Riding Seven Horses to Hell

When my daughter was a little girl, we would take her to the mall to ride a merry-go-round, and she and I would climb up on one of those painted ponies, and ride and ride, round and round. She had a favorite horse she always wanted to get up on, and she'd ride it in delight until that ride was over, with those years are long gone friends. But I believe that some of you still like to ride painted ponies, and round and round you go, having the time of your life, until one day your ride will be over, and you will have to dismount the horse you've been riding on, and on your way to hell, your day of seeing the sunshine of this world will be over, and you will be plunged against your will into a region of great darkness that is full of smoke, filled with crackling flames of a burning furnace, for the sinner's home is hell, it's his long awaited home, where the worm dieth not, and where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, hell and its horrors will be your constant abode then, and forevermore, as there are no exit doors in hell.

The title of my message this evening friends is, Riding Seven Horses to Hell, and you better get the wax out of your ears friend. While I bring this message before you this evening, I'll see you at the judgment, and you will then be reminded that this preacher was at least honest with you, and he cared about your soul. My text tonight is found in Ezekiel chapter 3, and in verse 18, which states, When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life.

The same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Well that passage is a warning to all of God's preachers, and if there was something standing between you and God friend, wouldn't you want to know it? I would. My message is not a popular one tonight, but a needed one.

If you aren't walking with God like you think you are, wouldn't you want to know it? I would. When I get done with this message, I'll be clean of your blood on my hands, because I'm here to warn you. I'm warning you to give God first place in your life.

I'm going to speak this evening friends on the subject of the seven horses people ride to hell. My Bible says that God is no respecter of persons, so it doesn't matter if you're a member of a church, and you're riding one of these horses to hell. There are seven horses which capture the fancy of men and women, like a painted pony on a merry-go-round, would fascinate and hold spellbound a little child.

And these seven horses have blinders on, and they cannot distinguish their riders from baptized church members or out-and-out pagans. For folks, ride these seven horses in and out of the churches. Well, get a pen out friend, and a piece of paper.

You may want to jot these down as I proceed. Or you kids, write them down in the notes of your iPhone. Well, here they are.

Every lost man and every lost woman will stay atop one or more of these horses in their lifetimes as they carelessly ride these seven horses to hell. Horse number one is entertainment. If Antichrist appeared on the scene today and took over Hollywood and the entertainment industry, he'd just be taking the reins of a horse he already owns.

The worst thing you could have ever done to your family was to put a television set in your living room by watching Hollywood programming. Your children have gone to the devil. You've gotten them indoctrinated to evil at an early age.

You've corrupted your family members by gathering around that electronic demon and slowly becoming desensitized to sin. You know what I'm saying is true. You just won't admit it.

Things that once made you plush now don't even shock you. In fact, you've grown addicted to sin by watching Hollywood programming and feeding upon it until you rise, grow as big as saucers and your brain the size of a pea. Your entertainment addiction robs you of the time you could have otherwise given to God for his glory.

But instead you have gloried in the devil. Now, I'm not going to treat you like little kids and coddle you like your pastor does, but I'm here today friends for one purpose and that is to warn you of your danger of dying in your sins and being cast into hell. An idol is something you sacrifice to and worship and television is an idol you have sacrificed your time and the welfare of your family to.

Now I believe when you stand at the great judgment you will be more in agreement with me then than you are now. You don't like what I'm saying. It sounds too peculiar to you because everybody has a TV.

Well, I don't. I hadn't watched one in years, but that's besides the point. Entertainment is that first horse that you will ride to hell.

The second horse folks ride to hell is sports. You cannot live without your professional sport teams. You just read the bio of most pastors who have a website for his church and you'll soon learn who he roots for in the world of sports.

The hobby horse of sports will damn you quicker than most anything else because it's an addiction in your life. You gotta have your baseball. You gotta have your football.

You gotta have your basketball or your golf game or you'd go plum out of your mind. C.T. Studd was a cricketeer and a household name in for his prowess on the cricket field. When he got saved, he walked away from his love of sports to love the souls of men and became a missionary to China, India, and eventually Africa, dying there for the sake of Christ and the gospel.

But I submit to you friends that some of you love your sport more than you love God and that alone will surely send you to hell for Christ will have no rivals. I know what I'm talking about. I spent 30 years chasing golf balls all over this country because golf was my God.

I played pebble beach so often I could draw the court's layout on the back of a cocktail napkin. When I got really saved, golf lost its hold on me and God revealed to me what the game of golf stood for in my life. G-O-L-F.

Golden opportunities lost forever. The third horse folks ride on their way to hell is love of self. You love yourself more than any other thing or person in this world.

Self is king and self must have its way or there'll be hell to pay for anyone who gets in your way. But a saved individual has lost their kingdom because the kingdom of self must die. If you want to be saved, friend, then self must be dethroned.

And another enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ, he will have no rivals. Jesus states in no uncertain terms about those who claim to be followers of him. In Matthew chapter 16 and verses 24 and 25, he states the claims of discipleship.

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

You must climb down off the high horse of self or just go on to hell, even if you are the chairman of the deacons. Horse number four, tradition. Many in our churches today are bound with the grave clothes of tradition.

The Pharisees were lost religious men who doubted all their eyes and crossed all their T's. They loved to pray long prayers in the marketplace to be seen a man, but they failed to recognize God when he stood in their midst and they got out their knives of tradition and started chopping away at the Son of God and they pierced his hands and feet as they crucified the Prince of Glory. Horse number five, doctrine.

How many religious men in our churches today and outside of our churches today worship doctrine? They worship doctrine more than God. I've known some men so in love with the doctrine of election that it has become a God to them. They love their doctrine more than they love God.

I'm a big believer, friends, preaching the full counsel of God and preaching the great doctrines of the Bible, but it stops there. Horse number six, works. How many religious people are riding a horse to hell by working their way to heaven? Works won't get you into heaven, friend.

The good Buddhist is full of good works. The good Catholic is full of good works, but good people don't go to heaven. Only forgiven people get to go there.

You must be washed in the blood and born from above. I believe hell is full of good church members who only serve their church for one reason, self-recognition. The last horse is a false spirit.

I've known many men and women inside and outside of the church who were led by a false spirit. My Bible tells me that Satan can appear as an angel of light. I've known some evangelists and pastors who were led by a false spirit.

They mistook a demon spirit for the Holy Spirit and it was their rune. You can always tell if someone in ministry is led by a false spirit because there will be deceit somewhere in their personal lives. They will either exaggerate the truth to where it's a lie or they will bend the truth to fit their personal agenda in ministry and lie.

They are deceived and led by a false spirit and many prominent men in ministry have busted hell wide open when they died because they served the wrong God. Now you thought this message was going to focus on booze or sex or other sin problems. No, friend.

The horse you rode in on is the horse that will lead you straight to a devil's hell. Anything that robs God of his glory in your life and makes God secondary in your life and leads you astray into sin and disobedience to him is a hell horse with fire shooting out of its nostrils as it carries you closer and closer to hell. Jesus must be lord of your life or something else is.