This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
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The gift of righteousness.
Let's pray.
Lord, we are hungry for you.
We thirst for you.
We never get weary of our time together
in your presence.
And I pray, Lord, that you would say
something to our hearts this afternoon that would
quicken us by the Holy Ghost.
Spirit of the living God, come upon me.
Lord, you put this in my heart.
It's so simple.
There's nothing complicated about what I preached this
afternoon and tonight.
But I believe, Lord, that you're wanting to
set people free from their sins, from the
bondage of habits, from lust, from all of
the things that even Christians battle within these
last days.
Lord, there are temptations on all sides.
The enemy is coming in like a flood.
The Bible said, woe to the inhabitants of
the earth and the sea.
The devil's come down to you, having great
wrath because he knows his time is short.
Spirit of the living God, come upon me.
Anoint me.
Let the word of God go forth with
power and unction, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
The gift of righteousness.
I want you to go to Romans 5,
please.
Fifth chapter of Romans, Romans 5.
For you new converts, if you get to
Acts, keep turning right.
Next chapter, next book after Acts.
All right.
Romans, the fifth chapter, beginning to read at
verse 17.
For if by one man's offense death reigned
by one, much more they which receive abundance
of grace and what?
The gift of righteousness shall reign in life
by one, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one, the free gift,
that's the gift of righteousness, came upon all
men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one
shall many be made righteous.
The gift of righteousness.
Folks, look at me, please.
You can keep your Bible open.
You're going to go through some scriptures with
me this afternoon, but just set it on
your lap and give me your good ear
and your good eye, whatever that may be.
There has never been a time when we
have been so preached at and taught at
than any other generation in history, as far
as I'm concerned.
We have more books, we have more tapes,
we have more seminars and conventions and revivals
than any time I can ever, at least
that I know of.
There's never been a time like this when
we've been so saturated with knowledge, with books
and tapes and every conceivable avenue or instrument
of giving knowledge.
We have our heads full of knowledge as
no other generation in the past.
But with all of this giving out of
knowledge, there's been very little truth.
And I am absolutely obsessed with this scripture.
There's a scripture that I can't let go
of.
In the past month, it's just been consuming
me.
This one simple statement of Jesus, you shall
know the truth and the truth shall set
you free.
Say it with me.
You shall know the truth and the truth
shall set you free.
Hallelujah.
Now you can go to a convention or
revival meeting, and I say this without any
rancor, I say it kindly as I can,
but people all over the United States, Christians
are running around to have some evangelist lay
a hand on them or tap them, and
expecting some great emotional kickback from it.
And many people do fall down, and many
people have a deep emotional experience of either
uncontrollable laughter or uncontrollable tears.
And people write to me from all the
United States now saying, I was dead and
I was dry and I went to a
meeting and I had hands laid upon me
and I began to cry or I began
to laugh uncontrollably.
It's changed my life.
I am happy now and so forth.
Folks, I'm not putting any of those experiences
down.
I have had those experiences.
I know what it is to laugh in
the Holy Spirit for hours before the Lord.
I know what it is to have uncontrollable
laughter, and we're not putting that down.
But you know, when we speak against some
of the emotional experiences going on around the
country today, we say it plainly, we speak
the truth, we try to back it up
with scripture, but we're not mocking, and we're
not mocking it now.
Pastor Carter and myself, we've never mocked people
and their experiences.
But let me tell you, those experiences will
hold you for a while, but they are
not going to set you free.
The Bible said you shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free.
It's truth.
Worship in itself does not set you free.
It doesn't set you free from the bondage
to sin.
Prayer in itself does not set you free
from the bondage of sin.
It is truth that sets you free.
Nothing but truth according to the scripture.
I have heard it said, and I think
I may have said it a time or
two in my past ministry, the statement, American
churches are getting overfed and overstuffed and Christians
are getting overfed and overstuffed while the world
is dying and going to hell.
Have you ever heard that before?
How many have heard that?
American Christians are getting overfed and that can't
happen unless they're eating junk food.
Listen to me, please.
Don't ever again, after you hear what I'm
about to say, ever say that Christians who
sit in a church where truth is being
preached get overfed.
It is impossible to get overfed on truth.
Truth cuts.
Truth trims.
Truth gets into the fat and gets to
the bone.
You cannot get overfed or overstuffed on truth.
It is truth that sets men free.
The problem with the missions departments of many
denominations is they are sending young missionaries out
around the world that spend four or five
years in studies.
They study culture.
They study all the ethnic problems.
They study finances.
They study all kinds of doctrinal issues to
a point, but very few of them have
come into the knowledge of the truth and
they come home after a year or two
burned out, discouraged.
Many, many come back because they're defeated.
Because if you don't have a foundation of
truth under you, you are no match to
the powers of the devil, especially on a
heathen front on a mission field.
You have no strength.
You have no foundation under you if you
don't have the truth.
And if you go to a church where
they're just giving little sermonettes, if you go
to a church where they're just trying to
appease and trying to attract a crowd, you're
going to starve.
You're going to die.
And you will get fat and overfed on
that kind of problem.
But you can't get overfed.
You can't get overstuffed when you have the
truth.
Because wherever pastors are preaching the truth, where
churches are walking in the truth and hungering
and thirsting after truth, they're going to send
out people.
It's going to be a natural byproduct of
walking in the truth.
The truth releases missionaries.
The truth sets people to evangelize.
You can't just have warm-up services.
You can't have a pastor up there just
cheering people on.
The cheers will die down and the burden
dies down when the cheers are gone.
It is truth.
And that's why in this pulpit in past
months especially, we have been trying to establish
you in truth, that you would be coming
to this church with a hunger and a
thirst for truth, not sermon tasting, but saying,
oh God, I don't want to hear just
something new.
That's the Athenian spirit.
That's not what I'm talking about.
And it's not just to go to hear
some great revelation.
The Lord rebuked me this past week.
I worked for three days and nothing was
coming.
And I said, well, what's stopping me?
And while I was standing in the room,
he said, it's because, David, you're running after
revelation instead of the simple truth.
Now, if you go into the living room,
get on your knees and repent.
I got on my knees and said, God,
I've been running after revelation, and I don't
want just revelation.
That'll come.
I want to go to the simple truth.
I want truth.
Truth.
Because if you run after revelation, you stand
a chance of getting a thorn in the
flesh.
I've had enough thorns.
I don't know if I'm ready for another.
We have been talking to you about justification
by faith.
Now, folks, if you have got a problem
this afternoon, if you are bound by habitual
sin, if you're facing a battle in your
life, a struggle against any lust or habit.
A young man told me the other day,
he said, brother Dave, I'm so discouraged.
I'd given up drugs and drink everything, but
I'd had a battle with cigarettes and had
about six months I was free.
But this past week, I'm back on my
cigarettes and I know that opens the door
for all the other habits.
And he was heartbroken saying, I've got to
find freedom.
He said, I last two or three months
and then I go back down again and
I'm just not free.
And I'll tell you something, folks.
Listen to me very clearly.
You can get down on your knees and
cry out to God with everything in you.
Oh God, come down and deliver me.
I have preached Pastor Carter's preached about that
gut cry, crying out to God for help.
He is our helper.
He's our keeper and a cry and pray
out.
But folks, he's not going to come down
and just pluck you right out of it.
When you cry and you pray, God deliver
me.
He's going to send you the truth that
will deliver you.
You're going to get truth.
And if you, if you are hungry for
that, you cry out to God, he will
put you in a church.
That's why many of you here right now,
he's answered your prayer.
You prayed for deliverance and God sent you
here to get truth to get delivered.
Amen.
Glory to God.
Now we've been talking to you first of
all, about some truths that are absolutely fundamental.
We've been telling you that the foundational truth
of the Christian walk is to understand justification
by faith.
How am I made right in the eyes
of God?
Is it through my own effort or has
Jesus done something for me that has satisfied
the holiness of God, the righteousness of God,
the justice of God and the demands of
the law?
Has anything happened?
Yes, it has.
We've told you that Jesus came to this
earth, God in the flesh incarnate in man.
And he was sinless, even in his motives.
He lived a perfectly sinless life.
He had perfect righteousness.
He fulfilled all the demands of the law.
Not one iota of the law was broken
by our savior.
He kept the law to the letter.
He kept it in spirit.
This perfect righteousness, Jesus died on a cross
and ascended to the father.
And when he ascended, he stood before the
father and presented to the father a perfect,
absolutely perfect righteousness.
And the father accepted it.
And at that very moment, at that moment,
God said, I will receive no other man.
No flesh shall stand before me.
There's only one body.
There's one man.
It's Jesus.
He's going to be the head and he's
going to have a body on earth.
And I have justified that body through what
Jesus has done.
And the Bible said the righteousness of Christ
was imputed to those who bring saving faith
to him.
Now, we told you what saving faith is
the other day.
It's not just a plain ascent to the
word of God.
It's deeper than that.
We explain that.
But we've come to realize that there is
no righteousness in us that we can present
to the father that's going to stand on
judgment day.
I don't care how good you are.
I don't care if you live to be
a hundred.
Someone said in France, there's ladies celebrating her
121st birthday documented the oldest woman on earth,
121 years old.
I don't care how long you live.
I don't care if she lives to be
150.
I don't care if she never smoked, drank,
cursed, or committed adultery, fornication all her life.
She still has nothing to give the father.
There's only one righteous.
Say it.
One righteous.
Perfectly righteous.
Now, that righteousness and when you believe in
what he did is not infused into you.
In other words, he doesn't pour it into
you so that it becomes yours.
You can stand before God and say, look,
this is my righteousness.
No, it is imputed to us.
He gives us credit for what Jesus did.
He credits it to our account.
I am considered, I am credited to be
as righteous as Jesus in the eyes of
God, through the blood of Christ and the
sacrifice that he made.
I am justified before God.
Folks, if you don't have that, you have
nothing of courage and boldness to stand before
the devil because the righteous are as bold
as a lion.
A what lion?
As bold as the lion of Judah.
Hallelujah.
There's a holy boldness in those who know
where they stand and who they are in
Christ.
Produces a holy boldness.
Now, we want to talk about another truth
that can set you free.
You can say to me, brother David, well,
that's a wonderful thought that I'm in right
standing with God now.
I have access to the father through what
Jesus did for me.
That's wonderful truth.
That's wonderful to know, but how does that
help me in my everyday life?
I'm still living a life of up and
down.
I am living a life of failure.
I fall down.
I make mistakes.
I have failed God.
I've gone back to an old habit.
There's something has a hold of me.
There's a sin that grips me.
And folks, don't look to the right or
to the left.
Don't look around you because if if we
knew what God knew about you, I'd be
very comfortable in my preaching right now if
I knew what God knew.
I'd be able to say I know this
message is going to fit.
Not that I would judge.
I would say this is for all of
us.
You say, well, how can I?
I want to live holy.
I want to live righteous before the Lord.
But where is my freedom?
It's one thing to be right before God,
but I want to be right before men.
I want to be right before my eyes.
When I look in the mirror, I want
to know I'm right.
I want that.
That is sanctification.
Now, you guys from Timothy House down here,
say from Drugs and those from Hannah House
over here, listen to me, please.
Listen close.
Don't get uptight about these theological terms, justification,
sanctification.
Don't let it fluster you.
Don't be afraid.
But do pray that God will open your
understanding so you know it because this is
so important.
Our very eternal life depends on it.
Power over sin depends on understanding these truths.
You say, well, that's just doctrine, and it's
too deep.
It's too complicated, and I have to sit
there and think.
Yes, you do.
We've had enough people just going to church,
and they can just lay back, and a
little bit will come in, hear a word
or two.
No.
If you want the truth, you seek it
with all your heart.
You keep your eyes open.
You keep your ears open.
You hunger, your thirst to reach out because
those are the only ones who are going
to get it.
So pray right now.
God, help me to understand what the pastor's
saying about sanctification.
Now, let me, I have read all kinds
of books on this word sanctification.
You've heard it.
I have almost every Puritan writer there is.
I have a Puritan writer, one of my
favorite writers, John Owen.
I've read almost all of his volumes.
You go to my library, you pick them
up, and almost every page is marked, especially
on sanctification.
There's one, I think it's book number three.
I studied and studied, and the more I
read, the more confused I got.
I finally put it all down because everybody
had their own ideas.
John Wesley had his idea.
Calvin had his, and John Owen has his,
all of these.
And finally, I said, no, I can't go
that way.
Lord, you have to speak it into my
heart.
I want to make it simple.
Let me give you, not from a book,
but from the Holy Ghost, what he gave
me about sanctification.
Listen to my simple definition I believe the
Holy Ghost gave me.
Sanctification, this is popping.
Can you hear me all right?
Sanctification is the Spirit of Christ in us
making us to become what God sees us
to be already.
It is the Spirit of Christ in us
making us to be in reality what God
already sees through justification.
He's already made us right, and that's a
wonderful holiness, but he's bringing that holiness down
to practical life.
That's the work of the Spirit of Christ
in you, conforming you to what God already
sees you to be.
Very, very simple.
There's nothing complicated about that, is it?
Let me say it again.
It is the Spirit of Christ in us
making us to become what God sees us
already to be by faith.
It's the Spirit of God at work in
us helping us to be made actually what
God imputes to us in Christ Jesus.
By the obedience of one, so many be
made righteous.
They're going to be made holy by the
obedience of Jesus Christ.
All right, listen to this please.
Don't go there, but 1 Thessalonians 4, 3,
and 4.
For this is the will of God, even
your sanctification.
I want everybody to repeat the word sanctification.
Say it.
Sanctification.
That we should abstain from fornication, that every
one of you should know how to possess
this vessel in sanctification and honor.
He said this is the will of God,
that you live a holy life and that
your life not be out of control, that
no sin should have power dominion over you.
That's exactly what Paul is saying in 1
Thessalonians 5, 23.
And the very God of peace sanctify you
holy, and I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, well pastor, that's what I want.
I want control in my life.
I don't want to be tossed.
Every time temptation comes, I don't have to
run after it.
I don't want the devil to pull me
like a puppet on a string.
I don't want to have this one sin
in me or this lust or whatever it
may be.
I don't want this to have control over
me.
Folks, there's been, I know a man in
this church has been, ever since we've been
here, he's been with us for eight years.
He's still fighting his cigarette habit.
He's out here today, that's why I'm talking
about him.
Oh, I have prayed with him and I
have talked with him and he said, brother
Dave, I want the victory, but for eight
years he's been fighting.
I don't know what you're fighting.
I don't know what your temptation, I don't
know what your bosom sin may be that
keeps drawing you back, that seems to have
power and authority over your body and your
mind.
But the scripture makes it very clear.
And you say, brother, that's what I want.
I want that kind of victory in my
life.
The Bible clearly states, sin shall not have
dominion or authority over you.
Now, God intends that there be a controlling
power in your life, that there be a
controlling power.
Now, here's where you're going to have to
go back with me now to Romans 5,
17.
For if by one man's offense death reigned
by one, much more they which receive abundance
of grace and a gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one Christ Jesus.
Look at it again, shall reign in life.
You know what it means to reign?
The Greek word there means to rule from
a foundation of authority or power, to rule
from a foundation of authority and power.
How many here would like to reign in
your life?
You want the power to reign over sin.
That's what he's saying right here.
I read it again, they which receive abundance
of grace and the gift of righteousness shall
reign by one Jesus Christ.
They're going to reign in life, this present
life, not just when we get to heaven,
but power and authority over every demon lust,
every demonic power, every principality and power of
darkness that comes against you to rule in
life.
Now, this is amazing truth.
The scriptures say, they which receive abundance of
grace and a gift of righteousness, and Paul
calls it a gift.
In other words, something I have possession of,
I can touch it, I can feed it,
it's a gift, it's mine.
I want to prove to you this afternoon,
if I can, that this gift of righteousness
is none other than the spirit of Jesus
Christ himself given into your heart.
All right, I want you to go with
me please to Galatians 4.
Galatians 4.
I told you you're going to have to
think, you're going to have to follow.
Galatians 4, verse 6, and because you're sons,
what has God done?
God has sent forth the spirit of his
son, where?
Into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.
Now tonight, I'm going to give you what
I believe is a revelation of that.
All I'm going to tell you right now,
look at it, it's not you and I
crying Abba, Father there, that's Jesus crying Abba.
Look at it, that's Jesus crying Abba, and
I'm going to tell you what that means.
There are two cries.
You don't cry Abba, Father until you get
to Romans, and we'll tell you why.
His cry has to become our cry, and
we'll talk about it in depth tonight.
But I want you to listen to that
again, and because you're sons, God has sent
forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts, crying Abba, Father.
The moment you've surrendered to Jesus Christ, everything
in your life, and you give him saving
faith, that very moment, God sends forth the
spirit of his own son into your heart,
to live your life for you, in you
and for you.
Get that, please.
I'm asking God to help me make it
simple.
I'm struggling just to make it simple so
that even a child can understand, and that's
what God's will is.
Know you not that Jesus Christ is in
you, except you be reprobates?
Now look at me, please, folks.
I want to talk to you about something,
Holy Spirit.
I told Pastor Carter just before I came
in, I'm not, there's something, I'm not yet
seeing it, and I came in late to
the service because the Holy Spirit was trying
to show me, and he showed me.
I'm going to talk about authority and control,
and the Lord boiled it all down to
two simple statements, and folks, I have not
some great educated mind.
I have to see it plain.
I have to see it simple.
Even Peter says of Paul that many hard
things that he said, and I read some
of Paul's statements, and they're very hard.
You have to have the Holy Ghost to
understand it, but you see, God, this whole
thing has to do with control.
Who's in control?
You see, the moment you come to Jesus,
that very moment, you've been in control of
everything.
So you came to Christ.
The reason somebody went to drugs and alcohol,
the reason some of you have besetting sins
in your life is because you thought that
you were in control.
You were different.
They're not a drug addict that hadn't gone
to drugs, thought he was different, he's going
to make it.
He was in control.
Come on, fellas, amen?
You never thought you're going to get hooked.
I am different.
Basketball players, football players, they feel that they're
supermen.
They can run around with a thousand different
women in their lifetime thinking they'll never get
age, so they'll never get sexual diseases, and
they thought they were different because everyone now
confessing in sports that they have AIDS said
they thought they were supermen.
They were in control.
Folks, a good half of my, well, maybe
a third of my minutes of the earlier
days, and even in my teenage years, I
had to be in control.
My poor wife, I don't know how she
lived with it.
If she didn't see it my way, I'd
throw scriptures even if I had to invent
them.
That's right.
No, I'm not being facetious.
I would throw together three or four little
pieces and just, I don't know.
She'd say, that's not in the Bible.
I had to be right.
I had to be in control.
You are never ever going to get victory
over any sin until you give up control,
until you lay it down and say, I
am not in control.
I am too weak.
I am helpless.
I can't do it.
That's what God's talking about, the law and
trying the law, but the knowledge of sin,
and then people said, well, I'll bite the
bullet.
I'm going to get back in control, and
that's what many of us do when we
come up against the sin.
We say, well, bless God, I'm going to
get victory over this somehow.
One more time, Lord.
Try me one more time.
I'll get it right next time, and we
are seeking to get back in control.
A friend, a pastor friend of mine told
me recently, he's about my age, and he
kind of prided himself at his age.
He was so healthy and so strong.
He could do things and very, you know,
energetic.
Well, during this big blizzard we had recently,
he hurt his back, and he couldn't move.
He had to call some young men into
shovels, his driveway and his walks, and his
wife is out there too with a shovel,
and he's sitting there.
He can't move.
He totally lost control of everything.
He said, to sit there, what's my wife?
Cleaning the drive, cleaning the walks, shoveling the
walk, and she's smiling.
He said, well, I had two weeks to
just absolutely, I think it was two weeks,
I had two weeks of just marvelously considering
how weak I am.
He said, it changed so many things in
my life.
God taught him so many things.
See, we want control.
We think that we can do it ourselves
in our own strength, but that's where you
get in trouble.
That's why many of you have never been
free yet because you look, you go out
and you face your temptation, you face your
lust, you face your besetting sin, and you
say, you will not get me down.
You look in the mirror and say, tomorrow
I will have more power.
I'll have more strength.
Just say no.
That was Mrs. Reagan's program against drugs.
Just say no.
We're telling that to a whole generation of
kids who believe they're supermen and they're in
control.
They can take drugs, they can have sex
and never get pregnant.
They can do all of these things and
everybody in America is in control.
God just has to sit back and say,
well, I've got to wait till you give
up your control.
If you are sitting here in the balcony
and here now, you think that you can
fight your sin?
You think you're strong enough?
Or God's just waiting for you to be
good enough?
You're in control and God can't do anything.
All the theology, all the preaching is in
vain until you say, Lord, I am not
in control.
I have failed and failed, and as long
as I think I'm in control, I'll keep
on failing.
That's why Jesus sent the controller to live
in you.
Paul said, I live, yet not I.
You know what he's saying?
Oh, I live, but I'm no longer in
control.
I live, but yet not I.
I'm not in control is what he's saying,
but Jesus came and he took over control
of my whole life.
Everything I do now, I'm going to make
a bold statement that'll scare you at first.
You think I've lost my thinking capacity.
Jesus was never in control of his life
or his ministry.
Amen.
You say, I don't believe that.
The father that dwelleth in me, he doeth
the works.
Jesus said, every word I speak, every act,
I got it from my father.
My father's in me doing all these works.
Every word you hear, everything you see, my
father in me is doing it.
My father's doing the work.
Hallelujah.
And if you give up the control and
you give it over to Jesus, the next
time you come against your lust and the
devil stands, the devil knows whether you stand
before him in your own power or closed
in the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
He said, Paul, I know, but who are
you?
I know when Paul comes to me, he's
not in control because he said, Christ lives
in him.
Christ is doing the work, but you're standing
in your own power.
Who do you think you are?
Down you go.
But then you stand there and devil says,
you're weak.
Yes, yes, I am.
You can't, you're no match for me.
You're right, devil, I'm no match for you.
But that doesn't matter because I'm not going
to do it anyhow.
I'm not going to fight you.
Your battle's with the Jesus in me and
not me.
When you're going to give up the battle
and all the control to Jesus, he says,
the moment you come to him by faith,
God sends the spirit of his own son,
Jesus Christ to dwell in you, to live
in you.
And folks, when it says Christ lives in
me, it's as simple, as simple as that.
Lord, every time I try to do it
myself, I'm going to back off.
And by faith, it's an act of faith.
Jesus, I trust you have the power.
You have the willingness.
You have the might.
You already defeated this devil legally.
Now defeat him practically in my life right
now.
Glory to God.
He therefore that supplieth to you the spirit
and works miracles among you, does he it
by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith?
He's talking to the Galatians.
He said, you started out right.
You came with faith.
You believed him to justify you and sanctify
you and keep you till the final day.
But he said, something's crept in.
He said, you believe him that you're justified
and you're right with God, but now you're
into the flesh.
You're going to sanctify yourself.
You're going to make yourself holy.
You say, oh, I believe that I'm all
right with God through what Jesus did.
I won't take anything from the cross.
I'll take nothing from the power of the
blood of Jesus.
But boy, when it comes to living a
holy life, getting power over sin, I have
to do that.
He says, you started the spirit.
Are you going to be made holy in
the flesh now?
You're going to try to do it yourself.
You're going to be made perfect in the
flesh.
The scripture says, he that ministers the spirit
to you and worketh miracles among you.
I'm going to tell you something.
If you're going to be delivered from any
habit, any sin, it's going to, it demands,
listen to me, it demands a miracle.
Who in the world can, through their own
self-effort, defeat some of these habits?
Do you know that nicotine is the most
habit-forming?
More than drugs, more than crack or any
other thing, cigarettes.
In fact, that's been in the news all
week.
If you have been listening to the radio
or reading your newspaper, they're about to sue
the leader of one tobacco company because when
he appeared before Congress, he knew there was
a report.
They've even named the substance in tobacco far
more addicting than any other kind of addiction
on earth.
And some have been blowing smoke in Jesus'
face long enough because when you smoke, you're
blowing smoke right in his face because you
said he lives in your heart and your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
So when are you going to quit blowing
smoke in his face?
Some of you now, you're still drinking.
You say, well, I'm Italian.
All Italians drink.
My wife's Italian.
She doesn't drink.
Say, oh, I'm not hooked.
I'm going to tell you now, I'm led
by the Holy Spirit to just say that
some of you can't even wait in the
morning before you get up or when you
get up, you go right to your alcohol.
So I love Jesus, but you're still what
I call a sipping saint.
You will never be delivered until you see
it in the eyes of God for what
it is.
This body of mine is a temple of
the Holy Ghost.
And God said, if I destroy this temple,
I'll be destroyed.
But then you become a legalist.
You know what legalism is now?
It's a code word among those evangelicals who
don't want to live the straight life anymore.
They just paint it with this word legalism.
But folks, God wants us to be conformed
to the image of Christ, not just in
the outward things, but a pure heart with
motives that are so clean, that are so
pure before the Lord.
But more than that, he doesn't want anything
controlling your life.
He wants no sin in control.
And this is what deliverance is all about,
to find me my life is in total
control and submitted to Jesus Christ.
By faith, I'm submitted to his righteousness.
By faith, I submit to his power to
sanctify me, that he's able, if he's able
to save me, he's able to keep me.
You understand that?
If he's got the power to save you
eternally, surely he's got the power to keep
you for this short span of life that
you and I are going to live.
Glory be to Jesus.
Hallelujah.
Giving thanks unto the Father who delivered us
from the power of darkness.
But the Lord is faithful who shall establish
you and keep you from evil.
Listen again.
The Lord is faithful who shall establish you
and keep you from evil.
He gave himself for our sins, that he
might deliver us from this present evil world.
We don't deliver ourselves, that he may deliver
us from this present world.
Now I'm going to give you one scripture
before I close.
It's so simple, and I want you to
understand it.
Because some of you here right now, you're
downcast, you say, how am I ever going
to get out of this awful bondage?
How am I going to ever have freedom
in my life?
Listen to this scripture.
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly
out of temptations.
The Lord knows how.
You see, when you give up control, you
say, Jesus, you're in control.
He knows how.
He knows what to do.
He doesn't have to even tell you right
now.
You don't have to have a whole plan
of deliverance laid out in your life.
Do one, two, three, and you're going to
be delivered.
Listen to this.
I'm going to close.
It's so very, very important.
If you would trust your life into his
hand and say, Jesus, I give up control.
That means every day you get up, you
prayed that.
He says, how are you going to see
miracles?
He said, by the hearing of faith.
God has to hear you speak it.
When you get up in the morning and
all day, you feed your soul on this
word of faith.
You say, it's not your words that are
creative or anything else, but you're convincing yourself.
You are building up your own faith inside.
And you are saying, I am not in
control.
I can't do this.
I have tried and tried, and I can't.
Jesus, you have a power over the devil.
You can do it.
You know how.
The Lord knows how to deliver the godly
out of temptation.
He knows how.
I said, God, I don't know how.
You know how.
I'm not in control.
You're in control.
My part is to believe you with all
my heart that if I surrender to you
and give you my everything that I am,
all that I have, you're going to give
me the direction.
He'll tell me.
You'll hear a voice behind you say, this
is the way.
Walk you in it.
He knows how.
Boy, there are some times if you just
believe Jesus, he'll speak so clearly to you.
You're about to do something, and the first
two or three times, he'll say, don't do
it.
Don't do it.
Then the next time he taps you a
little harder.
I said, don't do it again.
You go back and do it again.
He said, I told you, don't do that.
And you keep doing it because that's where
the discipline is.
Whom he loves, he disciplines.
And if you're not going to just listen
to a still small voice, you're going to
listen to his rod.
And the discipline comes, and he disciplines us
because he's trying to get our attention.
Uh-huh.
And I'll tell you, if you keep on,
there'll come a time he says, you do
it again.
I love you too much, and you're not
listening to me.
I'm just going to have to turn you
over to it for a while.
I'm going to turn you over to your
sin.
And he's going to warn you, you could
become a reprobate if you're not careful.
And he does it in great love, and
he does it in great compassion, that his
whole desire for you is that you walk
in liberty.
For us, he wants us to be free
to serve him, to worship.
He doesn't want you to come in his
house feeling guilty.
He doesn't want you to come under condemnation.
He doesn't want you to come in his
presence fear.
I don't want any of my children to
come in my presence condemned before me or
full of fear because of me.
I want my children to be at ease
with me.
I want, I want the fellowship.
I want the love, the communal, the back
and forth of love, the give and take
of love.
I want that.
The reason God wants us to be holy
and pure.
Yes, he's holy.
Yes, he's pure, and he won't look at
sin.
But more than that, he wants us to
have abundant life while we live here.
He wants us to live without guilt and
fear and condemnation.
Hallelujah.
Wants you to be happy in his presence,
delivered from all the bondages of hell.
And that's why he's been so patient.
God told me I had to be patient
with this congregation or any congregation where I
preach because he's been so patient with me.
He loves you.
He wants you to be free.
Now this evening, we're going to talk about
the cry, the dual cry of Abba Father.
We're going to talk about how to release
the Christ life.
He has the power.
You know, he lives in you.
How do you release it?
How do you, how did Paul say, Christ
lives in me?
How do you release the power?
You know, I just told you, God said,
I send the spirit of Christ into your
heart.
But how do I let him live it
in and through me?
We'll talk about that tonight.
Let's stand.
Heavenly Father, I ask you to come now,
confirm your word with signs and wonders following.
The sign and wonder being lives changed.
People confessing their sins and being set free
and delivered from the power and bondage of
them.
Holy Spirit, come and do a precious work
now in our hearts.
Balcony, main floor.
Listen to me closely.
And I believe this on my heart because
some of you, I don't think you need
to wait till the night to hear the
rest of the story.
God's already convicted you.
Say, Brother Dave, there's something in my life
that's standing between me and freedom.
I am not free.
There's something that convicts me, something that bothers
me.
There's something that I'm struggling with.
Nobody needs to know it.
Nobody's going to put a microphone on your
face.
You're not going to make any public confession
that's between you and the Lord.
But if the Holy Spirit's been speaking to
you and you're so, Brother Dave, I want
to be free.
Pastor, I want to be free.
I want God to deliver me.
Up in the balcony, go to the stairs
on either side and come on down.
Bring your purse with you.
Make sure you don't leave any purse where
you're at in Times Square, wherever you're at.
So, Pastor, I want to be free.
And I know the Lord wants to set
you free.
He's able to do it if you come
by faith.
The Lord reads your heart.
He knows your mind.
He knows exactly what you're thinking when you
came down the aisle.
He knows what you're thinking right now.
If you're thinking the way you should be
thinking, it should be in light of what
you've heard.
Lord, I'm ready to give up total control
of my life.
I've made a mess of it.
It's not working.
God, you're the only one that can do
it.
But I've got to believe that you can
and will do it, that He's willing to
do it, that He can do it, that
He wants to do it.
He's just waiting for you to yield your
members as instruments into His hands.
Surrender.
That's an act of faith.
You know, you say, well, I don't understand
faith, Brother Dave.
Listen to me, please.
As you begin to speak it, you need...
Now, Brother Carter talked about speaking to himself.
You're going to speak anything, whether it's on
the streets or anywhere else.
If you're not going to speak it out
loud, speak it quietly to your heart.
I'm not in control anymore.
Jesus, you're in control.
Now, you deal with this.
You tell me what to do, and I'll
obey you.
Whatever Mary said to the servants, whatever He
says to do, do it.
You do it.
You'll hear a voice behind you saying, this
is the way.
And He will convict you, He will speak
to you, He will warn you, and He
will help you.
He has the power and He has the
authority, and He is most...
He says He's more willing to give than
you are to receive.
But He said, submit.
I want you to pray this with me
right out of your heart, loud and clear.
Jesus, I come to you now to give
up.
I surrender my control, my rulership.
I want power and authority over my sins,
but it's not in me.
The power is in you, and I know
you live in me, Jesus.
I accept you as Lord and Savior.
I confess my sins, and I believe what
God said.
The Spirit of Christ lives in me, and
because He lives in me, He will deal
with my devils and the demons that come
against me and the powers that hail against
me.
Jesus, I surrender my life.
I give you my body.
Convict me and lead me and guide me
and break the chains of sin.
Through your power and your victory over the
devil.
Now say, I thank you, Jesus, and I
believe you.
I thank you, and I believe you, and
I trust you.
Glory be to God.
I believe you, and I trust you.
Hallelujah.
Glory be to God.
This is the conclusion of the tape.