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This great song tells the story that we're going to hear tonight, Father, and I just pray that you would please just speak to our hearts and convey this truth across to us. Holy Spirit, dear God, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now in Judges chapter 5 is the great song of victory sung by Deborah after the battle with Sisera, the captain of the host of Jabin, the king of the Canaanites. In this song, she recounts a little bit of the story found in Judges chapter 4. She says in verse number 25, He asked water, and she gave him milk. She brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workman's hammer, and with the hammer she smote Sisera. She smote off his head when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down. At her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell down dead. Now, this is a symbolic story. Obviously we take the literal meaning, we read the Bible, we see these stories, but you have to be able to see principles underlying these stories in the Old Testament. You see, the Old Testament is not as clear as the New Testament, let's face it. The New Testament just clearly tells you and explains to you the things of God, the things of the Christian life, and it's kind of a slide projector, if you will. And it illuminates things when you read the New Testament, and it basically grows upon things that you learn in the Old Testament. You see that the Old Testament stories are almost like a slide. If you hold it up and look at it, you can't really see maybe the details, you can't really see the clarity of it. But when you put it into the slide projector of the New Testament, it's illuminated and it's a greater picture. And so in the Old Testament, you have to be able to interpret these stories a little bit. You have to apply the truths and the preaching of the New Testament, and you have to be able to apply those truths when you're reading in the Old Testament and be able to understand this story. Now, there are many symbolic meanings in this story, but one of them has to do with the butter in the lordly dish that Jael, the wife of Heber the Canaanite, brought out to this man, Sisera. Now, before I get into the message, I want to tell you the story a little bit. Look, if you would, at Judges chapter 4. We're going to go through this story and understand what we're talking about here, and then I'll get into the application of the preaching. In Judges chapter 4, the Bible says, And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord when Eud was dead. Eud was a man of God, he was a preacher, and as soon as he died, boy, they just did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor. The captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Herosheth of the Gentiles. And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron. And twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel, and Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in Mount Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoham out of Kadesh Naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali, and of the children of Zebulun. Now listen, before I go into this, I want to explain to you what's going on here. Here is a man that God has told what he wants done. I mean, God has commanded this man Barak. And see, you wouldn't, you might read over that, but you've got to read between the lines. When Deborah comes to him in verse number six, she says, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, See, he was already given this command by God. Barak was straight from God, given this commandment. Look, it's time for you to fight against my enemies that have come into the land and taken over these wicked Canaanites who you were supposed to have exterminated when you took over the land, but you left some of them in the land. He said, it is time for you to fight this battle. Barak, rise up, get the army together. I want you to take 10,000 men. I want you to go against Jabin, the king of Canaan. I want you to go against Sisroa, the captain of the king's house. But for some reason, he just was not obeying God. I mean, he just was not doing it. So this woman, Deborah, has to come to him. Now, it's a sad thing in this story that a woman has to be the leader in Israel. Because, and this was prophesied in the book of Deuteronomy, God said, women shall rule over thee. He said, you're going to come to the point where women and children rule you. And of course, that's what we see here. That's what we see happening. We see a place where there's no leadership, there's no man leading. And this woman, now she's not standing up and preaching to great crowds. She's not the president of the country or anything. But she has to come to this man privately, you see. And she has to say to him, you've been told by God that you're supposed to be fighting this battle. What are you doing? Get on the ball. She has to rebuke this man, unfortunately. And look at verse number seven. It says, and I will draw unto thee. He's saying, well, go fight the battle. And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude. And I will deliver him into thine hand. And Barak said unto her, if thou wilt go with me, then I will go. But if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. Boy, isn't that terrible? I mean, isn't that ridiculous? Here's a guy, he's already been told by God what to do. He's sitting around. He's not doing it. He's making excuses. He's putting it off. And then a woman of all has to come to him and tell him and rebuke him to his face. I mean, just rebuke him from the Bible and say, you're wrong. God told you what to do. And he says, OK, you're right. I'll do it. But only if you come with me. Otherwise, I'm not going to do it. This guy sounds like a little bit of a wimp to me, to be honest with you. He can't go by himself and just him and God. He's got to have his security blanket here of this woman come with him. Well, she said in verse number nine, I will surely go with thee, notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honor, for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kadesh. And see, here's what's happening. She says, yes, I will go with you. You're going to go fight this battle. You're going to take these men with you. And I think that part of the reason why Barak wanted to bring her with him is because he didn't have a walk with God. I don't think that he really thought that she was going to pick up a sword and defend him. I don't think that he thought that she was going to go out and fight this battle. He was the general. He was the one going to be leading the army. But I think that he felt an insecurity of his lack of a walk with God, his lack of a closeness with God, his lack of obedience to God. And he knew that this woman, although she's a woman and she's not going to be out there with the sword and shield, this woman, Deborah, was a great woman. Because this woman was a woman who walked closely with God. This was a woman who was filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a godly, righteous woman that God was using. And so he said, I want you to come with me so I can get the power of God with me. And so he brings this woman that has the power of God. But she says, unfortunately, because you're relying on my walk with God, because you're leaning on my spirituality, yes, you will fight the battle. Yes, you will win the battle. But you are not going to get the credit for the victory. You are not going to be the one who gets the acclaim and the applause because it's going to go into the hand of a woman. Now, he probably thought to himself right there, well, you're going to get the glory? Wow. But see, there's another woman that we're going to see in the story. It wasn't her at all that was going to win the battle. A little later on, we're going to see a different woman comes into play. I'm going to skip a little bit of this for the sake of time to get into the message. But look at verse 14. And Deborah said unto Barak, look again, she has to tell him every step to make. And Deborah said unto Barak, up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand. Is not the Lord gone out before thee? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor and 10,000 men after him. And the Lord discomfited Sisera and all his chariots and all his hosts with the edge of the sword before Barak. So he's winning the battle. He's defeating the enemy. So that Sisera lighted down off his chariot and fled away on his feet. They discomfited the army. They attacked them. They got them to where they were scattered in every direction. They were slaughtered. They were slain. The chariots are crashed. The horses are killed and hawked. And then Sisera runs away scared on his feet. He's off his horse. He's off his chariot. He's lost his weapon. He's just running away on foot to lead her. They've won the battle. But they haven't completed the mission because they still have not destroyed Sisera, who was the leader of the host, the captain of the host, the leading general. Well, the Bible says in verse 17, how be it, Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. For there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the house of Heber the Kenite. So this man, Sisera, thinks, wow, here is Jael the Kenite. Her husband, Heber, is in affinity, in league, in alliance with the king of whose army I'm leading. And so this is a friendly territory. This is somebody I can trust. This is somebody who loves me and is going to take care of me. And so watch what happens. Jael went out to meet Sisera in verse number 18 and said unto him, turn in my lord. Turn into me. Fear not. And when he had turned in unto her, into the tent, she covered him with a mantle. And he said unto her, give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink and covered him. Again he said unto her, stand in the door of the tent. And it shall be when any man doth come and inquire of thee and say, is there any man here, that thou shalt say no. Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent and took a hammer in her hand and went softly unto him and smote the nail into his temples and fastened it into the ground, for he was fast asleep and weary, so he died. And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said unto him, come and I will show thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead and the nail was in his temples. So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel. And you see in the song in the next chapter, we see Jael being revered, we see her being lauded and honored as opposed to Barak because she was the one who defeated the leader of the host, Sisera. Now it's a great story and there's so many great things that you could preach from the story, on and on. But one thing that I wanted to talk about, one thing that I wanted to focus on was the butter in the lordly dish that was brought out to Sisera. You say, what are you talking about? Well see, in this story, Jael pictures the devil in this story. You know, this is one way of looking at it. And this is one lesson that God's trying to teach. Jael pictures the devil, Sisera pictures us, the Christian, battling for what we believe is right, battling for God's causes. And this is what happens in our life. We're fighting in the battle of life. And there comes a time when maybe things aren't going so well. Maybe we're losing the battle. Maybe we're just tired of fighting and we just can't take it anymore. And so what do we do? We go running to what we think is a safe abode, a safe haven. And in the story, the tent here pictures the world. I mean, it pictures leaving church, it pictures us getting out of church, getting away from the things of God, getting away from the Bible, getting out of the battle. I mean, it pictured the end of the battle for Sisera. Here he is, he's running through the streets. People are after him. There's fighting, there's battle, there's strife, there's discomfort. He has nothing to drink. He has nothing to eat. There's pain, there's suffering. But inside that tent, what's he going to find inside the tent? A warm bed, comfortable sheets to lie in. A nice cold glass of milk. A nice cold glass of water. Butter in a lordly dish. I mean, just something that would just entice the senses, the taste buds. This delicacy of food, not just something to fill his appetite, but something that he could just luxuriously enjoy, this food. Now, nuts to the battle that's going on. He says, I've had it. I'm through. I'm throwing in the towel. I'm quitting. The odds are against me. I've got nothing else I can do. I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of battling. I'm tired of the pain of the fight. He says, I'm just going to go into the tent and just rest. Just relax. Boy, I was thinking about what was in the tent. You know, there's rest, of course. There's just the physical appetite being fulfilled. There's safety, seemingly. And I was thinking about this in relationship to the Christian life. When you're in the battle fighting for God, when you're right in the heat of the battle, and when you're fighting and pushing yourself with the armies of the Lord, you don't always have rest. I mean, God will, many times, ask you to push yourself. And many times, I was reading through the book of Joshua. And I just was taken aback by how many times God talked about them staying up all night. I was just noticing every time. Every time I'd read through a chapter, I just noticed every time it said, they marched all night. And sometimes you just read over that and don't think about it. But that's hard work. I mean, they fought all day. They fought all night. Sometimes they fought all day and marched through the night. Hey, it's hard to live the Christian life. Let's face it, if it wasn't hard, everybody'd be doing it. If it wasn't a battle, if it wasn't a struggle every day, everybody'd be doing it. Why not? I mean, why not live for God? Why not live a righteous, clean life? Because it's a battle. Because it's a struggle. It's a daily fight between the flesh and between the spirit every single day. I mean, every day you wake up, and if you're not ready to fight, that tent is going to look awfully good where the rest is, where the comfort is. And think about what else is in the tent. Just the physical pleasure and appetites. That's what the whole world revolves around. And if it feels good, do it. That's what all the advertising is. That's what the billboards are. That's what the magazines are. That's what the TV shows are. Everything is just appealing to the lust of the flesh. Eat this food. Drink this beverage. Look at this filthy magazine, because it's going to entice you, and it's going to be enjoyable to your senses to watch this movie, and to see this picture, and to listen to this music. And they allure through the lust of the flesh. And you say, good night, Christianity. This doesn't tickle my taste buds like the world does. And so you see that tent, and sometimes it can be appealing. Think about what else is in the tent. Safety. I mean, this was an ally. This was where he didn't have to worry about anybody coming. Who in the world would think that he's in the tent of this woman? Nobody would have suspected. And he said, look, in the event that somebody comes by and says, is there any man here in the tent? Just tell them no. I'm going to be back in this room here. Nobody's going to find me safe. I was thinking about how the world is so obsessed with safety. Think about this. They're so interested in safety. In 2006, you get insurance upon your insurance upon your insurance, because you just have to protect yourself so much. And I'm not against insurance. But it's indicative of a society that just does not trust God at all. And there are forms of insurance that I have. But I'm going to tell you something. You can get all the insurance in the world. And the Bible says safety is of the Lord. And the world will try to offer you safety. What if this happens? What if this happens? Well, you have insurance for this. You have insurance for this, insurance for this, because God can't protect you. God can't take care of you. Now, don't get me wrong. I have insurance. But I'm just explaining to you kind of a philosophy that says, we've got to have just more insurance, more insurance, more, just in case, because we're just going to protect ourselves every way we possibly can. We've got to have just safety. I was thinking about how the world plays it safe, because they don't want to ever step out in faith. They don't ever want to take a chance or take a risk to do anything that's for God, a step of faith. I was thinking about couples, young couples. It's so risky for them to get married, right? I mean, it's so dangerous. It's just, who knows what's going to happen? So this is what they do. They say, you know what? Let's just date for four years. And then they'll live together for another four years, live together unmarried just to try it out. I knew of several couples that I've heard of recently where they dated for four years. Then they lived together unmarried for two years. They were married for six months and got a divorce. I mean, it's crazy. Here they are. We've got to make sure that we're compatible. I mean, we've got to make sure that we're making the right decision. I mean, you never know. We've got to try this out. We've got to spend six years experimenting. We're going to go so far as to live together and do everything that married people do without making this commitment of marriage. But then what happened? They get married six months later. It goes on. I'll tell you why. Because God doesn't bless that. God doesn't bless fornication. God's not going to bless that. And not only that, but you can't just be safe from everything. I mean, let's face it. Well, I was thinking about the tent. It's the world. It's the alluring of that tent to get you out of the Christian life, which is a little more grueling at times. A little more uncomfortable at times. Maybe it's not as flashy. Maybe you're not going to have a stick of butter with you out on the battlefield. Maybe you're not going to have butter in a lordly dish. Maybe your rations aren't going to be as appealing as what's in that tent. But see, the devil is exactly like jail, the Kenite. You see, he'll offer you something that looks and tastes good. The devil will hold it out to you. And I'm talking about sin. I'm talking about wrong. He'll hold it out to you in a lordly dish. He'll hold it out to you in a format that's appealing to you. He'll give you that butter in a lordly dish. But it's no sooner than that butter has gone into your stomach, and you're laying down, digesting the precious food and commodities that he's given you, no sooner will you find a spike coming through your head, ending your life in a gruesome way. You see, that's how the devil is. He'll give you what you want. The devil will give you what you want. What do you want? You want to party and have fun and frills and money? Hey, the devil will give it to you if you want it. It's out there for you, and the devil will give it to you. What do you want? He'll give it to you. But as soon as you're not looking, he'll come around and he'll stab you in the back. He can't trust the devil. He's a liar. The Bible says of Moses, he was choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. See, the devil will give you something that tastes good. But is it worth it to taste that good taste and then have a spike in your head before the day's over? And every time you go into sin, every time you go the devil's way, every time you go into that tent of safety where you leave the fight for the things of God, where you leave the pressures and the battles of the battle, and you say, I just can't take it anymore. I just need comfort. I need rest. I just want to do my own thing. I want to do whatever I want. And then you go into that tent, and boy, it looks good. Boy, it's nice. But it only lasts for a little while. I mean, it's very short-lived. And then bam, and you don't even see it coming. Like he was just asleep. You don't even see it coming. Just wham. That spike went through his head and killed him. And so that's what the devil will do. Now contrast this verse, Psalm 16 11. Contrast this verse with Moses, who was not willing to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Psalm 16 11 says, thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. See, the devil offers pleasures for a season. God says, at my right hand, pleasures forevermore. He says, I can give you the same pleasure that the world will give you, except the difference is that it lasts forever. I was thinking about this, how the world just has nothing to offer. I was thinking about, what does the world really have to offer? I mean, if we sat down and said, you know what? Let's just throw in the towel. Let's quit church. Let's quit the Bible. Let's quit living for God. What can the world offer us? What kind of a butter and a lordly dish will they present to us and entice us with? What do they have to offer? I was thinking about it. Probably the big one would be money. Boy, we could just go out and make money. I mean, living the good life. I mean, we could drive fancy cars. We could have a nice house. We could have nice things. We could wear the fancy clothes. We could dine at the fanciest restaurants. We could get a boat and everything and just eat, drink, and be merry. I could just take all the time that I'm investing in the things of God and just invest it in making money. Just invest my energies in making money. And I could put my money into pleasing myself and taking care of myself and just living the good life, partying down. Have more kids? Are you nuts? Huh? No. I don't want to have any more kids, right? I just want to spend my money on me. And just because I remember I'm just departing from the things of God. No, no, no. It's just eat, drink, be merry. I want to have more money for myself. Look, that's what the world offers you, money, the good life, nice things. Well, look, here's what God offers you. The world says have money now. God says, wait a few years. I'll give you streets paved with gold. I'll give you your very own mansion in heaven that's better than anything that the world has to offer. He says, I'll make you a joint heir with Jesus Christ. He says, I'll give you the beautiful scenery of heaven. I mean, you'll open the window of your mansion, and you'll look outside. It won't be the California coastline. It won't be some beautiful forest somewhere. It will be heaven itself. It'll be the world. Heaven itself. It'll be the river of life with the tree of life all up and down it with the 12 manner of fruits being borne on. I mean, talk about beautiful scenery. Talk about the scenery you're going to have in heaven. Think about the value of your mansion, the streets of gold, every comfort that you can imagine, the fancy clothes. He'll give you a robe of white. He'll give you the fanciest clothing that you can imagine. What else does the world offer? See, whatever the world offers, God will give you. And more and better. Think about what else they offer. They offer the physical pleasure, the fornication, the gratifying of the flesh, the pornography. God says marriage is available if you want to go God's way. And you can have the same pleasure within the confines of marriage. Without the disease, without the sin, the guilt, the anger, the fighting, think about what else the world offers. I'm just trying to think. If you just wanted to go to the devil and just go to the world and live it up, what do they have to offer? Let's weigh it out. They can offer you money. They can offer you pleasure for a little while. And number three, they can offer you power. That's another thing that people in this world are seeking, power. Think about how men spend millions of dollars to become the President of the United States. They'll take millions of dollars out of their own account and spend it to be the President of the United States. They'll pay for it themselves. Millionaires will put up just millions of dollars. Why? Because they want that power. They want that position. They want to be lifted up. They want people to know who they are. They want the fame. They want to be able to control other people. People like to climb the corporate ladder so they can control other people so they can have power, authority. And I'm not saying it's wrong at all. Saying that any of these things are necessarily wrong, but this is the things that the devil will use to allure you out of the Christian life into the worldly life. And think about the power that you get with God. I mean, number one, you get the power to rule yourself, number one, unlike the world who can't even control their own flesh. But number two, one day you'll be ruling and reigning with Christ. I mean, one day you'll have great authority. I mean, God will say to the man who's been given 10 talents who doubled his talents that God gave him, he'll say to him, be thou over 10 cities in the millennium. I mean, he'll put you over kingdoms and he'll put you over men and he'll give you power, position, and authority. He'll give you glory. It's in the Bible says that whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, God's going to give us glory one day. He's going to give us rewards. He's going to give us positions and power, ruling and reigning with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him, the Bible says. See, God offers everything to the devil. You know, what does the world have to offer? Institutions of higher learning, education, the science, the knowledge, the mathematics, the fine literature. What does God offer? The greatest education that there is. All the wisdom of the ages, the answer to every question that mankind has, the greatest piece of literature ever written, the Holy Bible. What else can the world offer? Excitement, daring, thrills. You know, I'm just trying to show you just every avenue that they could take you as the people that are all about education, money, pleasure, thrills, excitement, daring. Hey, look, God can offer you the same thing. He can offer you excitement. I'm just thinking about all the exciting times that I've had just in my Christian life. What do you do, danger, excitement? Hey, go soul winning in South Chicago at one in the morning. I've been there. It was exciting. It was dangerous. It was thrilling. Hey, you can have the excitement within the confines of what God tells you to do. You can have the thrills and the danger. Hey, do something for God. Point that toward God. And so the bottom line is, I'm just going out of the list here, but God offers you anything that the world offers you. But the difference is that you just have to wait a little while sometimes. Or the difference is you just have to do it his way. But the difference is that you don't end up with a spike through your head. That's the big difference between going the devil's way and having the temporary fun. It lasts for less than one day. It lasts for just a few hours of that great meal, the milk, the butter, the comfort. And then wham, before you knew it, it was all over. And he's burning in hell right now, the same man. I was thinking about people in South Chicago when I was there. I was thinking about the way that they lived. They lived a life of just whatever they felt like doing, that's what they did. I mean, if they felt like coming to church, then they'd come to church. If they didn't feel like coming to church, there's no way in the world they're coming to church. If they feel like eating a certain thing, that's what they're going to eat. If they feel like fornicating, they just fornicate. A lot of them just had no morals. I'm not saying all of them, but the great percentage of them had no morals. They lived by no rules, no guidelines, no schedule. You could go to their house at three in the afternoon. They might be asleep. They might be awake. They might be in their pajamas. They might be in front of the TV. They might be eating. Who knows? Just going through life, just doing whatever they feel like doing at the time. No rules, no structure, right? Now, boy, just freedom, right? Well, wouldn't that be great to live like that? Just freedom. No, it wouldn't be great. Because I'll tell you something. I eat better food than those people eat in the ghetto. I don't want to eat their vintners hot chips. Oh, they eat their little store-brand chips that they eat. Oh, gross. I don't want to drink their off-brand grape soda, zero percent juice stuff. I don't want to live. You think I want to smell the apartment that they live in? You think I want to live in that kind of smell? And so, look, here I am, supposedly, in their mind, suffering for Jesus by just ruling over myself and denying myself of all these pleasures. Here they are supposedly giving themselves all the pleasure, just doing whatever they want, and yet I eat better food than they eat. I probably had a lot more fun this week than they had this week. I probably enjoyed my life 10 times as much as they enjoyed. I've had way more fun. I've seen more places. Most of those people had literally never, a lot of the kids and some of the adults, had never even been outside the city limits of Chicago. Can you imagine that? I mean, they've never even gone 20 miles. They just see a slum. That's their life. And yet, they can't understand how could I make the sacrifice of living for God? How do you make the sacrifice of living for the devil? I mean, you've got the spike in your head right now, friend. Your life is a joke. Your life's miserable. You're in this pit of just despondency and despair and disgust. I can't understand it, but that's exactly the way the devil is. He'll put on all the sin. He puts out the rap music that just makes it look so cool to be in the ghetto. It's so cool to drive that hoopty down the road. It's so cool to have your bottle of booze in the brown paper bag. And it's so cool to pick up some sleazy woman by the side of the road. But hey, my friend, I've been there. I've seen it. I've been to that house. I've been there the next morning. I talked to those people. It's a lie because the devil is a liar from the beginning and he's the father of it. You see, the devil has nothing to hide. He's a liar. He's like jail. Come on in. Hey, I've got butter in a lordly dish. I've got milk. I've got comfort. Come on in. You'll be safe here. Hey, don't worry about it. If anybody asks, I'll say that there's nobody here. Don't worry about it. But as soon as you're asleep, as soon as you let your guard down, you can just picture it, can't you? You can just picture the hammer in one hand and the spike in the other hand. Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha. She sneaks up on him and kills him. Hey, look, that's what the devil is. He's a liar. Hey, the Budweiser ad doesn't look anything like the south side of Chicago where you see the Budweiser because he's a liar. Don't be fooled by the devil. That tent is not what it appears to be. That tent of the devil's way of life is not what it's cracked up to be because it hurts in the end. And if you want to go see the results of sin, whatever city you're in, there's usually a nice slum to go to and you can see where it ends up. It starts out with a bunch of people wearing suits and they're sitting in a nice restaurant and they've got money and they're laughing. They're having a great time. They got the Lexus out in the parking lot and they're just drinking and partying and having a great time. But then it ends up 20 years later when they get a bad batch of cocaine and they lose their mind and they go insane and they're walking down the street holding a CD staring at it, screaming and cussing themselves out in the reflection on a CD that they're staring at because they've lost their mind. I've known people. I've known a man that was successful. He had all kinds of money. He got into cocaine because alcohol led him into drugs. Drugs led him into worse drugs, led him into cocaine. He fried his brain one time on a bad batch of cocaine. See, you have to understand that it starts out with the butter and the lordly dish and it ends out with the spike through your temples every time. That's the devil's plan. That's his method. I was thinking about how much harder people even work in the ghetto. It's amazing. I mean, you think to yourself, what is the benefit? I've asked somebody, why are you here? What are you doing? You're an idiot. And I thought about the fact that I saw a man one time in Sacramento and my wife will remember this. We're driving down the road. It's 112 degrees outside or something, height of somewhere in Sacramento and here's a guy pushing two shopping carts full of recyclables. He's got another shopping cart behind him and he's pushing three shopping carts full of stuff. And I'm driving back in my air-conditioned work van. I've been working all day. I was up on time. I got to the job on time. But I'll tell you something. My job was probably a lot easier than his shop because the Bible says that the way of the transgressors is hard. The way of transgressors is hard. See, he ended up working harder. Because why? Because he was lazy. I don't want to work. Nobody's going to tell me what to do. Hey, look buddy. Nobody's telling you what to do. But I'll have somebody tell me what to do all day and sit in an air-conditioned van with a cold soda pop in my hand and I'm looking at you out in the hot sun pushing around some shopping cart. You're going to be sleeping in some cardboard box somewhere because it felt so good for you to drink that liquor. It felt so good for you to take those drugs and shoot them up into your arm. It felt so good when you quit your job and said, I'm tired of having to get up at the same time. I just want to live it up. But hey, it doesn't feel so good now that you can feel that spike penetrating your temples, does it, sir? Because you're feeling the pain now. And I'm comforted. And you're the one that's suffering. Because you chose to enjoy the pleasures of sin for such a short season. And now you're going to spend the rest of your life on a street corner. You're going to spend the rest of your life holding up the cardboard sign. You're going to spend the rest of your life a laughing stock and a joke and a fool and a failure in life. You blew it, sir. A tent was not what it was cracked up to be. It's not all that you thought it would be, was it? I was thinking about alcohol. I thought when I was a child, when I was just Solomon's age, there were only a few verses I knew by heart. This is one of the verses that I knew by heart. Proverbs 21 is one of the first verses I memorized. Wine is a mocker. Strong drink is raging. And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. One of the first verses that I ever learned. I remember just as a tiny child, I didn't even learn to read very long. And I had that verse underlined in my Bible because my mom and dad taught me that verse. And it's funny because I knew that that verse was telling me that alcohol was wrong. It was a sin. But I never really understood the verse until recently, what it's saying. What it's saying is that wine is a mocker. And it's saying that the alcoholic beverage is something that will deceive you and trick you like it'll make itself look so good to you, and then it will turn around and make an idiot out of you. You see, that's what it means. I mean, it'll come into your body and turn you into a stupid idiot. I was on the plane this week, two days ago, flying on a plane. A couple people sitting behind me, just a couple worldly, sinful type people sitting behind me. And they're talking, just chit-chatting, just normal type conversation. You know, the girl behind me, the lady's coming by, I order my apple juice on ice, and the lady behind me says, give me a bottle of vodka. This is in coach, so you got to pay for it. But they said, give me vodka. And boy, I could just listen to the conversation degenerate as soon as she started drinking that vodka. Oh man, just the filthiest stuff started coming out of her mouth. I mean, it was just so obvious. I mean, just the filthiest things. I couldn't even imagine. I was thinking to myself, how can people be talking like this? I'm not talking about cussing. I mean, cussing would have been mild. Cussing would have been a blessing compared to the kind of stuff she's talking. She was talking about, just loud. She was loud and obnoxious. I'm sure the people on the plane were probably thinking to themselves, what an idiot. They're listening to this woman talk. You idiot. And then the second beverage service comes by. She says, do you have tequila? They didn't have tequila, so they gave her Jack Daniels. And she drinks Jack Daniels mixed with Coke. And then he gets a Diet Pepsi mixed with Bacardi. I can't decide which one I hate more, Diet Pepsi or the alcohol. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, I hate diet drinks. But anyway, he mixes that up. And now he starts talking like an idiot. Because the first time, he had just a Diet Pepsi. And the second time, he gets that booze in him. And she's had her second round of hard liquor. And boy, everybody in the plane must have just been thinking, these people are idiots. Listen to them talk. They sounded like fools. I was thinking that they were fools. I know what I was thinking. You're an idiot. And that's what wine will do. It'll stand you up in front of everybody and make an idiot out of you. And see, oh, it's so fun, isn't it? It's so fun to drink booze. But what does it do to your life? What does it do in the end thereof? What does it do when the spike comes through your temples? I was thinking about cigarettes. I just like to analyze everything. And I was thinking, why do people smoke cigarettes? And so I always do this. I like to make lists of reasons for things. I like to just reason things out and just figure things out. So I was making a list. Why do they do it? Well, it seems like a lot of people smoke cigarettes. And I don't really know. I've never been a smoker. But why do people smoke cigarettes? It seems like stress relief is a big part of it. It seems like when people get flustered, they just feel better. And I've noticed that it just relieves stress, I think. I thought of another reason. It probably feels good. I guess it tastes good. And it just feels good. It's a craving that they have. And then the only other reason I can think of is that it looks cool. You're walking down the street. You have a cigarette in your hand. You look cool, man. You're like the Marlboro Man. Hey, you've come a long way, baby. Right? I mean, that's what it is. And so it looks cool. The movie stars do it. And man, they look cool, don't they? But I was thinking about the butter in the lordly dish is the looks cool, relieves stress, you feel good. Maybe you get more breaks on the job because that's your excuse. Hey, I got to take a smoke. But I was thinking about the nail that comes through your temple. I wonder how much stress you're under. You talk about relieving stress. I wonder how much stress you're under when you can't pay your bills because you spend $150 of your money a month on cigarettes, or even $250 a month on cigarettes. I wonder how you're going to feel when you can't pay your bills because the stress of you wasting your money. Your money went up in smoke. Because I don't think most people have $200 a month in their back pocket. It's going to hurt them a little bit financially to suck on that thing. I was thinking about how it feels good. But I wonder how good my grandpa felt when he was sitting in a hospital bed on a breathing machine dying of emphysema. I wonder how good he felt when I grew up. I would listen to him choke and cough. And he hadn't even smoked in 20 years. But just from his younger days when he smoked, he's just coughing and hacking and spitting. I wonder how good that felt. It didn't feel good at all. I wonder how cool somebody looks after they've smoked for 40 years of their life. Have you seen people that have smoked their whole life? They don't look cool. And that's just the truth. They don't look cool at all. Because smoking has taken its toll on their body. And so the devil is a liar. He wants to fool you. This will relieve stress. No, it'll give you stress. It'll bring you more stress. Hey, this will make you look cool. No, it's going to make you look unhealthy. It's going to make you look bad. But wait a minute. This will feel good. No, it's not going to feel good in the end. It's going to feel good for a little while until it starts taking its toll on your body. And I can go down the list. Those are easy things to attack. But on and on. The point of the sermon is this. The devil is a liar. He'll get out the lordly dish. He'll serve you the delicacies. He'll give you the good life on a silver platter. He'll offer it to you. He'll say, what do you want? I'll give it to you. But I'll tell you something. No sooner than he gives it to you. No sooner than you've got what you wanted so bad. You've got the relief of just, you don't have the rules anymore. You don't have the stress of, you know, somebody telling you what to do. And the preacher is preaching against your sin. And the Bible's got all these rules in it. And it just seems like you just can't do what you want. No sooner will you break out of that freedom of just sinful living, free living, whatever you want. No sooner will you get into that self-gratification of physical pleasurable sin. But somebody's tiptoeing towards you that you don't realize. And it's the same devil that gave you everything you wanted. Except this time he's coming with a hammer in his hand. And this time he's coming with a nail in his hand. And he has no purpose other than to nail your head to the ground and kill you. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much that I don't have to go to the devil for my excitement. I don't have to go to the devil for pleasure. Because at thy right hand, a pleasure is forevermore. I'm so glad that you've offered me every single thing that the world offers. Greater, better, more of it, Father. Please, dear God, give us the wisdom to know that you have everything we need. The devil's a liar. Everything he offers is fake. It's phony. It's plastic. It's fraudulent. It's temporal. But the things that you offer us are eternal, dear God. Please just help us to recognize.