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My message this morning, the Lord will fight
for you.
The Lord will fight for you.
It sounds like somebody needs some help.
Please go to Deuteronomy, the first chapter.
Deuteronomy, first chapter.
Let's start at verse 21.
I'm going to read right through to verse
35.
Behold, the Lord thy God has set the
land before thee.
Go up and possess it, as the Lord
God of your fathers has said unto you.
Fear not, neither be discouraged.
You came near unto me, every one of
you, and said, We will send men before
us.
They shall search out the land and bring
us word again by what way we must
go up and into what cities we shall
come.
Now, that was an act of unbelief.
God told them to go up, and they
said, Well, just wait a minute.
We've got to go check it out.
And even though Moses approved it, there's no
evidence that God ever asked Moses for that
permission.
And the saying pleased me.
That's Moses speaking.
Please me well.
I took 12 men of you, one of
a tribe.
They turned and went up into the mountain
and came to the Valley of Eskol and
searched it out.
They took the fruit of the land in
their hands, brought it down to us, brought
us word again and said, It's a good
land which the Lord our God has given
us.
Nevertheless, or notwithstanding, we would not go up.
You would not go up, but rebelled against
the commandment of the Lord your God.
And you murmured in your tents and said,
Because the Lord hated us.
He brought us out, the land of Egypt
to deliver us in the hand of the
Amorites to destroy us.
Whither shall we go up?
Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, The
people is greater and taller than we.
The cities are great and walled up to
heaven.
Moreover, we have seen the sons of Anakims
there.
Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither
be afraid of them.
The Lord your God which go before you,
he shall fight for you according to all
that he did for you in Egypt, because
before your eyes.
And in the wilderness were thou seen how
the Lord thy God bare thee as a
man doth bear his son.
In all the way that you went, you
came to 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 a
place to pitch your tents in, and fire
by night to show you by what way
you should go in a cloud by day.
And the Lord heard the voice of your
words, and was wroth and swore, saying, Surely
there shall not one of these men of
this evil generation see that good land which
your fathers swore to give unto your fathers.
Now, Father, this is the third or fourth
message you put in my heart regarding unbelief.
And I'm asking you, Lord, to speak so
clearly.
Awaken our hearts to the horribleness of this
sin of unbelief, and help us to see
this mighty God who's promised to fight for
us.
And let us rise in faith this morning,
believing God for the impossible.
God, for those who need a miracle, for
those facing a crisis, for those of God
going through the hardest time of their life,
let faith arise.
Oh, God, we ask you to forgive our
unbelief.
Lord, you won't let me get away from
this subject.
You're dealing with me, dealing with all of
us, likewise in your marvelous love.
I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Now, the book of Deuteronomy is Moses rehearsing
with the children of Israel in Qadesh, Baniyah,
about why God turned them back into the
wilderness.
Now, the children of Israel, after 11 months,
came to Qadesh, Baniyah, and they could look
over the hills and they could see Canaan
land.
They'd see the promised land.
They were that close.
And the Lord commanded them to go in.
And, of course, they disobeyed, and this is
what we just read.
And so they were cast back into the
wilderness, and they wandered for an additional 38
1⁄2 years.
And Moses now is speaking to the children.
He's speaking to the children of the fathers
who died in the wilderness.
And he's reminding them of why their parents
were wasted in the wilderness, how they lost
the vision of people who were called and
anointed, of people who God so loved, who
so miraculously cared for and bore them up
in his arms, and how time after time,
unbelief and doubt and murmuring and complaining entered
their hearts, and how they grieved God.
And God's patience came to an end with
it.
And he said, no.
He saw the committed unbelief.
They were committed to unbelief.
There was nothing God could do.
There was no miracle he could perform that
would change their minds.
They were set in unbelief like concrete.
And God said, that's enough.
And he said, go back into the wilderness,
not one of you.
Not one of you are going to enter
the promised land.
And hundreds of thousands of men that came
out of Egypt died, wasted empty lives in
the wilderness.
And he's trying to say to the children
now, you're going to go in.
But he said, I want you to remember
what happened to your parents.
I want you to remember what happened to
your fathers.
They're all dead.
They're all gone.
You don't have any of them now, living
to be 100.
Moses lived to be 120.
Aaron, 123.
And Miriam, much older than that.
And they were not living.
They're gone.
Every one of their fathers, the elders, were
all gone and dead, except Joshua and Caleb.
And he's also speaking not only to the
children of that generation, but he's speaking to
us today, upon whom the ends of the
world have come.
And the message is, beware lest any man
fall after the same example of unbelief.
Beware lest you, in the last days, fall,
he calls it a fall, into this unbelief.
The same kind of unbelief that caused them
to be driven back into the wilderness and
live such empty, wasted, devastated lives.
He said, take heed what manner of impossibilities
you face.
He said, be careful of the impossibilities that
come against you.
Beware that you understand that God will lead
you.
He led them into these crisis situations to
enable them to trust him, to see his
power and to build.
He wanted a people who would be unshakable
in their faith, tested and tried, that a
golden faith would come forth as a testimony
to the whole world at that time and
for history.
And God uses a very strong language when
referring to the unbelief in these children of
Israel.
Words like wrath, this is God's attitude toward
their unbelief.
God was wrath, wrath, anger, abhorrence.
He said, you've tempted me, you've tempted me
with your unbelief.
Moses reminded Israel, you saw how the Lord
your God bare thee as a man that
bare his son.
And all the way that you went, he
went before you to search out a place
for you to pitch your tents.
He gave you a fire by night to
show you the way.
He gave you a cloud by day, yet
you still did not believe the Lord your
God.
The Lord heard the voice of your words
and he was wrath, saying, I tell you,
not one of these evil men or doubters
shall see the good of the land except
Caleb.
He said, God led us to Qadesh, Baniyah.
And he said, there he tried us.
He said, you saw the land.
And God said, go in.
They should have moved instantly on the word
of God, the promise of God.
God said, I'm going to fight for you.
I'm going to go before you.
I'm going to send hornets before you and
chase them.
I'm going to chase them like bees.
I'm just going to chase them.
And you're going to, many of these values
are just going to stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord.
Go!
Moses and the elders decided to send spies
into the land.
Now, folks, here's the lesson.
And learn it well.
You see, when we don't act immediately on
God's word, if we don't stand and act
on God's word and allow that to chase
the doubts and fears from our life and
move on that word, this word is given.
God means what he said.
He doesn't want to have to repeat it
over and over again.
He gives it and says, I expect you
to believe it and stand on that word.
They should have gone on.
They would have marched into the promised land.
They would have had victory after victory.
And God would have undertaken for every one
of their crisis.
He would have seen them through.
He was determined to bless them.
He said, go.
But you see, when you don't act on
God's promises and when you toy with it
and say, did God really speak?
Did God really say that?
Can I really trust my life to that
promise?
So they send the spies.
And remember, while they're there, the enemy, Satan
himself, possessed, inhabited ten of those men.
And he brought them back as liars, as
instruments of lies from the devil himself.
They came back the report.
They're giants.
The cities are walled up to heaven.
Now, that's the biggest lie you ever heard.
Walled up to heaven.
And now, they have opened themselves to the
lies of the enemy because they did not
take God at his word.
They didn't move when God said move.
They didn't act on his promises.
And now, here they are, weeping about their
children.
Weeping about, we're going to be in poverty.
Our children are going to starve in this
wilderness.
God, you brought us here because you hate
us.
You hate us.
How do you get from this point where
they're ready to go?
The armies are prepared.
They have honed their skills.
They're ready to go into the promised land.
God's about to open everything he's ever promised
to them after showing them so many miracles.
And now, because they won't act on God's
promise, they truly don't believe what God said.
And now, they've opened themselves to lies.
And now, they're weeping in their tents.
They're murmuring.
They're complaining.
And they're looking up to the sky, shaking
a fist.
God, you hate me.
You've left us to our own.
They're doubting their call.
They're doubting they're the anointed people.
They doubt that they're special in the eyes
of God.
And somehow, they say to one another, is
God with us anymore?
In other words, God, at what point did
you forsake us?
We've done our best.
They hadn't done their best.
They didn't believe God's word.
They didn't stand on the word of God.
And here they are now.
The camp is in total confusion.
When did the devil start lying to you?
How many of these lies out of hell
have come against you that you're not going
to make it, that you're not good enough,
that God is mad at you for your
past sins and really hasn't forgiven you?
How is it that you can stand by
and you know that God has called you
to a life of peace and rest in
the Holy Ghost?
He's made you promises.
I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you.
He's made you promises.
He's merciful, more willing to forgive than you
are to confess.
He said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you.
What happened?
When did you start believing the lies that
God's going to fail you in your crisis?
When did that come to you?
Because somewhere along the line you did not
take God at his word.
Somewhere you did not act.
He said to them, fear not, neither be
discouraged.
But you see, they staggered at God's promises.
God had said, no enemy will be able
to stand before you.
But the Bible said they would not go
up but rebelled against the commandment of the
Lord.
Now, Kadesh Barnea is a place God brings
all his children.
This is the place of ultimate testing of
faith.
The root word means fugitive, vagabond, or wanderer.
Because you see, if you make the wrong
choice at Kadesh Barnea, you're going to be
a fugitive.
You're going to be running and wandering through
a wilderness the rest of your life.
And how you react, your Kadesh Barnea is
a test, an ultimate test.
You've come up to many tests.
You can look back over your life.
You can see so many deliverances that God
brought you through.
Look back now and try to count the
times that you thought that you were going
down.
And here you sit in this auditorium today.
And you look back with mercy and grace
of God that has been poured upon you.
And you can say, God has never failed
me.
It was hard at times.
I thought I'd never make it.
But God somehow, someway, he made a way.
There were times my finances looked so bad.
There were times I thought I was going
to go bankrupt.
There were times I thought our family would
be broken up.
I thought my children would never hear the
voice of God.
And looking back, oh, I look back at
all the hell that I experienced at times.
Look back at so many times God in
his mercy reached down and picked me up.
And I stand here now in the grace
of God.
And you are here by the grace of
God.
But there comes an ultimate testing time in
our lives when we face the face with
a battle so intense, so beyond anything we've
known in history.
And the Lord is trying to break us
through to a place where we'll never doubt
him again.
He's trying to produce in us a kind
of faith that is pure gold.
For you see, without it, you can't please
him.
You can't please him just by doing work.
You can't please him by Bible reading.
You can't please him just by intense prayer.
You can do all of that and still
not please him because you've done it in
unbelief.
You can pray and still not believe and
God answers them.
But he says, without faith, you cannot please
him.
And the Lord brings them Kedosh B'nei.
And they have to make a decision.
They move on and live by faith.
They have to absolutely put their hands in
the hands of God because, yes, there are
enemies.
Yes, there are walls.
Yes, there are giants.
Yes, there are things ahead of them that
look impossible.
And yet God says, folks, I cannot understand
why God has objected his miracle-working power
to human faith.
I will never be able to understand that
God has limited his miracle-working power in
the hands of our faith.
Because, you see, Jesus said in his own
country, his own place, he could do no
miracles there because of their unbelief.
He said, I can't work.
Unbelief paralyzes God.
And if you're facing a battle now, you're
facing a crisis in your life.
I don't care if it's financial, marital, on
the job.
I don't care if it's about your children.
I don't care what it is.
Whatever the issue is out of your heart
or in life, if there's unbelief, God is
paralyzed in working it out for you.
Absolutely paralyzed.
He said, I cannot do any work because
of your unbelief.
Is God still with us, they said.
And what they're really saying to God, if
you're with us, we still wouldn't be in
this crisis.
This one's impossible.
This is a hopeless situation that I'm in.
But, folks, if it's impossible, my Bible said
he's the God of the impossible.
He said nothing is impossible with him.
You can't name me anything that is impossible
with God.
I don't care what you're up against.
I have to stand on God's word.
Nothing that you and I are going through
is impossible for God to work out.
And don't tell him how to do it.
Let me put my finger on the root
cause of Israel's unbelief.
It's the same root cause today.
God's spoken word, his already revealed word, was
not enough for them.
They heard it and they immediately forgot it
because it was not mixed with faith.
And you see, the word that we receive
from this pulpit or any pulpit where the
true word of God has gone forth, if
you don't immediately mix it with faith and
have the Holy Ghost imprinted on your mind
and say, I will not forget this.
I'm going to make this a part of
the fiber of my life.
And God will speak.
But, you see, every word that God has
spoken, they're in a crisis now at Qadosh
Baronyim, and they're about to go over, but
they have forgot every promise God made.
They have removed from their mind all the
miracles and all the remembrances of that which
God had done in the past.
And here they stand in their crisis, and
they had not laid hold of a single
promise.
I'm asking you, when you hear preaching from
this pulpit, do you lay hold of it?
Do you let it take as a seed,
take root in your heart?
And say, oh God, water this with your
spirit.
Let it take roots so that when I'm
in a crisis, I have the word that
I need.
But, you see, it was useless.
It was not mixed with faith.
See, they wanted a new word.
They wanted a fresh revelation.
God, are you with us or not?
In other words, Lord, I really have to
hear from you now.
I have to have a word.
And, folks, the word that came through the
lips of Moses, God said, tell them, I'm
the Lord your God and I will fight
for you.
But that was not a new revelation.
It was not a new word.
God says, I'm going to remind you, I
already gave you everything you need to see
you through.
I told you, it was in Exodus 14,
14.
They were told long before, the Lord shall
fight for you.
You shall hold your peace.
In Egypt, he told them, I will go
before you, I will fight for you, I
will dwell among you.
Deuteronomy 3.22, you shall not fear, for
the Lord your God, he shall fight for
you.
Over and again, he said, I'm with you,
I'll fight for you.
I want you, though, to lay hold of
this promise.
But here they are, trembling before their enemies
and saying, is God with us or not?
Is that what you're saying now?
Are you saying, Lord, I know that you
said that you'd not let us bear any
more, you'll not allow any difficulty in our
lives more than we're able to bear.
But Lord, I've reached the point where I
cannot bear.
I've passed that point and you're not there
yet.
I don't see any evidence of you undertaking
from my crises.
Lord, you said you wouldn't allow me to
bear more than I'm able.
But this is more than I'm able to
bear.
I've passed the crisis point.
Right now, I'm in a place where I
wonder, if you hear my prayers, I wonder
if you're with me.
Are you among us or not?
If you're among us, why aren't you working?
If you're fighting for me, where is the
evidence?
And I'll tell you, it happened at Revedim
when they took God, God led them right
into the driest portion of the whole wilderness,
the driest spot, no water in sight.
And at Revedim, that's where the children were
crying.
And God brought them to the point of
agony, absolute agony.
Yes, they were thirsty.
They were at the point of total thirst.
Children crying and they're murmuring and they're complaining.
And everybody said, well, we're just human.
No, but you see, God had made them
a promise.
And God was waiting for them to stand
on the Word and say, well, back here,
God met me.
And remember, at this point, He met us.
And over here, let's fall on our knees,
raise our hands to God and let's cry
out to Him.
He'll answer.
God will send water if it's rain from
heaven.
And now they're trembled before their enemies.
And God had told them the dread of
you is going to fall upon all the
nations wherever you trod.
You're going to be a feared people.
And here they are instead trembling before their
enemies.
Do you dread and tremble before your enemy?
Wouldn't that be setting sin?
God has made you so many promises that
He will deliver you.
I like what David said, I will fear
no evil.
I will fear no evil for thy rod,
thy staff that comfort me.
You see, the devil wants you to tremble
before him.
And this is what God despised, that He
sees His people trembling before His enemy, His
archenemy.
And God had made them every promise to
sustain them, that no enemy could touch them.
And folks, exactly what God has said to
you, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake
you.
I'm more willing to forgive than you are
to confess.
If you cannot lay hold of those promises,
you just tremble before the enemy.
And the only way out is not by
trying to promise God to do better.
It's not gritting your teeth saying somehow.
Yes, God does sanctify our will.
The Holy Ghost comes and gives us the
mind of Christ.
He does empower us.
But He wants more than anything else that
you walk in the faith of His promise.
The covenant of God, all the covenants work
only through faith.
No other way to bring the covenant into
full fruition in our hearts.
Do you want to go a little further?
I believe that unbelief in the New Testament
is a greater sin than unbelief in the
Old Testament.
It's a greater sin.
And He did not many miracles there because
of their unbelief, Matthew 13, 57.
Now you think about that for a minute.
This is the New Testament.
And this is how dangerous it is, He
said, because of unbelief.
I could not, I would not, I could
not do anything in their midst.
The Scripture says under the New Testament that
His own disciples couldn't cast the demons out
of a little child.
And the Lord said, because of your unbelief.
In fact, in the New Testament, Jesus was
absolutely shocked at the unbelief of His own
disciples.
The Bible said He upbraided.
In other words, in plain English, He disgraced
them for their unbelief.
In fact, the Jews, because of their unbelief,
Scripture says in the New Testament, were broken
off of the vine.
Folks, we have something that the Old Testament
saints could only dream about.
They could only dream about the communion that
is possible that we now experience.
You see, in the Old Testament, the Holy
Spirit occasionally moved upon them.
You'll read, and the Spirit of God moved
here.
The Spirit of God moved here.
But you see, the Holy Spirit had not
been outpoured yet.
And we live now in the time of
the outpoured Holy Spirit.
And you see, when they worshipped, they had
to go to the temple.
But you see, today God has made us
the temple.
This body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost.
They had to go to the temple.
Now God comes here to His temple.
The Holy Ghost abides.
He has given us His own Son to
bear our burdens, to carry us like a
father does his child.
He has endued us with the Holy Ghost.
And we have all of these privileges and
promises that the people could only look about
in the Old Testament, only dream about.
And we live in this glory.
And still we doubt Him.
They could only dream of what you and
I enjoy now.
You see, we have a Christ that's available
any hour of the day or the night,
24 hours a day, a whole lifetime.
You can call on the name of the
Lord and you can hear His voice.
My sheep know my voice and they hear
when I call.
We have this privilege and we walk stone
deaf.
In spite of it all, in time of
extreme testing, we doubt.
Jesus said, Shall God not avenge His own
elect which cry day and night to Him,
though He bear long with them?
I tell you that He will avenge them
speedily.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall
He find faith on the earth?
I'm going to come back to that at
the close of my message.
And that has to do with the experience
I had last night on 42nd Street.
When I went back after 16 years where
God called me to raise up this church.
I went back last night to have some
time with God.
Reminisce with God and have Him speak a
new word to my heart.
And I'll tell you, it has to do
with this when He returns.
He says, Am I going to find any
faith?
Let me tell you the consequences of unbelief.
All that generation, Deuteronomy 2, 14 to 16.
All that generation wasted away.
The hand of the Lord was against them
to destroy them.
Now folks, these are strong words.
These are strong words.
The hand of God was against them.
His own people.
His hand was against them.
He said, Not one of you.
Not one of you are going to enter
in to the promise that I made.
To the rest.
See, a promised land is a life of
rest and peace and trust in God.
A life without fear.
You see, under grace in the New Testament,
the Bible says, There remains a rest and
some must enter in.
When I read that this week, Some must
enter in.
I said, Oh God, if some are going
to enter in, By grace, I'm going to
be one of those that enter in to
that rest.
Some have to.
That's a command.
God says, Some are going to enter in
to that rest.
They're going to get the word that they're
going to enter in.
You see, unbelief defiles every area of our
life.
Now, we have faith in many areas of
our life.
We have faith that God is truly God.
We believe that the Holy Spirit is on
earth and he's at work.
He's a comforter.
We believe that we're saved by grace.
We believe it's possibly sanctified by the Holy
Ghost.
We believe so many things.
We believe there's a heaven.
We believe there's a hell.
We believe in so many areas.
But I want to tell you, If we
have in one area of our life, We're
doubting him seriously in one area of our
life.
That spills over.
It's like a cancer that defiles every issue
that pours out of our heart.
All the issues of life are out of
our heart.
And if there is one area in our
life, You say, for example, Your children are
not serving God.
And you believe for every other area.
But in this one, your heart is sunken.
You've almost given up on that.
That area can defile every other source of
faith in every issue in our lives.
God's really been dealing with me that.
God says, you're going to trust me in
everything in your life.
Your finances, your job, your career, your marriage,
your relationships, everything.
If you're going to have rest, You're going
to have to have it in every area
of your life.
You can't rest in one area and be
agitated in another area.
You can't be mad at somebody.
You can't hold a grudge against somebody.
Expect peace here.
Though you trust him in every other area
of your life.
You don't trust him for forgiveness and reconciliation.
And he says to them, as for you,
turn you and take your journey back into
the wilderness.
I'm not among you.
And you see, the sin of unbelief leads
to the sin of presumption.
Presumption is to act on your own as
if you know everything is OK.
In other words, it's just arrogance.
It says, I know.
And so they come to Moses and they
said, OK, we've sinned.
They really didn't repent.
If they repented, they would have received God's
word to go back and learn their lesson
in the wilderness.
But they said, no, no, we have, we've
got this figured out now.
And we should have gone, but we missed
it.
Now we're going to go.
And so they, in their own skill, own
power, their own abilities, they organize captains and
they organize a small army and they head
up the hill to Moabites.
And Moses said, you can go, but you're
not taking the ark.
The ark stays right here in the camp.
God's not going with you.
You go, you go it alone.
You see, we'll give God time.
We'll say, well, Lord, it's past the deadline
now.
You didn't answer.
So I'm going to have to do something
about this.
And so we take it in our own
hands.
It's presumption, it's arrogance.
And say, well, I have to get a
hold of this or I'm going to go
bankrupt.
I have to, I have to do something.
No, all you have to do is pray
and believe that God hears you.
And open your heart and your ears for
his direction.
And say, trust, live or die, I'm the
Lord's.
If I go into the furnace, I go
into the furnace.
He can deliver me, but if not, I'm
going to die in the furnace.
I'm going into lion's den.
God can shut their mouth, but if I'm
meat for the lions, I'm going to be
resurrected and I'm going to be with God
in glory.
We have to come to the place.
We don't even fear death.
We don't even fear the spoiling of our
goods.
We say God is in control of our
lives.
They go up and the Bible said the
mobites chased them like bees.
Chased them like bees.
And you see Christians being chased like bees
all over the world today.
Because they're doing it their way.
They're no longer trusting God.
You see, God didn't meet them on their
schedule.
And they said, well, this is getting too
serious.
I'm going to make something happen.
Oh, man, have I gotten in trouble over
the years for making things happen.
God, where are you?
I can't wait any longer.
I love you, God, but I have to
do something.
Yeah, and you're going to end up in
the wilderness.
Have you ever seen these people that have
a measure of religion?
A lot of believers who even come to
church and sing the songs and so forth.
But you see, they have no faith.
And what happens then, they go back into
this wilderness, and all they do is murmur
and complain all their life.
I mean, they murmur about their kids.
And all they talk about are their problems
and troubles.
And they're real problems and real troubles because
there's no faith.
And if you want to walk that way,
folks, it's going to be your lifetime, the
rest of your life.
And what happens then, you lose your history.
What happens to these children when they go
into the promised land, and the grandchildren of
these who died in the wilderness, the parents,
children say, what about granddad?
What about grandma?
Where are they?
What happened?
You see, the Bible says we live as
a tale that is told.
And you see, there's a book being written
here in the wilderness.
And you know what the book's title would
be?
They all died in unbelief.
And there's no history now.
They die.
And what are you going to say?
What are the children going to say?
Well, for 38 years all I heard was
my granddad murmur and complain and think that
God wasn't with him and he didn't accomplish
anything.
There's no testimony.
There's nothing I can show.
There's no history.
There's nothing.
It's all gone.
That's the dread of unbelief.
Cut your history off immediately.
And then all you have is that wasted
life where the rest of your life you
murmur, you complain, and you doubt.
There is no joy.
It's all gone.
And you wait to die.
I have a lot more, but I want
to just get it out of my heart.
God's been dealing with me for a month
on this issue because I'm finding if I
go to preach to preachers, and I can
talk to them about brokenness and I can
talk to pastors about sin and all of
these things, but, folks, if there's unbelief, nothing
else works.
This issue has to be dealt with first.
Am I going to trust God with my
life?
I went down to 42nd Street last night.
Gwen's down in Dallas visiting her grandchildren for
a week and will be home tomorrow, but
I was alone.
So I went down last night to 42nd
Street.
Between 7 and 8, that's when it's most
crowded, the shows.
All the show people are coming in, racing
to their shows.
I went to the spot where 16 years
ago I stood weeping where they were selling
crack cocaine, and they were advertising death.
I've got the good stuff that will kill
you.
I remember weeping there, and God said, raise
up a church right here in Times Square.
I went back to that spot.
Ford Theater is there now, and there's steps.
And so I went up the steps and
just sat there, and I watched the multitude.
Now, it's been estimated probably on 42nd Street
in a rush time, during show time, could
be probably a quarter million people go past
there.
And I just sat there, looking at these
people running by, and I heard the Holy
Spirit whisper, they have no God.
There are no believers but a few.
In fact, the few believers there saw me
and came up and said, Hi, Pastor, what
are you doing here?
I said, I'm praying.
And I was praying and weeping.
And you see, they have no God except
sports.
They have the God of pleasure, success, and
money, but they have no God.
They have those false gods, and all this
mass going by.
And I'm thinking, they say there could be
a quarter million, and they're not all here.
Some of them are all the way up
Broadway.
I'm probably seeing 150,000 people here in
an hour going by with no God except
in name only.
So few submitted.
Racing, and there's no joy.
They look like they're going to the guillotine.
I mean, they look like they're going to
a prison.
They're just racing.
And I thought, there are at least 600
,000 men that came out of Israel.
And I said, I'd have to stay here
half the night to see them pass by
by the thousands.
Here's maybe 150,000 passing by.
And it was such a mass.
You have to walk out on the road.
The whole place is filled.
In fact, I had to fight my way
through to get to the Ford Theater from
42nd Street just to get to the theater.
And I'm thinking, I'd have to wait here
for hours before 600,000 men would pass
me.
All going into the desert.
All full of unbelief.
It has struck me.
And the Holy Spirit was teaching me.
He said, you would have to see.
And the Bible says only two.
Now, can you imagine that multitude going by
and only two men get into the promised
land?
Joshua and Caleb.
And over 600,000 fighting men all died
before the time.
Died in despair because of what?
Unbelief.
And I think of Jesus.
I said, oh God.
How do you reach them?
Is there anything we have not done yet?
Is there some way that Times Square Church,
there's some way I've been here 16 years
as part of the church.
And been here 40 years actually with Teen
Challenge.
And going back to the beginning of Teen
Challenge.
And look at the masses.
Jesus, did you remember when I wept over
Jerusalem and said, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
They'd come from all over the world.
The masses were on the streets.
And he went out and he, at a
vantage point, just like I'm sitting there at
a vantage point.
And he's looking, he's weeping.
He said, oh if you only knew.
I wanted to gather you as a mother
hen under my wings as a mother hen
gathers her chicks.
But you would not.
You would not.
You see, these people that are marching by,
they have the gospel on internet.
They hear it on television.
They hear it on all these different places.
They have a testimony right here.
They walk right by it here on Broadway.
I see some people passing out tracts and
nobody wants them.
I saw the Jews down there, Hasidic Jews,
passing out their literature.
Nobody wanted it.
And they're all going here.
And I began to see the value in
God's eyes of a single believer.
One who has faith.
One man, one woman who has absolute faith
in him.
I looked across the street and there's a
great big billboard.
And it's a new music video network that's
being, it's called Fuse, F-U-S-E.
It's an evil music video outlet.
Here's a picture of Tammy Baker.
All dressed up in drag.
And it says, I saw the light, and
it was a TV with music videos.
And under it says, Tammy is number one
for Fuse.
Tammy's number three for drag queens.
And I'm like, that's way, go down and
you'll see it sitting up there, way on
top of Broadway.
Just see what unbelief does.
To see how far low and thin a
man can go, or woman, when there's unbelief.
When there's no trust in God.
And I pictured sitting there, the Lord saying
it's near time.
He's about to come.
And so the searcher of all men's hearts
starts searching for those that are trusting him.
And he goes to the football stadiums all
over this country.
Football stadiums have hundreds of thousands every Sunday.
And he can't find any faith.
And then I see him going into Washington,
D.C., into the Congress, and into all
of the legislative bodies, all of the United
States, and he can't see any faith.
And all he sees are those trying to
push him out of this society.
Not even want to mention his name.
They want to absolutely take God out.
I see him searching in every college campus.
And he can't find any faith.
Here one, and here another.
And I see him searching football stadiums.
I see him in hockey arenas.
I see him at basketball courts and all
the venues all over the United States.
And he's looking, he's searching, where are those
who are going to believe me?
I came to die for you.
I came and gave my life.
Where is anybody that believes me, that trusts
in me, give their life to me?
And he can't find them.
And I hear an angel say, go to
your church.
And so he goes to the modern church,
and he looks everywhere, and they don't even
believe in his birth as God.
They don't believe in a virgin birth.
There is no faith.
There's nothing but death.
And he searches these cathedrals, and he searches
the city, and he especially searches New York.
And he goes in search of men's hearts.
Do you have faith?
Do you believe?
He knows the hearts, but he's looking, searching.
And then he comes to his own people.
And remember the scripture said, he came to
his own, and his own accepted him not.
He came to his own people, and they
didn't believe in him.
And I began to feel the grief of
God's heart.
Because he comes into his church.
He comes into his own body, to his
own family, to his own children.
And he sees despair.
He sees fear.
He sees so few that believe and trust
everything in their life to him.
And the Lord spoke to my heart.
He said, I'm not grieved by this.
They've made their choice.
They're children of the devil.
But I am grieved because I have so
few, so few to trust me.
So few.
And the search of men's heart is here
today.
And I hear that ringing in my heart.
And I'm sitting there and said, oh God,
surely.
Up a few blocks on 50th Street and
Broadway.
Right next to the most wicked show in
Broadway.
Right here.
And down here, Taboo.
That's boy George.
It's all drag.
It's all homosexual.
And you see him lined up trying to
get in there.
You see families lined up.
And you see people lined up to see
these shows.
And you say, oh, that must be the
heart of God.
Not nearly as much as what he feels
in his heart when he comes to his
own house.
He comes to his shepherds.
He comes to me.
He comes to all of us.
And he says, do you trust me?
When I come, am I going to have,
am I going to find any faith?
And faith will not take matters in its
own hands.
Faith will wait on God.
Faith will stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord.
Will you stand?
Lord, forgive my unbelief.
Forgive my unbelief, oh God.
How you hate this sin.
Oh, Jesus, you're merciful.
You're so loving.
When it comes to time, you're going to
have to turn this over to some wilderness
experience.
You still love us.
You will still provide.
But, Lord, there will not be intimacy.
There will not be that nearness of God.
And we will murmur and we will complain.
Oh, God, forgive us.
Lord, let this be a church that believes
fully and completely in your faithfulness in a
time of need.
Even in a time of death.
Oh, God.
These last days when men's hearts are going
to be failing them for fear, and even
now it's happening.
Folks, can I tell you something?
Look this way just a minute.
I stood over the street balcony of Ford
Theater last night, and I said, oh, God.
A number of years ago, I stood here,
and you showed me a vision of a
thousand fires burning in this city.
You showed me 42nd Street all ablaze.
Horses, police horses and gunshots and young people
running over the cars and upsetting cars and
setting things on fire.
I said, oh, God, have I been misled?
There's something in me that just, was that
personal or was that flesh?
And, oh, the Spirit of God came on
me so strong.
No, no, David.
Every word.
He said, I've been patient and long-suffering.
I've even tried to bring a government that
would have some semblance of righteousness because of
my mercy.
But the time is coming.
And I believe I'm going to live to
see.
I don't want to live to see that
day, but I believe I am.
When all of this comes to pass, these
things are going to happen.
Folks, you're going to need to have faith.
You're going to have to trust God.
You trust God.
He'll see us through.
He will not fail us.
God is faithful.
Do you believe that?
How is it that the apostle ministered to,
an apostle could say, you took joyfully the
spoiling of your goods.
You were chased and you were harassed.
But God has never failed.
He will not fail you.
He's going to keep his children in the
hollow of his hand.
You're not going to starve.
Your children are not going to be given
over to the enemy.
God's going to see you through.
I know that I stopped this prayer for
one reason, because I believe that there are
a number hearing me now.
And I base this partly on the response
I got when I announced my subject.
The Lord will fight for you.
That many of you are facing that ultimate
test.
God brought you to this place.
You're at Kadashvaniya right now.
The Lord's brought you to this place.
Everything that's happening in your life, God has
had a hand in it.
He's allowed it.
He's going to see how you react now.
How do you react?
Will there be, from this moment on, after
what you heard, still some murmuring and complaining
and saying, God, why did you let it
happen or why are you letting this happen?
And, oh, God, what do I do now?
Folks, you just rest in him.
You come into his rest and die to
self, die to your own will and say,
Lord, everything I give and I put it
in your hands, live or die, I'm yours.
Oh, God, answer the cry of your heart.
I'm not asking you to answer the cry
of my heart.
I'm asking you to answer the cry of
your heart.
Lord, there's grief in your heart when you
see your children so downcast.
When you hear, God said, I heard your
words.
You were in your tent or you were
in your house and I heard what you
were saying.
I hear how you talk to your husband,
how you talk to your wife.
You talk as though I forsake you.
You talk as though there's no God.
You talk as though I'm beating you down
when I'm simply trying to get you to
love me and trust me.
God, help us to see how much we're
loved.
You love your children.
You're not mad at us.
You're trying to bring us to a place
where we are able to withstand the storms
and the trials that come our way because
we have a history with you that you
have answered prayer because we have believed you
and we've trusted you.
God, can we have parents that put their
children in your hands now?
Can we have people, Lord, at this house
hearing me, that can put their career, their
job, their business, everything in your hands, their
family, their marriage, and their own health, their
own health, and not be afraid?
Would you raise your hands, everyone in the
Annex overflow room and in this room.
Raise your hands and will you pray, God,
forgive my unbelief.
Pray it out loud in your own words.
Lord, forgive my unbelief.
God, forgive my unbelief.
Folks, pray it.
Pray it from your heart.
Lord, I have doubted you.
There's area in my life that I've not
yet believed you in.
And I'm asking you, Lord, to forgive me
and pluck it out.
Pluck out the unbelief, oh God.
I don't want a desert.
I want to go into the promised land
of rest.
Lord, you brought us out to take us
in.
You brought us out of sin to take
us into this rest.
Some must enter in, Lord.
Let us be that some.
God.
Oh, God, do it.
In the Annex.
Right now, ask Him.
Ask Him to forgive you and say, God,
help me to trust you.
Whatever it is, put it in God's hand
right now.
Put it in God's hand.
Lord, I give it to you.
I put it in your hands, and I
trust you, Jesus.
Now, you can put your hands down.
I'm going to give an invitation for just
one segment here.
You may be visiting us for the first
time here and in the Annex.
But I'm going to give you an invitation.
I'm not going to give an invitation for
those who acknowledge unbelief.
Everybody would come.
But some of you have walked in here
now.
You have to get to a starting point.
You're not even at the starting gate because
you have slipped away from the Lord.
Maybe you walked in here, you have never
really known Christ as Lord and Savior in
your life.
And He's here.
The Holy Spirit's here now to change your
life.
It would be a shame for you to
walk out of here without the capacity to
believe.
And you can't have the capacity to believe
without the Holy Spirit.
And you have to open your heart to
the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is hovering over everyone hearing
the sound of my voice.
And He's here right now to bring a
miracle into your life.
If the Holy Spirit's been talking to you
now, you may be bound, absolutely bound up.
You say, Pastor Dave, I am absolutely bound
by fear.
I'm just bound.
It could be a sin.
Nobody needs to know.
Get out of your seat up in the
balcony.
Go to the stairs and step to the
other side.
And you may just step out of your
seat and stand here in the front.
We'll pray with you and believe for a
miracle.
The marvelous thing about living in the New
Testament is that the Lord tore the veil.
He's given us access.
And we can come at any time with
our unbelief and lay it at His feet.
We can come at any time.
He'll never turn us back.
You don't have to go into the wilderness.
You don't have to go the way Israel
went.
We're the true Israel.
We're the Israel of the Spirit, Israel of
the New Jerusalem.
And we are His children.
Boy, how anxious He is the moment He
sees you take a move toward Him.
That move is not just walking down the
aisle.
It's a move you take in your heart.
It's an attitude.
Say, Lord Jesus, I have to have help.
I'm asking the Holy Ghost to come and
instill faith in my heart.
I'm not capable of it on my own.
I have to have the Holy Spirit to
come and provide the very faith of Jesus
Christ Himself.
And He does just that.
That's a wonderful prayer to pray.
It's music to His ears that you want
to believe, that you want His heart.
And you don't want to grieve Him with
the unbelief.
And you don't want to tie His hands.
God's so faithful.
How many of you came forward and believed
God truly loves you?
He's not mad at you.
Keep your hand raised and say it.
Lord Jesus, I know You love me.
You're not mad at me.
You're not trying to chase me into wilderness.
You're trying to bring me to Your heart.
Lord, I don't want to grieve You with
unbelief.
You said I can please You through my
faith.
I trust You to forgive me and cleanse
me of all my sins, of all my
unbelief.
I come to You as a child.
Say, Jesus, I need You.
I need You today.
I need the Holy Spirit to comfort my
heart and to lead me and guide me.
I want to be a person of faith
that You'll be pleased with, that You will
smile when You see my heart, because You
know like a child trusting a father, I
trust You because You are my Father.
Now let me pray for you.
Father, I thank You for Your gracious love
that's being poured out upon us right now.
We thank You for this congregation, Lord.
We've come this far by faith, but we've
trusted You up to this day.
Sometimes we faltered.
Sometimes we failed.
But You saw something in our heart, Lord,
that just held on tenaciously.
And we say now, O God, take us
through this crisis.
Take us through, Lord, all the saints that
are here, both men and women, young people
as well, that are going through a great
ultimate time of testing.
Lord, let them rest in the fact that
You're going to bring them through to victory.
They're not going down.
They're going to survive.
But more than survive, they're going to be
overcomers.
Overcomers to give glory and honor to Jesus.
Hallelujah.
Thank You, Jesus.
This is the conclusion of the message.