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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good evening everyone! Go ahead and find out seats open up our hymnals to song number 335 🎵Music🎵 Song number 335 Let's all stand together for this first song, if you're able, to be song number 335 there in your hymnals. All together strong on that first verse. It may be in the valley where countless dangers hide. It may be in the sunshine where riot peers are blind. But please one thing I know, if in the dark or fair, If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. Just stand up to me wherever I may be, if he is there, I'll count it up with a cheer, it's frost to bear. If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. And maybe I must carry the classic word of life Across the burning desert, still holds its simple stride. And though it be my love to bear my colors there, If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. Just stand up to me wherever I may be, if he is there, I'll count it up with a cheer, it's frost to bear. If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. But if it be my portion to bear my cross at home, While others bear their burdens beyond the billow's tone, I'll prove my faith in him, confess his judgment fair. And if he sticks with me, I'll go anywhere. If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. Just stand up to me wherever I may be, if he is there, I'll count it up with a cheer, it's frost to bear. If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. It is not mine to question the judgments of my Lord, It is not mine to follow the leading of his word. But if you go or stay, or whether here or there, I'll be with my Savior, content anywhere. If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. Just stand up to me wherever I may be, if he is there, I'll count it up with a cheer, it's frost to bear. If Jesus comes with me, I'll go anywhere. Anywhere. Song number 255, come and dine. Song number 255, all together on that first verse. Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people come and dine. With his manna he will feed, he supplies our every need. The two streets are stuck with Jesus all the time. Come and dine, the master called, come and dine. You may feast on Jesus' table all the time. You will fend off the two, turn the war into blood. Do the harm you've done, come and dine. Grab your cypress wings, and clap your sword, may he grasp your man. For the master called the two, now come and dine. There they found their host inside, bread and fish, and one will fly, the sea satisfies the hungry every time. Come and dine, the master called, come and dine. You may feast on Jesus' table all the time. They were fed along the two, turn the war into one. Do the harm you've done, come and dine. Soon the lamb will take his bride. Over at his side, all the hosts of heaven will assemble thee. O twelvie a glorious sight, all the saints have sought this life. Let the peace of the cross continue to lead. Come and dine, the master called, come and dine. You may feast on Jesus' table all the time. You will fend off the two, turn the war into blood. Do the harm you've done, come and dine. All right, great singing. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song. Which will be 217 if you want to get that ready in your song books. He included me, song number 217. Our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030. Sunday evening is at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. And we will be in Acts chapter 15 this coming Thursday. So make sure you don't miss out on that. We do have mother baby rooms located here in this building for your children in case they need some diversion. We have one here in the back for the older children and for the infants. We've relocated that infant baby room to the back here where the fellowship hall is. There is a screen there. There's a speaker. There are rocking chairs, changing tables, and an AC unit, most importantly, all right? And so if you need to give your child some diversion there, you can take them to those rooms and bring them in at your discretion. You see this so many times in teams there as well. And the list of expecting mothers, please continue to pray for them. We are in our fall program this month all the way up until November. And so tonight, we have our apple cider fellowship after the service. So you can just line up in the back. There's going to be a table there with apple cider along with some goodies to put on top, some toppings. So make sure you don't leave right away. Stick around fellowship. Get some apple cider. I know this is good fall weather here. It's nice and warm, right? Or just act like it or something. I don't know. Next week, we have the idol bashing Sunday. And so if you have idols that you want to bash and destroy, you can bring those. Or icons. Brother John, I'm looking at you. No, I'm just kidding. That's what the Orthodox Church calls them. They call them icons. They're not idols. They're icons. They're idols, right? You can bring those next week, and we will bash those. We'll give a child the opportunity to have. By the way, we have safety glasses and safety goggles for them to wear. So don't worry about them. And so we're looking forward to that. And then along with that, we have Raising Cane's that we're catering in next Sunday night as well. So you don't have to go out for dinner. You can stick around, eat here. Sunday, November 1st, we have the November birthday breakfast after the service Sunday morning. And then on November 8th, we have the pie baking contest along with Pastor Thompson preaching from Sure Foundation Baptist Church. You'll be here Sunday morning, Sunday night on November 8th. So just keep that in mind. But we do have the pie baking contest. Let me see. Great. Let me go through these rules real quick. Of course, there are some rules and details that you have to abide by in order to partake in the pie baking contest. Number one is the pies must have a recipe card. Number two is the pies must be made from scratch with the exception of the crust. No canned fillings with the exception of 100% fruit or vegetables. Extra points will be awarded for homemade crust. Must be notated on the recipe card. Pies must arrive by 10-20 for check-ins. Mrs. Mejia will assign your pie and recipe card a number. Do not place your pie on the table until your pie and card are numbered. Please don't put your name on the recipe card to allow for blind judging. And so just keep that in mind. When you bring in your pies, make sure you check in with my wife first. She'll give you a number. And then there's going to be three judges. One of them being Pastor Thompson. OK. So I'm letting you know who that is so that or who one of the judges is. So in case you get bitter, it doesn't matter because he's going home the next day. So you can't really do anything about it other than like unsubscribe from his channel or something like that. And I'm just kidding. But pies will be judged on the following. The crust has to be good. Amen. Filling has to be good. It's going to be judged on appearance. So it can't just taste good. It must look good as well. And then seasonal appropriateness. That means get a little creative in how you make your pie, you know, make it look like it's ready for Thanksgiving or for Christmas or something like that. Seasonal appropriateness. And then technique. In other words, don't bring a pie that's like red, white, and blue or something. You know what I mean? Like for the 4th of July or something. Don't bring no Babylonian pies around here. It's also judged on technique and difficulty. And so may the tastiest pie win. And the first prize winner will receive a gift card for them and a significant other to Fogo da Ciao. Not Fogo. Is that Fogo da Ciao, right? All right. Fogo da Ciao. I'm thinking of that. What's that? Oh, and I'm thinking of Buca da Beppo. That's another Italian restaurant. Fogo da Ciao is a Brazilian steakhouse restaurant. All you can eat. It's going to be great. And so may the tastiest pie win. Make sure you sign up. See my wife for more details regarding that. Now again, we are in the fall program. So make sure you fill out your fall program sheets. And just as a reminder, you do receive 1,000 points for the three services that you attend this week or last week, should I say. And then if you've gone soloing once per week, you receive 1,000 points. Bring a first or second time visitor. 2,000 points per visitor. Make sure you fill these out. Throw them into the offering plate. If you did not fill it out this morning, you forgot to do that. It's all right. You got tonight to do it. But I see a good stack of sheets on my desk. And so if you forgot to do that, throw that into the offering plate tonight so we can record your points. And then anyone who reaches 14,000 points will receive a $25 gift card to Good Works Raymond online store where you can get sweaters, shirts, and all various types of clothing. But the first prize winner, for those who reaches the most amount of points, will receive a paid missions trip to Belize when we go there next year. Second prize will receive a $50 gift card. Third prize, $35 gift card. And so looking forward to the winners. We will be announcing them at the end of the fall program. And so we'll keep you posted on whether we're still going to do the Thanksgiving banquet or not. We're still looking for a venue. And so just keep that in mind. All right. At this time, we're going to take some soul winning numbers from last week all the way up until this afternoon. So let's take some soul winning numbers from Monday up until Thursday. Monday to Thursday, yes. One. All right. Brother Jacob, two. Anybody else from Monday to Thursday? By the way, two, OK. I got one last night. Did you say one or two? Two, sorry. Man, hold on a second. One, one, two, and then two. OK. So last Sunday night, I think I told this story already on Thursday, but it was great. Last Sunday night, my wife and I, we went to Raising Cane's to go have some dinner. And Target was right next to Raising Cane's. So we went there. She had to go get there, get some stuff. And I was just blasting Pastor Anderson, right? Like I was playing a sermon from Sunday night. And that's what I typically do after service. I just play him and we just listen to his sermon. And he was on this point about soul winning. He's talking about preaching the gospel. And I don't know about you, but for me, sometimes the most basic truths are sometimes the best. And he's saying things I already know. But I'm just like, hey, man, hey, man, you know, that's good stuff. And so my wife goes into Target. I stay in the van with the kids because I don't want to walk around Target and go shopping. I just like get what you got to get. I just like going into the store, you know, just focus. That's what I want right there. Grab it and leave kind of thing. They're more like, oh, look at this. Oh, this is on sale and all, you know. So she's in there doing that. And then I'm with the kids. And so I'm like, you know what? I'm going to open the doors. I'm going to go to the back of the van and just play with my kids as I'm listening to the sermon. And I put the phone on the on the door, like the little area there where you can hold on to. I put it right there and I'm just listening to him. And of course, he's talking about soul winning. All of a sudden, this lady walks up and she's like, excuse me, that's good preaching. And I was kind of like taken back and I was just like, excuse me. She's like, the sermon, that's good preaching. And I'm like, hey, man, I was like, yeah, you should subscribe to the channel. Unfortunately, the channel gets deleted like literally that day or something or the next day or something. But I'm like, yeah, this is my friend, Pastor Anderson. And she's like, yeah, that's really good. And then I said, do you go to church? And she says, yeah, I attend so and so church or whatever. And then, you know, obviously it's like a divine appointment, right? Because I'm listening to the sermon on soul winning and all these things. And I'm like, well, you know, more important than that. And I started giving her the gospel, super low hanging fruit. Like a long story short, she gets saved. Amen. And she gets saved, very receptive. But here's the cool thing is that my wife was trying to use. What is it called, Sarah? Instacart. Any ladies in here use Instacart? It's basically OK. Yeah. Like you get the stuff mailed to you so you don't have to go out. So she was trying to get a product on Instacart. But the person kept saying they're out of stock. They're out of stock. But here's the thing. When she went to that target where the person went, it wasn't out of stock. There's plenty of the product there. OK, now, why is that? Well, because probably because God wanted us to go there. So he made it inconvenient for us, you know, in order for us or for me to be able to talk to this individual about salvation because he knew this individual was probably going to get saved. They're very receptive. Now, here's the really cool thing is that she was supposed to go in there to just get that product. But then like 10 minutes into it or something, she just got in her mind like, you know what? I need to look for something else. And she was trying to look for a different thing for like my son, like a toy or something. And she kept asking one of the employees there and they're kind of giving her the run around like they're going from like one side of the store to the other looking for this product. Like we can't find it. But here's the thing. If she would have just gotten that product and came back, we would have left that Lady Tiffany. We would never we would have not been able to talk to her because she came in like 15 minutes after 10 minutes after she my wife went in to get the product. If she would have just came out, we would have been gone. So God kind of sent her on a wild goose chase in order for me to stay there so we can preach the gospel to her. It was great. So I say that to say that, you know, you just got to kind of always be ready, right? You just never know. And here's another thing is just blast preaching sometimes. You never know who you're going to attract. Amen. And so I'm thankful that I was blasting Pastor Anderson and he's like ripping, talk about soul winning. And then it just caught her attention. So apparently these people who say that he's, you know, he's drawing people away from Jesus. They're obviously wrong. You know what I mean? Like, oh, you're just you're you're scaring people away. Well, not really. That person was drawn to the truth and they end up getting saved. Amen. So that was great. All right. Let's take some soul. The rest of the remainder of the soul winning numbers from Friday to Saturday. Friday to Saturday. Yes. Two. All right. Anybody else? All right. How about this afternoon? Two. One. Mark. Two. Marcos. Three. One. Anybody else? Going once, twice, thrice. All right. Keep up the great work on soul winning. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. 217. He included me. Song number 217. 217 in your song books. Lift it up together on that first verse. I am so happy in Christ today that I go seeking upon my way. Yes, I'm so happy to know and say Jesus included me too. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said, so ever he included me. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said, so ever he included me. Gladly I read whosoever may go to the fountain of life to be. Oh, would I write it? I always say Jesus included me too. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said, so ever he included me. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said, so ever he included me. That the Spirit is saying, come hear the Christ in the wonderful. I'm sure he'll call it home. Jesus included me too. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said, so ever he included me. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said, so ever he included me. Nice and strong on that last, sing it together. Great, great was the soul to fill. Oh, with the joy that my heart could fill. For if he said, so ever will. Jesus included me too. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said, so ever he included me. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said, so ever. He included me Great seeing you, and at this time the ushers are going to take the offering. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12. The Bible reads, Exodus chapter 12, And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, and it shall be the first month of the year unto you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating shall make you count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door of the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire, his head with his legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn it with fire. And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And ye shall eat it in haste, it is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are. And when I see the blood I will pass over you, and a plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread, even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses, for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be unholy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be unholy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat that only may be done of you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for in this selfsame day have I brought you armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever. In the first month on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses, for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the Passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two sides of the post with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out at the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when ye seeeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your house to smite you. And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever. And it shall come to pass when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you according, as he has promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, but with ye and the children of Israel, and go, serve the Lord as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone, and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said, We be all dead men. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading trowels, being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses, and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required, and they spoiled the Egyptians. And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot, that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them, and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough, which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. That is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel and their generations. And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover. There shall no stranger eat thereof, but every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten, thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house, neither shall you break a bone thereof. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. And then let him come near and keep it, and he shall be as one that is born in the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. One law shall be it to him that is homeborn and to the stranger that sojourneth among you. Thus did the children of Israel. As the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass the selfsame day that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their inner armies. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your word, Lord. We pray that You fill past me here with Your Spirit, allow me to preach clearly and boldly, Lord, and give us ears to hear the preaching and be edified, Lord. We love You, and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. All right, we're in Exodus chapter number 12. Look down at your Bibles at verse 21. We'll move this. Exodus chapter 12 verse 21 says, Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover. And he shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel in the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth the blood on the lintel and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. What I want to preach on this evening is the destroyer. Okay, we're going to do a bit of a Bible study on this particular character here in the Bible known as or referred to as the destroyer. Now, here in Exodus chapter 12, we have the final installment of the plagues that God is pouring upon Egypt to harden the heart of Pharaoh. Of course, we know that there are ten particular plagues that he pours upon Egypt, and the tenth one being the destroyer. We'll get into that in just a bit. We see that at this time, the children of Israel are basically under the cruel dictatorship of Pharaoh, and they're being oppressed, they cry unto the Lord, the Lord hears their cry, sends a deliverer known as Moses, also with Aaron, to come and save the people out of the land of Egypt. We know that according to chapter 12, that they were there in this land for 430 years. From the time that Joseph was there, up until the time they exited, we see them being there for 430 years. They're oppressed, they're being persecuted, they're being mistreated, they cry unto God, God delivers them out of the hand of Moses. Moses being, of course, a picture of Jesus Christ. Now, the specific plague that really is the straw that breaks the camel's back is the tenth plague. Now, when you study the plagues here, you see that a lot of these things should be enough reason for Pharaoh to say, hey, let's get rid of these people. You know, when the water's being turned into blood, when your children, your neighbors, yourself have boils and lice, there's frogs, I mean, when he is just destroying all of your cattle, your revenue, your money, at that point you should be like, you know what, maybe it's just better, we're going to save ourselves a lot of anguish and a lot of trouble, we just get rid of them now. And look, folks, the plagues just get worse and worse and worse and worse, and in fact, it gets to a point where God brings out the big guns known as the destroyer, which I believe to be an angelic being, okay? This angel that God commissions, that God has created for specific tasks that only he can do, okay? Now, by way of introduction, let me just say this, is that angels in the Bible have different offices, right? You know, you have angels in the Bible that are strictly messengers, you know, they send a message to a believer in the Bible, or they send a message to a believer from God regarding a specific interpretation of the Bible, or regarding, you know, someone who is in need of the gospel, you know, they operate as messengers, and often in the Bible, you know, there's times when we have to differentiate whether it's referring to an angelic being, a celestial body that is a messenger, and a physical man who is a messenger, because angel simply means a messenger. But we understand that when we're reading the book of Daniel, for example, Gabriel is an angel who is a messenger. He's sending forth a message to Daniel from God. We see them operating as guardian angels. Now, the term guardian angel is not found in the Bible, but a ministering spirit is often what we see in Hebrews 1, what we saw this morning, and they're often ministers for them who are going to be heirs of salvation, and we see that they also operate as guardian angels, they protect us, God uses them as a means to protect us from our enemies, or from things that could come upon us. We see them also operating as soldiers, engaging in spiritual warfare. Now, one of the most famous of these is who? Michael the archangel. We see him constantly fighting in the Bible, fighting demons, and different principalities, as the Bible would put it, and in fact we see him in the book of Jude, wrestling with who? Satan himself. And the Bible tells us that he's wrestling with them, but he durst not bring a railing accusation against them, but rather said the Lord rebuke thee. They were disputing about the body of Moses, so we see that there's archangels in this hierarchy that are used to basically engage in spiritual warfare with other angels. But then we also see that there's angels in the Bible that don't operate as messengers, they don't necessarily operate as ministering spirits, they don't even operate as soldiers sent forth for spiritual battles, they're actually sent forth as agents of destruction. Their only purpose in their existence is to destroy. Now, that kind of ruins everyone's little image of what an angel is, right? You know, this little softy feminine looking angel with long hair, he's just so graceful. Folks, we got one here called the Destroyer. And that kind of destroys the image that people have of angels and how they operate with God. You know, they think that these angelic beings have wings and feathers and dresses and sandals, you know, they're just these angelic beings that God sends to just minister unto people. Well, I want to see what this angel looks like. Because here's the thing, his name is not Gabriel. His name is not Michael. It's not, you know, Raphael or whatever these Catholics like to name them. When God chose the name for this specific angel, what did he say? I want to call you the Destroyer. That is a cool name. It's like, well, I can see isn't that like your nickname? No, my name is the Destroyer. What is your occupation? What do you think? I'm only created to destroy. That's all he's there for. He's like that pit bull that God just unleashes for destruction. And look, it's not a demon. He's not a devil. It's not a demon. It's a specific celestial body that God has created for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's all he does. And he brings them out when there's just a bunch of people he wants to wipe out. Pretty amazing. And we see an example of that here. His name is literally called the Destroyer. And I want to show you every appearance of the Destroyer in the Bible, and then some. We're going to go into some other areas that he reveals himself in, that I believe he's revealing himself in. Now the Destroyer, as I mentioned, is an angel that is brought out to destroy multitudes of people. I mean, this is literally his occupation. This is all he does. He doesn't know how to minister. He doesn't know how to send forth a message. And the message, I mean, I guess you could say destruction is his message, right? Now you're in Exodus chapter 12. I'm going to read to you from Exodus chapter 4. Appearance number 1 is what we just read here in Exodus chapter 12, the tenth plague of Egypt. Look, folks, he's sending the blood. He's sending the lice. He's sending the moraine. He's sending the darkness. He's sending frogs. He's sending all these things. And then when those things do not get the attention of the people, he sends the Destroyer. Because he knows this will get their attention. Yeah, the blood may get some people's attention. The frogs may get others' attention. The boils, the blains, the moraine upon the cattle. But I know for a fact that the Destroyer will get everyone's attention. And this is true. Okay? Now why does God allow this to happen in Egypt? Well, Exodus 4 21 says in the Lord's sentence of Moses, When thou goest to return unto Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand, but I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go. So the Bible actually defines this in Romans chapter number 9 as Pharaoh being a vessel of destruction, of wrath unto destruction. He's basically using him so he can manifest how powerful he really is. Now let me just start off by saying that Pharaoh hardened his own heart first before God hardened his heart. And that's how it is with everyone. Before people begin to harden their own heart and just make their forehead as an atom and stone against God, or excuse me, before God begins to do that, they do that to themselves. So before God begins to just shut them up and darken them and harden them, they actually do that to themselves first. So Pharaoh was actually the one guilty of hardening his own heart and then God just layered upon layer hardening of his own heart. And he said this, I'm going to harden his heart so I can manifest these plagues in the land of Egypt. So I can show myself strong on the behalf of my own people. And by the way, this story, obviously at the end, Egypt is just completely destroyed. I mean the people are coming to Pharaoh saying, no you're not, that Egypt is destroyed. Like it's just completely decimated. Like why are you not letting these people go? Can't you see that there is no Egypt left? I mean the hail mingled with fire. I mean people are dying. God is judging. This is the very finger of God as the magicians put it. Genesis and Jamborees. They said this is the finger of God. But God allowed his heart to become even more hardened because he wanted to bring out the big guns known as the destroyer. Now in chapter 7 we see blood being sent. Chapter 8 we see the frogs, lice and flies. We see in chapter 9 the moraine upon the cattle. He diseases the cattle so that they die. The boils and blanes. Chapter 9 the hail. And then chapter 10 we see the locusts and the darkness. And then finally we see that he brings forth death in chapter 12. And by the way this is known as the plague. Because these are referred to as the plagues of Egypt. The final one being the plague known as the destroyer. This is very significant and I'll explain to you why in just a bit. Look down at your Bibles at verse 21. So in the beginning of the chapter he gives them instructions regarding the Passover. And in verse 21 to 23 he gives instructions and warnings against this destroyer. Look what it says in verse 21. So what is the symbolic representation that we're seeing here? Well as the song puts it when he sees the blood he will pass over you. That's why he's referred to as the Passover. So this is a symbolic representation of salvation. Because when the destroyer so to speak when death comes upon us guess what? We don't eternally die. You know death is swallowed up in victory because we are covered in the blood of Christ. Our door posts so to speak the lintels of our heart are covered by his blood. Amen. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts the Lord will pass over the door. What a beautiful picture. You know for the wages of sin is death folks we deserve hell. We deserve eternal damnation because we've broken God's commandments. We've sinned against the Lord. We're not righteous. Our righteousness are as filthy rags. But yet he gave us the option to put the blood on the posts so that when he comes to judge this world guess what? He'll pass right over us. He hath made them to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Bible says that he imputed his righteousness unto us. Folks why would we want our own righteousness to try to save us? We have no righteousness. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us. Amen. He says the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. Powerful. So as this plague is traveling around Egypt looking for those doors that do not have the blood. As soon as he observes the door with blood he says I'm not going to destroy this person. They're not going to die. The firstborn shall not die. Skip down to verse 28. And the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron so did they. And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. From the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night he and all his servants and all the Egyptians and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a house where there was not one dead. This is a very catastrophic devastating thing to experience. Where you wake up and your baby's dead. You wake up and your teenager is just dead. Anybody who's a firstborn dead. Even dads. Dead. Because if they're a firstborn of a family they're dead. Verse 31 and he called Moses and Aaron by night and said rise up. Get your forth from among my people both ye and the children of Israel and go serve the Lord as ye have said. Now notice before he was actually telling them no don't go or if you go don't take your cattle or if you go don't take your people. Now he's just like just get out of here. Also take your flocks and your herds as he have said and be gone and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people. Yeah I bet. I mean this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. That they might send them out of the land in haste for they said we be all dead men. So it's like look you guys need to get out of the land. Well can we borrow some jewels and some yeah take whatever you got to get. Just get out of my sight. Just leave. Because there's a bunch of dead people. I mean there's dead people prior to this by the way. But the number has increased exceedingly after the destroyer got through with them. So I want you to notice the first thing about the destroyer is that his handiwork is synonymous with a plague. Because we don't necessarily know what this looks like right. Where he's going from door to door. We do know this is that it's referred to as the tenth plague right. And this could potentially mean there was some sort of disease that basically killed them destroyed them a plague. Now what's the principle that we can learn from this particular story here. Well here's the thing. This is what we can learn. Don't let it get to the tenth plague. Right. Don't let it get to the tenth plague. Now here's what's interesting is that you know today people often say this in their hearts or maybe even out loud. Well I'll just wait till the very end on my deathbed to get saved. You know I'll just wait until I'm old and I'm ready. But here's the thing. In their minds they think that death will come upon them in a graceful way. Like someone's going to address them hey you're going to die in about a week so you might want to get things together. You know pull your bed and let your family know. Sometimes people die instantly folks. And guess what when death seizes upon you and you die you've allowed it to get to the tenth plague and you know what the tenth plague is? It's basically a picture of hell. You know don't let it get to that point. There's people in this world who God is trying to get their attention. He's allowing certain things to come upon them and you know what he's doing it in order to draw them unto salvation. You know people think oh man I have it so bad and all these things and so many bad things have happened to me. Have you ever considered that maybe God's trying to get your attention? I'm talking about unsafe people. Maybe God is trying to get your attention. Yeah he sent you the blood and the frogs and the boils and the lice and the moraine and he's destroying your finances and everything's going wrong for you. Probably it's because he wants you to put blood in the lintels before the tenth plague comes. Because guess what? The frogs, the blood, the lice, none of it compares to the tenth plague. Your worst day here as an unsafe individual is not even compared to hell. The blood doesn't compare to the destroyer. The lice does not compare to the destroyer. The frogs don't even compare to the destroyer. Hey you know you losing your job does not even compare to losing your own soul in a place called hell once the destroyer is through with you. So this, a great principle that we can learn from this is that people should not wait until the last minute to get saved. Right? Who knows what was going through Pharaoh's heart. Now obviously I believe Pharaoh in this story you know I believe he's a reprobate. I believe God was already done with him but you know I'm sure there's individuals who followed him who were not reprobates who unfortunately waited until the tenth plague but guess what? At that point it was already too late for them. Now as Christians you know obviously we can't lose our salvation. We understand that salvation cannot be lost. We understand that once we're saved we're always saved. We can never lose it. But hold on a second the destroyer can still come after us. In fact the Bible even says that our flesh can be destroyed by God. You know we talked about 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and 5 this morning how people are given over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. And how if individuals in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 you know persist to destroy their temple him shall God destroy the Bible says. If any man defile the temple of God God shall destroy him. God will get rid of people like that. And you know what you may be in your second plague today you might be in your fourth plague today but you know what you can streamline that thing to the tenth one by your disobedience and rebellion against God. That's why it's important that we get right with God every single day. Amen. And not let it get to the point you say man I'm backslidden right now I'm not right with God. Well you know what just don't let it get to the tenth one. Because the Bible says there is a sin unto death I shall not say that you should pray for it. People can get to a point where it's too late for them. Not for salvation. I'm talking about saved people they can get to a point where it's just too late and God can destroy your life. So the first appearance that we see is in Egypt and man what a grand appearance. I mean he comes and just we're speaking about this thousands of years after the fact that it happened and you know what we're introduced to the destroyer. Now go with me if you would to Numbers chapter 16. Numbers chapter 16. So appearance number one Egypt known as the destroyer. A lot of people call him the angel of death. It's a cool name but you know I like the destroyer a lot better. Now here in Numbers by the way in Egypt the people who died were Egyptians. Not God's people. So God's judgment came upon the unsaved people. But let me say this is that the destroyer he's very versatile. He's not a respecter of people. You know it's not like well I can't you know I'm supposed to stay away from Christians and God's people. No he'll go after them as well if God tells him to. And in fact we have an example of that in Numbers chapter 16. So what's appearance number two the destroying plague in the wilderness. Now we read this I don't know a couple weeks ago maybe it was last week when we were talking about Aaron. At this point in Numbers 16 I mean the children of Israel are in rebellion. You have 250 people who have already died at this point in this particular story. Look at verse 41. It says, But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. Let me say this is that when they're murmuring against the men of God they're actually murmuring against God himself. It came to pass when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation and behold the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. Not a good thing. So they're murmuring and then God just descends in his glory into the tabernacle and they're like oh look God's here. Yeah it's not for a good reason. Verse 43 And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Get you up from among this congregation. What is he saying? Get away from these people. That I may consume them as in a moment. That's all he needs to say by the way. You think Moses didn't know what he was talking about? What do you mean by that? Can you further explain what you mean by that? What do you mean consume them in a moment? What do they do? Did they ask him? No. They fell upon their faces. Verse 46 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly into the congregation, and make an atonement for them. For there is wrath gone out from the Lord. Look what it says. The plague is begun. Now remember the story that I told last week? That as Aaron is just running through the people seeking to make an atonement, bodies are just falling and falling dying and dying. I mean he's destroying. Who is this? The destroyer. He's unleashed the destroyer upon the people. He says the plague is begun. Verse 47 And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation, and behold, the plague was begun among the people. And he put on incense and made an atonement for the people, and he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed. So yeah, he ran. He had urgency. He was there and he made the atonement, but here's the thing. He's still standing between the dead and the living. What does that mean? A lot of people were still affected by the plague. The destroyer got some people. Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred beside them that died about the matter of Korah. And Aaron returned unto Moses unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the plague was stayed. Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I believe this is referring to the destroyer that we saw in Exodus chapter 12. And the New Testament reveals that unto us. Now what was the sin that caused God to unleash the destroyer? Murmuring. Like, oh that's not right. Oh no, it's right. Righteous are his judgments. And what does this tell us? This shows us how serious God takes complaining. I mean, we hate hearing people complain. How much more a righteous God, who has just delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, he's provided for them, he's taking care of them, and they're still whining, complaining murmuring, and God says, you know what, the destroyer don't handle these people real quick. Just destroy a whole bunch of them because I'm sick and tired of hearing them murmuring and complaining. Now how do we know if that's true? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 6. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them did, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. The children of Israel have some issues. Like this entire chapter is just basically talking about all their disobedience and the people that died. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Look what it says in verse 10. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. So the New Testament reveals the enigma that wasn't necessarily explicitly spoken of in the Old Testament. Which is the destroyer. Because we just see the plague has begun. We just see people dying. We just see Aaron running to make an atonement for the sins of the people and trying to stay the plague. But 1 Corinthians 10 reveals to us, no, this is actually the destroyer. Now that makes a lot of sense. You know why? It's because he is characterized by plagues. He was a plague in Egypt, the tenth plague in Egypt. He is a plague in the Old Testament when they're murmuring. This is why he's referred to as the destroyer. It says in verse 11, Now all these things happen unto them, so we can just learn about it and laugh about it and move on with our lives. No, it says, for examples. And they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. So why did that happen? To teach us don't complain. Don't be a whiner. Don't be a complainer. Don't be a murmur. Don't complain about the things that God has provided for you, about the church that you have. Don't complain about your pastor. Amen. Don't complain about your mom and dad. Don't complain about your job. Don't complain about your food. Don't complain about your possessions. Don't complain about anything. Why? Because you know what? The destroyer just might come and get you. Go to Philippians chapter 2. So the principle that we can learn there is don't complain. You know, that's why the Bible constantly admonishes us to have a thankful spirit. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you is that we're thankful for the things that we have. You know, it comes naturally to complain does it not? It's easy to just walk into a house walk into a church and just start picking apart everything that's wrong. It's easy to do that. It takes discipline to actually be thankful. And look, as we're entering into the season of Thanksgiving we need to start working on that. Amen. And thankfully we don't have a church that complains. You know, we don't have a church that murmurs or complains but less we should. We need to be reminded to be a people of gratitude. To be thankful. Hey children, be thankful for your parents. Hey, if you have both mom and dad in church be thankful. Amen. Because there's people out there there are teenagers and children who would love to have both parents in church. And even if they're not in this church, maybe they're in a church maybe they're saved or in church, be thankful for that. Hey, be thankful. You say, well, I don't have both parents in church. Okay, but do you have one? Be thankful for that. Don't complain. Well, you know, I only have my dad in church or I only have my mom in church you should do a spiritual back flip if that's the case. Because there's people in this world who do not have, there's people in this world who don't even have safe parents. How about that? So hey, be thankful for the fact that your parents are at least saved. And look, not only are they saved, they're in an independent fundamental Baptist church. Hey, they're in a new IV church. That's a triple whammy. There's a lot to be thankful for. Yeah, but you don't understand my parents though. They don't understand me. They don't give me any liberty. They don't give me freedom. They're always getting on my case. Oh, you sound like a murderer. Oh, you sound like a little complainer. Oh, you sound like you need a visit from the destroyer. Don't complain. Hey, don't complain about your spouse. Amen. Don't complain about your husband. Don't complain about your wife. Be thankful for them. What was it, like a year and a half ago we had a lady in our church who ended up getting thrown out by the way. Because every time she'd come to church, all she would do is complain about her husband, who wasn't in church. He wasn't even saved. I don't even think she was saved. She'd just complain about her husband, talk about how evil he is, and he's a rapper man. I mean you could literally not talk about any other subject with that individual without them somehow turning around to her husband being such a wicked individual. And literally, she like, her bitterness defiled many. You know how the Bible talks about that in Hebrews chapter 12? That the bitterness of people thereby many be defiled? That is a true statement. Because there's people who came to our church who stopped coming because of that woman. Because they're like, I can't take that woman anymore. She just finds people and she's like, my husband he's so evil and wicked and he does all these things. And here's the funny thing, is that when she would tell me about her husband, she would say this, oh but if you talked to him he would act like the nicest person though. He would act like he just agrees with her, he just seemed like a great guy. What is she doing? She's basically saying that he probably is a great guy but she's trying to paint him as being this monster murmuring and complaining about her husband. Folks, that's wicked. And you know what, I got to a point where that character flaw that she had permeated every aspect of her life to a point where she started criticizing me, she started complaining about me, complaining about the church, complaining about the leadership complaining about everything, and you know what, she got thrown out. And thank God for that. And look, when we threw her out, many people came to me and said, oh thank God. They're like, that lady was driving me crazy. She would literally call people from different churches who are friends of our churches and just complain about her husband, complain about the church and they're like, why is she calling me? E-mailing, doing, I mean just all manner of evil, just being a busybody. A toddler and a busybody. Complain, complain, complain whine, murmur, complain, that's all she would do. Now that's an extreme case. I honestly don't believe that individual is saved but you know, there's saved individuals who do complain about their spouses. You know, at one point you're so in love. They're just perfect and everything is just so, just roses, a bed of roses and then you get a couple years into marriage and it's just like, well they're not that you know. They start talking down about their husband, about their wife, you know they start putting them down and not esteeming them the way they used to esteem them. You know what you call that? A murmur and a complainer. You know, and before you start pointing at your spouse and all the flaws of your spouse, what about your flaws? Hey, before you start getting on your wife or gaining a little bit of weight oh yeah, because she's bearing children, what about the weight that you gained? Well I'm not gaining weight well what about how ugly you are? How about that? You know, be grateful. Be thankful. And look, this is a good way to just have a spirit of gratitude is have low expectations. See, ungrateful people become ungrateful as a result of them having high expectations of the people around them. They have these high expectations so when these people, when the people that they have high expectations of don't reach that expectation, they're disappointed. They're disillusioned. They become, they start complaining about it. But here's the thing if you have low expectations, very very low expectations anything that you get is great. It's like wow, thanks for that peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I didn't even expect that. Thanks for that, you know, Rice-a-roni, that San Francisco treat. I wasn't expecting that because you know what, if you don't expect it, you're going to be grateful for it because you didn't think you were going to get it in the first place. So have low expectations and what happens is when you receive even just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it's like wow, this is great, thank you. By the way, gratitude is also built by just saying thank you. Teach your children to say thank you. Hey, be thankful for your spouse. When your spouse does something little for you, that you consider little, say thank you. Well, I don't think that's a big deal or whatever. Yeah, you know what though, but once your spouse goes away, she dies, he dies, it will be a big deal. And you'll realize how big of a deal it really was. And you know what, there's plenty of people out there who lost their spouse and you know what they think, I should have said thank you more. I should have been grateful more. It's called gratitude. Don't be a murmur, don't be a complainer. You know, children should not complain about their parents. Be grateful for your parents. How about just being an adult grateful for your parents now? Be thankful. Be thankful for that which you have. Now, here's the thing, you know, be content, but don't be satisfied. If you're at a job, you should be content, but if you have an opportunity to move up in your job, do it. Right? If you have an opportunity to excel, to be promoted, do it. Be content with your wages, but if God opens up an opportunity for you to excel, to be promoted, take it. Just be satisfied. Big difference between the two. So the principle that we can learn there is just this, just don't murmur. Look at Philippians 2 verse 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless as sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I may have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Folks, God wants us to be a grateful people in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. And the contrast there is the crooked and perverse nation is ungrateful. They're unthankful. It says something when an individual who doesn't have much is thankful. It says a lot. Hey, be grateful for our building here, amen? I know it's not the most glamorous looking building you've ever seen. I know it's not a valley Baptist church. But here's the thing, at least at the end of the year, we're not in debt, amen? At least the pastor here pays the bills here, makes sure everything gets paid, and you know what? We zero out and we're good to go. Whereas some churches, Northern Valley, or I was supposed to say Northern Valley while I cough, oh well. Churches like that, they're literally in the red at the end of the year because of all the mountains and you know, how much is a piano there? A what? A hundred thousand dollars for a piano they have like twenty of them or something? Good night. And they wonder why they're in debt. Folks, and look, you know what they do? They literally, at the end of the year, mark it down, they use KNVBC to try to tell you to give them money to pay off their own debt. They have the bucket system. Or they tell the poor children that come on their buses, hey, bring money to pay off our debt. They don't say it like that, but that's what it is. Because they're in the red. Folks, that's wicked. You know, at least here, yeah, okay, we don't have a hundred thousand dollar piano here. By the way, you know how much we paid for this piano? Zero. God gave it to us. It's free. Yeah, we don't have the most glamorous building here, but you know what? A great work is being accomplished here. It's a great building where we can meet here preaching fellowship drink some apple cider after church with some marshmallows on top. Well, you don't like marshmallows? She's making, hey, be grateful, right? Gonna be my next sermon illustration. Hey, we, I mean, oh yeah, but there's no parking. I know. I know. You think I don't know that? Duh. I know there's no parking, but you know what? Be grateful, because at least you can park your car somewhere. There you go. Be thankful for everything. And look, I'm preaching to the choir. I'm preaching to myself, because we all need this reminder, right? I need this reminder to make sure that I'm grateful for the things that I have, because you know, it's very easy to be ungrateful in your life for the things that God has given to us. Take things for granted, right? You know, by the way, that's the problem with phones. Get the newest phone, and then you just, you got that phone, and it's just now you're bored with the phone, so you gotta get something else. Just be grateful for what you have. If it works, be grateful. Amen? Spent a lot of time on that, but that's a great principle to learn. Lest the destroyer should come and take away everything from you. So a common characteristic of the destroyer is that he's often known by a plague. Now go to 1 Chronicles 21. 1 Chronicles 21 His next appearance, in my opinion, is that he's the destroying plague in Israel when David numbers the people, if you remember that story there. Look at 1 Chronicles 21 verse 10. It says, Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things. Choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. Okay, so what's going on here? Well, David sinned against the Lord by numbering the people when God told him not to do it. He numbers the people, and God's like, okay, you disobeyed. Here are your options. Okay? Choose one so I can do it unto you. So it's like your parents telling you, all right, you can either get the belt, you can get the switch, or you can get the hand. Choose one and it's just like, all of them are painful, though. I was like, well, that's what happens when you sin. You limit your options. Right? So Gad came to David and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee either three years famine, or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee, or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel, now therefore advise thyself, what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. So he's like, so choose one of these. He's like, man, none of these are good. None of these are good. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait. Yeah, you are. Let me, but he makes a very wise decision, though. He says, Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of man. So he's basically saying, well, obviously all these options are bad, but I'd rather have God judge me because I know God is actually merciful. Whereas if I fall into the hand of my enemies, they can be very unmerciful. They can abuse us and they don't know when to stop. God, on the other hand, he has a lot of mercy. Let's fall into his hands. It's better to fall into the hands of the Lord. Amen. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel 70,000 men. Good night. And God sent an angel into Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld and he repented him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough. Stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornam the Jebusite. And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? Even I it is, that have sinned and done evil indeed. But as for the sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me and on my Father's house, but not on thy people, that they should be plagued. So I believe, even though it's not explicitly told anywhere other than this portion of scripture, that this is the destroyer, I believe it is. It's using a lot of that terminology of destruction, destroying, and plagues. Now, here's the thing is that sometimes when we read the Bible and we read about these particular stories or these angels, we think that they're only subject for that time period. Like the destroyer, you know, yeah, he already had his career. Egypt, you know, in the wilderness with David, you know, he's not going to exist anymore after that. I believe, in my opinion, the destroyer is still active. And I believe he's been active even after the Bible was written. Because throughout history you've had these plagues throughout history that have killed, I mean, entire populations. The plague of Justinian was a plague that took place. It says the pandemic is believed to have originated in Africa and then spread to Europe through infected rats on merchant ships. It reached the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 541 AD and was soon claiming up to 10,000 lives per day. So many that unburied bodies were eventually stacked inside buildings or left out in the open. Folks, in my opinion, that's the destroyer. Because that's his handiwork. It says, even after it subsided in Byzantineum, the plague continued to reappear in Europe, Africa, and Asia for several years, causing widespread famine and devastation. It's believed to have killed at least 25 million people, but the actual death toll may have been much higher than that. How about the Black Death? The Black Death would eventually spend half a decade, this is in the 1300s, the Black Death would eventually spend half a decade tearing across the continent. The populations of whole towns were wiped out and it was said that the living spent most of their time burying the dead in mass graves. What are you doing today? Oh, I've got like five to bury today. They spent most of their time burying people. You spent your time working, spending time with your family, sowing, coming to church, their entire day is just filled with burying dead bodies. Medieval physicians, listen to this, if you get nothing, get this, okay? Medieval physicians tried to combat the disease using bloodletting, lancing, and other crude techniques, but with little understanding of its cause, most fell back on the belief that it was a divine punishment for their sins. Some Christians even blamed it on Jews. They're like, it's the Jews fault. And actually what they did is they started getting rid of the Jews out of their land. Hey, they're onto something, amen? Well, they're right. You know, God was judging them. So yeah, you know, the destroyer, yeah, he's written and he's spoken of in the Bible, but guess what? This guy's career extends even after that. Why stop at the Bible? Don't let a good agent go to waste, amen? I believe he was sent throughout history, throughout these plagues destroying multitudes of people. You're like, well, why didn't anybody say that? Do you need to say it? You think God does it so he can get some type of recognition of his creation and what he's able to do? He does it to execute judgment upon a nation. And these are wicked times, by the way, okay? They even said it themselves, it's like, God's punishing us for our sins. And for the Jews. Because we have Jews in our land. You have the Italian plague, the great plague of London, the great plague of, excuse me, the third plague of the pandemic, so many plagues throughout history. How about the Spanish plague, right? Or I don't know, has there been a plague recently? Oh man, maybe the destroyer's existing today. You ever think about that? I know some of you coronavirus deniers out there, you know, well, you know what? I believe it exists. You know why? Because I believe in the destroyer. You know what? The coronavirus has killed at least a million people worldwide, at least 200,000 people in the United States. You know, the most people that have died from coronavirus in the United States are New York, number one. Number two is what? Texas! And then number three, us, okay? Texas actually has like, I think it was 17,000 deaths. California has 16,000. Hey, I think the destroyer is alive and well, still carrying out his duty, you know, as the destroyer. And I believe God sends him for specific tasks such as these. Now go to Revelation chapter 9, actually go to Revelation 20. So what I'm saying is this, is that you know what? The destroyer has existed throughout history. And even though he's explicitly talked about in the Bible, I believe he's existed throughout history where you see his fingerprints, his handiwork, God is still sending him to judge. And look, he not only existed in the Old Testament, he's also in the New Testament in the book of Revelation, which is in the future, right? So appearance number five is basically he's leading the destroying locusts. I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but in Revelation 9, he's actually spoken of and given a name, Apollyon, which means the destroyer. Abaddon, Apollyon, the destroyer, and he leads this army of locusts to go out and torment men for five months. Now look, let me just tell you how awesome this guy is. He's given the keys of hell. Just leave it at that. So he's given the keys of hell to open hell and release these demonic locusts that have faces of men with teeth of lions, they have tails of scorpions, they have a hair of a woman. Now look, I remember thinking about this and I was like that sounds kind of silly. Do they have hair like women? That's kind of weird. But if you actually try to imagine that, that's just freaking scary. Because they're flying around, their hair is just going all over the place. It's like, what the heck is this? It turns, it looks at you, the hair is just flapping and stuff. That's scary. I mean, am I the only one who thinks that? Have your wife just whip over and look at you and stuff. And go, ha! I think that's pretty stinking scary. And I'm sure it's not beautiful, flowing hair. It probably looks crazy and wiry or whatever. But God says, alright Apollyon, release the locusts and I want you to torment men for five months. They shall seek death and death will flee from them. Destroy them. That's a miserable existence by the way. Why does God allow that in the book of Revelation? Because he wants people who are not reprobates to get saved. And just as he sends all these other plagues in Egypt to get their attention, he's sending the locusts to paralyze them, to bite them, to torment them, to give them time to think. Maybe there is a God. Maybe I should get right. Maybe I should get saved. I heard there's like 144,000 people out there preaching the gospel. Maybe I should actually listen to what they have to say. And then God's merciful to them. They get up and they're like, nah. More locusts come. Bite for five months straight. This takes place. And then you have another segment of the population that just complete reprobates and those locusts attack them and God just does it because he hates them. So what's his last appearance in human history? When is his last appearance? Well, that's the number, excuse me, Revelation chapter 20. So think about this. Think about Michael the archangel. He's a pretty powerful angel. I mean, we would esteem him as being a very powerful angel. We would esteem the angel that destroyed the Assyrian army as a very powerful angel, right? The Assyrian army. John knows all about that. Nah, I'm just kidding. He's Assyrian. But look, when God binds Satan and throws him into the bottomless pit, he brings out the big guns. Who does he bring out? He brings out the destroyer. This is how powerful this angel is. You see, when Michael fought against the devil, they wrestled, they fought and he durst not bring a railing accusation against them but said, the Lord rebuked thee but wasn't necessarily able to overcome him. They just fought. They battled. It's not the same with Apollyon. Apollyon's not there to fight against Satan. He just manhandles Satan is what he does. Look what it says in verse number one. And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. Now we know that according to Revelation chapter nine, this is referring to Apollyon because he is the angel who has the key to the bottomless pit. The only difference is that in Revelation chapter 20, he has a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years and he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season. This requires a pretty awesome angelic celestial angel to do this. When God says, look, Michael sit down, Gabriel sit down, bring out the destroyer. This guy is the one that I made for this very season right here, for this very time to bind Satan. It shows you how powerful this angel really is. Now we're not here to worship angels, amen? The Bible actually warns against that. What should this show us as we study this celestial body? How powerful God is. Because God is the one who gave them these abilities. God spoke that celestial being into existence. That's number one. We should never worship angels or seek to pray into angels. No, we pray into God. But the second thing this should show us is how awesome God is obviously. That he would create such a crazy angel. And he didn't give him a name like, you know, you're going to be Pony or something you know, you're going to be, you know, Horsey or something. He gave him an article in the name. Like an article is part of his name. The Destroyer. What's your name? The Destroyer? Oh, Destroyer? No, no, no. The Destroyer. Because there's only one of me. It is awesome. You know, as I study this angel, I'm just thinking to myself, man, you know what? God is awesome. He's unapologetic. He's definitely not what people make him out to be today. You know, when have we heard a sermon out there about the Destroyer, about Apollyon? Never. It's too negative. It's not very comely to talk about thousands of people dying via a plague and an angel called the Destroyer. But you know, it is comely in the eyes of God. Because everything that God does is beautiful. Amen? So let us appreciate God's creation even when it comes down to the most destructive angel known to mankind, the Destroyer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And Lord, we're thankful for these examples that we saw here. Not only that, but just the examples throughout history. And we know that the evils that have come upon the cities of this world, the nations of this world, you've allowed that. You sanctioned it. You've judged them. I pray, God, that you'd be merciful to us. Lord, be merciful to us. Lord, be merciful to us so we can continue to labor for you. See more people saved. We know you to be gracious. We know that as high as the heavens are from the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. And Lord, may you increase our fears as we study these events that take place in the Bible. It's caused my heart to fear and to want to fly straight so much to more, lest the Destroyer, who is even more powerful than the devourer, should come upon us. Lord, we love you so much and we thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Jesus keep me near the cross there a precious fountain free to all a healing stream flows from Calvary's mountain in the cross, in the cross be thy glory ever till thy raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river near the cross a trembling soul. Love and mercy found me there the bright and morning star sheds its wings around me in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river near the cross O Lamb of God bring its scenes before me help me walk from day to day with this shadow for me in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river near the cross I'll watch and wait hope and trust in ever till I've reached the golden strand just beyond the river in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river Amen. Wonderful singing. You are dismissed.