it plain. And I said, yeah, I know. I said, you ain't got Jesus, you're going to hell. Now, how do you get saved again? He said, I need to repent. And I said, well, I said, honestly, Mike, I said, all of that comes at one time. I said, you gotta, I said, it says confess. I said, who are you confessing to me? I said, I can't do a thing for you. I said, really, you're confessing to God that you understand that he sent Jesus to die for your sins And you believe it, and you believe in Jesus and what he did, and you're going to ask Jesus to save you. All right, and I need to do that soon, right? And I said, well, I said, I was winging a promise to another minute. Well, I'm going to do that tonight. And he goes and opens the door and goes to get out of the truck, and he shut the door. He said, no, he said, I may not make it home. And he took his cap off, and man, he prayed, and he asked the Lord to save him. And a change in that man's life, big time, everybody saw it. But he realized, I need it right now. 10 minutes from now, I may not be able to. And it wasn't too long after that, he died in the hospital with his heart doctor standing next to him, signing the paper to release him from the hospital. So when it's time to go, you're going, whether you're going there or going there. You know, it's a supernatural work of God in a person's heart. 2 Timothy, God's Word in 2 Timothy, in chapter 2. It says in verse 25, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God perventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. You see, it's all about Jesus working in a person's heart. It's not about how good of a preacher I am, how good of a teacher brother Larry is, how good of a door knocker you are, how good of a confrontation person you are witnessing to somebody. It ain't about that. It's all about Jesus working in their heart before you ever got there. And if it's that person's time, and they're hearing it, it's up to them at that second. But it's all about the Holy Spirit working in that individual's life. And it ain't gonna happen not a second before. You see, God's granted people the ability to repent. And it's a gift, but it's a gift that will not last forever. There comes a time in a person's life that they can't get saved. Now that sounds funny. You might think, well, you're crazy. No, it's in the Bible. God said, I'm not going to always strive with man. In other words, he's not going to always offer you that opportunity. It's when he offers it, maybe he'll do it again. Maybe he'll do it again. But the scary part is we don't know when that going to be the last time. He might offer it today and he may never bother you again. So I don't know everybody's heart, but if you're here tonight, that's why I think it was Paul that said, examine yourself. Make sure you're in the faith. Make sure you hadn't believed in vain or make sure it's not just here that it's here. It's nice to have it here, but it ain't gonna do you no good when it's all said and done unless it's here. Let's stand and we'll have an invitation. Every head bowed and every eye closed tonight. Our most kind and gracious Lord. Lord, once again we come to the end of the message. Lord, we come to what we call the invitation. Lord, we pray that you're working in each other's hearts, whether it be for salvation or whether it be just for growing and maturing more in you. But your will be done is our prayers. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Every head bowed and every eye closed as Sister Diane plays. And we'll just do one verse, unless someone moves. But the main question I always like to ask, if you die tonight, are you gonna wake up in heaven or hell? Only you know that. You know, you say, well, I'd like to think that I'll get to heaven. Well, it ain't about thinking. It's about knowing. I don't like the idea of thinking. We need to know that we're going to heaven. And we can know that we're going to heaven. The Bible tells us so. Tells us we call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, you shall be saved. Not maybe, not a possibility, but no, you'll be saved. Ain't no prerequisite of I've got to clean up before, you know, you got to clean up before I can save you, no. If you call on Him, He'll save you. But you got to call on Him. Don't let that chance pass you by, because that little voice that you might hear right now, and by the way, it may not be just for salvation. It may be to say, hey, my heart hadn't been right. I know I'm going to heaven, but it ain't where it ought to be. He may not ask you no more after tonight. That's a miserable place to be. I've been that miserable Christian, and that ain't no fun. Man, it's miserable. Ain't no other way to put it. I lived that way for years, mad at church, mad at people, and nobody got along with me. About lost my wife over it. It ain't worth it. Whatever's on your heart, whatever the Lord's talking to you about, He was calling me to special service for a number of years, and what I'm doing now, preaching. And I kept saying, no. But He don't ask forever. It's like I preach this morning. He's got one plan, it ain't A, B, C, and D. It's God's plan. And He'll do it with you or without you. It's just up to you if you want to ride along with Him. Because if you don't, He can replace you. Jesus. Jesus. I like that song. Because that's what it's about. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. so so