LESSON 24:
Fire Water
1: The story is told that one day Satan gathered the fallen angels together to devise the surest possible way to destroy the human family. They thought of one plan after another and finally Satan himself thought of a plan, a cruel, mean trick really. He would take something very good that God had made for the health and happiness of man and would turn it into something else that would make a complete fool and terrible spectacle out of man who was originally created in the image of God. It would destroy him:body, soul, and spirit. It would deceive him by offering a way to forget his troubles, while actually it would increase his troubles and misery many times over. What was this plan? The plan was to take such wonderful foods as grapes, wheat, rice, barley, corn and other things given by God as food and convert them into poisons. They would become various forms of alcohol. Sad to say, this devilish trick has been working for thousands of years.
2: I do not know how well you are acquainted with the real facts. But I can tell you that I am, and I want you to consider some with me for a few minutes.
(1) Alcohol is responsible for a large percent of separation and divorces that. break up the homes of our country. How better can the devil destroy a nation?
(2) Alcohol is responsible for a shocking percentage of insanity and we tax-payers care for many of these people.
(3) Alcohol is responsible for a large percentage of poverty and again, we tax-payers carry the burden.
(4) Alcohol is responsible for the larger share of crime. And who supports the jails and penitentiaries? The Taxpayer, of course.
(5) Alcohol is responsible for more than half of the fatal traffic accidents. Who pays the police force and the traffic controllers? You know the answer.
(6) Alcohol is responsible for a terrible percentage of child misery. What better way can you think of to destroy the future leaders and citizens of our country before they even attain to adulthood? And this is just part of the picture. I have not mentioned the higher. much higher, death rates and disease rates that alcohol is responsible for.
3: Now, let us take a little closer look at this demon-inspired trick of the devil. Alcohol is absorbed directly into the blood stream from the stomach and intestines without being changed. About 30 seconds after a drink, alcohol can be found in the brain. Its effects are rapid and widespread, and the first part of the brain to suffer is the part that makes the difference between you and an animal:this frontal part of your brain which is your control tower and where lies your judgment:your morals, your emotions, your ability to make plans and decisions and to evaluate the information your senses feed into your brain. It is the most important and priceless part of your body, for only through it can God speak to you and can you speak to God.
4: Even one drink affects the reaction and coordination time of your brain. The brakes of your mind and morals begin to get soft.
5: Many people have the idea that alcohol stimulates them. Actually, just the opposite is the case. Alcohol depresses the brain first of all, the loud laughing and talking you may hear from the person drinking is just proof that the brakes are not working as they should
6: As more alcohol is consumed, the other parts of your brain are put to sleep so that even walking becomes difficult, and if a person continues too far, breathing will stop. Usually the individual becomes unconscious before that fatality happens, and he does not drink quite enough to kill himself off.
7: Alcohol irritates the mucous membranes of the stomach and causes many gastro-intestinal problems. Its destructive effects on the liver are well known. Alcohol increases the breathing and heart rate at first; more alcohol slows them. Because it dilates or enlarges the blood vessels of the skin it may give a sensation of warmth when actually the person may be cold.
8: In the blood, even a very small amount of alcohol will cause the blood cells to become sticky and clump together. This produces a blockage and prevents the oxygen from reaching the tissues as it should. Lack of oxygen results in the death of tissues. Most tissues can replace themselves but this is not so with the brain cells. Once they are destroyed they never build back. Their loss is permanent.
9: When more alcohol is consumed, the capillaries of the brain may actually rupture or burst and cause many small brain hemorrhages. But whether or not this happens, every time alcohol is consumed there is some degree of brain cell destruction. Personally, I cannot afford to lose even one of my brain cells, and I doubt that you can either!
10: Alcohol is often defended as having some food value. It is true that there are calories in alcohol, but the fact is that they are empty calories that rob the body of the vitamins and minerals that the body needs. Drinking can create real deficiency problems.
11: Solomon wrote, 'Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Proverbs 20:1. No Christian wants to be deceived. Therefore, I warn and urge each one of you to stop and think before you take a drink of any alcoholic beverage. Millions have been deceived in the past and their lives ruined. Right now the devil is not only deceiving people through drink, he is also involved in a mean trick of communication.
12: There are many who believe they are able to talk with their dead loved ones either directly or through a special medium. I want you, friends, to know I am deeply concerned about this for I believe it is "The Devil's Meanest Trick." In this famous painting by English Artist, Millain, a young man has been reading the love letters his bride wrote to him before their wedding. Unfortunately, shortly after the wedding, she died. Here she is represented as appearing in spirit form as he reads those letters, and he cries out to her, "speak, speak." Many people believe this is actually possible.
13: The foundational belief of spiritism is that the spirits of the dead can return to communicate with the living. We turn to the Bible to see what God says about this, as only the one who created man in the first place knows all the possibilities of man.
14: We read, "Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun." "He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more." Job 7:10.
15: God's word condemns the effort to communicate with spirits of the dead as sinful and dangerous. "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19:31.
16: "There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God." Deuteronomy 18:9:13.
17: Satan and his evil angels are the spirits of spiritism that pretend to be the spirits of the dead.
18: The Bible continues saying, "And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven." "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him." Revelation 12:7:9.
19: So, Satan is not alone in this great deception. He has with him the help of thousands and thousands of evil angels who have fallen with him to this earth. We are to be aware of those spirits which become very "familiar.
20: Satan's first lie was told through a medium (the serpent). He denied the Word of God and declared that those who disobey God (and die as a result) will know more than they knew before. Spiritualism continues to propagate this falsehood.
21: Satan's evil angels are called demons or devils in the Bible. They opposed the work of Christ when He was on earth. Once Jesus was walking through the country of the Gadarenes and a man coming out of the tombs met Him. His dwelling was among the tombs; "and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones." Mark 5:1:5. When Jesus asked him, "what is thy name?" He answered, "My name is Legion: for we are many." Mark 5:9. "And behold they cried out saying, what have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Son of God? Art thou come to torment us before the time?" Matthew 8:29.
22: As it was during the time of Christ, even so but with a greater manifestation will be the revival of spiritualism in the last days, for we read: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and the doctrines of devils." 1 Timothy 4:1.
23: Christ Himself prophesied about this and warned us against such a thing. "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ or there, believe it not." "For there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch, that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Matthew 24:23:24.
24: "And he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." Revelation 13:13. "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved:" 2 Thessalonians 2:9,10.
25: God does not like spiritualism. The lake of fire will put an end to its originator as well as to the followers: "But the fearful, and unbelieving and the abominable, and murderers and whoremongers, and sorcerers and idolators and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." Revelation 21:8.
26 Before it is too late, Christ is inviting us to put our trust in Him. He wants us to be saved from this great deception. No amount of lies can ever save us from the penalty of sin. "For the wages of sin is death." It is only Jesus who can save us from sin and its penalty if we only accept Him as our personal Saviour because He died in our stead. All that we have to do is to accept His sacrifice believing and trusting that He has done this for us on the cross of Calvary. Are we willing to accept His sacrifice for us now?
Here is additional information about Satan and Spiritualism:
"And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?" Isaiah 8:19.
"And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers." Malachi 3:5.
"Therefore hearken not ye to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, . . for they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land." Jeremiah 27:9:10
