All right, like I said, the title of the sermon today is Witchcraft in Light of the Bible.
Witchcraft in Light of the Bible, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for the Scriptures, Lord, and that they reveal the
true light, Lord, and I just pray that you allow me to use the Scriptures to rightly
divide the Word of Truth today and that, Lord, we'd be able to apply some of these things
in our own life.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
And so the verses I want to focus on today are in Deuteronomy 18 verses 9 through 14,
and we're there in Deuteronomy 18, 9 says, When thou art come into the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter,
or a witch, or a charmer, or a consultor with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do those 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.
For these nations which thou shalt possess hearkened unto observers of times and unto
diviners.
But as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee to do so.
So just by way of introduction, witchcraft is mentioned over and over again in the Bible,
and it's never in a positive light.
Not one time.
There's no positive parts about witches and wizards and witchcraft and all these things
that it mentions in Deuteronomy chapter 18.
There are so many mentions in Bible stories about witchcraft and all these things that
I can't even put it all into one sermon.
So I just took some things that I thought would be helpful for us today, but all throughout
the Bible you see witchcraft being used.
All throughout the Bible you see wizards.
All throughout the, I mean, if you just read the book of Kings and Chronicles, you just
see that Israel is continually stumbling over these false prophets, these false gods, and
witchcraft.
And look, all of it's tied together.
It's all tied together.
Jezebel was considered a witch, okay, but she also worshiped Baal.
So Baal worship and witchcraft and all this stuff goes together, and I'll show you that
as we go through this.
But witchcraft and practices are called by other names, and as you saw in Deuteronomy
18 it has a list there, but that's not even all the list of things that God calls them.
He calls them soothsayers.
And these are all different forms of witchcraft.
These are all different positions of witchcraft.
And so the exact definition of witchcraft is the practice of magic, especially black
magic, the use of spells, and the invocation of spirits.
And so the first mention of the word witch in the Bible is in Exodus 22 verse 18.
I'm not going to have you turn there, but it says, Thou shall not suffer a witch to
live.
That's the first mention in the whole Bible about witches that says you should not suffer
a witch to live.
And in our society there's witches all over the place.
And Brother Joe preached about the Wiccans, which is kind of like a, I don't know, they're
kind of like, they're witches, but they're their own little religion.
But witchcraft is thousands of years old, and it's practiced all throughout the Bible.
These people were, before the children of Israel even got to the promised land, these
people were already given over to witchcraft and false gods and divination and all these
other things.
So we live in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, but yet witches
are suffering to live throughout our land.
And it's everywhere.
It's permeating in our society and through books like Harry Potter and all these other
Disney movies and all this other stuff, and I'm going to bring that up here later, I won't
get ahead of myself too much, but we're just bombarded with witchcraft on a daily basis
and sorcery.
And it comes through music, it comes through media, it comes through television, and we
got to learn how to discern the spirits.
We got to learn how to discern what we should be involved in as Christians and what we should
not be involved in as Christians.
But point number one is witchcraft is a heathen practice forbidden in Scripture.
Look down at verse 10 in Deuteronomy 18, it says, There shall not be found any among you,
any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that use the
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.
And that's a list of a lot of things, and I'm going to go over what those things are
and what they mean here in just a minute.
So I'm going to take out of verses 10 and 11, I'm going to list them out and define
them for you.
And one thing I want to point out to you again is that these practices are always associated
with worshiping false gods.
Modern day witches will try to say, Oh, we don't worship the devil.
Oh, we don't, you know, we're not involved.
It's a totally separate thing.
We worship the nature and stuff like that, but it's not true.
They worship the devil.
That's what they worship, and they can say it all they want, but the Bible is very clear.
God's word is true.
The Bible is very clear that witchcraft is involved with worshiping of false gods.
It's all throughout the Bible.
So these heathens that it's talking about in the scriptures here, they sacrificed their
children unto them, these false gods, and lifted up, you know, they lifted them up and
sought after these wizards that were among them.
So see, because look at verse 10, it says, And maketh his son or daughter to pass through
the fire.
So what does that make you think about right off the bat is that it's Moloch worship, right?
And we have a bunch of, you know, people that are running our country, they're into
Moloch worship.
I mean, that's just a fact.
And those people, the Bohemian Grove and all that, and Hillary Clinton's emails have come
up that she was, you know, we're going to sacrifice a child to Moloch this week.
You know, she can say she's joking around all she wants, but I mean, I kind of doubt
that she's joking, you know, and that's what, so child sacrifice is associated with witchcraft.
Is it not?
Is that what it says in the scriptures?
Turn to Micah 5, verse 12.
I'll let you see the associations between witchcraft and false god worship, okay?
Micah 5, verse 12.
Micah 5, 12 says, And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand, and thou shalt have no
more soothsayers, thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out
of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
You see how witchcraft and soothsaying is put right in there with graven images and
the worship of idols.
You see that?
And that says, in verse 14, it says, And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst
of thee, so will I destroy thy cities.
So the groves, those are instituted in Baal worship, so which is worshiping Baal, which
is the devil.
And it says, And I will execute vengeance and anger and fury upon the heathen, such
as they have not heard.
So I just want to point, so I'm just going to go through and start listing these things
and what they are.
So A, found in verse 10 of Deuteronomy 18, anyone that maketh his son or daughter to
pass through the fire.
This is child sacrifice.
That's exactly what it's talking about, and there's tons of verses in the scriptures that
say that that's what this is, that they sacrificed their children to devils.
And it is talking about Molech worship.
Look at Leviticus chapter 20.
Turn over to Leviticus chapter 20.
And this verse, these verses explain exactly that truth.
Leviticus 20 verse 1, the Bible reads, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Again thou
shall say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the
strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto, what's that word right
there?
Molech.
He shall surely be put to death, the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
So what are they supposed to do with the people that sacrificed their children unto
a false god?
They're supposed to stone them with stones.
Thou shall not suffer a wish to live.
And I will set my face against that man, and I will cut him off from among the people,
because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my
holy name.
And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth
his seed unto Molech, and kill him not, then I will set my face against that man, and against
his family, and I will cut him off, and all that go whoring after him, to commit whoredom
with Molech from among their people.
So even the people that aren't doing it, but yet they're seeing these people do it, God's
going to hold them responsible too.
And it's just like today, you see the holocaust of abortion that's going on in this country,
and nobody's doing anything about it.
You know, as Christians we should speak out against that, as Christians we should preach
against it.
You know, and there's so many Christians that are like, oh, it's okay, you know, they're
just a blob of tissue at that point.
You know, I saw this video the other day, it was this principal who was a stinking homo
that came up to these kids that, you know, and they just had these signs that said abortion's
wrong or something like that.
But he just sat there and berated them and chided with them, and was blocking their signs,
and he just said, you know, any time they said, sir, they were trying to be respectful
to the guy, because obviously they don't take the stance that we do, that the homos can't
be saved.
But, you know, he just said, I'm as gay as the day is long, son, to them when he was
talking to them.
And, you know, so this homo, he's their principal, and he's trying to block them from showing
the ridiculousness of abortion, just trying to shine a little light on it, and he just
came and snuffed it out, and got in their way, and tried to, you know, discourage them.
And then he was saying that, you know, they're just blobs of tissue.
And that's what people are saying today about abortion, that they're just blobs of tissue
that they're not, you know, the Bible says that God knew Jeremiah before he was formed
in the womb.
Okay, so if they're just blobs of tissue, then how can that scripture be true?
Obviously they don't believe the Bible, but that is part of the agenda.
And honestly, it is like modern day Moloch worship, they're just giving their children
unto Moloch, because they'd rather just live their lives and do whatever they want.
So let's see, so let's see, I don't know if I read the whole scriptures.
Oh, yeah, verse 6 in Leviticus 20, it says, And the soul that turneth after such as have
familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go whoring after them, I will even set my face
against that soul, and will cut him off from among the people.
You see how it's talking about Moloch, and then it's talking about giving your seed to
them and sacrificing your children in the fire.
And then it goes right to familiar spirits, which are devils, and then wizards, which
are the male equivalent to a witch.
Okay, so they're all tied together, you can't separate them.
So you see how going after wizards is the same as seeking people that have familiar
spirits, and sacrificing children unto the god of Moloch, which is not a god, but it's
the devil.
I was studying some stuff for the sermon last night, and I came across some stuff about
Aleister Crowley, and Aleister Crowley was a self-proclaimed, called the wickedest man
in the world.
He wasn't self-proclaimed that, people called him that, and he was actually kicked out of
Italy because people found out about all the disgusting things that he was doing in
that country.
But, you know, a lot of people might not know this, but Aleister Crowley was a, you know,
he was a satanic high priest, and he was part of this secret society called the golden dawn.
But he was raised in a Christian home, not a lot of people might know that, but he was
in the Plymouth Brethren, which is, they were kind of like Baptists back in those days.
But the Plymouth Brethren, you know, his dad died at an early age, and then he just started
saying, well, I'm just going to live as sinful of a life as I can, and, you know, he was
a very wicked person, obviously, but he called himself the Beast 666.
He bragged about sacrificing 150 children at that point to his, you know, whatever god
that he believed in, which was obviously the devil.
You know, but the thing is, is that Aleister Crowley died alone in a boarding house hooked
on heroin.
You know, that was the end, and he's burning in hell, and probably one of the lowest pits
of hell.
He was a very wicked person, he was a terrible father, he was a terrible husband, and he
made people do some of the most vile, I can't even mention the things that he did in here,
but it's a shame to speak of those things that are done to them in the dark, in secret.
But Aleister Crowley, you know, was promoted by the Beatles, and the Beatles were the,
you know, obviously everybody knows who the Beatles is, you know, if you've been walking
around for more than a few years on this planet.
But the Beatles were a very wicked band, and they were promoted, and, you know, I've actually
heard that the Beatles were like a bunch of junkies that lived over in England, and they
had long hair, and then they cleaned them up, and that whole thing that was, when they
came off the plane, all the girls were going, ah!
Nobody even knew who the Beatles were when they came over here.
That was all set up, that was all a show for us to see, and then for it to just permeate
into the American culture.
But the Beatles, they actually put Aleister Crowley on the cover of one of their albums,
which is called Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, where they put all these different people
that influenced them in their lives or whatever, and so here they are promoting the Beast 666,
the wickedest man in the world, on their album cover, and as an influence to, you know,
that was a great influence to John Lennon.
So some satanic high priest was the influence to the Beatles, I mean, and then, you know,
the other thing that the Beatles did is they said that at one point we're going to be more
popular than Jesus Christ.
I think that they might have said they are more popular than Jesus Christ, which that's
not true, they might be popular to a bunch of heathens, but I'll tell you what, I see
Christians wearing Beatles t-shirts, I just don't understand that.
I mean, how are you going to, you know, you're going to say I'm a Christian, but then you're
going to wear a Beatles t-shirt, really?
You know, and the things that, the other thing that they promoted was Hinduism.
They were a big part of Hinduism being brought into the United States, and now look at it.
You can't drive down the street without seeing some, you know, burning spirits yoga place,
that's actually the name of one of the yoga places in Portland, and, you know, hot yoga,
and chakra yoga, and all this other stuff, you know, but the Beatles were the ones that
started to promote this to the United States, nobody even heard of that kind of stuff before
the Beatles came along.
And you see how music can influence a whole generation of people, and then look at what
happened.
Now the music is so, I remember in 1986 when I was in sixth grade, the Beastie Boys album
came out, and people were just up in arms about how wicked the Beastie Boys were, and
they were wicked, you know, there's no doubt about that, but I mean you compare what the
Beastie Boys did in that album, and compared to what the music is like today, the rap music,
and it's way, way, way worse than that.
So, and that's bad enough, you know, teaching you to rebel against your children and things
like that.
So, but another thing in verse 10 is, one that uses divination.
So the practice, the divination is the practice of seeking knowledge of the future by unknown
or by supernatural means.
And so how do we see that being played out?
Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 14, Jeremiah chapter 14, Jeremiah chapter 14 verse 13,
Jeremiah 14, 13 says, Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold the prophets say unto them, Ye
shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine, but I will give you assured peace
in this place.
Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name, I sent them not, neither
have I commanded them, neither spake unto them.
They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination.
You see that?
So divination, false prophets are associated with divination, just like Balaam, just like
you know, in Deuteronomy chapter 18, look back over there real quick, I'm going to finish
reading that verse, Deuteronomy 18, sorry, I got to turn back there in my Bible here
real quick.
But then the rest of that verse says, I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither
spake unto them, they prophesy unto you a false vision divination and a thing of not
and the deceit of their heart.
So they're not, they're not saying what God wants them to say.
They're not even sent by God at all.
They're just false prophets.
But they are tied also to this worship of Baal, this, this Moloch worship and all these
other things.
So in Deuteronomy 18, at the very end of the chapters that it talks about how the prophet
will come and it's talking about Jesus Christ through here that a prophet will come like
Moses.
But then at the end, it talks, so in the same chapter, it's not on accident that this is
here.
Let's see, let me find the verse.
Oh, verse 20, it says, but the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name,
which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods,
even that prophet shall die.
So false prophets are supposed to die, people that sacrifice their children are supposed
to die, witches are supposed to die.
And in verse 21, it says, and if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word
which the Lord hath not spoken, when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing
follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken.
So these prophets that it's talking about right here are people that say that they're
prophesying in the name of the Lord, but they're not.
And we have that today too.
We have prophets that are supposedly men of God, they're called the people on TBN, or
all these false prophets that you find on YouTube, that are saying that they're speaking
in the name of the Lord, oh, I got a message from the Lord, I have a word of knowledge.
That's all lies.
God never told them to do that.
All the stuff that God wants us to know is in this book right here.
So it says, but that prophet that hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shall not be afraid
of him.
And so it is tied together with false prophets and all that stuff, and I know I keep driving
that home, but so here's the other thing that's tied with divination.
Horoscopes and astrology.
Everybody has probably had some kind of doings with this, and you know, if you were unsaved
and then you used to get your horoscope from the newspaper and live by it, I mean that's
exactly what the devil wants you to do.
He wants you to live by some newspaper clipping that says what, you know, if you were born
on this day in the cusp of Aquarius in the third level of hell or whatever, I don't know,
I forgot all that stuff a long time ago, but you know, the house, the rising house of this
or whatever, it has all the, you know, astrology's this big study about what your birthday is,
what day you were born and all that, and you can get down to the minute details of supposedly
what kind of person you are through astrology.
But let me tell you something.
Astrology is wicked, it's divination, it's not something that Christians should be involved in.
We have just one side of my work group, I've talked about this before, and if you ever
get loaned out to that side, the person that runs that group sits down and asks everybody
what their star sign is so they can read their horoscope to them.
And just last week actually I was down there and they were doing that, I was just like
goodnight, I wanted to leave, but I was, I needed to be in there and then, you know,
they got, they turned to me and I was like, oh man, you know, they wanted to know what
star sign I was, so I just said, you know, I'm not participating in this, I just walked
out, turned around and walked out.
They're like, are you sure?
Yeah, I'm sure, I'm good, I'm not practicing divination, and then call myself a Christian.
But a lot of people, a lot of Christians actually, you'll see Christians on Facebook that, oh
yeah, the Lord did this for me this week, and then they post like their astrology thing
for the day.
It's like, what are you doing?
I don't understand that.
But what astrology is, it's a forecast of a person's future, typically including a delineation
of character and circumstances based on the relative positions of the stars and planets
at the time of that person's birth, supposedly an answer to question from people at a seance.
So people are supposed to get together with this board and then you're supposed to contact
the spirits or whatever, and it's supposedly supposed to give you, you know, information
about yourself.
But I'll tell you what it's going to do, if you mess around with stuff like that, it's
going to get you possessed by a devil, because, you know, that's stuff that people that worship
the devil use.
You should, kids, you know, Hasbro is like a toy company, and they actually make Ouija
boards and sell them at Toys R Us, okay?
Don't ever go near Ouija board kids, don't ever mess around with them, even just thinking
it's fun, it's not fun, it's the tool of the devil.
And God will, you know, God will rebuke you for that.
You shouldn't have anything to do with Ouija boards or anything like that.
Numerology is a branch of knowledge that deals with occult significance of numbers.
You know, they try to add up all these numbers and, you know, tell your future by the numbers.
People even do it with the Bible.
I mean, they try to say, oh, this number means this, and I mean, obviously there is significance
in numbers in the Bible, but it has nothing to do with what these yahoos are doing with
it.
And tarot cards, it's a special pack of cards, now mainly used for fortune telling, consisting
of 78 cards and 22 other cards, the Arkanas or whatever, I don't know.
But tarot cards are basically a card game that you use, that fortune tellers use to
tell your future with a deck of cards, okay?
That's wicked also, that's divination.
Palm reading, you know, I was in Huntington Beach, or not Huntington Beach, Venice Beach
California, and they had all these kind of things down there.
That place is a hell hole too.
But you know, I think I got my palm read there when I was like, I think 16.
I didn't, they were just like, here, let me read your palm, you know.
Don't ever let people do that, kids.
I mean, I didn't know that that stuff was wrong back then, but I'll tell you what, I
know it's wrong now, and if you're hearing this right now, you know, don't mess around
with this kind of stuff.
Don't get your palm read, don't do your tarot cards.
And then, so an observer of times, observer of times is C, turn to Deuteronomy chapter
4, verse 15.
And you can lump the observer of times in with, you know, the horoscope and all that
kind of stuff, but Deuteronomy 4 talks about this.
Look at verse 15, it says, take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner
of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in horror, but out of the midst of
the fire.
Lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure,
the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness
of a winged fowl that flyeth in the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the
ground, the likeness of a fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.
Now look at this, verse 19, it says, and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when
thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the hosts of heaven should be driven
to worship them and serve them which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under
the heaven.
So people, you know, you see it again, the graven image.
And then somehow that ties in with being an observer of times, looking at the sun, moon
and stars and then worshiping them.
I mean, they're worshiping things that God made.
How foolish is that?
An enchanter is a person who uses magic or sorcery especially to put someone or something
under a spell.
A charmer is a person with an attractive and engaging personality, typically one who uses
it to impress or manipulate others.
That's like what we say, oh, he's a real charmer.
But in the Bible, a charmer is someone that actually uses like spells and tries to manipulate
others through charming them, you know.
I don't know, I think of a snake charmer, you know, the people in India and they, you
know, try to charm the snake, I don't know.
Anyway, so then you've got a consultor of familiar spirits, a demon possessed, a demon
supposedly attending and obeying a witch often said to assume the form of an animal.
So like that's why you see the witches and they have their black cats and all that kind
of stuff.
That's kind of what's associated with it.
I don't know about the whole animal thing.
But I do know that like when Saul went and saw the woman with the familiar spirit that,
you know, she was able to call up people and that's what she was a witch, you know.
So she was summoning, she normally summons demons, but when Samuel came up, she was very
surprised and freaked out.
And so these are the kind of people that are like psychic mediums, the modern day psychic
mediums.
And every time I drive by one of those places, I do my fake missile launcher, like then do
the explosion.
My kids know.
They're all just go, brrrr, when I drive by because they're wicked, you know.
I pray that God burns them to the ground and destroys them because they're also not software
witch to live.
But I mean I'm not going to do it.
It's not my job to do it.
The government's job is to do that.
But psychic mediums, they use their psychic or intuitive abilities to see the past, present
or future.
But what they're really doing is they're seeking out demons and familiar spirits and trying
to trick you into believing things and to following a path that God doesn't want for
you.
A wizard's a person who practices magic, a magician or a sorcerer.
So I got all those definitions out for those things and some other little side notes on
there.
But turn to Acts chapter 8.
So I just want to say that, you know, a lot of these people are charlatans and phony bolognese.
But this stuff is real, okay.
Kings and Jamborees in the Bible were able to show some of the miracles forth that Moses
was able to do also.
There came a point when Moses made the lice, then they were not able to do anything at
that point.
They can't create life.
But they were able to do some, you know, you got the magicians like, what's that guy's
name?
Well, David Copperfield was the one when I was growing up that was like the illusionist
or whatever.
Some of these guys are just doing like illusion tricks or whatever.
But you know, if people, if they get people to think that that's real, I mean, they're
really believing that these people are magicians, okay.
But there are real magicians, there is real black magic, the devil does have power.
It says in the book of Revelation that he'll be able to call, you know, that the false
prophet will be able to call fire down at that point.
But Acts chapter 8 verse 9 says, But there was a certain man called Simon, which before
time in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself
was some great one, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying,
This man is the great power of God.
And to him they had regard, because at a long time he had bewitched them with sorcery.
So this guy was, you know, it's called Simon the sorcerer.
And he ends up getting saved and, you know, is still kind of holding on to some of his
old past problems.
I believe that he was saved.
The Bible says he believed, and everyone that believes is saved, right?
But bewitched is to cast a spell on someone or to gain control over them by magic.
That's what that means.
And so that's what Simon was doing.
He was bewitching them with his sorceries of the devil.
You might say, Brother Aaron, why are you teaching all this stuff?
Why are you trying to corrupt our kids with all this stuff?
Why, you know, you might be thinking that.
But the thing is, we need to learn what, you know, how these things are practiced so that
we know what to avoid.
Because they're not going to know and let, you know, to avoid something if they don't
know what it is.
So the next time they see something and someone goes, Oh, that's a Ouija board, then you can
say, I don't want anything to do with that, because that's of the devil.
Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you how to practice all this stuff, obviously,
but I do want to let people know what it is so that you can know to avoid it, because
I didn't know.
You know, I found one in my grandparents' basement that was in an old box.
How did I, how was I supposed to know what it was?
And then you read the package, it tells you exactly what to do, you know.
So we need to know, and the kids in here need to know, to avoid that stuff, because it's
wicked as hell.
And you know, all the other tarot cards and all that stuff, you know, people think that
that's real.
People live their lives by it, and to a certain degree, some of it can be real.
But you know, we don't know who the charlatans are and who they're not, so just avoid all
of it.
Point number two is witchcraft can take down nations.
Witchcraft can take down nations.
Deuteronomy chapter 18, we're back there, Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 12 says, For
all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord, and because of those abominations,
the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
So why did he do that?
Because the abominations, the nations did those abominations and God drove them out,
right?
That's what it says.
Verse 13 says, Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God, for these nations which
thou shalt possess hearkened unto observers of times and unto diviners, but as for thee
the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee to do so.
God doesn't want us to have anything to do and suffered, it means that he didn't allow
them to do that.
We're not allowed to partake in this kind of sin.
Now I was talking earlier about in 1 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles
about all these, and mainly it was the kings of Israel just could not get out of this sin.
Once Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, started and made the golden cows for them to worship,
and it seems every single king after that would say, and he turned not from the sin
of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which caused Israel to sin.
And so you can see that they all got caught up in worship, and turn to 2 Chronicles chapter
33, and this is like about King Manasseh.
And King Manasseh was the son of King Hezekiah who was a godly man, but Manasseh, if you
look at 2 Chronicles chapter 33 verse 1, the Bible says, Manasseh was 12 years old when
he began to reign, and he reigned 50 and 5 years in Jerusalem, but did that which was
evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord
had cast out before the children of Israel.
For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared
up altars for Balaam, and he made groves, and he worshipped the hosts of heaven and
served them.
And he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said in Jerusalem, shall
my name be forever, and he built altars for all the hosts of heaven, and then the two
courts of the house of the Lord, and he caused Israel, or he caused the children to pass
through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and he observed times, and he used
enchantments, and he used witchcraft, and dealt with the familiar spirit, and with wizards,
he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
So basically Manasseh was the whole enchilada.
He did everything on the list that it says not to do in Deuteronomy chapter 18.
It says, and he set a carved image, the idol which he had made in the house of God, of
which God had said to David and Solomon his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which
I have chosen before the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever.
Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel out of the land which I have appointed
for your fathers, so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according
to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hands of Moses.
So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than
the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
So Manasseh did worse than all those before him.
He was a wicked, evil person.
He was a total, I mean, like I said, he's the whole enchilada.
He did everything that you're not supposed to do.
In verse 10 it says, and the Lord spake unto Manasseh and his people, but they would not
hearken.
Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, and took
Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
So you know, Manasseh was a wicked person, and it was the downfall.
That was like God's last straw, I'm done.
No matter what, I'm judging this place.
And if you read about his son Josiah, his son Josiah, they found the book of the law,
I mean, they couldn't even find the Bible.
They had to do some house cleaning and found the Bible, and then when they read it to Josiah,
rent his clothes, and then he did the greatest Passover in all of history, and he turned
it around, but God said, I'm still gonna judge this place for what Manasseh did.
I'm still gonna judge this place for all the blood that was shed here, and all the wickedness
that he did.
But look at verse 12, it says, and when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his
God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him, and
was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem, and to
his kingdom.
Then Manasseh knew that the Lord, he was God.
So it sounds like Manasseh got saved to me.
So I mean, as wicked as a man as he was, and as much blood as he shed, and all the things
that he did, he was still able to be saved.
So he was not a reprobate.
So that kind of blows my mind a little bit, just the fact that someone could be that wicked
and God would still save him, doesn't say he was a homo though, does it?
Anyway, now after, verse 14 says, now after he built a wall without the city of David
on the west side of Gihon, and the valley, even to the entrance of the fish gate encompassed
about Ophul, he raised it up in a very great height, and put captains of war in all the
fenced cities of Judah, and he took away the strange gods, and the idol of the house of
the Lord, and the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and
in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.
So he's trying to right all the wrongs that he did, but remember, he was a king for 55
years.
It says, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed there on peace offerings,
and thanked offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel, nevertheless,
the people did sacrifice still in high places, yet unto the Lord their God only.
Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer unto God in the words of the seers
that spake to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold they are written in
the book of the kings of Israel.
His prayer also in how God was entreated of him in all his sin, and his trespass in places
wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images before he was humbled, behold
they are written among the saints of the seers.
So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house, and Ammon his
son reigned in his stead.
But the thing is that Ammon built all those things back up right away.
And so then Josiah had to undo what Ammon did, but it was too late, it was too late
the nation was to be overthrown after the reign of Josiah, he had Zedekiah, he had Jehoiakim,
Jehoiachin, and those guys just did wickedness in the sight of the Lord, and the Bible says
that God wiped Jerusalem clean like you wipe a plate clean when you're putting it away.
I mean he destroyed it and sent everybody out of there, even the people that got left
in the land, Gedaliah was killed, and all those guys that went to Egypt, they end up
getting killed.
So the point is that witchcraft overthrew the nation of Israel, it did, and that's exactly
what the Bible says, right?
And you think about kings like Ahab, and then his wife Jezebel, his first kings, I'm not
going to have you turn there, but 1 Kings 16, 29 says, in the thirty and eight year
of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign in Israel, and Ahab the son
of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years, and Ahab the son of Omri did
evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him, that was before Manasseh,
okay?
And it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam
the son of Nebat, he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbeil, king of the Zordonians,
and went and served Baal, and worshiped him, and reared up an altar for Baal in the house
of Baal which he built in Samaria, and Ahab made a grove, and Ahab did more to provoke
the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.
So you just see this as a pattern that happens, and there are some godly, there were some
godly kings in Judah obviously, but in Israel you can't find them, I mean Manasseh, he was
the king of Judah, but you just see over and over again this witchcraft and devil worship.
And in 2 Kings 9-22, turn over to 2 Kings 9, now Jehu was the one that was anointed
king to destroy Ahab and anyone that pisseth against the wall in his family, and then also
to kill Jezebel, which was his witch queen, and 2 Kings 9-22 says, and it came to pass
when Joram saw Jehu, and obviously I don't have time to go into the whole story but that's
basically what's happened, that God said I'm going to make you king, you're going to kill
all these people and get rid of all these people that are practicing witchcraft, and
it says, and it came to pass that Joram saw Jehu, that he said, is it peace Jehu?
And he answered, what peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts
are so many?
Skip down to verse 30, it says, and when Jehu was come to Jezebel, Jezebel heard of it,
and she painted her face and tired her head and looked out a window, and Jehu entered
in at the gate and she said, had Zimrai peace, who slew his master?
And he lifted up his face to the window and said, who is on my side, who?
And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs, and he said, throw her down.
So they threw her down and some of her blood was sprinkled upon the wall and on the horses
and he trode her underfoot.
So basically they throw Jezebel out the window, you know, there was a prophecy that said that
Jezebel would be eaten by dogs, and so he just looks up at the window, they throw Jezebel
out the window, some blood gets sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and then it
says, I just caught this in my Bible reading actually that it says, and he trode her underfoot.
So like he just steps over her dead body and walks in and, I mean, that's what she deserved.
She was wicked, she killed the prophets, the Lord, and she, her and Ahab caused the children
of Israel to sin greatly.
But it says that he trode her underfoot and when he was come in, he did eat and drink
and said, go see now this cursed woman and bury her, for she's a king's daughter.
And they went to bury her and they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and
the palms of her hands.
Wherefore they came again and told him and said, this is the word of the Lord, which
he spake by his servant Elijah, the Tishbite, saying, in the portion of Jezreel shall dogs
eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face
of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so they shall not say, this is Jezebel.
So obviously if God would have just let her die in a normal way, then people would have
worshiped Jezebel as some false goddess after that.
So, and the word Jezebel is not like something, you know, most people don't name their daughters
Jezebel for a good reason because she was such a wicked person.
But other, I was reading about this last night, about Rasputin, who's heard of Rasputin?
Okay, Rasputin was like this monk in Russia, and it was during the reign of Tsar Nicholas,
and he was kind of like, you know, he wasn't part of the Russian Orthodox Church, but they
called him a monk, and he had a lot of influence because Tsar Nicholas, his son had, I think
he was, what do you call it, Haemophiliac, or, he had a problem where when he'd bleed
he'd just keep bleeding, I think that's what it's called anyway.
So she was telegraphing Rasputin, Rasputin was like this womanizing false prophet that
was trying to get entry into the kingdom of Russia, and, you know, he was basically like
a witch or a wizard, you know, but people were hearkening unto this guy, and once he
got the queen's ear, I guess he had fallen off of a horse, her son had fallen off of
a horse, and this is like in the early 1900s, 1915, something like that.
And she, you know, they brought Rasputin to try to heal their son because supposedly he
had healing abilities or whatever, and if you've ever seen a picture of the guy, the
dude's weird looking, like he's got these crazy eyes and a beard, anyway, so he has
a beard and he's just really weird looking, okay, if you ever see a picture of him.
But the point is is that, you know, they allowed this guy, this wicked person, to get mixed
up into their family, and basically millions of Russian soldiers were killed because the
czar went off to fight with his troops in World War I against Germany, and while they
were doing that, Rasputin had gotten himself in and was basically controlling the queen.
And there's all kinds of things, like you see pictures of where Rasputin was, basically
he was running the country, he used his witchcrafts and his sorcery to like influence Russia so
much to the point where their whole kingdom was overthrown by the Bolsheviks.
Three months after Rasputin was killed, Rasputin was like, you know, there's still like legendary
stories about Rasputin, like he was shot twice, they finally got sick when he was going and
fornicating with all the nobility and things like that, and finally they got together and
they were sick of all these people getting killed, and they went to kill Rasputin, supposedly
they shot him twice, he found a way to crawl up into the courtyard, and then they shot
him again and threw him in the river, and so, but three months later, after they allowed
this wicked man to gain influence like this, then Russia was overthrown three months later,
and Russia's never been the same since then.
That's what happens if you allow witchcraft to get into your society and into the churches
and things like that, and countries, just like the children of Israel, Russia, all these
different places can be overthrown because of that reason, and the same thing with the
United States.
The United States is right on the same path, and probably more wicked than any of these
other ones.
So I'm going to finish up here, Daniel 1.19 says, the king communed with them, and among
them was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, therefore stood they before
the king.
And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of, he found them ten
times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in the realm.
See, God's people are in a way better position than these astrologers and soothsayers and
everything.
You don't need to do the answers that you need.
You don't need to go seek after familiar spirits.
You don't need to seek after witchcraft to get the answers that you're looking for.
That's just a trap of the devil that you don't want to get involved in.
And Daniel 8.23 says, in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are
come to the full, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand
up as the antichrist, and his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power, and he
shall destroy wonderfully and shall prosper in practice and shall destroy the mighty of
the holy people.
So this is talking about how he goes to make war with the saints.
And it says, and through his policy also shall craft, shall cause craft to prosper in his
hand.
So I believe it's talking about witchcraft.
I believe that the antichrist, everything that he's doing is, everything is tied to
witchcraft also.
And it says, and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many.
He shall also stand up against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken without
hand.
And that's when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back on the white horse and destroys that
system.
In Revelation 21 verse 8 it says, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable
and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their
part in the lake of fire which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
Revelation 22 verse 15 says, for without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and
murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
So I mean, it's always talking about sorcerers, idolaters, witchcraft, you know, and we use
these in soul winning all the time, but you know, sorcery is a big thing right now.
Sorcery, Harry Potter, you know, Harry Potter's got, they got a new movie out.
It's called Fantastic Beasts and the people that are, how do you find them or something
like that, I can't remember.
But I just saw a clip from a video, I was talking with some people about it yesterday,
and in that movie they have, the very first scenes, this woman walks into a room where
there's a Baphomet star and she stands right at the beginning of the star and on each side
is these secret society people, and we were talking about the Illuminati last week, and
on the wall there's a phoenix on the wall, and it's obviously a phoenix, and on that
phoenix, you know, and the video didn't explain this part, but on that phoenix there's a flag,
and it's the American flag on this phoenix.
And that's in the movie.
I mean, movies will be a way to bring in sorcery and they've already been doing it for years.
Disney has already been doing it for years, just pumping kids' minds full of sorcery.
And you know, so point three is witchcraft and Christianity, and that's how they're reaching
the masses and how they're fooling all these people with witchcraft.
Galatians 5.20 says, well it says, let's see, 5.18 it says, but if you're led by the spirit
you're not under the law.
The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these.
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, I'm going to read the whole thing.
But you know, the works of the flesh are idolatry.
The works of the flesh are witchcraft.
So you know, there's practices that are taking place within Christianity.
Yoga is one, okay?
But people, I mean I know a pastor's wife that just brags about how she's going to yoga
classes.
Look, yoga is of the devil.
I don't care what anybody says, yoga is of the devil, it's telling you to get into these
positions that can help you reach, you know, we've already, most people have seen the video
about Hinduism, right?
So and all these people, I mean they're worshipping the devil.
And so yoga comes, it's a religious practice in Hinduism.
So why would Christians be putting into practice yoga in their daily lives?
Or the chakra yoga?
You know, hypnotism is another thing.
You know, hypnotism is not something that we should be involved in.
Why would you want to shut your own mind off and let someone else have control over your
mind?
I mean that doesn't even make sense.
You know, and there's a whole bunch of stuff, I don't have time to get into it, but Dream
Catchers is another thing.
You always see Dream Catchers in people's cars.
You know, that's some Native American, you know, spiritualistic thing to keep demons
out of your, you know, you need to have God so that you can not let the demons in, okay?
But Halloween's a big thing every year.
You know, they try to get our kids' minds with that.
The Wizard of Oz, you know, they have Glenda the Good Witch and then you have the Wicked
Witch of the West, right?
Isn't it the Wicked Witch of the West?
I can't remember.
But they try to make it seem like Glenda the White Witch, she's a good witch.
You know, so even back then, that's an old movie, even back then they're trying to brainwash
us into thinking that there's good witches and there's bad witches.
There's no such thing as a good witch.
There's no such thing as a white witch, okay?
That's a stupid thing, you know, because God says that astronauts suffer a witch to live.
No witches.
No white witches.
And, you know, Harry Potter's a wicked, a wicked, wicked book.
It's tied right into what the public school system, Scholastic, was promoting it and it
probably still is, I don't know.
My kids have never watched Harry Potter.
My kids have never read the books of Harry Potter and if you've read the books of Harry
Potter, you know, God bless you, whatever, I hope that you repent of that.
And don't read them anymore because they're wicked.
And all it is is just a way, I mean, I remember when it was at the height of its popularity
and little kids were walking around with wands and dressing up like witches and doing
little stuff.
I had a kid come up to me, this was a long time ago, but he came up with a little stick
and was like, who could, who could something, you know, said some stupid little incantation
and they think it's funny and all that, but they don't even know what they're doing.
There's real spells in those books.
They're just teaching you that it's okay to be a witch.
God is not okay with it.
God is not okay with Christians reading Harry Potter books.
I can tell you that right now.
So an application, an application for us is that we should avoid participation in any
kind of witchcraft, astrology, yoga, Ouija boards, obviously most people in this room
know that.
We should not, we should avoid glorification of witchcraft, entertainment, Disney movies
like Frozen and all those other things.
They're full, it's full of witchcraft.
What are some of the other stupid movies?
I don't know.
I don't even want to mention them, but you know, in 1 Samuel 5 17, I'm going to close
here, 1 Samuel 5 17 says, when thou was little in thine own sight, was thou not made the
head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?
It's talking to, and this is Samuel talking to Saul.
He was supposed to destroy all the Amalekites, he was supposed to kill all the people, kill
all the animals.
Why?
Because they were evil.
They were wicked.
We must remain little on our side also.
We ought not to get puffed up and think that we're better than what we really are.
Saul had that problem, at first he was a tall guy, he was head and shoulders above everybody
in his stature, but he was little in his own sight, but then Saul started trying to do
things his own way, and God had to clip his wings.
Verse 18 it says, 1 Samuel 15 18 says, and the Lord sent thee on a journey and said,
Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them till they be consumed.
Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil,
and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?
So you know, Saul's reminded here that he did not do what God said to do, and skipped
in, I didn't even have you turn there, but verse 22 says in 1 Samuel 15, if you're there,
and Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in
obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fatt of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as the iniquity and idolatry.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being
king.
How did Saul get taken away from being king?
Because he was in rebellion against the Lord, and against his word, and I'll tell you what,
witchcraft, it says it right here, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
So when we rebel against God's word, and what he tells us to do, and what we're supposed
to do according to the Bible, we know, the Bible says that he that knoweth to do good
and doeth it not to him, it is sin.
So what can we take away from this?
That when we rebel against God, and against his word, and against the men of God that
are over you, then you're in rebellion, and that's as the sin of witchcraft.
And stubbornness is as the iniquity of idolatry.
So at the heart of witchcraft is rebellion, they are rebelling against God, they're totally
doing the opposite of what he says.
And isn't it strange, and I don't think it's strange, I think it's just, you know, God
just playing things out the way they should be, but since he became, so he was killing
all the witches of the land, and when he went to visit the witch of Endor, the one
with the familiar spirit, he goes, you know, his final rebellion, what God killed him for,
I'm going to have you turn to one chapter, one thing real quick.
First Chronicles 10.
So God killed Saul for this reason.
First Chronicles 10, verse 12, and it says, they rose to the valley men and took away
the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their
bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
So Saul died for his transgression, which he committed against the Lord, even against
the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had
a familiar spirit to inquire of it, and inquired not of the Lord, therefore he slew him and
turned the kingdom unto David, the son of Jesse.
So why did God kill Saul?
Because he went to a witch.
He went to someone that had a familiar spirit, and tried to get, God wasn't answering his
prayers because he was in rebellion, and his final rebellion was actually to go and literally
visit a witch.
And then God's like, okay, that's it, you're done.
And so he brings Samuel up, and then God kills him.
And right there, it says exactly why God killed Saul.
So that should be a lesson to us, that when we have rebellion in our heart, that we need
to be careful.
You know, we need to be careful not to rebel against the word of the Lord, and to be stubborn
and proud and puffed up.
But let's bow our heads and have our word of prayer.
And Father, we thank you, Lord, for the scriptures, Lord, that teach us what we ought to not do,
and what we need to be doing.
Lord, I just pray that you'd bless each and every one of us here today, and to pray that
you bless the soul-winding today, God, and the meal to follow.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.