A Bottle in the Smoke

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Psalm 119, and while you're turning there, I want to tell you that tonight I want to talk to you about a bottle in the smoke, a bottle in the smoke. And I think that you'll, I hope you'll realize tonight that this is a description of our life.

Psalm says, I am as a bottle in the smoke, and you'll see what that means in just a moment. Psalms 119, beginning at verse 81 through verse 88, I'm reading from the King James Version tonight. Psalms 119, verse 81, my soul fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word.

Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, when wilt thou comfort me? For I am become, and here it is, the title of my message, I am become like a bottle in the smoke. Could you turn those monitors down just a moment, just a bit. I am become as a bottle in the smoke, yet do I not forget thy statutes.

How many are the days of thy servant? In other words, I wish what I'm going through would get over with as soon as possible. How many of the days of thy servant, what I'm going through, feeling like a bottle in the smoke? When wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me, who are the makers of the smoke? The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after thy law. All thy commandments are faithful.

They persecute me wrongfully. Help, help thou me. They also almost consumed me upon the earth, but I forsook not thy precepts.

Quicken me after thy loving kindness, so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. Now, in this is a very simple picture of what it's like to live in New York City. It is very simply put, the Psalmist said, it's like being a bottle in the smoke.

You see, we live in an atmosphere that can be described as dirty, filthy smoke that permeates the air and from which there is no escape. For example, in your job, some of you in your job environment, I think you could say tonight, sometimes I feel like a bottle in heavy smoke. I know because some of you told me there are the dirty jokes, there's the endless cursings, it singes your ears.

And the things that you see, it's like thick smoke coming at your eyes. And you know what, some of you know what smoke will do in your eyes. And then some of you may live in a home atmosphere among unsaved family members where it's unwholesome and unpleasant.

And every day you feel like a bottle in the smoke. Or some of you, you visit relatives and maybe especially during this season, you're gonna visit some family members or relatives and you won't be in that house five minutes and you'll say, oh my goodness. Who polluted the air? Get me out of all this, the smoke.

Get me out of this atmosphere. And you wanna run from it as fast as you can. Now I'm going to relatives tomorrow, but thank goodness that's not what it's gonna be like at my mother-in-law's house.

And I have to say that in case she listens to this message and know that I said this the day before I went to visit her. So Dorothy, I'm not talking about your house. I don't feel that at all.

Maybe you're in college. A classroom situation or campus atmosphere for a Christian is thick with smoke. You may be a student also in junior or senior high school.

And if so, then you probably feel like the Psalmist said, I feel sometimes like a bottle in the smoke. Now what happens to a bottle in the smoke? That's the subject of my message tonight. Now this portion of scripture in Psalms 119 written by someone we don't know who it is, but we believe that it was probably a companion, a compatriot, a colleague of Daniel and those Israelites that were taken from Israel into the Babylonian captivity.

And suddenly they were thrust into a world and an environment they had never been in before in all of their life. The heathens surrounded them, but basically they were in a wholesome environment, but all of a sudden they're taken off and employed by the government there and thrust into a situation, a whole new world, an alien world that they had never dealt with before. And therefore, this is a picture or a type of the believer living in the world surrounded by the unrighteous and feeling and dealing with an ungodly atmosphere.

And the Psalmist simply describes it. He said, I feel like in this situation, I am like a bottle in the smoke. And what an apt description of those of us who the Bible says, we are not of the world, but we are most definitely in the world.

You see, we don't live in spiritual greenhouses or ivory towers or heavenly space capsules, even though there are some people that literally try to remove themselves completely from the society. They try to hide out or escape it in some way, but that is not biblical. The scripture says that we are to be a people who are not of this world, but we're in this world and we're to occupy until he comes.

And we are subjected to an atmosphere permeated by evil people, doing evil things, talking filthy language, partaking in all kinds of unrighteous deeds. And yet the writer of this Psalm, probably a young, dedicated young man who had a heart after God, like a Daniel, yet he was tempted, he was vexed by it all. And he put it into very simple language.

He put it into these words. Another translation of the same thing says, I am as a wine skin in the smoke and my heart is shriveling up and drying. Now, I don't know about you, but I can identify with the idea of a bottle in the smoke.

I hate smoke. Literally, I'm talking about real smoke from cigarettes or any other kind of thing like that. I can be in the presence of smoke in just a moment and it will trigger in me a sinus headache, just like that.

And so I thank the Lord for not only a non-smoking sections in the airplane. In fact, I was on one the other day, a few weeks ago, and I found out the whole airplane was a non-smoking airplane. And so we non-smokers are making progress.

But you know, and my sinuses are so delicate that as I said, I can go into an atmosphere and immediately it'll trigger a headache. But there's a flip side to that. There's also a good side to that because at one time, I used to be a cigarette detective.

I don't know if you've ever heard, I don't know if you've ever heard of a cigarette detective. Well, I was one. And let me explain that.

When I was working in Teen Challenge and years ago when I was in charge of the center for Teen Challenge, I had a reputation of being, I could come right in the door and immediately I could say, because you know, one of the problems that the fathers have with the coming in Teen Challenge is that, well, they're not allowed to use drugs, not allowed to use alcohol and not allowed to smoke. Fellas, are you still up? Are you up there tonight? Is that still a rule? Is that still a rule? Is that still a problem once in a while? Well, in my day, when I was there, it used to be a problem every once in a while for a few fellows because it was very, very difficult. They'd say, man, drugs is big enough.

You mean I gotta kick cigarettes as well? And we'd explain to them and said, look, if you can't kick a little cigarette, how are you gonna kick a bigger habit? And we'd go on from there. And we'd have fellows who have difficulty with it and I'd come in the door and I'd say, somebody's smoking down the basement. And when the staff would run down, they'd find them because I was a cigarette detective.

And after a while, the fellows got to know me and said, never smoke when Brother Don's around the house. He'll find out. I remember, I thought I caught a fellow one time and I pulled him inside and I said, hey, you were smoking in the bathroom.

And he said, no, I wasn't smoking in the bathroom. I said, well, I thought for sure you were. And he said, no, I wasn't.

So I let it go. And a day or so later, I caught him again. I said, you were smoking in the bathroom.

He said, Brother Don, he said, no, honest, I wasn't. I was not smoking in the bathroom. And finally, he was caught red-handed another time and I said, hey, you lied to me, I asked you.

He said, Brother Don, you asked me if I was smoking in the bathroom. He said, I was not smoking in the bathroom. I was smoking in the hallway outside the window.

Had to bone up on my detective procedures and find out, you know, you gotta have chapter verse and all the rest of it. Now, you may not have a nose for it like mine, but you know what it smells like, what cigarette smoke can do to an office or to home or to your clothing. Now, the ancient peoples made containers for wine and for water and for liquids out of the skins of animals.

And actually what the scripture says, a bottle in the smoke, it's not talking about a bottle as we know it, it's talking really about an animal skin, a container. And it doesn't take much imagination to see that smoke, what smoke would do to these vessels. Exposed to the smoke, they became useless.

And the contents would take on a very unpleasant odor. And in fact, the taste of the smoke would come through it. You know, the smell of smoke is tenacious.

And once it gets into a house or clothes or furniture or fabric, it's very difficult to get it out. And just as a wine skin or a bottle in smoke would shrink, so it is our having to live. And this is what the psalmist was saying.

I'm having to live in this ungodly environment and I'm shrinking. It's causing me to shrink up and have a profound effect on me. And you see, he was talking really about himself.

And the smoke was the permeating, pervasive, polluting atmosphere and influence of the world. And listen, look again, go to your scripture there in Psalms 119 and look at his description of the result of having lived in this wicked environment. In verse 81, he said, the smoke having to put up with it, it drains my strength.

It drains my strength. How many of you know what that's talking about? After a day out working or having to rub shoulders, it literally drains you. He said, my soul faints.

My soul fainted. It's about to faint. He says in verse 81.

And then he says, the presence of evil is so thick. It's like having smoke getting into my eyes. I cannot see straight.

He said, mine eyes fail. Verse 82, for thy word saying, when wilt thou comfort me? And in verse 85, he talks about those who seek to lure him into the smoke and partake of the sin with them. I remember when I worked as a young man on a job and they know who I was and they knew what I stood for.

And they just delighted in waiting till I came around and they tell a dirty joke, a funny dirty joke, and just delighted. And I remember I worked in a factory and you talk about smoke. They made ladies coats and I was the last on the line having to smoke them, steam them before they were sent out.

And it was a smoky environment in more ways than one. And they just delight to see a Christian come along and throw smoke in your face as it were. And the things that they said.

And the psalmist saw the same thing. He said, the proud have digged pits for me. They dig pits for me.

They just wanna see me act like them. They just wanna trip me up some way. He said, the proud have dig pits for me which are not after the law.

And then in verse 87, he said, it almost got to me. It almost got to me. He said, I was ready to give up.

My wineskin was about to break up. Verse 87, they had almost consumed me upon earth. Now, I'd like to pursue this a little bit further tonight and see how the writer of this psalm, again, who was probably a friend or compatriarch or one of Daniel's friends working in that Babylonian administration.

Let's see how he handled life as a bottle in the smoke and what lessons we can learn from it. First of all, it's a picture that none of us, none of us can avoid the smoke of a modern day Babylon. Philippians 2.15 says this.

Paul said, wrote to the Christians, he said, that ye may be, his prayer for them was this, that ye may be blameless, and blameless means holy, that you may be blameless and harmless and sons of God without rebuke in the midst, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world. You see, evil, my friend, is not just a theological or biblical word or teaching. It's an everyday reality that you and I must confront.

And we're not told to live blameless and holy when we get to heaven. He says, you are to live, you're to be a light now in the midst of a perverse and crooked generation. None of us can escape.

Now, some of you have, some of you have a greater challenge in this respect than others of us. Some of you live in it every day, but most of us cannot escape from one time or another or in one situation or another. We cannot escape hearing the filthy language or seeing people's sexual lusts run rampant or seeing people's greed or their laziness or their power plays or their insensitivity or their impatience or their immorality or their crime or their cruelty or any hundreds of other sins.

Another translation of a crooked and perverse nation says, a warped and diseased world. Listen to Isaiah 59. You don't need to turn to that, but just listen.

It's a picture of a society gone mad or that Dave talked about that society Sunday night. But Isaiah 59 talks about a bottle in the smoke. And here's the smoke.

Here's a description of it. Isaiah 59, it says, your lips have spoken lies and your tongue mutters wicked things. They rely on empty argument and speak lies.

They concede troubles and give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider's web. Their deeds are evil deeds and acts of violence are in their hands.

Their feet rush into sin. They are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts, rule and destruction mark their ways.

Even the Lord himself understood the pervasiveness of evil. He said in Isaiah 55 or 65 and six, he said, such people, such people, he said, are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning every day. And listen, if the Lord himself felt, if he felt the smoke of a wicked people, which of course he did not shrivel up and faint because of it.

But yet, if he says they are smoke to his nostrils, I believe that he understands when like the psalmist, we say, they almost wipe me off the face of the earth. I'm having a difficult time handling the smoke that's around me. Now, I must say that there are some Christians, there are some Christians that are challenged by the smoke of society, by the wickedness.

It turns them on in terms of evangelism. They see it as an opportunity to witness for the Lord. They may not like it, but they handle it.

And they see it as an opportunity to shine as lights in the world. But I think that most Christians, especially young Christians, feel more like the psalmist who can't wait to get out of it. Remember when Joseph was left in charge of Potiphar's house? And while he was away, Potiphar's wife came to him to seduce him.

And this is what it says in Genesis 39, 10 in the New American Standard. It says, and it came about, and she spoke to Joseph day after day. Day after, every day she was there trying to seduce him, blowing smoke in his face, trying to seduce him with her smoke.

And that's a picture in miniature, a practical example of the temptation, the smoke that we have to deal with continually. It came to pass that she spoke to Joseph day after day. You see, day after day, the smoke oozes out of people's mouths.

Psalm 73 and seven says, their eye bulges with fatness. The imaginations of their heart run riot. They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue parades through the earth.

Their tongue parades through the earth. Revelation 9, 2. Here's another example of day after day, how the devil's smoke flows out of the pit of hell itself. Listen to it.

Psalms 9, 2, it says, and he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as a smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and air were darkened by reason through the smoke of the pit. And here we see that the smoke from the devil's pit affects the light and the sun and pollutes the air.

That's the worst air pollution that is in our society today. The devil is the prince and power of the air and he has smoked up this atmosphere so badly. It's no wonder we want to run.

We want to hide from it sometimes. And so we are like a bottle in the smoke. The only difference is it may vary from one degree to another.

And by the way, by the way, one of the things that I see that happens so often to Christians who are like the psalmist, whose soul is fainting and they live in this, they get to the place and they said, oh, if I could just work for the Lord, if I could just work in the ministry and many, you see, sometimes are motivated to go into the work of the Lord, not just because they want to go in the work of the Lord, because they want to escape something. They want to run from something. They want to get out of that environment.

But my friend, listen, there's no place that you can go that you could escape from it. No place that you can go. I remember when my wife was saved in a Methodist church up in New England and she, and I've shared her testimony before how she got saved not because of the church, but in spite of the church.

And she had enough sense to know that she shouldn't go to a, she felt called to go to the work of the Lord. She felt called to go to Bible school, to learn the word. And she knew enough not to go apply somewhere that a church that would be operated by the Methodist church.

And so she learned through the son of a Pentecostal minister in town about a little Bible school down in Pennsylvania, little Pentecostal Bible school, where I was also a student. And I'd been there a year and I went back to my second year and she came in for her first year. And when she came on campus, she was sure that this was gonna be the, everybody's gonna be a saint.

And this was gonna be like the next thing to heaven. The next thing to heaven. She had worked on a job and she had felt all the smoke of that environment.

And now she was so excited and she comes on campus. And one of the first things that happened to her is that she met me. And that reinforced all of her thought about what the school was gonna be like.

No, no, what happened to her is the first day on campus, she walks down the campus and some other student gave her a woof whistle. And she said, oh my goodness, it's no different than the other place. You can't escape it anywhere.

You see, it even gets into the house of God. But I wanna show you how we cannot avoid living in a smoking environment. But there is a way to avoid some of it.

I wanna talk to you about for how to avoid the smoke of a Sodom and Gomorrah. Go with me to the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 19.

And we're gonna look at Lot for a few moments. Because Lot has something very, very important to teach us. In the 19th chapter of Genesis, verse 28 is really the end of the story of Lot and his life in Sodom and Gomorrah.

And it says this, and he looked towards Sodom, this is Abraham, looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah and towards all the land of the plain and beheld and lo, the smoke of the country went up as a smoke of a furnace. Now that was a smoke of judgment. Now, listen to me.

We do not live in a sinless environment. But at the same time, we do not have to subject ourselves to the intense heat and thick smoke of a place like Sodom. There is some smoke that can be avoided.

The burning destruction of Sodom, along with the near escape of Lot was a culmination of God's wrath against a society that had gone too far. You see, God said in Genesis 11 and verse 19, God had said enough. And it came to pass, this is Genesis 11 39, it came to pass that when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow or the destruction, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

You recall that Lot barely got out alive. He was saved, we might say, by the skin of his teeth. But note the words, if you have it there, that's 11 39.

It says, he overthrew, he destroyed the cities in which Lot dwelt. Now, Lot should never have had such, excuse me, there is no 39, is there? No, no, it isn't. Well, I'll talk to my secretary, type these notes.

I'll have to talk to her, I'll blame it on her. Barbara, will you talk to Gail about that and tell her she embarrassed me tonight? No, I'm only kidding. But take my word for it, it's in the Bible, it's there somewhere.

Will you take my word for it? And if you find it, someone, forget it, forget it. The point was that Lot should have never been in the situation that he was in to just barely get out of it. You see, when you go back over the history of Lot's story and you see how it was that the smoke nearly consumed him.

And Lot, you see, is an example of those who are bottled in the smoke because of their own unwise choices. Now, go to Genesis 13, 12, let's try this one. Ah, I think we made it, let me see, 13, 12.

Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent towards Sodom. Now, listen to me, none of us can avoid the smoke blowing in our face when we're trying to keep it away from us. But it's another thing if we deliberately do like Lot did.

It says that he pitched his tent towards Sodom. Lot made a decision to dwell in the cities of the plain. That was okay.

God had abundantly blessed him along with Abram or Abraham and their flocks grew, their riches grew and they had to part company because their substance was so great. But what he did not have to do was pitch his tent towards Sodom. He could have pitched it towards Canaan.

But no, he not only separated himself from Abram, he made an unwise spiritual and moral decision and he oozed it up. He oozed it up to Sodom. And verse 13 says, but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.

Now, there are three mistakes that Lot made that resulted in his being subjected to the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah. And it's the same reason that some people have nobody to blame but themselves when they come running and say, oh, I'm being overcome by all the smoke. Look what Lot did.

Look at verse 10. Verse 10, it says, and the first mistake that he made, it says, Lot lifted up his eyes. The lust of his own heart drew him to the well-watered valley of the Jordan.

Listen, my friend, never trust your own looks. You don't always see or feel smoke at first. Lot did not know or see that beneath the good-looking valley of Jordan, a smoldering fire was burning and he was about to expose himself to great temptation.

Be careful where you lift up your eyes. Young lady, I read a letter today. Young lady came to our church this summer.

She worked in New York City just for the summer. And she wrote and expressed appreciation for the church, but she said, I met a young man in this church while I was here. And at first he appeared to be, he loved the Lord and everything.

But what she didn't know is down underneath, there was a smoke that was smoldering. And all at once, every once in a while, poof, a little bit of it came out. Unfortunately, you see, she had gone, though she did not sin with him, yet her affections were carried away.

But there, she lifted up her eyes. And that was the first mistake that he made. And secondly, in verse 11, it says, and Lot chose, then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan.

I think the new American standard says, and Lot chose for himself. Lot chose for himself. That was his second mistake.

Lot did not ask the Lord or consult the Lord in the matter. He based it on looks. He based it on feelings.

He based it upon financial and geographical considerations. And I don't know about you, but I don't know how to choose for myself. And if, and when I do, I always do.

And you'll always do what Lot did. He chose for himself. And when he did, it says in verse 11, and Lot journeyed eastward.

And in the scripture, always, you'll notice from the garden on through, whenever man departed from God, he always went eastward. He always went eastward. He was always a type of going away from the presence of the Lord.

And when you make your own choices without consulting the Lord, you're on an eastward journey away from him and away from the center of God's will. And the third mistake that Lot made, which is really the first mistake he made. And the worst thing that he did, or rather he didn't do, is to spend time to build an altar.

Look at verse four. It says, when Abram and Lot came back from Egypt, the very first thing that Abraham did when he returned from Egypt is to go set up his tent where he had had it before. And he also went and returned to the altar and unto the place of the altar, which he made there at first.

And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. And there's no reference here of Lot. There's no reference of Lot at the altar.

He was too busy lifting up his eyes, too concerned with his own wellbeing. And the end result is that he moved and he pitched his tent as far as Sodom. Now, listen to me, the lesson is clear.

There's already enough smoke that you have to put up with. Don't pitch your tent towards Sodom. Don't sit in the smoking section of society.

Can you imagine Lot coming in for counsel? Marianna, think of Lot coming into counsel. And we've had him just like this. He comes in, he said, oh, Marianna, oh, pastor, pray for me.

I'm feeling the smoke of Sodom. He said, oh, the smoke of Sodom, they're exceedingly wicked against the Lord. I don't know if I can hold out much longer.

But Lot, you had no business being in Sodom in the first place. It's one thing for the devil to blow smoke on your face. It's another thing for you to go looking for the smoke.

Lot, you neglected your prayer life. You had roving eyes. You made an unwise choice.

And Lot got himself into a heap of troubles and temptations. And so do many Christians who ought to know better. I've had two young men come to me in this church and say, oh, pastor, pray for me.

They said, I had no place to go. They were not street people, but they were in a situation, had no place to go. And in both cases, some young lady invited them into their apartment to stay temporarily.

My friend, that's what's called walking right into smoke. And when there's smoke, there's fire. That's like throwing yourself into the fire.

And one fellow admitted that he fell into sin. He said, what was I to do? I had no place to go. Listen, better to sleep in the cold than to go into the smoke, my friend.

Now, if you've got a sensitive nose like me, or if your sinuses are susceptible to smoke, what do you do? You sit in the non-smoking section of the restaurant or the airplane. And if you have a weakness in a certain area, if you're easily tempted by certain things, stay away from the smoking section of the world. Proverbs says it, let thine eyes look right on, and thine eyelids look straight before thee.

Look for the non-smoking section. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right and to the left.

Remove thy feet from evil, and the smoke will blow right by you, hallelujah. Turn to Revelation 9, I read it already. Revelation 9 tells us, or by implication, we need to avoid the devil's smoking machines.

The devil's smoking machines. Revelation 9, verses two and three. I read it before.

He opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by reason in the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Now, this verse in Revelation is talking about the outpouring of judgment in the last days. But I believe this is also a type of the evil and iniquity that is spreading throughout the land. It's coming as smoke from the devil's pit, so much so that the very air will be darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

And you see what happens is that the devil has franchises. He has machines or people that he has set up. They are his conduits, his channels, his pipelines to be outlets from the smoke from the pit of hell.

You know, in New York City, they have steam heat. You see it coming up out of the ground, and they create this heat and they flow it along. Well, you see the devil has his conduits that are coming right out of the pit of hell.

And it's hooked up to some people. It's hooked up to certain places. It's hooked up to certain things where he pours his smoke through.

And probably the number one smoking machine in our society is the movie and television industry. Every television set and movie house is a smoke machine. Turn on your TV set and it can be set of your house.

There arose a smoke out of the pit. You know something interesting? I got my Newsweek magazine today and I'm leafing through it this afternoon. And I'm shocked because they have cartoons in it every week.

And I looked down and I said, my goodness, they must have looked at my sermon notes tonight. And here's a cute little cartoon, a powerful prophetic little cartoon. It's a man and wife sitting together in front of their television.

And the husband says, nice to be rid of all that campaign filth and back to regular network programming. And out of the television set is coming soot and smoke and filth. And out of it comes a quote, Geraldo, live from hell.

Folks, there it is right there in your Newsweek magazine. You know, there's a new movie out. I read the review of it in USA Today.

And I see it, I think it's right next to our offices. It's called A Good Mother. A Good Mother, and you know what is based upon why she's a good mother? Among other things is because she has some sense, she has some hesitation as to whether she will have sex with her boyfriend in front of her little child.

And it goes on from there. And you see, it's movies like that that permeate the air and the moral atmosphere of our society. And the reason that we are being darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

Not only that, sometimes the devil's smoke machine is a person. And you see some people ought to be avoided. They open their mouth and out comes smoke.

Why? Because there's a fire of hell that burns in their hearts. And the smoke that bellows out of their mouth, you ought to avoid it unless you're going to share Jesus with them, and if you do, then go two by two. And then there are some people who keep being overcome by smoke, but it's their own smoke.

I'm referring to cigarette smokers. Now, if you're still hooked on that nasty weed, blowing smoke up in your own face, you ought to quit being a chimney and a smoke machine for the devil. You see, because you see, if the enemy can keep getting you to blow smoke, it's a sign of an unsurrendered will.

It's a sign of an unsurrendered part of your heart. Listen, I'm not trying to lay great condemnation on you. The Holy Spirit has to show you, but as long as the devil can keep you puffing on a cigarette, you're still hooked up to his machine.

You're still hooked up, and the same channel that that comes from, he can bring other things from it. And God wants to deliver you from that. There's enough smoke blowing not to have to blow smoke in your own face and other people's face.

Well, that was not really the point of my message, but it fits anyhow. Now, the writer in Psalms 119, let me come to a close, who calls himself a bottle in the smoke. He gives us a few ways to deal with the smoke coming out of the devil's pit.

You see, he says here that he not only felt contaminated by the atmosphere, worse, he felt that somehow that God could no longer use him. He was being overcome by it, and he needed to be refreshed. He was about to be overwhelmed, and he needed to be refreshed and renewed and restored.

And so this is what he, a conclusion that he comes to. He says the first thing he says is that the contaminating power of the world is counteracted by the cleansing power of the word. Look at verse 83.

He said, for I am become like a bottle in the smoke, yet, yet I do not forget thy statutes, hallelujah. No, you see, you can't escape the world. And in fact, doesn't smoke rise? And the higher you go in the Lord, the more the smoke will rise up to reach you right there.

And it'll get under doors, it'll go under cracks, it'll reach you one way or the other. And in the process, you'll feel dried up, you'll feel polluted. And the psalmist says it feels like it's even gonna reach into the inside of me.

He said, my soul fainted, and yet he did not give up hope. He says, but I hope in thy word. And you see what oxygen is to the lungs.

The word is to a Christian who feels like, that's what the word is to you. If you feel like a bottle in the smoke. Look at Psalms 119.

Look, let's read this verse one. Start reading, I'll read through a few verses here. Psalms 119 verse one, he said, blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with a whole heart. They also do no iniquity, they walk in his ways. Thou has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart.

When I shall have learned thy righteous judgments, I will keep thy statutes. Oh, forsake me not utterly. And then he asked this beautiful, wonderful question.

Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? How can I handle the smoke? How can I keep from the smoke penetrating my vessel and getting in the inside and tainting me? He said, wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed there unto according to thy word. With my whole heart I have sought thee. Oh, let me not wonder from my commandments.

Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee, hallelujah. Listen, my friend, we have said it so many times from this pulpit in so many different ways, and it needs to be said over and over again. Even though it's true that we are a bottle in the smoke, and this city is probably number one on the devil's list for being an outlet for the smoke that rises out of the pits of hell.

In spite of that, the scripture promises us it's possible for a young man or a young woman to cleanse his ways and to stand clean and pure in the midst of a smoking society, hallelujah. You see, it's one thing to be a bottle in the smoke. It's another thing to have the smoke in the bottle, and it doesn't have to be in your bottle, hallelujah.

Ephesians 5, 26 and 27 says, Christ gave himself to the church. He loved us and he gave himself for us for this purpose. Why? That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the word, the water by the word.

That he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing that we should be holy and without blame. My friend, you have that possibility through the entrance of the word to not let that smoke contaminate you and to have the testimony of the psalmist who said, I am in a bottle in the smoke, yet, yet, hallelujah, I will keep thy word and because I keep thy word, thy word will keep me, hallelujah. I remember when I, years ago, when I first moved here to Brooklyn, I lived in the city.

My wife and I lived in an apartment in Brooklyn, in a tenement house, maybe 20 stories high. And we lived on the first, on the fifth floor. And I remember one night we were about to retire and I heard the sirens come and of course, we heard them all the time.

But you know, you'd hear the noise come and then you'd hear it go. Well, this night, it came, but it didn't go. And I looked out and here's all kinds of, all kinds of fire trucks down below and I'm wondering, well, I wonder where's the fire.

And then I started to smell it. And I opened the door and the hallway is filled with smoke. And so, I'm being a dutiful husband, like my wife was pregnant, being a dutiful husband like I, I said, come on, honey, let's go.

We're getting out of here. This house, the building's on fire. And she said, I ain't going anywhere.

I'm not going. And I said, come on, you know, and she wouldn't budge, she wouldn't go anywhere. She said, I'm staying right here.

And so, I'm, you know, I didn't know what to do. Finally, the fireman came and asked, what's the matter? And I, you know, I don't know what I said, but he said, look, he said, no problem. He said, just keep, you got fireproof doors and everything is all right.

Just stay right where you are. Just stay right inside. And so, so I did and we, and we were safe.

And you see, the Lord has provided, you see fireproof doors for you, provided a place for you, my friend, where you're protected from the smoke and the fire that will not have to consume you. And I was going to leave my wife out there to be consumed in the, through the fire. And every time, and she has used that against me for 25 years.

Every time I tell her, I know, you know, I know what to do. And she says, remember the fire in Brooklyn. She knew enough not to trust my word, but listen, you can trust the word, my friend.

It's your protection in the fire, in the smoke. And then finally, the psalmist, he said one other thing, one more important thing, verse 88. You know what the psalmist says? He said, although, he said, I cling to God's word.

He also realized that he did not have the strength to keep true to the word. And so he prays in verse 88. He said, quicken me, quicken me according to thy loving kindness.

So shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. No, he says, quicken me so then, or so shall I be able to keep thy commandment. You see, he had the law, but he needed the life and the power.

He needed to be quickened. And you see quickened, the word quickened means to live or to revive or to keep alive or to preserve alive. And you know, I was blessed Saturday.

We had the seminar here. And dear young lady who had just came to the Lord last Tuesday night, came Saturday to the meeting. And I had to teach a class on doctrine.

And I had to try to teach three years of a doctrine class in one hour. And it was going over her head. And she came and she asked me a question.

She said, I wanna do good. I wanna keep God's commandments. But she said, I keep, how can I do it? How can I do it? I just can't keep them.

And I said, neither can I. I said, neither can I, none of us can keep them. And the Psalmist said, I wanna follow your word. But he said, I can't.

But oh, then he realizes that there was a quickening spirit. There is a life you see. And God never requires us to do anything except that he comes along with a promise of power and of life and of quickening to enable you to fulfill that word in the midst of all of the smoke.

You see, the bottle and the smoke referred to is made up of animal skins. And the smoke eventually caused it to shrivel up and dry and become useless. But you see, not if the skin is quickened.

And yes, we are a bottle in the smoke, but the Lord, hallelujah, he gives us a special treatment for our skin. He makes us smoke resistant. And that treatment is called a quickening, hallelujah.

Listen, just another verse or two. 1 Corinthians 15, 45, and so it is written. The first Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam, which is Jesus, was made a quickening spirit, hallelujah.

How often do we say when we come into the service, especially on a Tuesday night or a Friday night, and we'll say, how many of you need a quickening? How many of you need a quickening? David prayed it just before we came on the broadcast. We're on the platform here tonight, a quickening. Jesus is a quickening spirit, hallelujah.

And my friend, we can't keep the commandments unless you have the life of Jesus flowing through you. Hallelujah. He said, they almost consume me upon the earth, but I forsook not thy precepts.

Quicken me according to thy loving kindness, so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth, hallelujah. There's a line of an old song. It says, breathe on me, breath of God.

Fill me with life anew until I love what thou dost love and do what thou wouldest do, and do what thou wouldest do. You see, the breath of God is a quickening spirit. It's the spirit of Jesus Christ, and it will quicken you to enable you to deal with the smoke that you have to deal with wherever you live, wherever you work, wherever you go.

One more verse, last verse, Psalm 68. It says, let God arise and let his enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate him flee before him as smoke is driven away, so drive them away.

As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish in the presence of God, but let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God. Yea, let them exceeding rejoice, hallelujah. He's a quickening spirit, and if you need his quickening spirit, you need his life tonight, he'll give it to you and quicken you if you feel like a bottle in the smoke.

Praise the Lord, let's stand together. We'll call it a free distribution to your friends.