00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
The third angel sounded and there
fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and
it fell on the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains
of waters. The name of the star is called
Wormwood. The third part of the waters
became Wormwood. Many men died in the waters because
they were made bitter. The fourth angel sounded and
the third part of the sun was spit, and the third part of the
moon, and the third part of the stars, and the third part of
them was darkened. and the day shone not for a third part of
it, and the night likewise. And I beheld and heard an angel
flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe,
woe, woe to the inhabitants of earth by reason of other voices
of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound." One
of the few places you find the Bible in exclamation God says,
you think you've seen something now, wait until these next three
angels sound, and you're going to really see something that's
going to be amazing to you. Father, we sure thank you for your many
blessings and the privilege of being gathered here. Lord, I
thank you for the closeness of the fellowship in this place
today and the kindness of the people that are here. I thank
you, Lord, that they're bunched up kind of close together in
the front, and I pray, God, that you might now bless us with your
presence as we look into these things. Open up our spiritual
eyes, God, and help us to be able to see these things and
give us a practical application of the things that we might apply
during our lives in the upcoming week. We pray in the name of
Jesus Christ. Amen. Pick back up here with this thing about
wormwood, and there's a couple of things that I want you to
see. Come to the book of Lamentations. That's in the Old Testament,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations. If you ever want something that
will sober you to a great degree, something that will really make
you stop and think long and hard about how good you have it, take
some time to read the book of Lamentations. In the book of
Lamentations, you see cannibalism and you see poverty unlike any
poverty you've ever seen before. In the book of Lamentations,
you see unspeakable things happening as a result of famine unlike
anything you've ever heard of or seen before. You actually
see children being eaten because they needed a source for meat
going on. That not only took place back
then, but it will take place again. And so sometimes what
happens, at least for me as I began to study these things or go back
over these things, it makes me realize I can't think of a time
I have ever wanted for a meal. I can't think of a time where
I have ever been so hungry that I would be willing to do anything
to eat whatever was put before me, let alone think about even
the concept of eating a human being. That's got to be some
kind of hungry. And so when you start reading
these passages and you realize not only has this happened before,
but it's going to happen again, like he says in the book of Ecclesiastes,
but it helps to maybe sober you up to not take for granted the
things that we do have and the privileges and the blessings
that we have. That's not to make you feel guilty, that's simply
to make you understand God's been good to us in the very simple
things that we take so for granted. That we can breathe air, that
we can drink water out of a tap. Now, I know there's all kind
of contaminants and all kind of chemicals and all kind of
stuff that messes with your brain and all the conspiracies of what
they're doing to the water to make this happen, but the bottom
line is the water in its source right now can be turned on and
you can stick a cup under it or a hand under it or stick your
head under it if you want to, and you can drink it and bathe
in it just by having water running. You're able to, within a short
space of time, go, I mean, down here to Bob Evans or Steak and
Shake or something. You ought to grab some folks
from in here and take them up there and buy them a hamburger or a
milkshake or something. But you can go down in either direction
and find food in short order. None of us are hurting for the
things that we take for granted. Yet, when was the last time that
we stopped to think, you know, instead of, Lord, I need a car,
or, Lord, I appreciate my gasoline, or whatever, to say, Lord, thank
you for the meal today. Thank you for the water today.
Thank you for the roof over my head today. Thank you for the
lock on my door, Lord. Thank you for my eyes, and thank you,
thank you. that I'm not starving to death,
that I can find somebody that can give me a meal. Oftentimes,
what we do is we talk about how bad we have it, but we also forget
how good we have it. We do have it pretty good in
this country. I realize it's a shambles. I
realize it's a mess. I don't want to be all negative
all the time. I don't want to all the time
just be gloom and doom. When you get in the book of Revelation,
we get to view it from a standpoint of, hey, This is as close to
heaven as these people will ever get. This is as close to hell
as I will ever get. And I have news for you, ladies
and gentlemen, it's really not that bad. I don't know of, like
I said, of some of those comforts that we have. If I'm cold, I
can grab a blanket. If I'm hot, I can turn the air
conditioner on. Those things that just, I guess,
get to a point where we don't even think about it. Most of
us would not even think about buying a car anymore that didn't
have air conditioning. You live in Florida, you gotta
have air conditioning. Think about the statement, you've got
to have air conditioning. Well, I mean, we've convinced
that that's a necessity in life. I mean, who's gonna buy a car
and live in Florida, and when it gets warm a little bit later
on, or warmer a little bit later on, then you're gonna be driving
around in your car. Who wants to have armpits that
stink when you can have air conditioning? Don't be shocked, that's B.O.
So, you know, so what you need to realize is, is that I'd like
for you as we view these things, for you to stop and ponder just
a little bit about the things that we take so for granted. Not everybody has what we have.
Now God gave us all things richly to enjoy and you've earned the
privilege of enjoying those things, but be careful about taking those
things for granted. I talked to a fellow a few weeks
back, and we were talking about some things in the book of Revelation,
and he's teaching at his church. And he was asking me some questions
about some things, and I was just answering some questions.
And I said, Brother, you realize that it would take very little
to shut this country down. And he said, What do you mean?
And I said, Turn off the water and the electricity, and most
people will go crazy within a very short period of time. I said,
you could control huge masses of people by turning off their
water and turning off their electricity. Very few people, I don't care
if you're Rambo, very few people can live like that because we've
become so accustomed to the comforts in the things that we have. You
say, well, I wish it would go back that way. I'm glad you do,
then you can go to a foreign country and live that way. I
enjoy the heat and air, and I like the running water. I like taking
in the morning, I have the privilege of coming to my faucet, turning
on my shower, and touching the water until it's warm enough
before I get in. I mean, I think that's pretty
neat. I don't want to get in there and it'd be cold, wait
on it to get warm. I'm like, I'm going to waste the water
until it's warmed up. Oh, I think I'll get in now. Some people
would love it if they just had running water. When we were in
South Africa, those individuals there, they get those five-gallon
buckets. They got a four-inch water main in the center of that
camp that has tens of thousands of people, and they line up out
there and they pump that five-gallon bucket full of water, and they
either put it into a wheelbarrow or they put it up on their head,
and that's their water for the day. And some of them walk hundreds
of yards and great distances with that water. That's their
water to cook in. That's their water to bathe in.
And that's their water to do whatever necessities that they
might have. And sometimes when we get to looking at that and
we get to looking at how horrible this stuff is in the book of
Revelation, we don't pause long enough to ponder how good God's
been to us. Almost to our own destruction.
Most of us have a bed to sleep in. If you've ever had to sleep
on the floor somewhere after you've gotten accustomed to sleeping
in a bed, wow, it's missed. I've gotten to where now it's
almost hard to travel without my special pillow. Because it
might put a crick in my neck. But do you understand how oftentimes,
I can't get used to that back there, brother. But listen to
me, have you ever just stopped sometime to just look around? This afternoon we had to run
by the house and do a couple of things, and Andrea Lynn was
taking care of a bunch of stuff, and I just went over and I opened
up the cabinet. I was looking for something,
and I saw the staples and the stuff that were there, the regular
stuff that you have, the food and all that kind of stuff, and
I thought, man, I wonder how many people would love to just
have one can or one jar or one box of what we have five or six
of. open the refrigerator. There's fresh vegetables and
fruit and stuff like that in there. There's deer meat and
stuff in the refrigerator and that kind of a thing. I'm thinking
to myself, well, good night, man. I mean, I could pretty much
have steak or deer or whatever I want. I wonder how many people
would like to have just a little. In the time of Great Tribulation
that we're talking about here, they will be starving to death.
And by the time you get here where Wormwood Falls, understand
that you're toward the end of the Great Tribulation. All hope
is lost for these people. They realize now that the events
they're going through are not just the Mayan calendar that
collapsed on them or something. They realize it's literally life
and death. And every day and every minute
of every day is a struggle for survival. Pick it up, if you
will, please, in Lamentation chapter 3, talking about wormwood
and verse number 15. The Bible says, He hath filled
me with bitterness, and He hath made me drunken with wormwood.
Verse number 19. Remember mine affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall. Preacher, why do you bring
this up to us? Well, to try to show you something.
Come to the book of Jeremiah. Just back up a little bit. I
gave you Jeremiah 9 this morning. I want you to come to Jeremiah
8. The word wormwood means bitter waters. Do you ever stop to think
that maybe it's God's judgment on liquor and alcohol, God's
judgment on drunkenness? Do you ever stop to think about
this? Your Bible is replete with all
kinds of things about the bitterness of things that man have taken
pure water and putrefied that water by adding barley and hops
and by adding all kinds of things for people to be able to get
inebriated with. Have you ever stopped to think
for just a few moments, have you ever stopped to think of
the damage that that one thing has done? Years ago, Billy Sunday's
platform had to do with prohibition and had to do with alcohol. It
used to be one of the mainstays in nearly every Baptist and even
Methodist church. Every time a preacher got up
to preach, he preached against liquor and alcohol. He preached
against boozing and drunkenness because it led to a multitude
of other things. Nowadays, if a preacher mentions
drinking at all, it's almost like, oh, everybody does that.
Why do you mention drinking? Because it ruins your testimony,
because it ruins how you think, because it does things that are
not good for you, and God didn't put that here for you to enjoy. But nowadays, it's like, well,
you're going to offend people if you say that. See, here's
the problem, here's the conundrum that we're in. There's some things
that are just wrong, even if it has become accepted in society.
I was at a funeral not long ago, and there was a Catholic priest
that was there. He had on the collar, and he
had had a part in the funeral, and we were making our way out
of the thing. He's got a stogie, a cigar in
this hand, and a beer in this hand. And I'm thinking to myself,
to me, this is odd. Now, everybody there thought
that was fine. They thought it was kind of cool,
and they thought, you know, hey, this is good. And I'm thinking,
I can't imagine if my congregation, my folks saw me with a stogie
and a beer in my hand and saying, you know, well, it's quite a
funeral, wasn't it? I'm thinking, I wanted so bad
and I didn't. Of course, Dreena had it like,
she grabbed my hand kind of tight like, come on, we're going now,
don't you dare. But I wanted so bad to walk over
there and say, are you a preacher? Are you a priest? What kind of
an example are you setting for these little kids that are here?
What kind of an illustration of you of what? Something that
should have some semblance of purity and some semblance of
holiness. I'm not saying that the man himself
is pure or holy, but shouldn't you have some kind of an example
to set for other people? I mean, was that what you would
want at your mom's funeral? And, oh yeah, well the preacher
out there, he drinks with us and he smokes with us and he
plays cards with us. and he does all that, and yeah, he gets up
and gives Jesus an honorable mention and stuff, and then we
get on with life. There are certain things that
you should be separated from. There are certain things that
have become socially acceptable. There are people that now have
church and they have BYOB at church. and they have the ball
game playing and people are sitting there pouring liquor. Well, I'm
sorry, I don't think there's a place that that ought to be
done, but certainly, should it not be not done at church? There's
some places that should be hallowed or holy to a certain degree.
And what I think is this, if I'm going to make a practical
application about wormwood is, is that God finally says, y'all
want something to drink that will literally eventually kill
you and cause great harm and great damage and great trouble
for you. I'm just going to embitter your
waters, all of them, like I did blood in the book of Exodus.
I'm going to make the waters bitter like I did Marah. And
what I'm going to do is, if that's what you want, that's what I'm
going to give you as a judgment on what you've worshipped for
so long. I've had certain individuals that have said to me, well, you
know what, I'd like to be a Christian, but I ain't giving up my liquor.
Well, that's a great reason to go to hell. Well, I just really
like the taste of it and I don't see anything wrong with it. Well,
why don't you get saved and not worry about that? Well, because
if I get saved, you're going to expect me to quit drinking.
I don't care whether you quit drinking or not. Get saved, let
God take care of that. If you can ask God to bless it,
go ahead and help yourself and have at it. But I think you'll
understand that in Christianity, in spite of the day and age in
which we are, you must get to a point that you stop living
for yourself. You have to start thinking about
other people. You cannot make yourself the
center of attention, where it's all about you. You do have to
consider your actions' impact on other people. The things that
you do, what other people see when they see you, how you act,
what you do, the things you've done, people are watching. You
say, well, it's none of their business. That's not the mentality of a
Christian. And the world knows that because
the world says to you, find you a mentor to follow. God, help
us. I don't know who in the world
I would want to follow, but their life is public and it's on all
of this social media stuff. Everybody says, well, he's a
good role model. By what standard? Because he wears the latest fashions,
or because he's got an endorsement for an athletic contract, or
because he's out partying with the other people and so on and
so forth, I think when you come to the time of the Great Tribulation,
the Lord says, you know what, you folks want to drink stuff
that's bad for you, I'm going to give you something to drink
and it's going to kill you, sure enough. The Bible says, because of this,
many of the men were dead. Jeremiah chapter number 8. We
must get to a point where we understand our actions have repercussions. What we do does matter. It affects
other people. We're Christians. We're different. We're supposed to be different.
There's nothing wrong with you. You're supposed to be different. You're not the one with the problem. I wish I could help you to understand
that. Because of who you are and what
you believe, people are going to look at you and go, what are
you? I'm not you. Why do you do that? Because I
love Him. Why do you go there? Because
I love Him. Why do you talk like that? Because I love Him. Why
do you read that? Because I love Him. Well, you
ain't having any fun. Hey, you don't answer for me.
You don't get to do what we do. I don't want to do what you do.
It doesn't do anything but cause problems. I'm not interested
in losing my faculties to the point that I don't know what
I did and wake up the next morning, what did I do? I don't like that. I guess I'm too much of a control
freak. Say, well, you know, you get that way and you're not responsible.
Well, you say you're not responsible, and all you're doing is hiding
behind it. The fact of the matter is, you probably knew what you
were doing, but you just wanted something to blame it on. Hallelujah. 8, 8, did I give you this? I hadn't given it to you yet.
8 chapter, 8 verse number 14. 13, I will surely consume them,
saith the Lord. There shall be no grapes on the
vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and a leaf shall fade, and the
things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why
do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let
us enter into the defense cities, and let us be silent there. For
the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water
of gall to drink. Why? Because we have sinned against
the Lord. We looked for peace, but no good
came. And for a time held, behold,
trouble. Why? Because we sinned, there
is a repercussion for that. Who wants to hear about that
anymore? Nobody. Apparently, come to the book
of Exodus. In the day and age in which you live, nobody wants
to face the fact that even if you're saved, you're still a
sinner. Nobody wants to face the fact that, listen, we do
have an equal and opposite reaction to the things we do. God's just
been merciful to us, not making us drink or partake of everything
and reap everything that we've sown. But nevertheless, it is
a very pointed point, and it is a principle that is in the
Bible. God says, listen, I'm not going to let my people get
away with that, and one of the things I do is, is because we've
sinned, I'm going to give you bitter water to drink. If there
was ever a time that that takes place, it takes place in the
Great Tribulation. Exodus, if you would please,
chapter 15. The children of Israel have come out. The things he
says in Romans 15 are written for our learning and our admonition.
And so we look back to those things. You say, why? So that
we don't repeat the foolishness that they did. Now I don't know
if I had been one of the 12 spies that went out and spied the land
that I would be like Joshua and Caleb. In my mind, I'd like to
think I would. And I don't know when I look
at these things that I might be one of the mumblers, the gripers,
the complainers, one of those kinds of individuals. Maybe I
would, but I would like to think that God has made enough of a
difference in my life that I don't just go along with everybody
else and just move along with the rest of the cattle down the
line. I would like to think there is enough within me because of
Jesus Christ to say, hey, I don't do that. and having fellowship
with you because you do that and I don't, it's not worth the
price to me to pay to lose my fellowship with Him. Well, if
you're going to have fellowship with me, if I'm going to be your
friend, if we're going to hang together, we're going to be buds, we're
going to be pals, we're going to be friends, then you're going
to have to, no, uh-uh. You want to be my friend, you
come to Jesus' side. I ain't turning Him loose to
hold on to you. Now I'd like to think I have that, I don't
know that I do, but with God's help I can walk in the Spirit.
If I just activate that, I don't have to do what everybody else
does. The Bible has told me that because I'm saved, I now have
the power to overcome that flesh. I have liberty now. I don't have
to do what the flesh tells me to do anymore. Before I had that
liberty, I didn't have the liberty to cut it. Now I've been cut
free from this cotton-picking thing that bothers me. I've been
set loose and now because of that, the Bible says, I have
liberty. I don't have to serve the law of sin anymore. I don't
have to walk in the flesh anymore. Yes, I mess up. Yes, I'm in the
sin. But God gave me a choice and
He said, you don't have to do that anymore. The bad side of
that is that means that when I do, I did it because I wanted
to, not because He said I couldn't stop you. I chose not to heed
the warning. Stay with me, Exodus chapter
number 15. And here they come out across this thing, they're
looking for water and they've been griping and complaining
and moaning and groaning and so on and so forth. You know
how that is? And the Bible says this in verse number 23. He said,
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters
of Marah. Why? They're bitter. For the name
of it was called Marah. That means a bitter place. And
the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
You know, the reason that the water was bitter in the first
place was because they had been murmuring and griping before.
And the Lord said, What I'm going to do is I'm going to take the
one thing that you need, that you can't survive next to air
without, you can do without food, for a long time. But you can't
do without air, and you can't do without water. and now they're
in the desert, get your mind there. And there's hundreds of
thousands of these people and there's animals that are there.
And all of a sudden they come up there and they see this water
and they go down there and the guy goes to test the water and
he's like, oh man, that's bitter water. If you drink that, man,
you're going to die. That's bad. You can't drink that. And the
first thing you do is say, yeah, Moses, this is a nice mess you
put us in. They never stop to think that
the bitter waters they're partaking of are because of the griping
they were doing before. It's Moses' fault. Moses says, okay, and he says
to the Lord, Lord, what in the cat hair do I do now? That's
the southern way of saying he cried to the Lord and the Lord
showed him a tree. What did he do? He cut down the tree. You'll
get it and throw it into the water. And he made the waters
that were once unable to be drank now drinkable. It's a tight picture
of your salvation. It's a tight picture of the fact
that the waters you were partaking of would send you to certain
death and eventually into hell. It's a tight picture of that
after you go to Calvary, the Lord sweetens what would have
killed you. The Lord takes care and sustains you with what was
going to put you in hell. The Lord says, listen, you take
that and cut it down and I'll take all the bitterness and all
the things that happened in the past, all the poison of the things
of the past, And I'll put it away as far as the east is from
the west. I'll put it in the depths of the sea. I won't remember
it anymore. Put that tree in the water. And
now you can partake of the water and have life everlasting. So
what God does for us as Christians is He provides for us a water
source. He likens Himself unto that water source. Come to the
book of John if you would please. Some of you are already figuring
out where I'm going with this. Preacher, make us a practical
application. I'm going to try. Poison waters hurt a lot of people. Would you agree with that? Oh, I forgot it. Hold on, I'll
get there in just a second. John chapter number 7. You know what happens with bitter,
you know how waters get bitter? If any of you have ever been
to Israel, you know what happens over there. One of the problems with Israel,
with what they call the Dead Sea is, is that there's all these
inlets and no outlets. And so what happened is it has
huge mineral deposits and it has so much salt in it that they
have to have gold bottom boats over there to be able to, because
the corrosion is so bad and so fast that there's an area right
there that they have to protect along that border. And they have
to patrol that thing and those boats because normal metal and
steel and stuff like that corrode so fast. That's a place where
you go and you float in there without even trying to float
because the water is so dense. But you know what? You can't
drink that water and they can't purify that water. You say, why? That
water is bad for you. because it's dammed up. All it
does is take everything in, everything in, everything in, everything
in. Nothing comes out of it, so it becomes what's called stagnant
water. Whenever water ceases to flow,
it ceases to purify itself. I wasn't able to find my note
that I have on it, but I have a note that talks about a mountain
stream. And every so many feet, that moving stream moving at
a certain amount of velocity, it purifies itself. And the further
down the stream you are, the purer the water is. And I don't
remember the exact chemistry to it, but what it says is, is
if that water is stopped and held behind a dam, it loses its
purity. And the water that flows out
of the dam is not as pure as the water that is left to trickle
down the stream. You'd think, well, it's picking
up all the dirt and picking up this. No, the Lord said it's
being filtered out because it's important that the water continues
to move. Otherwise, the source gets stopped
and the water becomes stagnant. For the sake of our sermon tonight,
it becomes bitter and therefore it is undrinkable. Do you ever wonder why sometimes
certain individuals just seem to have something about them
that people just can't, like, kind of get around them? Do you
ever think that it maybe, possibly, could be that their waters are
bitter and therefore the water that's coming out is like, I
don't really want that because every time I Here you talk, it's
about somebody and it's to complain about something and it's to worry
about this and to do that and I just, it's like, ugh. There's no life in that water. It's bitter waters. You know,
I love the hope of the Gospel. I love the hope of the Bible
and the hope of Jesus Christ and the hope and the ability
to be able to pray. I like the hopefulness in those
things. I don't like the doom and gloom.
There's no way out. It's always going to be a bad
kind of a deal all the time. I really don't. I'm a realist.
I get it. I know what's happening. But listen, that may be for them,
but the Bible tells me to comfort one of the things. Get bad comfort
one of these words because the Lord's coming. But you ever stop
to think how oftentimes the water that spews forth from us is anything
but living water? It's got too much of the dead
man in it. Back in the days of World War
II, I'll get to this in just a second. Back in the days of World War
II, they had water sources. And one of the things that they
would do to poison the water sources, they did this in Stalingrad,
but they also did it in all kinds of places through Germany and
where they fought. And one of the things they did
was, is they would take dead bodies and they would throw those
dead bodies into the water source. They did it in Vietnam. They
were very successful in doing it in Vietnam. What they would
do is, is they would know the troop movements were coming in downstream.
So they would put a bunch of dead bodies in up here. Because
they knew that ultimately out in the jungles and out in the
times where it was hot and where people had to have it, they knew
eventually they're going to see water. What's the first thing you think about?
I'm thirsty. I want to get something to drink.
And they'd fill up their canteens and stuff and take in all kinds of
different diseases. And some of them, they were bad
and deadly diseases that would actually kill them. But when
a man is sick, he can't fight. So what they would do is, is
they would covertly go in during the night and put all these dead,
decaying, rotting bodies. I know that seems morbid and
I've been accused of being a little bit too vivid at times, but you
need to understand the picture. Rotten bodies that are up there
that are maggot infested and those kind of things. You get
the picture, the skin's waving at them and they dump those bodies
in and it takes a little bit of time. But before long, the
bacteria from those dead, rotting corpses makes its way downstream
to the unsuspecting soldiers that are there drinking the water. And before long, that bitter,
poisonous water has now poisoned the one that has ingested the
water. I don't want to be the one that
poisons other people. I really don't. I'm being honest
with you. I don't want to be the one that uses my ability
to speak. And I have no greater ability
than you do to speak, but I'm talking about to make noise with
my mouth. I don't want to be the one that
poisons other people. Because you know what happens?
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. You know
what? You can have a real impact. You would not be sitting here
tonight listening to me preach from the Bible if you did not
believe the principle that words have an impact on us. You believe
that. That's why you got saved. You
got saved by believing words. You never saw it with your eyes.
You never touched anything. You heard it and you believed
it in your heart because of words. So when people say sticks and
stones and break my bones and words will never hurt me, that's
not true. You can poison people with words, misinterpreted, misunderstood,
twisted, turned, fixed, and what happens from my mouth to your
ear is a whole bunch of stuff goes on and the next thing you
know, guess what happens? It gets messed up. I don't want
to be the one that does. I've said some pretty stupid
things. Unintentional or not, still they can have a great impact
if I'm not very careful to constantly try to keep a check on it. But
I don't know about you. I don't want to be the one that's
like, you know what, I was really going good, but preacher, he
really discouraged me. He really soured me on that. Every time I'm around that person,
it's always so much about them that I can't hear anything about
him. I'm just like, man, I'm around
and I just feel like I'm being drugged down all the time. And
you know what happens sooner or later? You start taking in
that poison. And you become as bitter as the water you're drinking.
Watch this. The Bible gives us some hope
here. The Bible says in chapter number 7, verse number 37, the
book of John, In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. Those are some waters you don't
ever have to worry about being bitter. Man, those are not Mara waters.
Those aren't wormwood waters. Those are not waters that if
you drink them, it's going to cost you to die. But watch what
He says. He that believeth on Me, as the
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall... Watch the four-letter
word, flow. Rivers, more than one. of living
water. A long time ago, the boys used
to get up here. I'm sorry, I don't mean any offense by that. The
men used to get up here to sing. Come back to Revelation chapter
number 8. They used to get up here to sing and one of the things
they would sing is they'd sing about the rivers. There's a river.
You know what happens sometimes here in this passage? It happens
literally where the Lord poisons all the waters. But I'm trying
to make for you a practical application and say, if God says you're saved,
out of your belly is supposed to be flowing rivers of living
water. The rhetorical question would be, what kind of water
is flowing out of your belly? When people see you coming, do
they get a drink and come back to life? And I remember when
Dreena's mom, before she had died and before she had gotten
quite so sick, she had gone through a period of time of a lot of
throwing up and some other things had gone on, and she had gotten
dehydrated, and she drank water like a bird. like a sparrow,
if that much. I mean, she'd have a sip every
now and then, and before long, she's going through all kinds
of things, and of course, everybody's thinking this is the worst thing,
and it's a bad thing, and it's a terrible thing, and they loaded her up
on the rescue, and they took her down there, and everybody
rushes to the hospital, and everybody's all gathered around. The doctor
comes in, and her pulse is thready and weak, and it's barely beating,
and it looks terrible, and her skin is pale, and she can hardly
hold up her head, and she can barely lift up her eyes, and
when she speaks, you've got to get right down next to her, and
you're thinking, man, she's got all the symptoms of dying. You know what the problem was?
She's dehydrated. They popped her with the saline
solution, the stuff that they give them, you know, the Ringer's
Lactate, you know, whatever that, but they popped her with the
stuff in there, that's what they used to say on Engine 51 or whatever
it is, and I guess I'm dating myself, because all you kids
are looking at me like, what's that? That's what every time
they loaded them up on this fire show, they loaded them up, give
them ringers, lactate, you know, whatever that is. But at any
rate, it ain't going any better the second time around. They
put in an IV. They could hardly find her little
vein. She wasn't big as a minute. They could hardly find her little
vein, and finally somebody comes in there, they're a real professional,
and they hunt around in there, and they finally get it in there,
and that thing's just barely dripping like this. And we're
all out in the hall, and Dreen and I are out there, and we're
talking, and they say, well, let's just see how she does after
she gets this. About half that bag went in, and all of a sudden,
her head pops up. And then all of a sudden, she's
like, sitting up. She looked like a wilted flower
that had all of a sudden gone, hey, I'm good. What are we doing
at the hospital? How'd we get here? Why am I here?
Well, Mama, we thought you were dying. I ain't dying. I feel
fine. You say, what had happened? She'd gotten dehydrated. You
know what I know? I know that there was no way
to be able to give her enough water ingested the way we ingest
water because she was already to the point that had they not
supernaturally, in a sense, intervened, medically intervened, that she
would have been gone. You couldn't have put enough
water in her tummy for her body to assimilate it quick enough
for her to be able to come back from that dehydration. She came
back from the dehydration because she got the right kind of water
that she needed to bring her back to life again. Well, the
Bible is that source. There are things that dehydrate
us in the world. There are things that wear us
out. There are things that make us wilt. There are things that
just completely drain us. And then we start thinking, oh
no, the problem's him, and the problem's them, and the problem's
her, and the problem's it, and the problem's this, and the problem's
that. And he's like, no, you need an IV. of the right kind
of water. You're dehydrated. You need some
good water to get the water in you flowing again. You've been having the wrong
water. You know, I also learned this. It doesn't really take
very much smarts as you can imagine to figure this one out, but I've
learned that if an individual drinks a whole bunch of soda
or beer or anything else that when you try to give them water,
it's like, ugh. And they gotta have something flavored all the
time. They don't appreciate the life-giving source of just water
anymore. It's like, nah, I gotta have
something with something in it. Right? And if they drink a lot
of that, then you can't get the right stuff in there because
there ain't no more room there. Because it'll only hold so much.
And you know what I've noticed? And somebody would come in during
the days of working this mess at Metro Park, and their face
would be beet red, and their skin would be dry, and they would
not be sweating, and it'd be 100 degrees outside. And the
nurse would come in there and say, oh, we know what the problem
is. They're dehydrated. And they
get ready to give them water. Just take a few sips and cool
off a little bit. And you know what, invariably
what would happen? They would throw up all over the trailer. Just, you're thinking, how do
they have that much liquid in them? You see, what had happened
was, is they had been ingesting the stuff that would not satiate
the thirst, and it would not be accepted by the body to not
allow them to get dehydrated, but they're still drinking a
liquid. but the liquid was in fact taking more out of them
than it was putting into them. And when you tried to give them
the stuff that would help them, they were like, I can't take
that. And they would throw up all that
other stuff. So you know what can happen is, is that we can
become such a dehydrated state, because not only of not having
any, but of having too much of the wrong thing, so that when
the right thing tries to find its way in, we're like, I've
had enough of that stuff. I don't want no more of that.
You're making me sick. I'm going to throw up. Good throw
up, get the other stuff out of it to make you feel better to
be able to take the right stuff. Do you understand? What I'm telling
you is that we're supposed to be life givers, not life takers.
And we're supposed to be spreading flow and water, not dead water.
We're supposed to be a little bit of an encouragement. What
have they got to look forward to? Hell. Hell, that's where they're
going. Let me just show you an illustration,
if I can, real quickly. Remember the passage in the book
of Luke, chapter number 16? There's a fellow that's down there in
hell. Is that right? And while he's
down there, you know what he says? Lazarus looks like he's
doing pretty good over there, like he's got plenty of water.
Could you have him come dip his finger in the water and come
cool my tongue, because I'm tormented in this flame." Guess what? There
ain't no flowing water in hell. Must be some flowing water over
there, otherwise why would he say, can he get some of that
water and give it to me? Maybe I'm reading something into
it. He'd say, well, we're in eternity and we don't need it
and all that other kind of stuff. That fellow's thinking about
one thing when he gets to hell. Sure wish I had some water. Sure
wish I had some water. Can I ask you a question? Do
you ever miss the water flow? Not just the receiving of it,
but the dispensing of it. Do you ever miss the day when
you'd witness to a telephone pole? So what does that have
to do with Revelation? Well, not a lot, but I'm making
a practical illustration. Because here's what happens.
If all you do is take it in, it's still stagnant. It's got
to find its way back out again. It keeps the flow going. It keeps
the movement going. It keeps everything pure. If
you let it get damned up too long, guess what's going to happen?
It's going to come back on you. And then instead of you letting
that stuff flow through you and you be a help and a blessing
and encouragement, a pick-me-up on a hot day to try to encourage
people, the next thing you know, you're damned up, so they get
damned up. And the next thing you know what
happens, the waters are bitter. Christians really don't have any reason
at all to ever have bitter waters. I'll give you a couple more things
here. Notice what the Bible says in verse number 11, 8-11. The
name of the star is called Wormwood. And the Bible says the third
part of the waters became Wormwood and many men died of the waters
because they were made bitter. They were made bitter. They weren't always bitter. Come to the book of Hebrews.
Almost done. Can you bear with me for just
a minute or two? Hebrews chapter number 12. One of the great passages in
the Bible, lay aside every weight And the sin that doth so easily
beset us, you remember the passage? Considering Him, you haven't
yet resisted unto blood and striving against sin, but the Lord did,
that kind of thing. You go down through there and it talks about
the correction of the Lord. If you endure chastening, then
the Father chastens you for your good and that kind of a thing.
And then notice what happens, verse 11. Now no chastening for
the present seemed to be joyous, but grievous. nevertheless afterward
it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby. 24 Wherefore, lift up the hands
which hang down, your down to press, your hang down, and the
feeble knees. 25 Make straight the pass of
your feet, lest which is lame be turned out of the way, but
let it rather be healed. 26 Follow peace with all men
holiness, without no men shall see the Lord, looking diligently.
lest any man fail of the grace of God." Uh-oh. You mean bitterness
can actually come on the end of the Lord's chastening? Yeah,
if you don't receive it the right way it can, because the Bible
says, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and
thereby many be defiled. You ever think about why? We get the impression that the
root of bitterness springs up from inside us and then it grows
up and it wraps and entwines other people. But the fact of
the matter, if the root of bitterness is on the inside, it means that
when we have bitterness on the inside, that what comes out instead
of the living water, what comes out of our belly instead of laughter
and enjoying the Lord, what comes out of our belly is the stench
of bitterness. And you know what he says? You
defile many by what you say to them, the words that you speak. It becomes a plague. All of a
sudden it begins to destroy a whole bunch of people, and it tears
through your family, and through your friends, and through your
church, and it just destroys many. You say, why? Well, you
see, you got bitter over something, and instead of letting the Lord
wash it out, and having that water continuing to flow, and
keeping that thing, wherewith the one man shall cleanse his
way by the washing of the water of the Word, and keeping that
water moving, keeping that water moving, keeping that water moving,
what happened was we dammed it up, And then this root got in
there and it can grow in stagnant water. And now the root takes
over the fruit. And now the root begins to speak. And now instead of us speaking
for what the Lord's done for us, we're speaking from what
the Lord has done to us. And next thing you know, we have
now destroyed many. because the water's not moving
anymore. I miss the days of the simplicity of salvation. If you
get saved, just tell people about being saved. Ignorance is bliss. I know we need to study the Bible,
but I just miss the days of, you know, are you going to heaven
or going to hell? You want to go to heaven? Let me show you how the Bible says. And,
you know, and you just kind of like we're drunk. You like love
to everybody. Right? You didn't know who was wrong
or who was right. You didn't know about all the
stuff. You're just like, hey man, let me tell you, you don't
need to go to hell. You don't need to go to hell. I mean, you were
like little flower children running around. All you're doing is spreading
the love. What changed? You didn't start deciding at
what rate the water should flow, did you? You didn't decide that
you don't really want to let it flow to them, did you? You didn't make the decision
that all of a sudden the waters that the Lord intended for people
to be able to partake of have now become wormwood. And if they
partake of the waters that some of us propagate, it doesn't bring
them spiritual life. Many Christians in the day and
age in which we live have been destroyed by something
far worse than an alcoholic beverage. They've been destroyed by something
far, far, far worse than a cigarette or a bottle of liquor. Oh, but
preacher, those things are wrong. Those things are bad. Those things
are bitter. That's bad news, preacher. They need to put a law in effect.
And I know about how the government did this. You know how much alcohol
is done? Yeah, that's where I started the sermon. Because the fact of the matter
is that most of us here tonight would be willing to join somebody
to repeal anything to do with liquor or alcohol, yet we will
not stop the bitterness that flows from
our mouths. God didn't kill them in the wilderness
for drinking. He killed them for murmuring
and complaining. Why would God do that? God says,
look, I'm really, the belly aching and the crying, what, are you
kidding me? So God sets a precedent and He shows us that it's not
as much what you do, it's what comes out of you that determines
who you are. So what we would do is say, preacher,
let's get a petition and let's go against the government And let's have all liquor removed.
A fellow says to me, Preacher, you remember the days when Preacher
Lackey got up and preached and he shut down the ABC liquor stores? I said, I do. I've heard the
story. I wasn't there, but I've heard the story about the thing,
you know, knocking the ABC liquors off the deal and then they built
it again and he prayed and it came to rain again and knocked
it off and that kind of thing. I said, I remember hearing the
stories about it. Why you reckon we can't pray and shut the liquor
stores now?" I said, because the liquor's not doing near as
much damage as Christians with a bitter root inside their heart. And the fact of the matter is,
is you know what? We really don't want to deal with that. We don't
want to say that we might be the problem. You know what we
want to do? It's that liquor crowd. It's
that bunch of queers over there in the White House. by them dope-smoking, long-haired,
earring-wearing, tattooed." Okay. You got a point. But what about the things we're
guilty of? Here's the thing about God. God didn't give me charge
over them. God didn't give me charge over you. I can't make
you do something or not do something. That's not my job. I'm not going
to put you in a headlock and demand you do something and have
you churched if you don't and all that kind of foolishness.
I don't believe in that. God died for your free will and I'm going
to do all I can to protect your free will. You choose to do it whether
you want to do it or don't. You do it. It's your choice. But God did
give me control over me. He said what I want to know is
if you love me can you get that root of that bitterness because
it's affecting the water coming out of your mouth. And it's not
life-giving. It's depleting the life out of
the body of Christ. It's wormwood. Yes! Terrible! Their physical water is going
to be poisoned and they're going to die! How bad is that? But how many of us know saved
people that used to be here and they died spiritually because
of something we said? They drank of our waters of bitterness. Preacher, I'd rather talk about
the drunks. I'd like it better too because
I wouldn't have to look in the mirror. But I'm supposed to try
to help us as a church and help me. And you know what I need?
I need to remember that I have the power to have a huge impact
on just my wife. By what I say and how I say it
and by what I say about even a church service or somebody
in the church or whatever, I've now passed on my bitterness.
And you know what? Because she loves me, you know
what she's going to kind of do? Well, if that's how you feel about
him, I feel the same way. And we're bad about it in the South. If he's your enemy, he's mine
too. And now you know what we've got? We've got a little faction
over here and a little faction over here and we're fixing to
have a civil war. I know what I'm talking about. This is like
the thing nobody wants to talk about. This is the stuff we say
happens in school with bullying and all that other kind of stuff
that goes on and, oh, we want to deal with that, but nobody
wants to deal with it here. Fixing to get touchy and then
I'm going to get out of here so you don't kill me. You get some time to calm
down between now and Wednesday. Now we've let that water leak
out through our fingers and through our thumbs. Used
to talk about it being on the phone or person to person. Nowadays we can reach people
on the other side of the world and that bitterness, that mara
water, that wormwood can go out and you know what it can do?
It can destroy people all the way around on the other side
of the world. because of something we say.
The rivers of life no longer flow and we're saved and born
again and glory to God going to heaven and the water that
should be life-giving in fact is giving and in fact you know
what it's doing? It's killing others. It's influencing them
and it's making them say, you know what? I just don't want
the hassle. Life is too complicated as it
is. I don't need another Peyton place in my life. So be careful about the root. Be careful about the type of
water you dispense. Make sure that it's living water
and not wormwood. We'll stand together, we'll be
dismissed. I appreciate so much you coming. Thank you for staying
and being so attentive. I wasn't too bad tonight. Only
20 minutes after six, so I still try to be respectful of your
time. I want to encourage you this week to stop and think before
you speak. Me too. I have a problem with
my mouth getting in gear before my brain does. And I don't want that to happen.
I want somebody to say, you know what, now look, I realize that
sometimes a rebuke has to come, I get that, but a review can
be encouraging. Appreciate somebody telling me what I did wrong so
I can get it right. You folks don't have to worry
about turning into Joel Osteen. That won't be your problem. Your
problem will be on the other end of the spectrum. And as much as he's out of balance
over there, if you're out of balance over there, the Lord
says a false balance is an abomination to the Lord. So the guy with
no law is just as bad as the guy with too much law. So what
I want us to try to do is to not be the church of Wormwood,
the church of bitterness, the church where everybody talks
about and poisons the water. And what I'd love to see is I'd
love to see people be able to come to this place to get a drink.
I got about 10 wells in the Bible. I'm not done with it yet, but
I got about 10 wells in the Bible and talk about the differences
of the wells and the purposes of the wells and the depth of
the wells and the importance of the wells and so on and so
forth. And you know what I find out? Nobody drinks from a well
that's been poisoned. That's like, I had to study 10
wells to get that. Nobody drinks from a dirty well. Pretty simple, I know, but you
know what I'm realizing? Several years ago, over 20 now,
some people started digging around in the ground, and they're trying
to get a well going. And you know what it's our job
to do? Maintain that well, so that when people come in here,
it's like, can I just get a drink of water, please? Without trash
in it, without filth in it, without bitterness in it, without brackishness
in it. I just love to have a drink of
water, just a fresh, cool, clean drink of water and just kind
of reinvigorate me again to go on another day. I don't want
us to be the church that poisons the well. Father, bless Your
Word tonight. Thank You, God, for this group
of people. Thank You, God, for the responsibility that You've
given each of us to maintain what you've given us. And I pray,
God, that you might help us to examine ourselves, not look at
who or what or anybody else, but to look at ourselves, realize
the responsibility that we have to you, make sure we maintain
ourselves and the wells that you've given us in our lives.
God, I pray that you'll not allow us to be that place of bitter
waters, that place of wormwood, that this might be a place of
sweet waters where people can continue to get a drink. Bless these folks, Lord, as they
go their separate ways and watch over them and help them throughout
this coming week. Bless the work of their hands and their businesses
and help them to get the things they need, Lord, to have their
needs met. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Wormwood
| Sermon ID | 12013192338 |
| Duration | 54:58 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Revelation 8 |
| Language | English |
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.