I want you to turn, please, to Micah,
the 7th chapter, the 7th chapter of Micah,
and I'm going to stay in that throughout
the message today, if you will, please.
7th chapter of Micah.
My message this morning, the worms shall crawl
out of their holes.
You heard it?
The worms shall crawl out of their holes.
My God, bless this word.
Thank you for the power of the Holy
Spirit that makes the word come to life.
Now come upon me, Holy Spirit, and deliver
your mind and your heart.
Let us hear what the Spirit has to
say.
Let us receive it, may it change our
lives.
We know that the covenant of, the new
covenant of God through his son Jesus Christ
is life-changing, and we come to this
life-changing word now when we ask you
to speak directly to all of us.
In Jesus' name, give us an ear, hearing
ear and an open heart.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Now this 7th chapter of Micah, I take
to be one of the most powerful new
covenant messages ever preached.
It's one of the most powerful new covenant
messages in the Word of God.
In this profound message, the prophet Micah is
speaking to Israel, but primarily he's speaking to
the church of Jesus Christ in the last
days, and that can be proven in the
context of this chapter as we go along.
Now Paul makes it very, very clear that
all these things happened, all that the prophets
write about, all the experiences of Israel were
written for our teaching, they were meant for
our admonition.
1st Corinthians 10 11 says, now all these
things happen unto them for examples, they are
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends
of the world have come.
Now Micah in the first chapter, in the
first verse, begins with a heartbroken cry, a
cry that's still being heard from the body
of Christ all over the world.
Read with me, or follow me please.
Woe is me, for I am as when
they have gathered the summer fruits as the
great gleanings of the vintage.
There's no custard to eat, my soul desired
the first ripe fruit.
Woe is me, there is nothing to eat.
He's describing the effect of a famine of
the Word of God that has been prophesied
by the prophets.
I read it to you from Amos 8
chapter verse 11-12.
Behold the days come, saith the Lord God.
I will send a famine in the land,
not a famine of bread, nor thirst for
water.
But if hearing the words of the Lord,
and they shall wander from sea to sea
and from north even to the east, they
shall run to and fro to seek the
word of the Lord and shall not find
it.
And what the prophet Micah is seeing prophetically
now, looking down over time to this very
age.
It's time for harvest.
The vineyard should be full, the clusters should
be hanging from vine.
And this hungry people, he's voicing the corporate
cry of the Church of Jesus Christ in
the last days.
And they come into the harvest, they come
into the vineyard, and they look and there
are no clusters.
There's nothing to eat.
There's a famine.
Made very, very clear here, my soul desires
food or spiritual food, but there is none.
He's looking at time when people are going
to run all over from church to church,
from revival to revival, from one movement to
another, looking for some bread, looking for some
clusters, something to eat, something to satisfy this
need for spiritual nourishment.
A lady wrote to me this past week
and she said, Pastor David, my church is
growing in numbers, but it's dying spiritually.
Our pastor once preached with an anointed message
with Holy Ghost power and authority, but somehow
he got caught up in this new contemporary
gospel called sinner-friendly or outsider-friendly.
He came back from their conference a changed
man.
The goal in our church now is not
to offend sinners and outsiders who come in
the doors.
There's no more mention of sin from the
pulpit.
The pastor now reads a 15-minute message,
very light, shallow gospel provided by the conference.
The power is gone, now it's a one
-hour service, it's lifeless, it's dead.
I'm going to have to leave because I'm
starving, but where do I go?
Most places I've attended are just as dead,
or they're into entertainment.
I received a call from the pastor today,
this is true, the grief of the one
who told the story was overwhelming.
One of the large sinner-friendly churches, one
of the largest, and their music team sang
one of Carol Simbla's medleys on the blood
of Christ from Brooklyn Tabernacle here in New
York.
The pastor almost lost it.
After the service, he gathered his music team
in his office and in a rage, said,
if I ever again hear a song of
the blood, I'll fire you on the spot.
We're not going to offend them, they don't
understand what the blood means.
A famine in the land.
In the same chapter, Micah states that with
hungry souls and with a desire, there's only
going to be a remnant.
You'll find it in verse 18, it speaks
of only a remnant that is really hungering
and thirsting.
The majority in the secular church today is
so full of Sodom's apples, sitting in the
devil's kitchen eating straw.
In fact, the Septuagint reads in this first
verse, the gleaning is nothing but straw.
The harvest is nothing but straw.
And folks, I grieve over the multitudes throughout
the United States and around the world.
They're going to stand on the judgment day.
They've been given nothing to build their spiritual
character in the life with but haywood and
stubble.
And when they stand before Jesus at the
judgment, they are not prepared and it's all
going to go up in smoke and they're
going to stand on ashes.
Because they have not received life, they've not
received the Word of God that produces Christian
character.
There's no mention of sin and so they've
allowed sin to possess them.
And oh, what a day that's going to
be.
What an awful day that's going to be.
And listen to God's indictment against the ministers
who have been afraid to deal with sin
in their pulpits.
Afraid to feed the people with the life
that sets them free.
Jeremiah 23, they say unto them that despise
me, the Lord has said you shall have
peace.
And they say unto everyone that walks after
the imagination of their own heart, no evil
shall come upon you.
They caused my people to err.
From them, from the pastors, the shepherds, profaneness
has been spread throughout the whole land.
I've not sent these men.
They have not heard from me.
I've not really spoken to them.
But if they had really stood in my
counsel, and if they had caused my people
to hear my words, then they should have
been turning them away from their evil ways
and from the evil of their doings.
Isn't my word like a hammer and my
word like a fire?
There is no hammer, there is no fire
in many churches left today.
Nothing but straw, it says in the original
Hebrew.
Now according to Micah, this spiritual famine could
not come at a worse time, a time
of absolute moral decay in society.
He said he can't look at verse 2.
The good man is perished out of the
earth.
There is none upright among men.
They all lie and wait for blood.
They hunt every man, his brother with the
net.
He's speaking of our time, not only Israel's
time, the time in Israel, but our time.
He said the good man is perished.
What he's saying, this spiritual declension, this ruin
and decay in the house of God comes
at the worst possible time, a time when
a testimony is needed, a time when men
need to be judged lovingly for their sins.
Their hearts need to be exposed by the
Holy Spirit so they can be putted away
and come into the fullness of Christ.
And he says this couldn't come at a
worse time because the good man is dissolved.
The time, folks, I'm 68 years old, but
I remember the time even when I was
a young man that a man's word was
his bond.
Deals were made with a handshake.
That handshake was just as good as a
signed document, but not anymore.
That kind of man is gone, Micah said.
Now it's every man for himself.
Every man's out for blood.
In other words, tramp on anybody.
It's no more what can I do, how
can I help it, what do I get
out of it.
Folks, it's alarming.
It is absolutely shocking to understand that all
over this nation, around the world, scams, deceptions,
trying to steal the little bit of money
that the elderly have left in the bank
accounts.
We have scams now on telephones and people
knocking on the doors, repairmen, and trying to
talk these poor elderly people into spending every
dollar.
They know how much they have in the
bank and they'll scam every dollar.
And now here in the United States we've
got the elderly and the poor out on
the streets because of the scams, because the
good man is gone.
Verse 3, politicians, judges, and men respected by
society have both their hands out now for
bribes.
They weave complicated schemes to make money to
satisfy their overwhelming greed.
Verse 3, that they may do evil with
both hands earnestly, the prince asked, the judge
asked for a reward, and the great man,
or the respected man, he uttered his mischief
desires, so they wrap it up.
In other words, they work up these these
complicated schemes to lay hold of money.
Folks, the word today is that anyone can
be bought.
Everybody's got his price, is the word today.
Judges, in other words, if there's enough money
you can buy anybody.
You can buy a judge, you can buy
even ministers of the gospel today.
Not many, but few.
And that's what he's saying now.
Everybody's got both hands out now.
As anybody, any construction manager, anyone trying to,
in the buildings trades, trying to get the
building built with bribes here, bribes there, our
government, our commerce, the wills are greased by
payoffs, payola, and bribes.
Verse 5 and 6 says there's going to,
in this last time, there's going to be
a total breakdown of family structures.
Verses 5 and 6, follow me.
Are you reading with me?
Trust you're not in a friend?
Put no confidence in a guide?
Keep the doors of thy mouth from her
that lies in the bosom?
For the son dishonored the father, the daughter
rises up against her mother, the daughter-in
-law against her mother-in-law.
A man's enemies are they, men of his
own household.
A moral breakdown, a complete loss of authority.
Children are becoming a law to themselves.
Husbands distrusting wives, wives distrusting husbands.
Families going to court, suing one another.
Just an incredible, incredible thing that's happening that
Mike is trying to describe it.
I want to read that again.
Trust you're not in a friend?
Put no confidence in a guide?
Keep the doors of mouth from her that
lies at that bosom?
Total distrust of all institutions.
I wonder how many of you here trust
your leaders?
How many of you trust the government?
And we're Christians.
How many trust the judges and the judicial
system in the United States?
How many distrust, can trust the school system
all across the nation, around the world?
Absolute loss of confidence and trust in any
institution, including marriage.
Folks, I don't want us to miss verse
4.
Let's go back for just a moment.
The best of them is as a briar.
Yep, the most upright is sharper than a
thorn hedge.
Now look at this.
The day of the watchman and the visitation
cometh.
Now shall be their perplexity.
And Prophet Mike is saying you can know
when all of the warnings of the watchman
are about to be fulfilled.
When these very things that he's describing are
in place.
Now folks, what I'm telling you now, what
Mike is saying sounds like it's come out
of our daily newspaper and our national newscast.
Doesn't it sound like it's today?
It is today.
And he said when you see that, the
time of the watchman has come.
The visitation cometh.
Now shall be their perplexity.
And honest, I'm telling you, if God does
not in times like these honor the word
of his prophets and his watchmen, if the
words that they have been instructed to preach
and the warnings they've been given, if they
are not verified by the almighty judgments of
God, then the time comes no one will
listen.
No prophetic word would have any impact.
No watchman would be understood or listened to.
And the word and the warnings of God
would be totally in vain.
But he said in the middle of this,
he says the time of the watchman has
come.
Folks, that's where we are in the United
States.
I'm not a prophet.
I'm one of his many watchmen.
But I'm telling you, all these things we've
been warning about, this is the time of
the watchman and it's going to happen.
We're in that very, very time.
Total societal breakdown of all trust and confidence
in all institutions.
But suddenly, in the midst of all of
these warnings, the prophet...
oh wait, let me tell you something.
I don't want to miss this.
This is very important.
Isaiah was a contemporary of Micah.
In fact, he was born in the same
city and he preached in the same congregation,
the same time span as the prophet Micah.
Now here's his take on the same thing
that Micah is saying to us.
And I'm reading from the first chapter of
Isaiah.
A sinful nation.
Now I ask if this doesn't sound like
our generation.
A sinful nation of people laid with iniquities,
a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors.
It's children that are not only corrupted, they
have become the corruptors.
They have forsaken the Lord.
They've provoked the Holy One of Israel to
anger.
They've gone away backwards.
From the sole of feet, even to the
head, there's no soundness, but wounds, bruises, putrefying
sores, and except the Lord of hosts had
left us a very small remnant, we should
have been a Sodom and of Gomorrah.
Now you see, up to this point, the
prophet Micah and Isaiah have shown us this
part of the picture.
And now he's going to show us the
rest of the story.
And this is where my message is focused
now.
In fact, the prophet suddenly turns his focus.
He has looked at the ruined.
He has read the times.
He's aware of it.
He's a watchman and a prophet, and he's
warning the nation.
He sees the moral decay.
He warns.
He pleads.
But I want you to know that a
true prophet and a true watchman not only
warns of the coming sword, coming calamities, he
also proclaims the new covenant promises of Almighty
God.
And he, the real focus of watchmen is
not to scare people with what is coming,
but to prepare people that in these times
so dark and so depraved, that is when
the Word of God becomes so precious.
And it's when you get a hold of
that precious Word of God that you rise
up and become strong and powerful when others
are weak and their hearts failing them for
fear of those things that are coming upon
the earth.
And so now the prophet gets his turns
away from the backslidden church, away from the
false prophets that are rising, and away from
the greed and covetousness of a society that's
gone mad.
And what he's saying, sure there's a spiritual
famine.
Yes there is.
There's a famine in this land for the
Word of God.
And yes, there's ruin, decay.
There is such foolishness in many churches today
that it's such an abomination to the heart
of God.
And yes, our society is in a moral
landslide beyond any generation in history.
But he said that's not the message I
bring to you.
He said we're aware of that and now
having known that, let's talk about what God
has in plan for his church, for this
holy remnant that's seeking the face of God.
Verse 7 begins, therefore, and that ties it
into what he's been saying.
In other words, in light of all of
this, in light of the depravity you see,
in light of all the spiritual declensions, in
light of that, what I intend to do
now, he is voicing the heart cry of
the remnant who seek the face of God.
Therefore, or in spite of all of this,
or in light of all of this, I
am going to turn my heart to the
Lord.
Verse 7, therefore, I will look unto the
Lord.
I will wait for the God of my
salvation.
My God will hear, my God will hear
me.
He's talking about turning to prayer, waiting on
the Lord, getting your eyes on Jesus.
Hallelujah.
Folks, our eyes are not on the coming
depression.
Our eyes are not on the ruin in
the church.
We're aware of it, we warn of it,
but then we move on and we say,
behold the word of the Lord.
Church of Jesus Christ, turn your eyes toward
the Lord.
Turn away from all of these things.
Wait on the Lord.
Begin to seek his face.
Begin to pray, and God will begin to
answer you.
You're going to get answers to your prayers.
Glory to God.
These trusting believers will be brought into the
power of the new covenant truth.
We've been preaching the new covenant now for
almost two years in this church, and this,
before I'm finished, I hope prove to you
is one of the most powerful new covenant
messages in the Bible, as I've already stated.
I want you to go to verse 8
and 10 with me now, please.
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy.
Now, who's able to say to the devil,
that's enough?
Who's able to say the devil, wipe that
smirk off your face?
You don't rejoice over me anymore.
Those who turn to the Lord, those who
are seeking God, waiting on the Lord and
on their knees, praying.
They're drawing close to the Lord, and God
is going to empower them mightily to take
authority over the powers of hell.
Look at it.
Rejoice not against me, verse 8, O my
enemy.
When I fall, I shall arise.
When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall
be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the Lord,
because I've sinned against him, until he plead
my cause and execute judgment for me.
He will bring me forth to the light,
and I shall behold his righteousness.
Oh, folks, this is powerful.
And ask the Holy Ghost to open these
verses to you right now.
This is the praying man or woman.
This is the one that's turned wholly away
from the things of this world, the pride
of life, and the greed of this generation,
and says, I'm going to seek God.
And out of that prayer chamber, they come
and say, devil, you can't rejoice over me
anymore, because even if I fall, the light's
going to come in, and I'm going to
rise again.
You can't behold me anymore without life.
And devil, you can't accuse me of past
sins, because I've already confessed them to the
Lord, and the Lord has already chastened me,
and I've admitted I've been chastened by the
Lord, and now I have a high priest
in glory, pleading my cause.
Forgive me for getting overly excited.
The Lord shall be a light to me.
Yes, I've sinned, devil, but he's pleading my
cause.
Who's pleading your cause?
The high priest, Jesus.
And he said, devil, you sound not righteous.
I know that, but I have his righteousness
now.
I shall behold his righteousness.
It's all there.
Hallelujah.
Verse 10, then she, this is my name,
and all the church of Jesus Christ is
often used as a feminine term, the daughter
of Zion, and the bride, and so forth,
though we're made up of male and female.
This she still represents demonic powers.
Then the demonic powers, my enemy, the adversary
of the devil, shall see it, and shame
shall cover her which said unto me, where
is thy God?
Mine eyes shall behold her.
Now shall she be trodden down as the
mire of the streets.
And this is the taunt of the devil.
Where is your God?
You say that the Holy Ghost empowers you
to victory over sin.
Where's your victory over sin?
Because you're still falling at times.
You're still having problems.
You still are taunted.
You're bothered by temptations.
Where is your God?
Where is this covenant God that's made you
all of these miraculous promises?
Where is your God?
That's the taunting cry of the devil and
the Christian answers.
You want to know where my God is?
He's building my walls.
Next verse, there it is.
In the day that thy walls are to
be built, in that day shall the decree
be far removed.
The accusation of the devil will be removed,
because God said, I'm going to build your
walls, and I'm going to be the glory
therein.
I'm going to build your walls.
Those walls are truth.
These are the new covenant truths that God
wants you to lay hold of, and when
you lay hold of it, you are going
to have walls around you.
The devil can't climb over.
He can't dig under.
He can't get in, because you're going to
be protected by walls of truth.
And Micah now begins to open up the
new covenant promises that are so credible, they
seem unbelievable.
Absolutely unbelievable.
Folks, I've been dancing all over my apartment.
First of all, I hope to prove to
you that what you're going to hear rest
on is absolutely positively directed primarily to the
church of Jesus Christ, because verse 14 reads,
feed thy people with the rod, the flock
of thine heritage.
Now, look at me, please.
I'm reading from the original Hebrew from Sporrel.
It reads, shepherd the sheep with thy rod.
David says, the shepherd is he that dwells
between the cherubims.
Who is that?
Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 40, 11, he shall feed his flock
like a shepherd.
He shall gather the lambs with his arms
and carry them in his bosom.
Hebrews 13, 20, our Lord Jesus is that
great shepherd of the sheep.
It's none other than Christ.
None other than Christ is being mentioned here,
so this absolutely positively directs it to the
last days, to the time in which you
and are living now.
You can have absolute confidence in what you
hear now, from right on through.
If you had any question up to this
point, you have no, you cannot question what
you read and hear about the covenant promises
from this moment on.
God promises, first of all, there'll be no
famine for those who turn to the Lord
and seek his face.
There will be no famine.
Feed thy people, O shepherd of the flock.
Feed your sheep.
Now, I told you there's a famine in
the land, but there is not a famine
among those who are seeking God and desiring
truth with all of their hearts, because the
shepherd's going to feed them.
Now, let me tell you, you cannot just
blame dead churches if you're spiritually starved.
You can't blame some preachers that you judge
as insufficiently feeding you.
There are some people that would not be
satisfied if their pastor was the Apostle Paul.
There are people going around judging every church
and every pastor and trying to measure in
their sermon-tasting.
Now, if you're sitting in front of a
TV set and just lounging there, and you're
complaining, I can't find a church, you're not
on your knees, you're not in the secret
closet, you're not into the Word of God,
and you're wanting to find a church to
solve all your problems and put some kind
of a spiritual joy in you and pick
you up and make you a saint, and
it's not going to work.
You're not going to find it.
You're going to find it when you get
on your knees and get into this book
and seek the face of God, and God
promises you, God promises you, you seek my
face, I'm going to feed you.
Miraculously, somehow, someway, you're going to get the
Word.
Oh, glory be to God.
The Bible said even those who are in
solitary places, in that verse, you can be
up in the heart of Alaska.
And you say, I have no church, and
somebody sent you this tape.
You're being fed.
Somehow, someway, God said, I'll feed my sheep.
He'll not let you starve.
Glory be to God.
Boy, now, and here's when it starts getting
so glorious, I'm just asking God to give
me what I need to get through it.
Verse 15 is one of the most amazing
promises in the Bible.
According to the days of thy coming out
of the land of Egypt, will I show
unto him marvelous things.
Unto him, who's him?
This seeker, this man in prayer, this woman
in prayer.
God says, I'm going to do for you
something that is so marvelous.
You know what He's going to do?
He's going to give you your all Red
Sea experience of deliverance.
He said, just as those who came out
of the wilderness through the Red Sea, I'm
going to do it again.
Isaiah picked this up because Isaiah and Micah
confirmed each other's words all through 43, 15
to 19.
I'm the Lord, your Holy One, your King.
Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way
in the sea, and a path in the
mighty waters, which brings forth the chariot and
the horse, the army and the power.
That means every demonic principality and entity that
come against you, to try to get you
to fall back into lust and into besetting
sin.
All of these.
He said, they shall all lie down together
and they shall not rise.
They are extinct.
Remember you not the former things, neither consider
the things of old.
You know what He's saying?
You know, all of these years and all
this time you've been preaching and teaching, you've
been referring to this great miracle in the
Red Sea.
And it's wonderful as that is.
And that's a type, that's a shadow.
God's saying that's written for a purpose.
But God says, I want you to forget
that right now.
I don't you remember this old thing here
now.
I'm going to do a new thing.
Well let me read it to you.
Behold I will do a new thing.
Now it shall spring forth, shall you not
know it.
That means experience it.
I will make a way in your wilderness.
He says, you're in a wilderness and you're
facing the power of Satan.
You're facing a besetting sin.
You're facing a dominion over you.
A darkness that the devil's trying to put
on you.
But God says, just as sure.
Now He said at the Red Sea, Pharaoh
was the enemy.
Satan is your enemy.
Pharaoh had an army.
The devil's got his army of demons.
He's got his army of demonic entities.
But He said, just as sure as they
couldn't deliver themselves and I had to take
it out of their hands and do it
myself.
Just as sure as they were helpless, you
were helpless.
You've already cried as many tears as you
can cry.
You've made all the promises you can make.
And you have failed every one of them.
Just as sure as I opened the Red
Sea.
Just as sure as they stood on the
other side walking on dry ground.
And just as sure as I buried every
one of their enemies in the sea.
Where did He say He's going to bury
your sins?
He's referring to the sea that you cross.
He said, I'm going to open the door
supernaturally as you seek my face and believe
my word and my promise.
I will open your sea.
You will walk right through that besetting sin.
You'll walk through that lust.
You'll walk through all the opposition of the
devil.
Because I'm giving you your own Red Sea.
Experience.
Oh, I got to settle down here.
Hallelujah.
No more fear.
None.
Glory be to God.
No fear.
Oh, it gets much better.
He said, I'm going to do for you
in the spirit what I did for them
in the natural.
Verse 16.
The nations shall see and be confounded at
all their might.
Let me tell you, first of all, what
the root Hebrew word for nations used here
is.
You ready for this?
A troop of crawling animals.
Those satanic entities.
Look what it says is going to happen
when you get a hold of this truth
and you move by faith.
And God opens the Red Sea.
Here comes the devil.
He's ready to enslave you again, ready to
pull you back down and you'll be setting
sin and God's taking you right through by
faith on his covenant promises.
And when the devil sees you act on
those promises, those crawling entities shall see and
be confounded at this might, all this manifestation
of might.
What it is?
It's God's people moving into the promises of
God.
I'm becoming strong through the words that they
appropriate and the word that they believe and
cast their very life into the arms of
this covenant.
This promise that was made before the foundation
of the world between God and his son,
Jesus.
We told you he didn't cut it with
us.
He cut it with his son because we
had nothing to offer.
We are in the covenant to Jesus Christ,
our position in him alone.
But oh, look what's going to happen to
the devil and his powers.
They're going to be confounded at all this
might.
They shall lay their hands upon their mouth
and their ears shall be deaf.
What it says?
The devil is going to have his hand
on his mouth and all the powers of
hell are going to be confused.
So what's going on in your life?
Glory to God.
Now we're going to talk about strongholds and
how the worms are going to crawl out.
Hallelujah.
For years we have quoted 2nd Corinthians 10
for we do not war after the flesh
for the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down the strongholds.
Folks, have you ever tried to ask the
Holy Spirit?
Have you ever asked the Holy Spirit to
review to you what the strongholds are?
We think strongholds have to do with adultery,
fornication and all of these sins that we
totem pole.
There's something far beyond that that the Lord
is trying to show us.
What are the weapons against the strong?
But first, I've got to explain to you
what the Holy Spirit's been saying to me
about the stronghold.
It comes very, very clear through what Mike
is trying to show us here.
We think of the devil, the stronghold, as
somehow the devil entering into the heart and
finding a place there.
Now folks, I've always had a problem with
people preaching or believing that an overcoming Christian
who's truly walking in the word of God
and walking in covenant, that the devil can
go into the heart or into this body
and possess it.
Folks, the devil doesn't have to possess your
body to turn you into a blithering idiot.
That's not what he wants.
He's looking at the mind.
And when you see it, the figurative meaning
of stronghold, and you can look it up
in your concordance, the figurative meaning is, and
you'll find it in the Greek, an accusation
planted firmly in the mind.
It's an accusation.
It's an argument the devil comes at you
with and tries to sell you on this
argument that you're going to fall.
He's going to plant it in your mind
that you are unspiritual.
You are not worthy of his grace.
He's going to come with a thousand lies.
He's going to try, for example, to convince
you that you have a right to hold
on to the bitterness that you've been holding
on to because you've been truly wronged.
He's going to try to destroy your marriage
by saying, I cannot go through this unless
my partner changes, and he'll try to get
a lie in your heart.
He has an argument.
Once you buy that argument and it becomes
embedded in you, it's a stronghold.
It's an argument.
It's not the devil just possessing you.
In many, many Christians, this explains how so
many Christians are under this kind of harassment
from hell because he has infused or injected
this thought, and the moment you buy it,
that worm crawls into that hole, so to
speak, and that embedded worm, that thought is
a worm.
In fact, the Bible talks about in hell
the worm never dies.
It's the memory.
It's all the thoughts of past experiences and
everything else, and these worms of bitterness and
rebellion and these lies of the devil that
come at you saying that you're not as
spiritual as the one sitting next to you.
You'll never make it.
You're still harassed with evil thoughts.
You sin way back, and you still have
that thing in you, and it's going to
get you again.
Oh, all kinds of lies.
Folks, I've heard them all.
I don't think there are a lot the
devil told you he didn't tell me.
All these lies, these arguments that the devil
presents and keeps coming at you, he'll even
mimic the voice of God, and he'll even
misquote Scripture to convince you to believe it.
These are the strongholds of the enemy.
These are where those crawling ...
it's just the way of the prophet describing
demonic principalities and powers and entities that have
come into mind where there's no peace.
You come to the house of God, you
can't worship, you can't praise because that worm
is twisting and turning.
He's established and embedded a stronghold in an
embedded argument from the pits of hell.
Now, the Bible calls the devil an accuser
of the brethren.
I want you to know that.
He is set on accusing you, and he's
going to try to accuse you until the
last days, and the only way to stop
it is to have your walls up.
And that's the living Word of God.
You can't pull down these strongholds by going
to some meeting and have somebody lay hands
on you and cast them out.
The devil's not at all impressed by manifestations.
He's not impressed by shouting.
He's not impressed even by all your goodness.
I'm telling you now, I've learned a long
time ago, if I had no lust, if
I had no problems, if I had all
figured out and obeyed the law through the
letter, I still wouldn't be worthy of salvation.
I still couldn't get into heaven.
It would still be my righteousness in their
filthy rags.
So we need something else, don't we?
If you keep buying his lie, you don't
take authority by the Word of the Lord
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This just digs in, and folks, no counseling
can get it out.
I mean, this is just so deeply embedded,
such a stronghold, but the Bible said it's
truth that sets you free.
Now let's get to the really incredible promises,
verses 18 and 19.
Who is like unto thee that pardons iniquity
and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant
of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger forever, because he
delighteth in mercy.
He will turn again.
He will have compassion on us.
He will, what?
Subdue our iniquities.
You know what that means in Hebrew?
He will tramp on them, and thou will
cast all their sins, where?
Into the depths of the sea.
These are covenant promises.
The covenant says, I will be God to
you.
Who is a god like unto thee?
In other words, you will be a god
to me.
Folks, my wife and I have, we don't
own it, but we live on a little
farm half the time in New Jersey, and
there's a drought, and everything was drying up
terribly.
Trees and everything was just drying up, and
I was praying for rain, and I heard
that rain was coming.
And so I stood out in the front,
and my hands up, but I said, you
said you'd be God to me.
God, I'd love to come here and look
at green pastures.
You promised me green pastures and still water,
and I'm looking at brown pastures.
And it started to rain.
And I said, not enough.
Well, keep it coming, keep it coming.
And, folks, we got three inches of rain
in about two hours, and not just our
place, but all around.
And I'm standing there with my hands raised,
it's just pouring buckets, and I'm saying, you
are being God to me.
God is being God to me.
Folks, he wants to be God, and that's
what he's saying here.
I want to be, I want you to
have a right concept of who I am.
I want to be God to you.
I'm your deliverer.
I want to take you through your Red
Sea.
I'm going to subdue your sins.
You can't do it.
I am going to subdue your sins, and
I will cast them into that sea.
And just as sure as the children of
Israel stood by the sea and saw all
those soldiers sinking and floating away, he said,
those are your sins.
You watch them float away.
I'm going to drown them in the sea
and wash them away, never to be found
again.
Hallelujah.
It's all there.
You see it?
I'm going to pass over the transgression of
the remnant of his heritage because he delighteth
in me.
Oh, he's not going to pass over everybody's
sins, and he's not winking at sin here.
That's not what he's talking about.
He says, I'm going to pass over them
because they're going to be gone.
They're going to be obliterated.
They're going to be extinct because he delights
in you.
He'll turn again.
He will have compassion on you.
He will subdue your iniquities.
You don't subdue your own iniquities.
He does it through the power of the
Holy Ghost abiding in us.
And I will cast all their sins into
the depths of the sea.
All right, now, verse 17.
What happens then?
Look at me, please.
You're laying hold of these covenant promises.
You will accept it now and believe and
say, God, you said you would be God
to me.
You have promised by an oath that you
can't break.
You have promised by an oath that you
will deliver me.
You're going to give me my own Red
Sea experience.
You said the devil is going to have
to put his hand over his mouth and
he can't accuse me anymore because they're not
going to work.
You promised to put walls around me and
be the glory therein.
You have promised me by covenant, by oath,
before the foundation of the world, you made
this promise to your own son.
And you said, as sure as I can't
break with my son because you're in me,
I can't break it with you because you're
my seed.
And this covenant promises cannot be broken.
Get a hold of it.
Believe it.
Accept it.
Read it over and over again.
I'm almost finished with my covenant book.
I've got about ten, twelve chapters.
And it takes about four or five hours
to get through it, and I'm reading it
for the third time and I'm getting so
blessed because it's suddenly, I am truly believing
it.
And the more I believe it, the more
it's working out the joy and the glory
and the blessing of the Holy Ghost in
my life.
It's life-giving.
It's life-freeing.
When you believe this with all of your
heart, and this is the living Word of
God for us today, and look what shall
happen.
They, the demonic entities, they shall lick the
dust like a serpent.
They shall move out of their holes like
worms of the earth.
They shall be afraid of the Lord our
God and shall fear because of thee.
Now, hold on just a minute.
They shall crawl out of their holes.
Now, remember it said those crawling, creeping, serpentine
fears.
All of these embedded fears, all these embedded
lies.
Do you know what the Greek word for
hole here is?
It's a Hebrew word here.
It's cigar, S-A-R-G-A-R.
It means stronghold.
The very word used here by Micah is
stronghold.
Would you believe that it also comes from
root word means to surrender.
Put them together.
When you lay hold of these promises of
God and you stand and you put your
life on the line with it.
It said every demonic power is going to
surrender his stronghold.
He's going to crawl out.
And not only is he going to crawl
out, he's going to crawl out in fear
of almighty God.
He shall fear the Lord and fear because
of thee.
He's going to be afraid of you.
You're no longer afraid of the devil.
He's afraid of you.
Is that in your Bible?
Worms.
Every demonic thought.
All the opposition of hell.
Every lie.
Every besetting sin.
Because he can only hold you in a
besetting sin through fear and through a lie.
He has dominion only through lies and his
false arguments.
And the Bible said you lay hold of
these promises and every worm shall crawl out
of their holes.
Out of their strongholds.
Surrendered them.
They're gone.
Hallelujah.
And it's now all pure ground.
Stand.
Hallelujah.
Glory to Jesus.
I'm going to have the choir sing God
Can.
But when you're supposed to sing He'll Make
a Way, I want you to sing He's
Made a Way.
It doesn't mean He can.
He has made the way.
It's already been made.
I want you to sing it.
Give me a choir director there, please.
Amen.
Glory be to God.
Folks, if you're in the main auditorium, if
you're in any of our annexes and annex
auditoriums, I'm going to ask you right now.
If you've been bound by a lie of
the devil, a lie that says you're going
to fall, a lie that says that you're
unholy, a lie that says that your temptation
is going to bring you down, if you
have a hunger for Jesus and you say,
I don't want that, I want victory over
that lie.
Now, if you're not even right with God,
you're not saved, you don't have any spiritual,
you're backslidden from the Lord, I don't want
you to get out of your seat.
In the annexes, just walk between the screens,
just walk forward between the screens, and they'll
be taking you into a room for counseling.
But those in the main auditorium, up the
upstairs, come down the stairs on the sides,
come down any aisle here in the main
auditorium.
And I want everybody in this church that's
been bound by a lie, you've been bound
by fear, make a way, please, for these
coming down, and wherever you're at, all over
this building, I want you to come here,
and we're going to pray that God smite
that, and that every worm crawl out of
the holes, that you walk out of here
absolutely free of worms.
God's going to deworm you, so to speak,
absolutely.
God bless you, wherever you're at, come on.
Let's believe the Lord now.
And those that are watching with us in
our gatherings around the country, you can just
kneel right where you're at.
This is for you, it's for all of
us now.
God wants us to come and confess and
believe God.
This is a time for faith now.
This is a time to believe what you've
heard.
You that are coming, I want you to
come in faith and believe God's going to
set me free.
I'm going to pray for you.
Let's wait for just a moment until they
all come.
While the choir gets ready, they're going to
sing He's Made a Way.
Pray, Lord, that you come now with your
power and your glory and give us faith
in your everlasting promises made to us before
the foundation of the world.
Lord, you're going to open every Red Sea.
You're going to take us right through every
blockade.
There will be nothing impregnable.
There'll be nothing that we can't walk through
now by faith in the Word of God.
Lord, send the devil fleeing because we believe
God's Word.
We stand on the Word of God.
Hallelujah.
Lord, I pray for those backslidden, those who've
grown cold in their heart, those who once
prayed and now there's just a dullness, a
lukewarmness.
Oh, God, put fire in their soul right
now.
Put fire in their heart as we minister
to you in song and praise in Jesus'
name.
Lord, those who are not right, if you're
not right with God, just ask the Lord
right now.
Lord, cleanse me, sanctify me.
Oh, Jesus, I give you my sins.
You said you'd make a way out.
Now, deliver me.
I accept your Word.
I believe it and I stand on it.
The Lord's looking for faith.
He's looking for faith in your heart right
now.
And I want everybody to sing this with
the choir.
And, folks, listen, if this is truth, if
what I preached to you this morning is
truth, it must, it's not should, it must
produce a Holy Ghost joy in you.
It has to produce peace and rest in
your heart.
So you get up every morning and say,
Devil, you can't rejoice over me anymore.
Devil, your lies don't work with me anymore.
They don't work.
Hallelujah.
Glory to Jesus.
Glory to God.
If there are any of you, if
there are any of you, say, Pastor Dave,
I don't feel anything.
You don't come to Him by feelings.
You come to Him by faith and what
He has promised in His Word.
Believe it.
Receive it.
He'll deliver you.
There'll be no enemy can stand against you.
Hallelujah.
I want you now, as we depart from
this service, to turn around and remember all
the visitors.
Exit 89, Anselar Building, and 204 in the
annexes for a free book and a tape
and also some refreshments and visit with people
from all over the world of faith and
trust in the Lord.
Amen.
Thank God for His presence here today.
Hallelujah.
Glory be to God.
Now, while the orchestra is playing, I just
want you to shake hands with 15 people.
Count them.
Come on.
Spread some cheer in Jesus.
Bless somebody.
Say, good to see you.
God bless you in the house.
God bless all of you.
See you in the next service.