This message is one of the Times Square
Church pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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My message this morning, believe in the light,
lest darkness come upon you.
Believe in the light, lest darkness come upon
you.
Go to John 12, 12th chapter of John,
please.
12th chapter of John.
Let's start reading, let's start reading verse 30,
John the 12th chapter.
Let's go over verse 23.
First chapter 12, verse 23, beginning to read,
Jesus answered them, saying, Thou has come that
the Son of Man should be glorified.
Very, very I say unto you, except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and
die, it abideth alone, and if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit.
Now let's go on to verse 28.
Father, glorify thy name.
Then came their voice from heaven, saying, I
have both glorified it, and I will glorify
it again.
The people therefore that stood by and heard
it said that it thundered.
Others said an angel spake to him.
Jesus answered and said, This voice came not
because of me, but for your sakes.
Now is the judgment of this world now,
so the prince of the world be cast
out.
And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me.
He said this signifying what death he should
die.
Verse 35, Then Jesus said unto them, Yet
a little while is the light with you.
Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness
come upon you.
For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not
whether he goeth.
While you have light, believe in the light,
that you may be the children of light.
These things Jesus spake and departed and did
hide himself from them.
But though he had done so many miracles
before them, yet they believed not on him.
Now Father, I'm asking you to give us
hearing ears.
I've asked you to make me an oracle
of God, anointed of the Holy Ghost this
morning.
You have birthed this in my heart.
You have corrected me through this.
You have woven it into the fiber of
my very character and being.
And I pray, Lord, that you give me
words that I had not even thought of.
I pray, Lord Jesus, that you make this
clear.
That there be no mistaking about what you're
saying.
Sanctify our ears.
Let us hear what the Spirit is saying
to us this morning and all through this
day.
Lord, we believe you're going to speak all
day long.
You are ministering.
You have something in mind for us this
day.
And we believe you for it now.
We receive your word.
Lord, let it flow.
In the fluency of the Holy Spirit we
pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Here in the twelfth chapter of John, we
see Jesus at Bethany.
It's six days before the Passover feast.
And Jesus stops by the house of Lazarus
and Mary and Martha in Bethany, his favorite
resting place.
And the crowds hear about Jesus being there.
Word came that he was at Bethany.
So they sidetracked, detoured through Bethany.
All those who were coming into Jerusalem for
the feast.
A very curious crowd to see this man
that had been raised from the dead.
The Bible said Martha, as usual, was serving.
And it must have been quite a sight.
It must have been in view.
I don't know whether it was an open
courtyard or what.
But you can imagine the masses of people,
the crowds filing by.
That's one scene we see here in the
twelfth chapter.
And then the next scene, you see the
same crowd singing hosannas to him as he
comes riding on the colt of a donkey.
And they're singing hosannas and praises here in
the twelfth chapter.
Right before their eyes, as he's coming in
on this donkey, they're seeing fulfilled a prophecy
that they had learned since childhood as Jews.
It had been taught in their synagogue.
There was no other truth more common or
more known to the Jew than Zechariah 9
.9. Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold your
king comes sitting on an ass's colt.
And here before their eyes it's happening and
they don't acknowledge it.
They don't recognize it.
They're blind to it.
The absolute fulfillment of one of the most
preached and taught prophecies in the scripture.
In the same chapter, before Jesus speaks of
walking in the light, he is speaking about
his departure and suddenly there's a thundering voice
comes from heaven.
It sounds like an earthquake and the people
trembled.
And the Lord Jesus said, now that voice
came from heaven not for my sake, not
to encourage me but to convince you.
This was for your sake that Jesus said
very clearly.
Now, here's the religious people to whom God
had given the law, the covenants and the
promises.
He had given visual fulfillment of one of
their favorite prophecies.
And he thundered from heaven.
And they had the audacity to say, who
is this man?
This is the question.
After all of this has happened, you'll find
it here in verse 34.
And the people answered him, we have heard
out of the law that Christ abideth forever.
And now when you say you're going to
be crucified, we've heard you are to live
forever if you're the Christ.
And thus says the Son of Man to
be lifted up.
Who is this Son of Man?
Jesus was so incredulous at their ignorance, at
their blindness, at their inability to believe him
to be the Son of God, he is
stunned, he doesn't even answer their question.
He is so incredulous that after seeing the
fulfillment to hear a voice from heaven, to
see all of this evidence that they have
received here in this chapter, they still won't
believe him.
Then Jesus said to them, he didn't answer
their question, but he said, walk ye while
you have the light, lest darkness come upon
you.
While you have this light, believe in the
light.
Folks, I want you to see the seriousness
of this statement of Jesus and grasp what
it means to you and to me also.
God helped us to understand that God had
given the good report that Isaiah, they had
been taught from Isaiah, there would be a
good report and Jesus had given that report.
His strong arm had been revealed to them.
Yet they couldn't understand, they couldn't believe.
The Scripture says the light came into the
darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.
And the Greek word for comprehend means to
seize it, to lay hold of it, to
possess the truth so it produces life.
They hear these words, it's not mixed with
faith, they don't understand it.
They can't comprehend it at all.
The Bible said they didn't seize upon it.
It was life-changing, but they didn't understand
it.
These things spake Jesus and departed and did
hide himself from them.
This is God's attitude.
This is the Lord's attitude toward unbelief.
You will never find God having pity or
sympathy anywhere in the Scripture for unbelief.
Anywhere in the Scripture.
There's no sympathy, there's no pity.
What a tragedy.
These people are going to leave Jerusalem and
darkness is going to come upon them because
they did not walk in the light that
they received.
They did not believe the light that they
received.
Because the Bible said Jesus is the light
of the world.
He was the light.
He came into their darkness.
They preferred darkness more than the light.
They didn't have faith.
They didn't believe.
And so they're going to go home.
And the Bible says Jesus had warned them.
Now I'm giving you the light.
You're hearing it.
You're seeing it.
Now walk in it.
Receive it.
Or darkness is going to come upon you.
And that word darkness in Greek is spiritual
blindness, confusion, loss of clarity, a gloom.
They're going to leave His presence never to
see the light again possibly.
Unless one of the disciples later had ministered
to them and they had another chance.
I don't know.
But here was their chance.
And now they're going to go home.
And they're going to have their life beginning
to come apart.
They're going to be insensitive to the things
that are happening.
There will be no clarity in their life.
They're going to be insecure.
There's going to be a gloom hangover in
their life because they rejected the word that
they heard.
Day by day uncertainty.
Looking at one problem after another not able
to explain it.
Not being able to get answers to any
of their questions and problems.
Now when I reread this awesome warning of
Jesus to walk and believe in the light
lest darkness come upon you.
The Holy Spirit stopped me in my tracks
and I had to read it and reread
it.
And the Holy Spirit said to me, David
this is for you and for my people.
And I was dumbfounded.
Darkness on me?
Darkness on a people who pray, who love
Jesus, who love the word of God.
A darkness could come upon me?
And this warning is to holy brethren the
whole thing.
This is not aimed at the unbelieving Jews
at this time.
It's not aimed at apostates.
It's not aimed at the heathens.
It starts out to the holy brethren.
This is to the brethren.
So I have to receive it.
I have to accept that God is saying
something to me.
You see I've been flooded with light as
you have.
We've been flooded with light.
In my 50 years of ministry I have
witnessed the Lord's power to raise the dead.
Who could be more dead than a drug
addict or alcoholic walking on the streets and
living on the streets?
I've seen the dead.
Some of you have been raised from the
dead.
You're right now.
We have Lazaruses all over this house.
God's taken all the bandages off of you
and now you're able to move and shout
and praise His name.
Folks, The Cross and the Switchblade was a
book about miracles.
About how God did one miracle after another.
I've heard the voice of the Lord.
We've heard that still small voice of the
Lord.
We've sat under the Word.
We've had pastors, evangelists, teachers and prophets stand
in this pulpit.
We have had everything they had in the
12th chapter and more, much more.
Because we have better promises.
God has opened the covenant.
He's opened up His names and the glory
of His holy names.
We have had all of that.
We have had the light.
He said, walk in the light.
Lest darkness come upon you.
And lest confusion come into your life.
And lest you not be able to understand
what's happening around you.
And lest you become blind to the workings
and the movings of the Holy Spirit.
Lest you become confused.
You see, our eyes have seen things that
God has prepared for us that the Jew
couldn't see.
He said, Paul the Apostle said, I have
not seen, e'er hath not heard the
things that God has prepared, the good things.
But the Holy Spirit has revealed them unto
us.
We have a greater light.
Greater promises.
So we're held accountable more powerfully before the
eyes of the Lord.
When we think of spiritual darkness, we think
of atheists.
We think of jaded, sin satiated sinners who
are groping around day by day in some
kind of sorrow and emptiness of heart.
And that's true.
It's true that sin is called the land
of darkness in the Scripture.
The devil is called the prince of darkness.
And Paul speaks of unfruitful works of darkness.
There is a darkness that is of this
world.
But that's not the darkness Jesus is talking
about.
He's talking about the darkness that comes on
His children who don't believe Him.
Who will not walk in the gospel that
they've received.
And will not appropriate the promises that have
been offered through covenant.
When He said this darkness is a cloud
of confusion, spiritual blindness, indecision, gloom in spirit
and mind and body.
To wake up with a gloom.
To wake up in indecision.
To wake up saying God doesn't speak to
me anymore.
There is a darkness that falls upon those
Christians who will not mix the word they
hear with faith and appropriate it in their
daily lives.
How many in this congregation have that cloud
of darkness hanging over you even now as
I speak?
You say my prayers, Pastor David, are not
being answered.
You face things in life now that you
can't explain.
You're disappointed in situations or certain people.
You're beginning to doubt yourself.
You have so many questions now.
You constantly examine your heart to see where
you went wrong.
And you feel gloom and despair and indecision
in your life.
Perhaps a young lady walks in here this
morning.
And I don't know who it may be
but this is what the Holy Spirit put
on my heart.
And you look like death itself.
Everybody is trying to figure out what's happened
to her.
She looks like she's dying.
Look at the sadness.
Look at the gloom that's on her face.
And you have to say, well, did her
boyfriend drop her?
Did she fall back into some gruesome sin?
Does she not like her job, her career?
Why is she walking around the office?
Why is she walking around the church so
down and so gloomy?
What is that cloud that's hanging over her?
I speak perhaps of a brother that's sitting
here.
A godly, holy brother or sister.
A mature Christian.
And here you are in God's house this
morning.
Full of doubts.
Feeling inadequate.
Wondering if the Lord has a controversy with
you.
The joy you have is not the joy
you once had.
There are a lot of unanswered questions.
Why, Lord, why?
There's a cloud hanging over you, dear soul.
Beloved, this is the darkness Jesus is warning
us about.
If we do not walk and believe in
the light that we've received, lest that darkness
come upon holy brethren.
When we don't comprehend the light, that means
when we don't allow the truth of His
promise.
For example, He has said that the Holy
Ghost abides in us.
Your body, my body is a temple of
the Holy Ghost.
We hear that from the pulpit.
We believe that passively.
We believe it as a doctrine.
But here is where darkness can come in.
When we don't really believe, fully commit ourselves
to the truth that we have heard, that
the Holy Ghost in me will do what
God sent Him to do.
And then when lust arises, and you try
to fight it in your own power, and
you won't commit it until the Holy Ghost
abides in you.
You said, I've tried that and it doesn't
work.
Folks, it is faith alone that the Holy
Ghost in you will do against the devil
and every lust that God sent Him to
do.
That the Holy Ghost comes to work in
you.
Darkness comes when you say, I have to
fight this by my own strength and my
own power.
You do not rest and trust in the
power of the Holy Ghost in you.
You are saying, God sent the Holy Ghost,
God ties me, He lives here, but He
is silent.
He is sleeping.
It is to call God a liar.
If you have been saved, you have been
saved through the ministry of the Holy Ghost.
If you are praying for the Holy Ghost
to come upon you, He has come upon
you because He answers prayer.
God answers prayer.
Well, let's see where we are going to
go.
Let's go to Isaiah 42.
I've got to move on because I've got
so much I want to say this morning.
Through the Holy Spirit.
Hopefully.
Isaiah 42.
It starts at verse 19.
That's verse 18.
Hear ye deaf and look ye blind that
ye may see.
Who is blind but my servant?
Deaf is my messenger that I sent.
Who is blind is he that is perfect,
and blind is the Lord's servant.
Seeing many things, but thou observeth not.
Opening the ears, but he heareth not.
The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness'
sake.
You see, this is a righteous person we
are talking about.
Who magnifies the law, makes it honorable.
But, this righteous people, who can't see and
hear or appropriate or comprehend, and mix with
faith what they are hearing.
It's a people robbed and spoiled.
This is the darkness Jesus warned of.
Snared in holes and they are hidden in
prison houses.
They are for a prey and undelivered.
For a spoiled and unsafely stored.
Who among you will give ear to this?
Who will hearken and hear for the time
to come?
Who gave Jacob for a spoiled Israel to
the robbers?
Did not the Lord?
He against whom ye have sinned?
For they would not walk in his ways,
and neither were they obedient unto his laws.
Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury
of his anger, and the strength of battle.
And he hath set him on fire round
about, yet he knew not.
It burned him, yet he laid it not
to heart.
They couldn't understand.
There are people being robbed of faith.
They are being robbed of blessing.
They are being robbed of peace.
They are in prison houses of fear and
condemnation and guilt.
And they don't understand that it's their unbelief,
their absolute unbelief, and that God is angry
that their unbelief.
That they simply will not take him at
his word.
He that walketh in darkness knoweth not where
he goes, the scripture says.
This is the darkness we are talking about.
My servant who is perfect, the Lord's servant,
seeing many things, but not comprehending.
Righteous people honor the law.
Robbed, spoiled, snared, hid in prison houses of
fear and indecision.
And who gave them over to this?
He against whom we have sinned.
Folks, look this way for a minute.
I've known what that cloud is all about.
I've known that cloud of darkness.
Jesus said, let darkness come upon you.
And I know what it is to enter
that cloud.
I know what it is to have crisis
come into my life.
It would shake my faith and my confidence.
And I couldn't understand why I couldn't get
a clear word from the Lord.
I couldn't understand that I became indecisive.
I didn't have that clarity of mind and
spirit.
I couldn't understand it.
I would go to the Lord and get
a little peeved at the Lord.
And I would say, Lord, you need to
be a little more sympathetic for what I'm
going through.
You seem a little calloused.
You don't say it in so many words,
but that's what you're thinking.
Lord, where's your pity?
Poor me.
The Lord doesn't show any pity for those
who have doubts and unbelief.
He has no pity whatsoever.
He expects us to walk in the light
that we've received, mix faith with it, and
lay hold of it and comprehend it.
And when I came back to acknowledging to
the conviction of the Holy Spirit that I
was not walking in faith, that I had
unbelief in my heart, that and that alone
brought the victory in my heart, brought me
out of that cloud of darkness.
Well, there's a deep darkness that comes upon
those who focus on their weaknesses and inabilities.
I'm speaking of Christians who complain how stupid
and how inadequate they are.
Now, things are going to get a little
quiet now.
Always putting themselves down, belittling themselves, comparing themselves
with those they admire and saying, I don't
measure up, I'm nothing.
At least one honest man.
Do you remember the ten spies that brought
back an evil report?
They said, yes, it is a land full
of milk and honey.
It's filled with wonderful fruit.
But there are giants there and there are
walled up cities.
We are not able to go up.
They're stronger than us.
We compared ourselves to these giants and we
appeared as grasshoppers.
Now, you won't find them accusing God.
There's nowhere here that they said, well, God
is not able.
They don't accuse God.
They know better than that.
So they say, we are not able.
We are inadequate.
We don't have the power.
We don't have the ability.
This is not humility.
This is an affront to every promise in
the book.
When you put yourself down, you're not putting
yourself down.
You're putting down the almighty God who has
revealed himself as the one who gives you
strength in your weaknesses and makes you strong
when you have no strength.
You make God a liar.
I have.
I can't do this, Lord.
I have nothing.
And I look around and I see God
blessing everybody else.
And I see them growing.
And I see the gifts of people around
me.
I have no gifts.
I have nothing.
And we keep putting ourselves down, comparing ourselves
to other people, saying, I'll never measure up.
Folks, that is a sin against God.
That's sin against the light.
And that brings darkness.
Oh, that brings darkness to the soul.
Terrible, terrible darkness.
The scripture says, I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.
Hallelujah.
What was God's response to that kind of
unbelief?
So focused on inabilities, they were ready to
quit and go back.
And the Lord said, how long will this
people provoke me?
How long will it be before they believe
me?
And they hadn't said one word about his
inability.
They were focused on their own inability and
their own incapacities.
And yet God says that's unbelief.
God charged them with unbelief.
There were many sins there.
Adultery, fornication, idolatry, bitterness, rebellion.
But God charges them only with unbelief.
Because that's the mother of all sins.
I never once thought I was offending the
Lord when I put myself down.
Many times in my ministry, I voiced how
weak and incapable I was.
Until the Spirit showed me that God says,
that's provoking.
I have promised my strength to come upon
you and your weakness.
I told you that I use the weak
things of the world, the poor things, the
despised things, the things that are nothing, that
no flesh should grow in my presence.
I told you I've chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the wise.
I said that your fathers were made strong
out of weakness only.
I said I'm Jehovah, everlasting strength.
I told you to lay hold of my
strength.
I will strengthen you with might and with
spirit and power.
He says, who will believe me?
When will you ever come to the point
in your life that you'll believe me?
Now I know there are scriptures racing through
your mind right now that says, well, Paul
said I will most rather glory in my
infirmities that the power of Christ may rest
in me, and I take pleasure in infirmities.
But he was not speaking, he was speaking
only of physical infirmity.
He was talking about his thorn in the
flesh.
He was not talking about what we're talking
about here right now.
This constant deprecation of our flesh, this constant
saying that I can't do anything, I have
no talents, I have nothing.
Oh yes you do, you have the great
anointing of the Holy Ghost, because you could
have been saved without that anointing.
I want to talk to you now about
the outrage of God toward those who do
not walk in the light of covenant promises,
the outrage.
I'm going to show you the outrage God
had toward his people and has toward his
people who walk in doubt and unbelief.
We have the idea that when we don't
trust God that, well, I'm the only one
that hurts, nobody around me is getting hurt,
I'm not wounding anybody, I just miss the
blessings.
Not so.
You anger God.
Anger.
In John 12 when Jesus warns about darkness,
he's talking about those who would not trust
him.
In Hebrews the third chapter, you see, in
this chapter we just read, in 12th chapter,
we're talking about those who will not walk
and believe in the light lest darkness come
upon them.
But when you go, and I want you
to go with me if you will to
Hebrews the third chapter, the warning gets stronger.
He said, if you won't trust me and
believe in me, you're going to get a
hard heart.
Third chapter of Hebrews.
Are you beginning to understand this?
Did I hear somebody say no?
Well, then you should pray, God, give me
an understanding.
Let's start at verse 8.
Harden not your hearts.
This is Hebrews 3.
Verse 8.
Harden not your hearts as in the provocation
and the day of temptation in the wilderness
when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and
saw my works forty years.
Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation and
said they do always err in their heart.
They have not known my way, so I
swear in my wrath they shall not enter
into my rest.
Take heed, brethren.
Who?
Brethren.
By the way, look at verse 1.
Wherefore, holy brethren, it's the holy brethren.
Take heed lest there be in any of
you an evil heart of unbelief and departing
from the living God.
Exhort one another daily what is called today
lest any of you be hard to the
deceitfulness of sin.
Look at verse 17.
With whom was he grieved forty years?
Was it not with them that had sinned
whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
To whom swore he that they should not
enter into his rest but to them that
believed not.
So we see they could not enter in
because adultery, fornication, unbelief.
They could not enter in because of unbelief.
Now he's speaking again to holy brethren.
There's an entire generation, think of it, for
forty years have incredible miracles, forty years of
hearing God's voice, forty years of pleadings and
warnings and promises.
No other people have been so loved and
led as this people.
Revelation after revelation, deliverance after deliverance.
They learned of the goodness and the severity
of God.
Moses was a prophet so they were taught
and raised up under a prophet of God.
But never once did they mix the word
with faith.
The scripture said, your fathers tempted me, they
proved me, they saw my works for forty
years.
Yet I kept them out of the promised
land because they would not believe.
And you know their story, this unbelief that
came upon them.
Unbelief set in and darkness covered the wilderness
journeys from that day on.
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation.
And in verse 17, with whom was he
grieved?
And the Greek word here is indignation, outrage,
anger.
You tell me, well God is love.
There is no anger in God.
Well then you don't know your Bible.
The scripture very clearly speaks of the anger
of the Lord being kindled time and time
again.
Get your Psalms and Chords, you'll see two
full pages of it.
The scripture warns very clearly that Moses warned,
they said, you're going to do evil in
the sight of God and you're going to
provoke Him to anger.
In Psalms, the Psalmist spoke of God's anger
smoking against unbelievers.
God's anger, His outrage smoking against unbelievers.
So it's not just a matter of you
missing a blessing, it's a matter of provoking
God to anger.
This is the end of side one.
You may now turn the tape over to
side two.
According to us, take heed, brethren, lest there
be in you an evil heart of unbelief
and departing from the Lord.
Lest any of you be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin.
Unbelief is most dangerous when it's voiced.
It's dangerous when it's thought, but much more
dangerous when it's voiced.
Be careful how you speak in the presence
of Almighty God.
Because we give an account of these words
when we stand before Him.
I want to prove that to you.
I want you to go to Deuteronomy first
chapter now, please.
Deuteronomy.
If you didn't bring your Bible, I'm sorry.
Maybe you can look at somebody's Bible next
to you.
Verse 27 beginning to read, please.
Deuteronomy first chapter.
Beginning to read verse 27.
Remember it in your tents?
It said, because the Lord hated us, He
brought us forth out of the land of
Egypt to deliver us into the hand of
the Amorites to destroy us.
Whither shall we go up?
Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, The
people are greater and taller than we.
The cities are greater and rolled up to
heaven.
Moreover, we have seen the sons of the
Anacoms there.
Then I said unto you, dread not, neither
be afraid of them.
The Lord your God which goeth before you,
He shall fight for you according to all
that He did for you in Egypt before
your eyes.
And in the wilderness will thou have seen
how that the Lord thy God beareth thee
as a man that beareth son.
And all the way you went until you
came into this place.
Yet in this thing you did not believe
the Lord your God who went in the
way before you to search you out of
place to pitch your tents in.
Fire by night, show you by which way
to go.
And a cloud by day.
And the Lord heard the voice of your
words and was wroth, outraged, angered.
And swear saying, surety, there shall not one
of these men of this evil generation see
that good land which I swear to give
unto your fathers.
God said, I heard what you said.
And it outraged me that you could not
trust my goodness after a lifetime of experience
of my love.
Forty years of living under my grace and
mercy.
Hearing a prophetic word right from the throne
of God.
And yet you would not believe me.
He said, this is the darkness.
This is what will happen.
You are headed for a hard part.
You didn't believe me when I said you
had nothing to fear.
You didn't believe me when I said I'll
fight your battles for you.
You didn't remember how I bore you up
as a son, caring for you.
You forgot my love.
You didn't trust me though I went before
you.
I gave you a cloud to shield you
from the blazing sun in the day.
And I gave you a warm fire by
night to brighten the black night of the
wilderness.
Yet you didn't believe me.
The Bible said, he that believeth not God
hath made him a liar.
And I heard your voice.
Take heed brethren, lest there be in any
of you an evil heart of unbelief and
departing from believing God.
Listen to me folks, you can be saved
and filled with the Holy Ghost.
You can be a praying man and a
praying woman.
You can still be on this path.
And not understand and comprehend the warning that
we're hearing from the Holy Ghost this morning.
And I say it in great love.
And this is what God's been dealing with
me.
There are many, many times that I've spent
hours of the Lord crying and praying and
pleading.
The Lord showed me time and time again
it was not a prayer of faith.
There was no faith in it whatsoever.
God does not hear that kind of prayer.
God is not sympathetic toward that kind of
prayer.
We are to pray in faith, believing what
He said is true.
Standing on the Word, standing on the promises.
Appropriate them, comprehending them, applying them, seizing them,
Bible says.
Lay hold upon the covenant.
Lay hold upon my truth He preached time
and time again.
Lay hold of it.
You say, well I have no unbelief in
me.
Then why do you get so upset and
disturbed when things go wrong?
You say there's no unbelief in me.
Then why do you keep fearing that you're
going to fall?
Why do you have such restlessness in you?
Why are you afraid of the future, afraid
of losing your job, afraid that God's not
going to provide for you?
That's unbelief.
Where there is unconditional faith in God's promises,
there's complete rest.
Rest is the evidence of faith.
A full, complete confidence in the promises.
Total dependency on the faithfulness of God that
He has honored His Word above His name.
And He will not fail His Word.
Take heed, lest any of you be hardened.
Now, again, I read this and say, huh,
I'm a lover of Jesus and I'm under
the blood.
I'm a man of prayer, I walk in
His righteousness.
How is it possible that I could get,
that there could be a hardening in my
heart?
Go to Mark 6 and I'll show you.
The Bible said there's a time to shout.
And that'll be right at the end.
6th chapter of Mark.
Let's start in verse 49.
Folks, the scene here, look this way for
just a minute.
The scene is they've just fed 5,000
with 5 loaves and 2 fishes.
Took up 12 baskets of fragments.
They get in a boat and they're heading
for Bethsaida.
And in the middle of the night, Jesus
comes walking toward them.
Verse 49.
When they saw Him walking upon the sea,
they supposed Him in a spirit and cried
out.
For they saw Him and were troubled.
And immediately He talked with them and said,
Be of good cheer, it's I, be not
afraid.
And He went up unto them in the
ship.
The wind ceased and they were so amazed.
They were shocked in themselves beyond measure and
wondered.
For they considered not the miracle of the
loaves.
For what?
Their heart was hardened.
If you look up the Greek, it means
it was a stone.
They were totally blind.
Now, I don't talk to you about hardness
of heart.
We get the idea of hardness of heart.
Well, I've become an apostate or I've given
myself over to sin.
And I say, God, I don't want you
anymore.
That's not the hardness.
He's speaking of it all.
There's another kind of hardness.
And He said to every one of us,
the warning is be careful.
Take heed, lest your heart be hardened as
their hearts were hardened.
Now, this is an amazing saying.
You know, I picture these 12 disciples.
They're sitting on the grass now.
The crowd's dispersed and they've got 12 baskets.
They've got this basket of leftovers.
And I've wondered why there wasn't an afterglow
meeting.
I've often wondered why didn't they sit there
and try to figure it out.
And when the Bible says here, let me
read it again.
They considered not.
The word considered not means they couldn't put
it all together.
That's what the Greek means.
They couldn't put it all together.
It didn't make sense.
They're sitting there.
And why didn't they say, wait a minute.
If this is really happening, if this is
not a dream, He's God.
And I picture them sitting there thinking, now,
this can't be.
There has to be some physical explanation for
this.
Because why would Creator God of the whole
universe, who made the sun, the moon, and
the stars, why would He come down here,
right here on this grassy field, and why
would He choose 12 fishermen?
Why would He dismiss Himself, so to speak,
from all of the care of the universe,
and come down here if He's God?
Why would He choose?
We're just ignorant, untrained fishermen that can't be.
They couldn't put it together.
They couldn't comprehend that God would eat with
them and sleep with them and let them
share in the working of a miracle.
Because you see, the Bible says, they fed
them all, and they get in a boat
and they row.
And Jesus said, the high was high.
They didn't understand.
They were not willing to accept Him as
God.
Or they would not have been shocked that
He had power over the waves and the
wind.
In fact, you go to chapter 8, and
they're feeding 4,000 this time with a
few loaves and fishes.
And they're in a boat again, and they're
crossing.
And they're talking about, Jesus warns them against
the leaven of the Pharisees.
And they begin to say, is this because
we didn't bring bread?
And Jesus looks at them incredulously, and He
says, is your heart still hardened?
Have you still not put it together?
I'm God!
And I know you're just fishermen.
I know that you don't have power and
you have inabilities.
You are weak in your flesh, but I
chose you because you're weak and you are
frail.
I am God, and I've done miracles, and
you missed it!
Now, we have people running around looking for
nothing but miracles, and that's all they want
to see, signs and wonders and miracles.
That's another story.
But folks, the hardening comes when you take
the super out of the supernatural.
They get in the boat after feeding 5
,000, and they have dismissed it already.
There had to be some natural thing happened.
There's something happened there, and they dismiss it.
They needed that miracle.
They needed faith in that.
They had to have confidence in that miracle
and that He was God, so that when
they are before the 4,000, and the
Lord says, feed them, what do they say?
Well, how are we going to feed them?
They've just fed 5,000 two days before.
And here they are.
We know that they are blind.
They can't accept that God is still supernatural
and does supernatural things for His people.
And they can't accept the miracle-working power
of God in this whole event.
They've dismissed it from their mind.
They needed that confidence, so that when they
face the 4,000, they wouldn't say, huh?
They would have said, Lord, remember, 5,000,
this is only 4,000.
Lord, You fed 5,000 out of 5
loaves and 2 fishes.
Do it again, Lord.
Do it again.
He said, are you still hardened?
Have you not put this together?
Folks, there's nothing natural about the Christian life.
It's all supernatural.
You were saved.
That was not just a natural happenstance.
That just didn't happen.
You didn't just walk into a church, and
you just one day said, well, I need
Jesus.
Oh, no, no, folks.
It was a miracle.
God sent the Holy Ghost, and it was
a miracle that you got saved.
Why aren't you sitting here now, lusting after
somebody else's husband or wife?
Why aren't you out getting drunk last night?
Why weren't you out?
It's a miracle of His keeping power.
It's been a miracle.
It's a miracle.
Very simply, this church is an absolute miracle.
We're here in this building.
God gave us this building by a supernatural
miracle.
Here's what I believe.
I believe with all my heart.
Just a year or so before we came
to this city to start a church, there
was a boom.
The theaters were booming.
Broadway was doing well.
I believe that God, when He said go
to New York City, began to shut Broadway
down.
He began...
You mean the whole city?
Yes, all Broadway.
When we came in here, there were empty
theaters everywhere.
If Broadway was packed out, we could have
never...
It would have never been possible.
I believe God...
In fact, the people that we bought it
from were in debt.
And I believe God allowed the debt.
The last show that was in here, Legs
Diamond, a filthy, filthy show.
Homosexuality, everything.
God shut it down in three days and
they lost $10 million on it.
And they wound up in debt.
There was an angel at work.
There was the spirit of God at work.
When we came here and looked at this
theater and didn't have any money, it was
a miracle in less than a year that
$16 million came in without a request.
In the middle of a miracle.
Look, they started booming
again.
Broadway's been booming ever since.
Now, here's the problem.
If I...
Looking back now.
If I say, or allow the enemy to
put this thought in my mind, well, wait
a minute.
Broadway has its cycles.
This was just a cycle.
These guys are gamblers and they're always in
debt.
You were just there at the right time
and the right place.
If I take the super out of the
supernatural, if I attribute that just to happenstance,
I have robbed God of the glory, and
worse than that, worse than that, I have
robbed myself of the provoking of new faith
at every new crisis.
Because, you see, I so believe that miracle
that every time I come against a crisis,
I say, God, I know what you did.
Do it again.
Hallelujah.
Do it again.
Hallelujah.
Do it again.
He saved you by a miracle.
He pulled you out of the clutches of
the devil.
And when the enemy comes back with temptation,
when he comes back with new temptations, when
he brings new lust, God, you saved me
once.
Do it again.
Keep it.
You're doing it.
Keep it again.
Do it again.
Do it again, Lord.
Do it for all of us.
We need a miracle.
Lord, we need your supernatural power.
Hallelujah.
We need your supernatural power.
But hear me, please.
If you're not willing to deal with sin,
if you're not willing to fully commit your
life to confidence, full confidence and trust in
Him, then forget the miracles.
If that's your focus, if the miracle is
your focus, that's their own focus.
It's Jesus, the miracle worker, lovingly convicts us
of sin and rebellion.
And I believe God's going to give us
the rest of the story before the day
is over.
Hallelujah.
I'm not going to ask how many need
a miracle.
I'm going to ask how many need to
confess of unbelief before God.
You've got a problem.
You've got something that's risen in your life,
in your family, and you have lost confidence.
You just don't...
You can't believe that God will answer prayer.
Your faith has been shaken.
God wants that to be repented of.
The Lord says, repent.
Repent of that.
And the dear man who had a son
and had a problem, he said, Lord, help
my unbelief.
Now, I'm going to tell you this before
I close.
There's not a person here that isn't guilty
of unbelief.
Not one of us.
Not one person here is free from the
sin of unbelief.
But I will tell you something.
The joy and the victory of my life
has been when the Holy Ghost has dealt
with this, and I have faced my problems
now, faced everything that comes at me, my
ministry of family.
God, I've seen what you've done.
I have a history.
You're with me.
You're not mad at me.
God's not mad at you.
He's only angered at our unbelief.
He still has that great love for us
as individuals, but oh how He despises that
unbelief in us, because He knows what it's
going to rob you of.
If the Holy Ghost has spoken to you,
I want you down to be seated in
the annex.
I want you to go forward between the
screens.
I'd like to pray for you and ask
God to give you today a new spirit
of faith and walk out of here believing
that God's going to do the impossible, believing
that God is going to deal with your
enemy and all the sin that's in your
life, that the Holy Ghost is going to
fight the lust.
It's the spirit that lusts us against the
flesh.
In other words, He's the one who fights
if you'll trust Him.
And here, man, I'll turn up in the
balcony, go to the stairs on either side,
and you come down in the aisle, and
you say, nobody will beg you.
We're going to pray for you and believe
God that He'll do something supernatural in your
life before you walk out of this church
this morning.
Alright?
Move in close, please, and make room for
those that are coming.
Listen to me, please, those that have come
forward especially.
Scripture says without faith, it's impossible to please
God.
So what that says to me, that's where
I start.
I have to start there.
I have to deal with this issue of
faith.
Do I believe that God means what He
says?
Do I believe that God said that my
body is a temple of the Holy Ghost?
Do I believe that He's the one who
overcomes the temptations of my flesh as I
just trust Him and yield to Him?
Do I believe that He's going to keep
me from falling as He promised He would?
Do I believe the covenant promises that He
will put the fear of God in me
and I won't have to work it up
or invent it?
Do I believe that He will keep me
from falling and present me faultless before His
presence with exceeding great joy?
Do I believe that?
Do I believe that if I confess my
sins, He's faithful and just?
Do I believe that if any man sins,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the Risen?
Do I believe this?
Do I receive it?
And will I walk in that light?
Without faith, it's impossible.
So all of our prayers, all of our
works, all of the good things we do
for God are in vain if we do
not believe that He...
Without faith, it's impossible to please Him.
And they that come to Him must believe
that He is, that He is what?
That He is God Almighty.
And He is a what?
A rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
You've come here to diligently seek Him now.
Will you believe that He's going to reward
you right now?
He is going to reward you.
Just raise both hands.
Lift them up to God.
Lift them up to the Lord.
Pray this from your guts.
Right from the inside.
Jesus.
I believe Your Word.
I confess my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
Put faith in my heart.
Cleanse me.
Sanctify me.
Do it again.
The miracles You've promised.
I believe.
I trust You, Jesus.
I surrender.
Let me trust them to You as I
repent and walk in faith.
Now, just give Him thanks.
Lord, I give You thanks.
I give You praise.
I acknowledge.
Thank you.
It's going to be a great day.
This afternoon at three.
Then again at six.
We love the house of God and the
fellowship.
We're looking forward to moving into working and
convicting of the Holy Spirit.
Now, don't forget, if you're visiting in the
annex, go to room 204.
And here in the balcony, you come down
the stairs and here in the main auditorium,
right through exit 8 and 9 into the
ancillary building.
We have some refreshments, a free tape and
a free book and some wonderful fellowship from
people all over the world and New Yorkers.
You're dismissed.
Shake hands with at least ten people before
you walk out.
A good God bless you to everybody as
you shake hands.
God bless you.
Walking in the light.
This is the conclusion of the message.