Has Mankind Obeyed A Fallen Angel?

Well, good afternoon again, brethren. It's always wonderful to be able to get together and be able to celebrate not only the Sabbath, but in this case, the double Sabbath that this is with our annual Holy Day service.

And as this is the unique annual Holy Day that it is, I want us to begin here in Leviticus 23 because it lists all of the Holy Days that we celebrate throughout the year. And of course, this is a listing that Israel had and that it appears we're aware of and observe some of the time. They didn't observe it quite a bit of the time. They ignored it. They forgot it. In some cases, when they were reminded of the law, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, they were stunned. They were shocked. Oh, we didn't know. And of course, over a good period of time, that we see described in the Old Testament.

But here in chapter 23, starting in verse 26, it talks about the Day of Atonement. And in verse 32, it shall be to you a day, a Sabbath of complete rest, and you shall deny yourselves. So that's a reference to humbling ourselves or fasting or afflicting our soul. On the night, day of the month, that evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your Sabbath. So from Friday evening, in this case, throughout the night and then throughout the day and until the evening tonight, we are, in a sense, collectively involved in observing the Day of Atonement. Now, in verse 1, before God starts talking about all of these appointed festivals that He's going to outline for Moses and the others who would listen, it says in verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses and said, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed festivals of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations. They are my appointed festivals. See, it actually says a great deal in those two verses. God is the one who designates, He's the one who designed to begin with, and then He's the one who designates the festivals that He says are my appointed feasts or my appointed festivals. He says they're holy complications, and so we meet together, we convene, and we come together as we should on the Sabbath with an awareness that, well, there's a Sabbath involvement in every week, but then there's even more that we need to focus on during the Holy Day season. And so it's wonderful to be able to celebrate that and to be aware of that. Most people would have a hard time describing much about the Day of Atonement to you. Most people that you might meet or interact with wouldn't know a lot about it, and they may be aware or think that's some type of a Jewish festival somewhere, Yom Kippur, it's usually on the calendar anyway. If you get any kind of calendar, they have that marked. But then they obviously might not know what those Hebrew words mean, and meaning just the Day of Atonement. But if we look back to Chapter 16, you see the ceremony. The ceremony that Israel was directed to do on the Day of Atonement, and I'm not intending, I'm pretty sure almost all of you have read Leviticus 16, but if that's new to you, then please read through that. You'll see a description of what Aaron, the high priest, was told to do on the Day of Atonement in the Nation of Israel. Now again, how many years they did this, how frequently they did it, I mean it was an annual celebration, how many years, I don't know. And sometimes, you know, it may have been observed with Morzil and others, sometimes there was not a good awareness. Sometimes they wouldn't even follow the instructions. So, you know, it's not that we are reading this in order, well, this is what we're supposed to do, because no, now this is a ceremony that was to be used in the tabernacle, and then later in the temple, and it doesn't directly apply except there is meaning.

There is meaning because, and this is what I want to point out, you know, the ceremony that involved the whole community by fasting was a, it was a, in a sense, it was a cleansing, a purification, a time of, in a sense, forgiveness for the nation. They would go through, you know, an awareness of the process that Aaron was going through in the temple, or in the tabernacle at that time, and they would be aware that, well, we're, we're, we want to be forgiven. We want to relate to God. Now, I don't think this really changed their outlook very much. I don't think it changed their habits and their activities a whole lot.

But see, the example that was created in this ceremony is, is really has significance to us today. What God had them go to, go through certainly was connected to atonement. And see, all of us realize that, you know, if we have sinned, and all of us have, then we need atonement. We need to be reconciled to God. We need to be cleansed. We need to be forgiven. And we need a certain level of purging. Now, I'm mentioning purging because when you think about the two goats that were this part of the ceremony that Aaron conducted in, in the, in the tabernacle that he was in verse 6. He was to make an atonement for himself and for his house. And then in verse 7, he was to take two goats and sent them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron was to cast lots on the goats. One would be designated for the Lord, and one was going to be designated as a zaizil, or a goat of departure. That was, that was what he was to do. And of course, if we read on down, it talks about him in verse 15, slaughtering the goat of the sin offering. That was for the people and bring its blood inside the curtain and do with the blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it around.

See, the symbolism of the shedding of blood and of the need that that shed blood provides in connection with cleansing, you know, that ties directly into our need for the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We celebrate that at the Passover. We go over that with everyone who's wishing to be baptized. Every one of us should easily identify with the shed blood of Jesus Christ for our sins, because that's what this resemble.

But then, he was also to take the other goat. And it says in verse 20, Aaron was to take the live goat and lay his hands on the live goat's head, confess over it the iniquity of the people of Israel and their transgressions, their sins, putting them on the head of the goat and sending that goat away, departing from Israel, sending him into the wilderness, sending him away from the people.

And so the representation here was a difference between a goat that would ultimately represent the shed blood of Jesus Christ for his sin offering and the goat that was representing the activity of the devil and his deception of all of mankind.

And what I want to point out is, in verse 9, it says, well, in verse 8, let me back up, Aaron cast lots on the goats, one for the Lord, one for Ezekiel.

Verse 9, Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell, the Lord, and offer it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell, he was going to send it away into the wilderness. That's what I went through a little later in the chapter. But what I wanted to point out, I guess, is in verse 7, he will take the two goats, set them before the Lord, and then cast lots on those goats.

What was occurring was that they were asking God, in the casting of lots in this case, well, which one's which? Because looking at them, we can't tell.

We're not able to figure that out. That was not what men were supposed to do for themselves. They were to look to God to designate which one represents Christ and which one represents the devil.

Now, obviously, this was something that was done in the past. We don't do anything like this today, except we do understand the spiritual application.

And we also understand a prophetic application of this.

Jesus, when he came and offered himself as the Lamb of God, that's been 2,000 years ago.

So at the time when this was written down, it was prophetic. It was prophesying something yet to come.

And the part about the goat that's going to be constrained or taken out of the way, we read about here in Revelation 20.

Now, the prophecy that is here in Revelation 20. Revelation 20, and Revelation the whole book really, is a vision.

A vision from God, a vision that has been given to the church. It's been given to John, who wrote it down, and then he says it needs to be understood.

It's not a complete mystery. Many people think it is. Many think, well, there's too many symbols. I don't know what they mean.

But see, those are all understandable when we study the Bible. And we find in chapter 19 Jesus Christ returning to the earth. And in chapter 20, it says, And after that, he'd be loose for a little while. And we don't read that until you get on over to verse 7, because this is talking about a thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth.

During that time, Satan, his influence, his deception, his lies, his corruption, his continual desire to destroy mankind, and to destroy anyone who would understand what God is doing. See, that's us. That's us. That's Satan's desire. He wants to destroy us.

And of course, you read other verses here in Revelation talking about the dragon fighting against the church, trying to minimize the effect of the church, and trying to keep people from succeeding, which is what God is wanting us to do. He wants us to succeed. He wants us to be in his divine family.

But Satan the devil doesn't want that, and he desires to trip us up. Verse 7, when the thousand years are ended, Satan's release from the prison, and he'll go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth in order to gather them the battle. And they are a large number at that time. They marched over the breadth of the earth, surrounded the camp of the saints, and yet fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and false prophet were. See, now, thankfully, God is in absolute complete control of his plan. Whenever you read this, you have to realize God is in complete control. He is able to contain, and then he is able even to release for a short while and actually use that for his purpose in helping all of us to be faithful. To be faithful, loving, committed, devoted children of God. That's what he's doing. That's his purpose. That's his reason for dealing with people even today. It certainly will be his purpose during the millennium, where he has this goat of departure sent away, this Satan bound and locked up for a thousand years. And then people will be able, as God removes the powerful destructive spirit force from destroying man and man's relationship with God, new levels of love and obedience and service are going to be possible.

It's actually, in a sense, setting the stage for what's going to happen during the millennium, the people that God is going to work with and that we want to be there and be able to serve. So the meaning of the Day of Atonement, the many symbols, I know we've gone over these probably every year for the last 50 years, at least some parts of them.

In many ways, those are very familiar to us. But I want to focus on something that I think is obvious, but I don't know if we may think about it in this way.

Is it possible for humans, men, to worship angels?

Is it possible for humans to worship angels?

Could you or I ever say that we worship an angel?

Do you think you've ever worshiped a fallen angel?

Do you think you've ever worshiped a fallen archangel?

See, often the whole topic of angels, and they are spirit beings, they are individuals that God has created. They are created, and you could say, sons of God, because God created the entirety of the spirit realm, the archangels, and any level of different spirit being, whether it's living creatures or watchers or seraphim or carabim or all the other descriptions. You have archangels, you have regular angels.

But see, God says that those angels are His servants, that they minister to those who are heirs of salvation.

I would obviously be talking about the righteous angels, the good angels, because they are also angels who are fallen.

Fallen angels exist.

Now, as we all know in this world, people don't want to really believe that.

They don't want to comprehend it. And here in the next month, we're going to see more confusion, not connected to Halloween, about ghosts and goblins and spirits and Satan and pumpkins and all the other stuff. Not that pumpkins maybe have anything to do with it, they're fall fruit.

But there is just so much that is put into the deception of the people in this world.

So I think it's good for us to think about, have I ever worshiped a fallen angel?

And I think whenever I state it that way, it seems kind of, no, I haven't, or I don't want to, or I shouldn't.

Let's see, the fact is, if you state it a little different, have I ever served, or have I ever obeyed a fallen angel?

Well, Adam did. He did. Everybody else who has ever lived did.

See, whenever I sin, I don't think you can say that's great worship of God.

That's actually going the wrong direction. That's missing the mark.

That's worshipping or serving a false God, a fallen angel, the God who rules this world.

See, the fact is, and what I read there about Revelation 20 with God in absolute complete control of His plan and what He's going to do and how He lets it develop and grow, it points out that mankind is going to learn to refuse to worship angels and only worship the true God.

That's what men are going to be learning to do. That's what we're going to need to teach them, and we need to understand the topic well, and I think we do.

Nothing that I go over today will be new to you at all.

But I frame it in a way that I hope helps us realize that this world has been deceived.

And as we look into the millennium, as we look into the thousand-year rule of Christ on earth, God is going to insist.

Clearly, God is a God of mercy and love. I've talked to you in the last few sermons about how ruling with the rod of iron is necessary for right judgment.

But then ruling like a shepherd and ruling with tender care is what Jesus is going to do and what He's going to expect of all of His helpers.

Of all of us. That's what He requires. So God is going to insist that man truly worships God and not an angel.

Worship God, not a fallen archangel. One even called Lucifer.

Worship God and not any other part of God's creation. He was a fallen angel, an archangel who deceived man in the beginning.

And it was not just, and you can read Genesis 3, and you can say, Oh, well, it looks like a snake was there and it was a serpent and I don't like snakes and I don't like spiders either.

I think I got him.

But see, the imagery of the snake in the Garden of Eden can almost be, well, that kind of seems kind of silly. That doesn't seem all that real. And yet, see, it's very real.

It has nothing to do, perhaps, with the same snake so much.

You know, the image was a serpent.

But see, who deceived Adam and Eve? Well, a fallen archangel named Lucifer.

He's the one that they chose to serve.

He's the one who deceived all the mankind. And see, that's why God is in charge of his plan.

He's going to right the wrongs. He's going to make atonement for our sins.

He's going to forgive. He's going to cleanse us today and others in the future.

And he's going to purge, which is another aspect of atonement.

He's going to purge the world in the future of Satan's influence.

And so people are going to be taught, don't worship Satan. Don't worship the fallen archangel. Don't worship the great God because he has everything to give.

Now, to follow up on my question about have we ever worshiped a fallen archangel?

Well, when you read Paul's writings, you see him talking about the devil, the one that we're identifying here. We're talking about him as the God of this world.

We talk about him as the prince of the power of the air.

You talk about him working in the children of disobedience, and he follows that up by saying, so were all of you.

So were all of you following the fallen angel.

See, that's what Paul says. And even, let's look just simply here at Romans 6.

Because here in his description of us turning from sin, changing from a life of sin, a life of disobedience, a life of indecception, a life of having been blinded, a life of having the wonderful privilege and blessing of having their eyes opened and ears unstopped.

See, that happened to us at one time, one point in the past, and then it's continued since then.

But here in Romans 6, verse 15, Paul says, should we continue to sin just because we're not under law but under grace?

And he answers that question, and we're not under the death penalty that the law brings if we sin, but we are under God's merciful and loving grace.

But he answers the question, should we continue to sin because we're not under law but under grace? He says, by no means. Absolutely not. We should not continue to sin.

He says, don't you know, and here's Paul's description. Now, I've mentioned he's talked about people following in the ways of the God of this world. He's followed the prince of the power of the air. He understands that's where I was when God enlightened me on the road to demand.

He asked us, so he knew. I know what's happened to me. I knew what I was aware of before that, and I knew that by being, in essence, a murderer at heart, that I'm following the fallen angel. I'm following the fallen archangel Lucifer.

And so here in Romans 6, he says, in verse 16, don't you know that if you present yourself to anyone as obedient servants, then you are the slaves of the one whom you obey.

Whether you obey sin, that's going to lead to death, or whether you are obedient to the law that leads to righteousness.

See, that's a transition. That's moving away from sin and moving to a righteousness that comes from God.

And he says, thanks be to God that you, having once been the slaves of sin, you've become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching that has been entrusted to you, and that you have been set free from sin, and you have become the slaves or servants of righteousness. I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitation. Paul says, I'm trying to make this as clear as possible, but I'm talking about a spirit world. I'm talking about you serving the fallen angel Lucifer, because all of us who sin have been in that condition.

But God thankfully has brought us out of that, and then we fight that the rest of our life. We fight sin the rest of our lives. He says, I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitation, but just as you once presented your members as servants to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present yourselves your members as servants of righteousness for sanctification. He makes that kind of contrast all through his writings. And here, he points this out, and I tie this together with what we're observing here on the Day of Atonement, because I would say, clearly, the devil doesn't want anybody to understand the Day of Atonement.

He would far rather they understand Halloween, because that creates more confusion and more delusion and is focused on death and suffering and just crazy things that have no depth or meaning. It's really worship of the devil, in a sense. And you even have, if you watch TV at all, as I think most of us realize, TV's getting harder and harder to watch. Channel 44 is still on.

I can watch Leave It to Beaver and Andy Griffith and Gunsmoke, things that I understand a little bit about. But there's an awful lot of bad shows on today, and of course, some of them are so obviously bad, and obviously many of them promote immorality, licentiousness, and total disrespect for marriage or for God. And then you've got others that are so blatantly satanic that you wonder, what are people thinking?

Well, we know what they're thinking. We know who rules this world. If you're going to have a TV series, I think it's coming up. It's based on the old movie The Exorcist. That was creepy 50 years ago. That's going to be even more creepy today, I'm pretty sure. And of course, there's a new show, or I only know the names of these. I don't know much more. Pat told me a little bit about what they were about, and I said, I can't remember any of that.

I just want to know the name. Impastor, that's another one. It's a combination of someone pretending to be a pastor. And yet everything he does, everything he is, has nothing to do with God, has nothing to do with obedience, has nothing to do with righteousness, it has to do with deception.

There's another one named Liar. That's about as blatant as you're going to get. And yet I bet a lot of people would identify with that. And then, of course, Lucifer. That's another series or show. You know, where some people watch and they don't know what it's about, and it just kind of goes along.

I imagine they're able to do a show that people might want to keep watching, but does it have anything to do with what God is doing? Now it has only to promote what this world is and the deception that's taken place on this earth and how the people essentially worship the fallen Archangel Lucifer. That's where they are. They don't know that. I would think most of them probably are not sure that they know that.

Most of them don't care. Most of them really are focused on something else. And so they don't know, but see, that's what God tells us. I brought you out of that, and I teach you the truth through the pages of the Bible, and I want you to understand that angels are not to be worshipped or served. Only God, only the Father and the Son, only the Eternal God and the Eternal Word are to be worshipped. That's what we're going to do at the Feast of Tabernacles here in the next week. That's what we do every Sabbath.

That's what we should do every day. But I just point this out because this particular day has... It has so much incredible meaning to help us be grounded and settled in the truth. We don't have to be bogged down in the confusion. It's obvious what the confusion is and where it comes from. I think it's interesting if you look at the writing here in the Book of Revelation. Now, the Book of Revelation, it says in the very beginning, wasn't something that John just dreamed up, and yet it was written down by the Apostle John.

He came from God. He came from Jesus Christ, a revelation about what's going to happen. Verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. And so here he says, this is what I'm doing.

I'm sending God, and the Word are sending for this angel to the servant John. And John was to testify to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. If we jump on down to verse 9, it says, John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance.

See, now, that's a great description to identify with. So here you have an agent, probably closer to 90 or 100. The Apostle John, who is writing down what he sees, he writes down what God gave him so that he would know what's going on. Well, not so much that he would know, because he would be long dead, but that the servants of God in the end of the age would know what is going to happen.

And yet it says, John, the one writing it down, your brother, a brother who shares with you in Jesus Christ the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance. See, John identified with the kingdom of God. He also understood suffering and patient endurance. He understood what it was to be a Christian brother. See, he had written a few small letters that we know of as I, II, and III John. He wrote about how people should love one another. He wrote about how we have been drawn together and God is working in us and that we don't ever want to let that go. You know, John's pleading with people late in his life, don't be misled, don't be deceived.

And then when I think about, you know, John wrote this down, and you can read the whole book, which we won't try to do here in the next half hour. We will read a little bit of it. But see, who was it that was chosen to write this down? Well, one of the sons of thunder, one of the sons of Zebedee, John the Apostle, an apostle who, apparently, was extremely close to Jesus Christ when he was here on earth.

He had been called and drawn like most of the others. He had chosen to follow, give up his fishing business, and follow Jesus Christ. But whenever you read what the Apostle John wrote down, you realize he had been given understanding about the divinity of Jesus Christ that he wrote for us. You know, you read the book of John, and it's incredible what he knew from God about the Savior.

And of course, you know, he was close to him. He was there when he died. He turned his back as well as the others. He regretted that the rest of his life, I'm sure, as did all the rest of them. But see, when Jesus was dying, then he reaches out to John and says, please take care of Mary. You know, he was entrusting John with the responsibility that he greatly valued.

And so John was writing this down. And in verse 12, he turned to see a voice that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven lampstands, and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash, crossed his chest and his head and hair white like wool, white as snow, and his eyes were like flaming fire.

His feet were like burnished brass, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held the seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full strength. Now that was impressive for John.

Now John had walked the roads between Galilee and Judea with Jesus. He was familiar with him as a human. He knew him quite well, but he was stunned by this vision, which was a glorified vision of Jesus Christ. And in this case, when I saw him in verse 17, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me and said, Don't be afraid.

I'm the first and the last. I'm the living one. I was dead, and as you see, I am now alive. And I have the keys of death and hell, death and the grave. I rule over death. That was just the beginning of what John was going to see. He saw a number of different visions, and most of this was just a vision. It was a vision that he was allowed to see and that he was told, I want you to write it down. And yet, if we turn back to the latter part here that we read part of earlier, Revelation 19, Revelation 20, you see some references to John interacting with the angel that brought him this message.

See, here in chapter 19, it says in verse 6, I heard a voice, a great multitude, crying out, Hallelujah, the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice in exulting giving glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. His bride has made herself ready. For her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

So this was a glorious proclamation, a wonderful thing to be told. This was an angel who was passing this information on to John. And yet, what I focus on here is simply in verse 9, 9 and 10, I guess. The angel said to him, write this down, John. Blessed are those who were invited to the wedding supper, the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God.

Now, obviously this was not a fallen angel at all. This was a righteous angel, a good angel, a follower of God, a servant of God, doing what God said. And yet it says in verse 10, John said, I fell down at his feet to worship him. Obviously, John was overcome. He was wondering exactly what is all... I know I'm supposed to write it down, but he was impressed with this angel.

But what does this angel say? When I fell at his feet to worship him, he said to me, you must not do that. Don't worship me. I'm a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. What you have to do is worship God. See, this was a directive from God through the angel. He said, I'm just the messenger. I'm a servant. I'm a good angel, but I don't even want John to worship me because that's not right.

Worship God. He says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Understanding what's going to happen is important. We'd know a certain amount in certain levels. There are surely other things that we are yet to learn, and God would reveal that as he needed to. But here you see in verse 9 and 10 an interaction with John, where he fell down and worshiped at the foot of the Son of Man, and there was nothing said about that because there was nothing wrong with that. But whenever he interacted with this angel, the angel says, don't worship me.

I'm simply a fellow servant of yours. If we jump on over to chapter 22, you see a similar situation. This is actually toward the very end of the book of Revelation, the Bible, chapter 22. Starting in verse 6, chapter 22, verse 6, he said to me, These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must take place. And he says in verse 7, see, I am coming soon.

Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. And so in verse 8, John says, I, John, and the one who heard and who saw these things, and when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. See, John continually wanted to... He was overpowered. He was impressed with the dominance of this message from God.

But in verse 9 again, he said to me, you must not do that. You must not worship angels. I'm simply a fellow servant with you and your comrade, your brethren, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. What you have to do is worship God. See, I think those are impressive statements when you see them in the context of simply the fact that we've been deceived by a fallen angel, this whole world has. We've served them whenever we sin, and we're following them. Let's say we're told to worship God. We're told to praise and honor, to worship and delight in, respect God.

Now, we could look here and look forward to back up what I mentioned earlier about Satan would just love to have you be confused, to have you wonder what's going on, to have you wonder how God could possibly rescue us in the future. He'd love to do that. He'd love to confuse you. He'd love to have you thinking all kinds of things.

And during his temptations toward Jesus, you see even how he wanted the Son of God to fall down and worship Him. See, obviously, this is not the good angels we're talking about with John. This is the fallen angel. This is the devil.

The devil, in verse 3, said to Jesus, if you're the Son of God, command the stone be made bread. See, this was what was taking place. What I want to focus on is, of course, in verse 6, the devil says to Jesus, to you I will give their glory of all the nations, all the kingdoms of the world. When he had him look at them, to you I want to give you their glory, and all the... I will give you their glory, all the glory of the nations, all this authority, for it has been given over to me. I am in charge of it.

This is not God's world yet. God is overseeing it, but the world to come is going to be God's world, the world beyond today. The world today is called the present evil world. And even though people are, in some ways, easily deceived, and in some ways readily consumed by that deception, it doesn't change the facts. Here he says to you I'll give the glory, authority, of all the kingdoms on earth, because that's been given to me. And I can give it to anyone I please.

If, in verse 7, you then will worship me, as it is written, or it will be yours, and Jesus, of course, responds, in verse 8, with worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Even Jesus was tempted to worship an angel. He was offered to worship the fallen angel, the angel that dominates this world. But see, as we know from the word of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we realize that that is insanity. Worshiping the fallen angel is of the past. We don't want to have anything to do with that. We want to move away from sin. Those in the future are going to be taught what they need to know, and then learning to make better choices. Learning to make good choices, learning to worship God, not just what happens to seem interesting in this world, because that's why people follow today. They follow stuff that seems exciting, and that's, of course, the way that Satan wants it. He wants to make things look exciting, appealing. He wants to add enough drops of poison into a glass of water to make it deadly. That's what he wants. But see, God wants us to simply worship Him. Worship the Father and worship the Son. Another way of stating this same thing is here in Romans 1. In Romans 1, you see again Paul's description of how the people living as human beings were easily deceived, they were easily swayed, they were easily corrupted, and they continued to be easily corrupted, mixing good and bad. See again, how much poison do you have to have in the water to cause the whole bottle to be bad? Well, Satan knows the exact mix. But here in Romans 1, he talks about how mankind is guilty before God. Because he says, for what can be known in verse 19 about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them ever since the creation of the world. His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, God's a spirit. Yes, He's invisible. Yes, He might be easy to miss. But here he says, no, I'm not easy to miss. You have eyes to see, then you see the creation around you. You see the universe that I set in order. Ever since the creation of the world, His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things that He has made. For they are, they are, people are without excuse.

For though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking. And their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling maybe a man, a mortal man, or maybe a bird or a four-footed animal or reptile. Other things that they would claim to be God or that they would claim to be idols.

And He says, therefore God gave them up to the lust of their heart and impurity to the degrading of their bodies among themselves. Of course, this goes through a greater description of the shamefulness of the sexual revolution today. It's way beyond sexual revolution. It's its sexual complete corruption. But here, God says, I gave men up to the lust of their hearts to impurity to the degrading of their bodies because, in verse 25, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.

And they worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator who is blessed forevermore. Here He's making the contrast between worshiping anything else, worshiping any of the creation of God, whether it be an idol of some type, whether it be someone's figment of an imagination of an idol, whether it be an angel.

He says, that's bad too because I want you only to worship me as your Creator. So God, thankfully, is continuing to work with all of us. And He wants us. Another couple of chapters you could read on this that I won't take time are Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 2. Because that talks exactly about how much higher than all the angels is Jesus Christ. And it talks about how that He didn't come in order to rescue or save angels.

He came to save people, mankind. That's why He became a person. That's why He became a little boy, a young man, a young adult who lived and died and bled, who suffered and bled for us. See, those two chapters tell us what God's purpose is, tell us about how His divine plan is.

But see, the fact is, as we again study the Day of Atonement, we're atoned for, we're forgiven, reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus Christ. And ultimately, this world is going to be purged of the effect of the fallen angel that people often have chosen to worship. But obviously, God doesn't want us. He wants us to be like John. And as the angel told John, don't fall down at my feet.

Don't claim any adoration from me. I want you simply to worship God. And when we understand that, and when we proclaim that in the future, and certainly when the fulfillment occurs, when the devil is contained, well, then people are going to have a much better chance to actually create a close and loving and unifying and uplifting relationship with their Creator.

See, we're going to be teaching that, and that's an amazing thing. And of course, as God then removes the devil and restrains him, He creates an environment where peace, safety, security, stability for the entire world can occur. See, that's what we're celebrating when we go to the Feast of Tabernacles. That's what we celebrate when we, for eight days, are attending worship services. And of course, we're to be there to learn. We're to learn to fear God.

We're learned to rejoice before God. But we're there to be in a teachable attitude where the Word of God can be implanted. Maybe we could close with that here in James 1. James 1, verse 19, is good advice for all of us as we go to a fall festival that's designed to be a feeding frenzy, not a physical feeding frenzy, although often it is. And we often have, as God says, an opportunity to rejoice and enjoy things that maybe we don't always have.

But it's to be a feeding frenzy on the Word of God, to draw close to God, to draw close to His Word, to draw close to His Son, to resist the temptations clearly available in this world and to truly worship God. But he says in verse 19 a way to do that, Beloved, let everyone be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger, for your anger does not produce the righteousness of God.

That just destroys me every time I get mad and think back on why did I get mad? Well, it was some stupid thing that shouldn't have been even mad at. But I think of verse 20, you know, the anger of man has absolutely nothing to do with the righteousness of God. In fact, you just learned to do what it says in verse 1. Listen and be slow to speak and slow to anger. That'd be better. But therefore, he says in verse 21, read yourself of sordidness and rank-growth of wickedness.

That comes from the fallen archangel. Read yourself of that, and with meekness, welcome with meekness the implanted word that has power to save your soul. That's why we're attending the Feast of Tabernacles. That's why we're here on the Day of Atonement. That's why we come to services every week. Because we want to have the meek and teachable spirit, you know, that God can produce his son or daughter through.

So I hope all of you enjoy the rest of the Day of Atonement, which is two or three hours. I can't figure it out right now. There won't be too long. But I hope that you'll be strengthened by the Word of God. And I hope that you'll have a safe and joyous trip to the feast and back, and then rest up afterwards.

And certainly look forward to seeing many of you in Branson and others who are traveling. Please be safe and come back to us so that we can share even more of the Word of God with one another.