Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Galatians, chapter five. I know I scared you to death when I told you I had a long message today. He said, if what you normally do is not long, then what are we in for? No. I'm also trying something new because of the way we have this cord, it plugs into the left side of my computer, so I put my computer on this side of my Bible over here. So this may blow my brain this morning trying to learn something new. So, Lord willing, things will go well up here. We're looking at Galatians chapter five, verse 19 to 21, continuing to talk about the lusts of the flesh. We're going to set the stage, continuing as we go through this, for thinking of the fruit of the spirit, which truly is Christ. He is the epitome of all of the fruits of the Spirit. And so as we think of Christmas, we'll really be tying in those thoughts of love, joy, peace, which are the fruit of the Spirit, which are all truly incarnated in the person and work of Christ. But we're still going through this grueling part of the book. And if you thought last week was grueling, perhaps this will be no better as we look at two more sins on this list of the lusts of the flesh. Notice with me in Galatians chapter five. Let's start reading in verse 19. We'll read through verse the end of verse 21. Now, the works of the flesh are evident. And these are adultery, fornication and cleanness, lewdness. idolatry and sorcery, hatreds, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who are practicing these things will not inherit The kingdom of God, one of the things we may mention of is, you know, any believer can fall into one of these things, but we will come out of them by the grace of God. God will bring them forth out of them. These will not be sins that characterize the life of a believer. They are characteristic sins of those who do not know Christ, but they are telling us what is truly in us and what we must guard against as we seek to walk in the spirit. Would you look with me to the Lord and Lord of Prayer as we were singing, Joy came forward and just asked that we would also remember to pray. And I think this is important for the students there in Casper with that murder-suicide there on the campus. And I think as we pray, let's remember that the Lord will work in their midst there on that campus, even in this tragic situation. So let's go to the Lord and Lord of Prayer and then we'll jump into the message this morning. Lord, we are reminded of the nature that we have received from Adam because of his rebellion when he took of the fruit and he ate it. And Father, you had told him and his dear wife Eve in advance that the day that they would do that, they would be plunged into death. So, Father, every one of us is born with this nature of death. that inhabits our bosom. And Father, we thank You for the Spirit of God in whom we can walk and live and have our being because of what Christ did for us. And Father, as we identify these issues and as we look at them under the microscope of Your Word, I pray that, Father, You would help us as believers that these things would be being shed from our life like perhaps a snake sheds its skin. And then, father, if there's someone in our midst that is not a believer and some of these things are characteristic of their life, that your spirit would point to them their need and their brokenness and point to them Christ as a sufficient payment for their sin. Lord, meet with us this morning, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. We're looking at Galatians chapter five. We've been talking about different categories of sin as they are enumerated here. There are four categories. Last week, we talked about sexual sin. We looked at these four things that are listed in the text, adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lewdness. Today, we're going to be looking at false worship. There are also sins of relationship that are enumerated here. Things like envy and selfish ambitions, maybe more respectable sins amongst believers. Nevertheless, damnable sins, aren't they? And then we'll also talk about addictive things, things like drunkenness and revelries. And so we're looking at these categories. We talked about sexual sin last week, and that was a grueling message. One of the things I want to remind you of, I want to point you young ladies to something before we move on. You young ladies that are in our marriage, you know, we live in an age where the tide of this world would sweep you into immoral behavior by young men who may come into your life and say, you know, if you don't do this with me, then you don't really love me. Well, we talked about last week that true love waits and true love is worth waiting for. And in Proverbs 31, we have this tremendous verse where it tells us, you know, charm is deceitful and beauty is fading. But a woman who fears the Lord, She shall be praised. Young woman, don't just buy into all the world's glamour models and glamour magazines. Buy in during this time in your life into building godly character that will then bring into your life the godly young man that God wants for you to have. Same goes true for you young men. I just want to draw our attention to that verse this morning. Today, we're talking about false worship. There are two things that are listed here. They are idolatry. and sorcery. I put the Greek words there for you again, you can even see in the word idolatry in the Greek language, you can even see the word idolatry, the word in the English language is almost a transliteration, the word sorcery, pharmakeia. You can hear the word pharmacy there, pharmaceutical. We'll talk about that this morning, what this means, this Greek concept of sorcery and pharmakeia. So what we're going to do is just like we did last week, we're going to define these concepts, going through them one at a time. We're going to look at some scriptural illustrations of what these things are, and then we're going to bring it down to that gut level grueling place of making some present day application. And looking at some danger areas, we've been talking about how, yes, we all have a sinful nature, but there are three enemies of every believer, the world system, the devil. These two are external to us. And then we also struggle with our internal flesh and the devil and the world system conspire against us and allure our flesh from us. So we need to talk about danger areas. lest we would fall prey and these things would crop up out of our lives, even as Christians, even as believers, we must guard against these things. And we'll look at some specific places where believers fell prey to these types of behaviors and how God dealt with them in those specific situations. Now, when we think of these two words, they are kind of related in a similar way to fornication and adultery. Fornication is a very broad term which speaks of sexual immorality. Adultery speaks of a specific type of sexual immorality. Idolatry is a broad term which speaks of false worship in the New Testament and in the Old Testament. Specifically false worship that utilized a visualization of God. But that is a general term. Whereas sorcery is more of a specific type of idolatry. And so almost that same kind of relationship. Now, as we talk about idolatry, let's try to come up with a working definition in our mind. When we think of idolatry, we are thinking about the substitution of a visual thing in worship. which then steals our adoration and our praise. There is this visual substitution that then becomes the recipient of our adoration and praise. A guy named Robert Newell. who was once a president of Moody Bible Institute, wrote a commentary on the book of Revelation. In his appendix, he has an appendix that deals with idolatry. And I want to give you the definitions according to Robert Newell, and I think they are helpful as we think about what idolatry is. Robert Newell says this, idolatry is man's placing a visible object of worship before his eyes. to protect him from the one true God, thus silencing his conscience in order that he may indulge his lust. So think of that. It is a substitution. It is him substituting a replacement God in order to silence his conscience. The conscience that cries out to him that there is a true God. He goes on to say this idolatry is man's deliberate, determined, putting away from his thoughts the concept of a holy God and choosing to change that concept for a God that will not judge sin and setting up an image of that concept, a likeness to himself. Thus, eliminating God. You know, we live in an age today where atheism is kind of on the rise, so to speak. But you and I both know that only very few men can really be true atheists, can silence their conscience to the degree where they are willing to say there is no God. Very few men will be willing to take that step. So what do most men do? They live in direct denial of God by another means. Not by denying that there is a God, but by simply perverting who that one true God is. And so they put a substitute in his place and concoct or construct a God in our own image. Thus, even in the scriptures, God condemns Israel in Psalm 50, verse 21. God says to Israel, you thought that I was altogether like you. You thought that I was altogether like you, they had constructed a God in their own image and they had subverted and perverted who the one true God truly is. So when we think of idolatry, let's think, run through the Bible real quickly. You know, there is no record in the Bible of idolatry prior to the flood. There's violence, there's mayhem and murder, and there's immorality, but there's no record of idolatry. Now, there is false worship through Cain. OK, but there's no idolatry in that specific sense that is mentioned. The first idolatry that is mentioned is really mentioned concerning Babel or the Tower of Babel. In fact, the Book of Revelation tells us that Babel is the mother of these harlotries. and of these abominations. And so the Tower of Babel was like an ancient ziggurat that was constructed for false worship, and it combined elements of sacrifice and sorcery and astrology. A man named Selwyn Stevens, who has a PhD, wrote a book called The New Age. old lies in a new package. He has this to say about Babylon. Let's just listen to what he says. He says Nimrod, who was the ruler of Babel, when you go back to the book of Genesis, Nimrod had his people build a number of ziggurats, temple towers, for religious purposes. They were claimed to be staircases from earth to heaven, and they were used for satanic worship and occultic initiation. The best known was at Babylon. It was called the Platform of Heaven and Earth. Josephus, the Jewish Roman historian, recorded. It was Nimrod who said that he would be he would be revenged upon God if he should have a mind to drown the world again. He would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers. Nimrod rebelled against God. He determined to lead the people away from him together with his wife Semiramis. Nimrod created most of what we know today as a cultism, including witchcraft, astrology, blood sacrifice, and much more. Nimrod required human sacrifice by fire, particularly of children. The overwhelming evidence is that Nimrod, Semiramis, and many other Priestly leaders were involved in direct satanic control and contact. And so this is where this all begins. These concepts of idolatry. Now, I want you to go with me in your thinking to the book of Exodus chapter 20. You can go there if you want, but you don't have to. I'm not going to give you the time really to turn there. But in Exodus chapter 20, God addresses idolatry specifically in the Ten Commandments. He says, you shall have no other gods in my presence. There will be no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water that is under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord, am a jealous God." Notice what God says specifically about these sins of idolatry. And I visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of these idolatrous peoples who hate Me, but showing mercy to the thousands who love Me and keep My commandments. And so here we have in the Decalogue, God condemning and saying how abhorrent idolatry is to himself. In the historical books of the Bible, in the Old Testament, we have the story of Israel's continuing syncretism with these pagan religions that surround them. I want to put this word up, syncretism, because we're going to talk about it off and on for the next few minutes. Syncretism is what Israel fell prey to. They did not become blatantly idolatrous. They merely combined many of the pagan practices with their own. And God says, I hate that. It's called syncretism. The word is a Greek word which literally means to combine. And so what they were doing was they were taking portions of pagan religions and combining them with revealed truth that God had given them. The most blatant illustration of this is at Mount Sinai when Aaron makes a golden calf. You remember the people come to him and they say, we don't know what happened to Moses. He's been up on the mountain for 40 days. And they want to have a mutiny. So Aaron says to him, take off all your gold and bring it to me and I will make an idol. And he makes this idol. It is a golden calf. And he says to the people of Israel, this is your God that brought you out of Egypt. And then he makes this statement. Tomorrow we will have a feast to Jehovah. Now, what has he done there? He has syncretized pagan worship in a golden calf and he has basically named it the worship of Jehovah. And God says, I hate that. And God judged them for it. And so we have syncretistic practice. And you know what happened there at Mount Sinai? We have idolatry, but we also have immorality combined with it. It is interesting to note that there's a direct corollary between those two things. The more idolatrous a people become, the more immoral they become with it. Those two things always are in connection in the Scripture. They're even in connection here in Galatians chapter 5. He does not separate them far in the list. They're almost combined. In the prophetic books, we have the thus saith the Lord against the idolatry. We have condemnation. We have chastening and judgment recorded that God will bring upon his people for their idolatry and for their syncretism. And so, in Isaiah chapter 47, God says to Israel, keep on with your magic spells. Keep on with your sorcery. These things that you have labored in since your childhood. Let your astrologers save you. And God judges his people because they have continued in this idolatry. Now, it's interesting in the book of Acts. The book of Acts is a record of the gospel's progression from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, to the pagan peoples of the world. And we really have this question coming up repeatedly in the book of Acts. How do pagan peoples shed their pagan beliefs and their practices and not syncretize them with Christian beliefs? And this is what we have truly seen many times in Christian history, is there's this attempt to combine or reconcile elements of paganism with Christian thought. Now, the Jerusalem Council addressed that in Acts 15, when they write a letter to the Gentile believers. It says, we're not going to put you under the ceremonial law. The Holy Spirit has said, you do not need to be under the ceremonial law. But they say, we want you to do these things. The Spirit says, you must abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things that are strangled, and from sexual immorality. And then they say, if you keep yourselves from these things, you will do well. Now, there are three chapters in the book of Corinthians that are devoted to the subject of idolatry. First Corinthians, chapter 8, 9 and 10. In chapter 8, Paul begins by saying, we know that an idol is nothing in the world. Paul said almost the same thing in Galatians 4, verse 8, when he said, But then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those who by nature are not gods. They're not really true gods. This was Elijah's point when he's up on Mount Carmel. Baal couldn't hear their prayers. It didn't matter how long they danced. It didn't matter how long they cut themselves. Baal was not a true god. Idols, by nature, are not true gods. And yet, Paul says in chapter 10, we need to recognize something. That is, idols are fronts for demonic activity. And so Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, the things that the Gentiles sacrifice They do not sacrifice to idols. They sacrifice them to demons. And he says, and I would have you not to have fellowship with demons. And so Paul's prevailing advice to the Christians in that setting was flee from idolatry, have nothing to do with it. Now, let's transition. Let's move on from here. What is sorcery? We've talked about idolatry. We've kind of defined it. We've looked at some biblical illustrations. Let's talk about sorcery and kind of do the same. What is this? Sorcery basically includes three things. When you think of sorcery and we read about it in the scripture, we will see many times different things included in it. First of all, pharmakeia. Think of the word pharmakeia, drug, literally what that word means. And in the ancient world and even today, Parts of the world, there is an attempt to use drugs, which would then induce a trance like state and usher the person into the kind of communion with their God. And so, sorcery was the use of drugs to induce spiritual experience. Now, we can think of even in the United States of America, how Indians, the Indian culture was using, I think you call it peyote. And we're trying to use that thing for the same type thing. We can think of the ghost dance. We can think of, you know, medicine men. We can even think of other parts of the world of witch doctors and these attempts to create a spiritual experience through the use of drugs. Boy, that sounds like the 60s, doesn't it? An LSD. Some of you came out of that culture. Secondly, sorcery. Sorcery was an attempt to use craft. Notice that word craft. We'll use that word later in the message, but craft to foretell the future or to try to manipulate things in the present. So you would maybe cast a spell on your neighbor's crops. You're manipulating the present circumstances. And so it was an attempt to either be able to foretell what was going to happen in the future, or it was an attempt to manipulate the present through magic and those types of things. The third thing that is true in sorcery is it is also a system of paganism that is tied to idolatrous practice in general. And so we think of things like what they call the ancient arts. The craft. And then even today, where we're going to apply this later, things like Wiccan. And what is Wiccan? Now, in the Scripture, God says some things about these. We'll go through this. I want you to notice in Exodus chapter 22, verse 18, this was God's statement concerning these things in the in the Deuteronomic law. In Exodus 22, verse 18, he says, You shall not permit one who does these things to live. Notice what he also says in the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 18, verse 9 to 12. He says, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of these nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire. That was the worship of a specific God in Israel, the God Molech. I put it in italics because that's not really in the text. I just substituted it there or inserted it there so you could see what this was all about. There shall not be found among you any who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire. He also says, or one who practices witchcraft. Or a soothsayer? Or one who interprets omens? Or a sorcerer? One who conjures spells? Or a medium? Man, you can go to late night TV and see a lot of mediums today on TV. Or a spiritist? Or one who calls up the dead? For all who do these things are an abomination of the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your God drives them out before you. My friend, young kid, if you go to a fair and there is a fortune teller there dressed up, it's not a cute thing to play with. Don't even go in the tent. These are God's remarks concerning these types of behaviors. Now, let's think about the scriptures. Let's get a look at some examples of it. These things permeated the courts of ancient kings. In Exodus chapter 2, in Pharaoh's court, Jannes and Jambres, talks about them and Timothy, were able to conjure spirits, were able to duplicate some of the miraculous plagues that Moses was doing. In Daniel chapter 2, I didn't want to spell out Nebuchadnezzar, so we called him Nebi this morning. Nebi's court. Think of Daniel chapter 2. It's interesting. Even the Magi who come to worship Christ found connection back to Nebuchadnezzar's court. We won't take time to develop that this morning. But even the wrath of men shall praise him. Even the foolishness of men shall eventually, every knee shall bow before him. So, you know, the Magi, going back to that. We could talk about Daniel and how he probably separated himself from those practices and inserted a whole school of thought into the court that was very biblical in its orientation. Thus, these men knew the prophecies of Jeremiah. Second Chronicles, King Manasseh specifically made his son pass through the fire, sacrificed his son to Molech. In Acts chapter 8, we have Simon the sorcerer in Samaria, specifically called that. We won't develop that story this morning. And Peter dealt with him. In Acts 13, we have Elymas in Paphos, who is also connected to the proconsul, the Roman governor, Sergius Paulus. And Paul deals with Elymas, who is a sorcerer. In Acts chapter 17, we have a damsel who is enslaved. And she is a soothsayer. And she is following Paul and Silas around the town. And Paul gets tired of her coming behind. He turns around one day and he casts the demon out of her. Boy, the people who owned her were not excited because they lost a ton of money. And they begin to persecute Paul because of specifically dealing with this woman, this young damsel who is a soothsayer. So these things permeate the Scripture as well as the ancient world. In the first century world, the pagan mystery religions – we talked about that last week a little bit – were hotbeds of occultic worship and practice. And these things dominated the lives of people in the Roman Empire. Now, empire worship unified everyone under a state system of worship. But it was really just a system of lip service, worship and obeisance to the Roman state. And as long as you did that, you went through the kind of the farce of doing it, of worshipping the emperor, then you could worship any god you wanted to. And so in every locality, they preserved a worship of a God in a form of worship in the temples that had been erected in the honor of these deities. And so they were like these dueling deities in the ancient world in their mindset. And so it was a pantheistic and a polytheistic system. There were many gods and they were always attached to nature. So think of the Greek gods. When you study them in mythology, they were always attached to nature. And they would combine in these religions bizarre initiatory rites with blatant immoral practices. And there was these mystery religions to Serapis and Mithra. Aphrodite and Corinth. We talked about that last week. And the temple prostitution that was involved in that. Diana in Ephesus. And these religions plunged people into satanic darkness and into bondage. I mean, this was a horrible system under which to live. And only the Gospel of Jesus Christ had the power to free them. And that is why Paul says in Colossians 1, He has delivered us from the power of darkness. He has delivered us. He has set us free. And He has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. And so as the gospel spread in Europe, it found peoples in similar religious practices everywhere it went. Prior to the Christianization of Europe, the Gauls, the Celts, the Picts, the Druids, all of these people were heavily influenced by these types of practices. And today, these practices are united in belief systems like Wicca and the New Age. And so this leads us to today. Let's talk about the danger areas. Let's talk about where we live today when you turn on your TV. It is interesting to note that as Christianity has receded in influence in our country, in its place, paganism has correspondingly arisen from the ashes, so to speak. And once again, it is exerting influence in our country. Now, we're as Christians, if the Lord tarries and Emmanuel does not come this year or next. If the Lord tarries, we will face pressure once again dealing with syncretistic systems. We even have it today, so you can go to many churches today and on Monday night instead of bingo, they have Christian yoga. Syncretism, Hindu practice with a Christian name. Now, we're not just talking about relaxation. and even biblical meditation, we are talking about religious practice. Study it out. We've got to be careful of these syncretistic systems. Now, as we think about this, let's talk a little bit this morning about these things specifically, idolatry and sorcery. I don't know if you realize this, I sure did not. Did you realize that Wicca, according to many, Now, it's difficult to gauge this, undoubtedly, because you can't go to a Wiccan church and find out their membership role. Many of these things are rather secretive, and many of these things are also on a level where maybe teenagers don't want to tell mom and dad they're a part of these things. So it's difficult to gauge exactly how much influence. But according to many, Wicca is America's fastest growing religion. It is stated that within 10 years it will become the third largest religion in the United States of America behind Christianity. Christianity, we're talking about a very broad umbrella there, just Christendom. So we're going to involve in that maybe Jehovah's Witnesses, we're going to include in that Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, many other parts of what we think of Christendom. But it will still be third behind Christianity and Islam. There are more than 200,000 registered witches in the U.S. and 8 million practitioners of the craft. If you go to Amazon and you type in witchcraft books, you will find 4,180 titles. If you type in occult books, you will find in the neighborhood of over 6,000. These things are growing exponentially in their place within our culture. According to Witch School, which trains many of these teachers, On their website, they say this, there is such a rapid spiritual reorientation in America that the needs for thousands of Wiccan teachers over the course of the next decade will be required to meet the demand. So this is the seminary of witchery, according to George Barner. How many of you heard of George Barner? Probably most of us have. George Barner is kind of the guru of Christian statistics. In research he has done, he has found that this environment for growth of pagan occultic practice has been set, that environment has been set by different things. And I'll give them to you. He gives us four things. Number one on his list is this. The fascination that adolescents and teens have with casting spells, performing magic, being an integral part of a small group of like-minded people, a club, and the opportunity for creative expression accompanied by the promise of the demonstration of power. Secondly, the highly individualistic nature of the faith. Thirdly, its sensitivity to nature and the environment, the environmental movement. And then lastly, moral ambivalence towards codes of conduct. In other words, in witchery and in these practices, there is no specific code of conduct against any type of immorality. It's not about morality. Whatever feels good to you is okay. Now, perhaps you're sitting there asking yourself, what in the world is Wiccan? Did you know that we now have Wiccan chaplains in the military? In many states, Wiccans can perform weddings and Wicca is an organized, recognized religion. Now, when we think of Wicca, we don't want to think of Snow White, seven dwarves, nor do we want to think of the Wizard of Oz. Here's a basic synopsis by Barna of what Wicca is. I'll read it to you and then we'll move along. Wicca is a faith system that has no central organization or theological belief system that is defined for all of its adherents. It may be best understood through its typical practices, which include performing magic and sorcery, casting spells and engaging in witchcraft. It is a ritualistic faith based on a loose set of pagan beliefs. that are generally pantheistic in nature. Those who are involved commonly go through initiation rites for membership. Contrary to widespread assumption, Wicca is not synonymous with Satan worship. Now, it is satanic in that sense, but it's not like these people are bowing down to an effigy of Satan. It's not what we're talking about. It is very tied to nature and the seasons and the cycles of life. It promotes things like karma and reincarnation, and it also promotes latitude in forms of morality. Now, why has it grown? The first thing I would say is the concept of spiritual vacuum. I don't want to take the time to go there, but in Luke chapter 11, verse 24, Jesus tells a story. He says, when an unclean spirit of a man goes from him, it wanders in the earth. It does not find a resting place, so it returns to that man and he finds that man, his house is put in order and the floor is swept. And so he goes and he finds seven other spirits that are like unto him, and they come back and they dwell within the man. And Jesus said the latter state of the man is worse than at the beginning. Jesus basically saying this, if there is a vacuum spiritually in your life, something will fill it. And what is happening in the United States of America is there is a spiritual vacuum of truth and Satan has filled it. This has created the environment. Now, I also want to draw your attention to Barnett's statement. The adolescent preoccupation with spells, magic and witchery. Now, where has that preoccupation come from? Somewhat from the flesh, because that's within us. But it has been driven to a large part by print and media that glamorize and glorify these things and then appeal to our basic fleshly lusts. This is where it gets ugly when we think about things like the Harry Potter craze. And most lately, the Twilight Saga. These are two great examples of how these types of things get a foothold in the life of a young person. Now, you know me, I am no guru on pop American culture, so I do some learning. By the way, I noticed in the paper this week, the latest installment of Twilight is now showing locally, so this is very pertinent. I didn't even really know much about what that was. It's interesting. Many, many Christian leaders have voiced huge concern with Twilight, it's not just me, in fact. Even Mark Driscoll, who comes from like what we would think of as more of an emergent brand of Christianity, even Mark Driscoll, and I'll even go to this, has on his website, not on his website, excuse me, on YouTube, you should be discerning about Twilight. He has a 10 minute expose on what Twilight is. This is Mark Driscoll. He's not what you would think of as me. He's more of an emergent brand of Christianity, although I believe he's a believer in everything else. I'm not denigrating him in any way. So many people, in fact, you know what he says in this right almost at the beginning? And I would encourage you, if you want to do a little bit more on this tonight in the evening service, as we talk about the book of Ezekiel, we're also going to watch this 10 minute clip and discuss some things that are in it. So I'd encourage you parents with young people to be here. You need to think about these things. But one of the things he says at the beginning of this, Because he talks about how we check our brain at the beginning of a movie, he makes a statement, a movie is a sermon with pictures. It's not just entertainment. And so we'll look at it, so many Christian leaders out there are looking at these things and saying there is danger here, my friend, be careful. Now, my intent this morning is not to do a full expose on the Twilight Saga, but let's just talk about it for a minute. I read a blog by one Christian mom who was very disconcerted. She was very disconcerted because when her children were going to youth group, those kids were coming home with the startling awareness, not only of Twilight, but the reality that most of the kids within the youth group were buying into the saga. She was very disconcerted by that. So what is the Twilight saga? It is a series of five romance, horror, fantasy films and books from Summon Entertainment. Four books. They're based on four novels by an American Mormon whose name is Stephanie Meyer. The series has grossed two billion dollars in worldwide receipts in the movie version. That is, my friend, third or fourth all time. So this is huge. follows the personal romantic relationship of a young human teenager named Bella Swan with a vampire named Edward Cullen. And Cullen is a 104 year old. I wish I looked like that at 46. But I mean, he's the icon at 104, 104 year old vampire. So there's all these subplots in the book and in the movies of competing vampires and werewolves and packs and blood sucking and everything else. Not to mention the immoral themes that run through the series. The book fantasizes with dark themes and it opened doors. It opens doors in the minds of kids to occultic practices. I would draw your attention to two things in the scripture. First of all, in Colossians chapter two, he says, beware, lest anyone would cheat you. Through philosophy or empty deceit, according to the basic principles of the world. That phrase, the basic principles of the world, in Galatians chapter 4, is tied specifically to idolatry. And not according to Christ. Now, parent, if you want to think about this saga and think about whether or not this saga fits into a Philippians 4.8 grid, of the good, the noble, the pure things that should fill your child's mind, just go and consider the mythology of vampires and blood-sucking and combine it with the sensual themes of today's entertainment and parent. Voila! You have a perfect recipe for at the very least Christian backsliding in your child. Because these things are not pure, nor are they good. So how do we deal with it? Let's bring around the message to some close. How do we deal with these things? What are we to do if we have dabbled with it? Maybe you're a young person. You've been dabbling with these things in your mind and fantasizing about them. And maybe you've told no one about it. You've kept it hidden from your parents, even. But these things are filling your mind again, just like last week. Young person, you must begin by running to the blood of Christ. His blood was shed as a propitiation for all sin. We looked at that briefly last week in first John, chapter two, verse one and two. He says, I've written these things to you that you might not sin, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ is righteous and you must go to the blood of Christ and find cleansing there. I would also direct you to a reference in the book of Acts in chapter 19. In Acts chapter 19, there is the story in Ephesus of a failed exorcism. You remember the story and the seven sons of Sceva who try to cast out this demon are beat up by the demon. And they leave the house and they run out unclad. And this is what the scripture says happened as a direct result of that failed exorcism. It says fear fell on all the church and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified and many think of that word many. There were many in the church. These were people who had believed, it says specifically in the text, they came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of them who had practiced magic brought their books together. They burned them in the sight of all and they counted up the value of them. And it was totaled at 50,000 pieces of silver. That's a lot of stuff bought on Amazon. A piece of silver is one day's wage. 50,000 of them in this church. 50,000 days wages worth of books is brought together to the church and they destroy them. Don't sell them at a garage sale. Don't give them to someone else to corrupt their mind. Take them to mom and dad and burn them. Get rid of those things. Get them out of your life. This is what the scripture says. I'm going to close with a story in another verse, and I won't go into this deeply, but about a month ago, I got a phone call late at night from a young man who has come to Christ recently. When he was a child in our valley, was involved in some occultic practices in the basement of a well-known business establishment. Nine year old boy, I think it was nine. And then he came to Christ, and these things were continuing to haunt him. And there was like a brooding, he told me on the phone, there was this brooding sense of darkness and evil that was pervading his life. And he knew he was a Christian, and he knew his sin was forgiven, but he couldn't get rid of this stuff. What was the first thing he did? He exposed it to someone else. He came and talked to someone else. We showed him some scripture, prayed with him, talked with him a little bit later, a couple of days later on the phone, said, how's it going with that thing? Man, I feel so much better. And I point him to a verse in 1 John chapter 4 where the scripture specifically says, and John is writing to people who have done these kinds of things. And he says, greater is the one who is in you than the one who is in the world. And he has delivered us from darkness. And he has transferred us into the kingdom of his dear son. Young person, the things you do now, you may think they will have no effect on your life. And they will crop up if you are not careful. You need to banish them from you. Take them in the blood of Christ. And so we'll close with these verses in 1 John chapter 5 with the Apostle John's admonition. He says, we know that we are of God. The whole world lies under the sway of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and he has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true. And we are in the One who is true in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. And John closes his book, My little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Let us close. Father, we do live in a day and an age where In our country, it seems like there is a permeating cloud of darkness that is growing. And it is taking people's lives and in many cases, destroying them in a culture of death. Father, I pray that you would help us as believers, that we might take the gospel of Jesus Christ to those in our community and those around us, that they may be delivered from the power of darkness. Father, may we as parents be discerning In teaching our children that which is good, that which is noble, that which is pure, that we may fill our minds and our lives with these things. Oh, Lord, there's so much good that is in the world and there are so many good things that we can enjoy. Father, don't let the devil steal from our young people the good. substitute it with his lie. Lord, as we close, I pray that if your spirit is working in the life of a young person or even adult, that Father, perhaps they need to talk to a deacon afterwards and they need to say, I need some help with this area. Would you pray with me? Would you hold me accountable? Maybe they need to go to a mom or a dad and say, mom or dad, here's some stuff I've had. I want to get it out of my life or to pass their matter to myself. Lord, may we mean business for you. In Jesus' name, amen.