to Isaiah a lot. I won't go there. Isaiah 14, Satan said I'll be like the most high.
I'll go up my throne above the stars of God. I'll be like I, I, I, I. That's your
earthly food. That's devil's food. That's what he deaches out and we read
certainly Nebuchadnezzar, that's what he did. Nebuchadnezzar said I built, I built
this kingdom, my might, my power for my majesty. I, I, I. He'd been eating what?
What he'd been served. What he'd been served was devil's food.
Peter, Peter had some servings of devil's food. You say what do you mean? Well, the
Lord was telling his disciples he must go to Jerusalem and be killed and
resurrect the third day. Peter said oh no, no way, not so. Well then if our
salvation is not in him being crucified and resurrected then what's left of
salvation? It must be of something else, earthly things. So Peter had a serving
of Satan's devil's food, earthly things. No, no, no, no. Over my dead body
basically. Get thou behind me Satan. And, and Peter it showed up again. Another
dose of it if you will. The Lord told me, he said now all of you is going to deny
me. And Peter, oh not, not I, not I Lord. I would, though all others forsake thee
and deny thee. I would not. Peter before this talk grows you're going to deny me
three times. So Peter had some devil's food. Satan desired to sift his wheat.
I prayed for you. When you're converted strengthen the brethren. When, when this
devil's food gets, gets cast out of you, out of your system then you mortify
others as that, that devil's food gets out of them and exposed what is devil's
food. So, so do you see how easy though it is to partake or eat this devil's
food? Eve, she didn't picture Satan as something evil or something like that. Oh,
I'll be like God. And, and the world today, oh if you want to get to heaven it's all
up to what you do. No, it's up to, it's God's plan of salvation through what
Jesus Christ did. But if they say I get to heaven on the basis of what you do
then makes you as God. Devil's food, so easy, so easy. It looks so appealing and
everything, so easy. Back in Genesis real quick.
And verse 1, Genesis 3 and 1, and the serpent was more subtle than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, yea had God
said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. So here it says he is very
subtle. He didn't come out there marching. I'm evil and everything and you follow
me. No, very subtle. And the word subtle, and this is what we left off, the word
subtle means cunning, crafty. So we can understand that. You know the Hebrew
word, do you know another part of its definition, the word subtle? To make
naked. What happened to Adam and Eve after they partook? They saw that they were naked
didn't they? Just another little side point there. And then five, for God doth
know that the day ye thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as God
knowing good and evil. Devil's food.
You'll be as God. Earthly things are the way. Not looking above, looking to yourself.
And then verse 7, and the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they
were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. So
they tried earthly things. They tried earthly coverings. There is no earthly
covering. So set your affections on things above. So Satan's food, devil's
food, is served with subtlety and very deceiving and crafty. And it'll be
pointing to earthly things because after all that's what he eats and that's what
he serves, earthly. But there's only one way and that is heavenly. So Satan can
take any shape whether it be a snake, a serpent, one on television that looks
like an Apostle of Christ. That's his disciples that's been eating his food
and Satan himself who appears as an angel of light. So now this devil's food
that's deceptive and so easy available looks so appealing. Can it make one sick?
And the answer is yes. So we want to look at that. We want to look at making one
sick. We want to look at defense against being made sick and and cures for it. So
Proverbs chapter 23. Proverbs chapter 23. So we will talk about this devil's food
a little bit more here and what not to eat which is what we've been talking
about. It can make you sick and again I want to look at instruments that would
prevent you from partaking of this and if some has then the cure or first aid
if you will. So Proverbs 23 and start in verse 1. When thou says to eat with a
ruler consider diligently what is before thee and put a knife to thy throat
if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desires of his dainties for they are
deceitful foods. Labor not to be rich cease from thine own wisdom. Will thou
set thine eyes upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves
wings they fly away like an eagle towards heaven. Eat thou not the bread of
him who hath an evil eye neither desire thou his dainty foods. For as he
thinketh in his heart so is he. Eat and drink saith he to thee but his heart is
not with thee. The morsel which thou has eaten thou shall vomit up and lose thy
sweet words. I think we'll pause there but the first two verses when you sit to
eat with a ruler consider diligently what's before you. We talked about what
Satan serves. Give a thought. We'll be having a Bible conference here Lord
willing sharing with Mount Zion in several weeks. Consider diligently what's
put before thee. If you're surfing through the TV channels and going to
the religious channels something consider diligently what's before thee.
Don't just gobble it down. And then verse 2 says put a knife to your throat if
there'll be a man given to appetite. We'll talk a little more later but I
brought a knife this morning and maybe for more dramatic effect. I used to do
this a lot back in my old day Linda. But have y'all have y'all have y'all saw
movies? I love my Southern coming out of them where there was somebody they'll
grab somebody and put a knife to the throat and you can see it pressing in
you think boy if I swallow it's gonna cut up. Well this says put a knife to your
throat if you'd be a man given to appetite. We'll talk about that later
Lord willing. Three, be not desires of his dainty for they are deceitful food. So
when you said to eat with the ruler and we'll go back to verse 1 again. When you
see eat with a ruler consider diligently what is before the. Proverbs 29 and 12.
So it talks about if you said eat with a ruler consider diligently what before
the. Proverbs 29 and 12 says if a ruler harkens to lies all of his servants are
wicked. So Satan, does Satan harken to lies? He's a liar and a father of it. We know
what he eats and we know what he what he serves. Consider diligently
what's before thee. We won't go there but the scripture talks about those that
Berea were more noble than those that Thessalonica because they searched the
scriptures daily to see where those things that was fed them or taught them
were so. They searched the scriptures see they didn't just gobble it all down. They
considered diligently what was put before them. So on this knife again back
in our text put a knife to the throat if that'll be a man giving her an appetite.
Again don't just gobble it all down. Consider diligently. So what is this
knife? A literal knife? Well we pretty sure it's not that but that's how it's
translated but the the Hebrew the Hebrew word for this knife we have kind of three
it comes from different words and we'll have kind of three definitions that
makes up this knife. The primary definition of the word knife word
translated knife is intensive. It's not something just take for granted very
intense that's part of the definition of this word knife. Another part of the
definition is to mount an observatory be observant. So that
kind of that kind of fits doesn't it with what we're talking about in Proverbs 23.
If you be a man given an appetite put a knife to your throat before you swallow
that very intensive intensively you observe what you're eating and you say
well okay I guess a microscope could be that we can look at a microscope to see
if what we're eating is good or not. But the third part of a definition of that
word knife is pointed or edged. So that's the reason I brought a literal knife put
a knife to your throat. I can visualize that. If you be a man given an appetite don't
don't just swallow that observe intensely what you're about to eat what's
what you're served. So and it means as pointed or edged in the sense of a fence
to shut in for protection. So we can see how all three of those it's really well
that's really good definition of this word here. It's very intense mount
observatory very intense and also for your protection don't swallow that stuff.
Chew it up don't like it or if you find that it's not good if you find it's
devil's food spit it out. So what do we have though? Well what do we have for
that? What is our knife that we would have? Do we have something object?
Something pointed or edged used to observe intensively to to keep from
swallowing and for our protection. What would we have? The scripture tells us to
use it. What do we have? What does it say about the word? The word is sharper than
any two-head sword. Could this be the knife that we're to use to protect us
before we swallow this earthly devil's food? Again those that Berea thought so
they search the scriptures daily to see if those things serve them was true or
not and they use the word. They search the scriptures daily. That's what we do.
So back in our Proverbs again 23. When thou says to eat with a ruler consider
diligently what is before thee and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man
given to appetite. So don't don't just gobble it down. I told you the story before
and it saddens me. The lady was a was a shut-in and this is back before well
anyway she was a shut-in and very disabled with her physical body and so
all day long she just watched the religious channels. Had no idea what was
true or not true and she even supported all of them financially which her family
didn't like. Some of her family didn't like. She didn't know. She didn't
know. Her eyes hadn't been open to it but she was ignorance of the fact and with
the best of intentions deceived eating devil's food all earthly. So back in
Proverbs 23 again and 3. Be not desires of his dainties for they are
deceitful food. Certainly Satan's food is deceptive. Was the Eve what we again what
you watch on television and and so forth and what you pick up on tracks very
deceiving. They'll tell you how much they love Jesus and how much they love God
and then they'll turn around say but if you want to get to heaven it's up to you.
You got very deceiving. Verse 8, the morsel which thou has eaten shalt thou
vomit up and lose thy sweet words. So here's a sickness. Here's a spiritual
sickness. Partaking of this devil's food. Not having maybe not have fully having
that protection and putting a knife to the throat that we observed and
everything. Very deceptive. Again Peter, David you and I talked about some maybe
Bill 2 but Peter had a dose of it with the best of earthly intentions. Lord no
you're not gonna go Jerusalem and die and everything. No. So what's he saying no
to? He's saying no to the true way of salvation. So Peter had a dose of it. He
gobbled some of it down. And again Peter again the second dose of it I'm not
sure the proper order but Lord no I won't deny you. Everybody else might but I
won't. Best of intentions. I'm sure in his heart he felt that for sure. Did he
deny him? Yes. But the Lord told him a Satan desired to sift his wheat but I prayed for
you. When you're converted not if. When you're converted strengthen the brethren.
So Peter had a little bit of illness there. Spiritually sick. We might look
at example maybe John Doe. I believe Jesus Christ is the way the truth and
the life. And I'm going to heaven because of what he did. But then the wicked ruler
may serve John Doe a little bit of his dainies. Well you know it's up to you to
do your part. Heard a sweet little lady one time. She says talking about certain
ones she says how was it said it's not the Lord's fault he's done all he can do.
Best of intentions. Not wanting to blame blame the Lord for anything but in the
same token taking all the honor and glory away from Lord. It's not the Lord's
fault. It's up to each of us. You see those dainties they seem sweet. You must
take the first step. How many times have you heard that? You take the first step.
Deceiving sounds good. And then keep the laws. Well can you keep them all well? I
think if you do the best you can. Find that in scriptures where God ever
accepts man's best. Man and his best days is all together. Vanity is what it tells
us. Hold on faith for the end. So if Mr. John Doe who had once believed in Jesus
was the way the truth and life and then began eating a little bit of these
deceitful dainties become spiritually sick. You can see how easy and I know
God's in control of all this but you can see how easy it can be. Again Peter got
a couple doses of it. Nebuchadnezzar had a big dose of it. God cured him. So well
looks like we have to take it up again. So what's the cure? We know a
little bit of what would help prevent it. Put that knife to the throat. Don't
just gobble that stuff down. So what's the cure? What's the preventive? We
know it. I mean we know it all goes to God. I understand that but as we look at
it what's other actions that would lead to this healing of the spiritual sickness?
And yes it is. There is. There's actions. Of course God works in both to will and
do of his good pleasure but there's specific things that we're to do for
those that are sick. Spiritually sick. Lord willing will bring us up again
tonight. May the Lord bless us speaking of his word. We're dismissed.