This message is one of the Times Square
Church pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing WORLDCHALLENGE PO
BOX 260 LINDALE, TEXAS 75771 or calling 903
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and you are welcome to make copies for
free distribution to friends.
My people know not the judgment of the
Lord.
Go to Jeremiah, please, the 8th chapter.
8th chapter of Jeremiah.
If your babies begin to cry, it would
be nice if you would slip them into
the...
What do you call it?
Nursery.
This gray hair of mine.
Take them into the nursery.
And then come back and enjoy the service.
We got good people there.
Jeremiah, the 8th chapter.
I want you to read with me just
one verse and then leave Jeremiah 8th chapter
open on your lap because that's where we're
going to be the rest of the message.
You do have your Bible, don't you?
If you have your Bible, I want you
to hold it up and wave it at
me, please.
On this balcony, wherever you're at, every Bible.
Look at this.
Isn't that a sight?
Come on.
Okay.
Times Square Church, you bring your Bible.
We preach the word.
We want you to prove us.
Hallelujah.
The 7th verse, chapter 8, Jeremiah.
The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed
times and the turtle and the crane and
the swallow observe the time of their coming
but my people know not the judgment of
the Lord.
What an indictment.
Let's pray.
Lord, you are doing something very deep in
this church.
You're doing something very profound and wonderful.
You're digging deep into our hearts.
In 1997, Lord, you're going to purge us
as we've never been purged.
You're going to search us like we've never
been searched.
You're going to bring forth revelation and truth
that sets us free.
And, Lord, out of that is going to
come a rejoicing such as never been heard
before in this house.
Times Square Church is going to be jumping
with the praises of God.
Oh, Lord, you're going to do something marvelous
in our midst because you've begun it in
our hearts.
You've begun it here.
You've begun it in all of our hearts.
Those of us who deliver the word of
the Lord, you've done a work.
Oh, God, this past year and now you're
preparing us.
I share what Pastor Carter said, a great
anticipation of what you're going to do.
But, Lord, first you have to cut.
The surgeon comes in and he cuts so
there can be healing.
Lord, you may have to cut even deeper
this afternoon as you did this morning.
But, Lord, we thank you for the surgeon's
knife.
We thank you, Lord, that you're willing.
What a marvelous act of grace to deal
with us as you do firmly, lovingly, but,
oh, God, without compromise.
Lord Jesus, I want to hear when I
come to this church, I want to hear
an uncompromising message.
I want that which would expose anything hidden
in my life.
I want the mirror held in front of
my face.
Oh, Spirit of God, come down now.
I take your authority, Father, over every principality
and power of darkness.
Nothing, nothing, nothing shall hinder the word of
the Lord.
Lord, sanctify our ears.
Sanctify my voice and let every ear hear
the word of the living God.
We glorify you.
And we chase every demon out of this
house.
Every devil out of hell must go in
Jesus' name.
That the word of the Lord have free
course.
In Christ's name I pray.
Amen.
In the first eight chapters of Jeremiah, the
Lord poses some incredible questions, powerful questions to
the prophet Ezekiel.
And he's listing, God is listing his concerns
for his own people.
He's not talking about the heathen.
He's not talking about the enemies of Israel.
He's talking about God's own chosen people.
And some of the questions God asked of
Jeremiah, like this, he said, Why is there
such a tendency to backsliding among my people?
He says, Why do they cling so stubbornly
to their secret sins?
Why do they continue in their deception?
And why do they have a tendency to
go back to their old sins?
And then he goes on in the first
eight chapters, Why are my people not really
repenting of their sins?
Because there was a false repentance.
He said, Why do they not blush when
they sin so openly?
He said, My people don't know how to
blush anymore.
He said, Why don't they even say, What
have we done?
He said, They sin and they don't even
ask the question, What have we done?
There's no regret.
They sin without remorse.
They sin without guilt.
Why are my people not letting go of
their sins?
Why are they not wanting full deliverance from
the bondage of the sin?
He said, Why aren't they coming to me
for freedom?
Why are they not blessing for their sins?
Now, folks, he's talking about God.
He's talking about his own dear, beloved children.
He's not talking about heathen.
Now, think about that as we go on
in the message today.
You'll find these God-spoken questions, especially in
the 8th chapter of Jeremiah.
Because you see, in Jeremiah's time, the people
were coming to the Lord weeping.
They came searching the Scriptures.
They were probing into the Word of God.
But even though they studied the law and
claimed they wanted to walk by the law,
they refused to forsake their idolatry.
They wanted their idols.
They wanted the sins of their flesh.
And they wanted to serve God at the
same time.
It was a mixture of worship of idols
and a worship of Jehovah.
And that sickened the heart of God.
God says in, look at verse 5, chapter
8, verse 5.
Why then is this people of Jerusalem?
You know, Jerusalem is his own beloved city.
And these are his own beloved people.
When then is this people of Jerusalem, why
then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back
by perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to sea.
They refuse to return.
He says, why are they holding on to
their sins?
Folks, look at me please.
This is the question I believe God is
asking this church and every church in these
last days.
If we really believe Jesus is coming, then
we stop playing games.
If we believe that Jesus is coming and
he's right at the door and we're going
to stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
then we go into this world and we
tremble at what we read and we do
everything within our God-given powers and of
the conviction, the anointing of the Holy Spirit
to deal with our lives.
And again I hear the Holy Spirit saying
in our day to me, to you, to
all of us, why do you still hold
on to the deceit that's in your heart?
Why don't you return to me and why
don't you let it go?
Why aren't you coming for full deliverance?
Why this double standard, this mixture in your
heart that you would come and serve me
and worship me and praise me and love
me and go into my word, inquiring of
my word and then at the same time
holding fast to the deceit that is in
your own heart.
He said, why are my people holding fast?
They won't let go of the deceit that
is in their heart.
It's amazing because God said, I sent holy
prophets.
He said, it's not because you haven't heard
the word, they rose up early, I sent
them early in the morning to late at
night, they walked the streets, they wooed you
by the Spirit, they warned you by the
Spirit and yet in spite of all of
that, you hold on to your deceit.
Folks, if you have deceit in your heart
in this church, it's not because, if you've
been sitting in this church hearing the gospel
preached from this pulpit, it's not because you
haven't been warned.
It isn't because you haven't heard the truth.
But he says, why do you still hold
on to that thing?
Why do you still hold on to that
one thing that I've been dealing with?
Why won't you let it go?
In this case, it was blatant idolatry.
The people rejected the call of the prophets.
They hardened their hearts.
They clamored for a message that was soothing.
They said, preach us easy words, soothing words.
Oh beloved, I can name you churches in
this city right now, while I'm standing here,
maybe not at this particular hour, but every
Sunday morning you can go to some of
the famous churches in this city and you
will not hear one single word that would
upset you.
It will not raise a hair on your
head.
It will not raise a conviction in your
soul.
It will soothe you.
You could live in any kind of sin
and go in there and feel good about
it and walk out feeling even better.
Because the man who stands in the pulpit,
I tell you right now, is a false
prophet.
If he will not preach against sin, if
he will not show people their iniquities, if
he will not deal with the deceit of
the heart, he's a false prophet.
He has nothing to say.
And the only people who go to those
kind of churches are those who don't want
their sins dealt with.
And if they go to a church where
the gospel is truly being preached, they walk
out and say, that's legalism.
And they get angry.
Beloved, I see a spirit that's in the
church today.
The condition described in Jeremiah 8 is the
condition today.
God's people saved, baptized with the Holy Ghost,
still holding fast to deceit, under great delusion,
hoping to serve the Lord and still serve
their secret sins.
Let me make this very personal.
We're not talking now about the children of
Israel and Jerusalem in Jeremiah's time.
We're not talking about those of the Old
Testament, not even the New Testament.
We're talking about 1996, the last Sunday of
1996.
We're talking Times Square Church, David Wilkerson, and
this congregation, and all who hear me.
Are you sitting here in the presence of
God now?
The Holy Spirit was moving here mightily in
a beautiful way.
He came down now just to honor Christ.
The Holy Spirit is always here to honor
Jesus, and He's honored Jesus in our midst,
and the glory of the Lord was here.
Did you sit through all of this?
Did you praise the Lord?
Did you have your hands up?
Did you worship Him today with sin clinging
to your heart?
Something He dealt with time and time again,
and you still will not lay it down?
Do you still cling?
Do you still hold fast to the deceit
that God, by His Spirit, is dealing with?
That's what God is asking Jeremiah.
How can my people come in my presence,
and worship me, and seek my word, and
still hold fast to their deceit?
How can it be that so many Christians
today can worship the Lord, and continue, I
mean, month after month, and even year after
year, and not deal with their sin?
In Jeremiah 8.5, He says, why do
my people hold fast to deceit?
Why do they not repent and return to
holiness?
Why do they, in fact, the description is
given by God to the prophet Jeremiah, why
do they race off after their sins like
horses going to battle?
Those horses would go against those staves and
absolutely puncture themselves.
They were rushing into the battle, the sound
of battle.
There was something in their blood rushing into
their sin, rushing into the battle.
And folks, He said, that's what my people
are doing.
They're like wild horses running into the battle,
holding fast to the deceit, running to destruction,
destroying themselves.
In verse 7, God answers His own question.
And He said, why do my people hold
fast to the deceit?
And He answers it, it is because my
people know not my judgments.
And God is saying, I warned them that
I would judge their sins.
I would prompt my wrath upon those who
refused to forsake their wicked ways.
I sent them message after message, I have
been patient.
We have Christians who believe God can't, there's
no end to God's patience.
Folks, you would know your Bible if you
believe that.
You would not know your Bible.
There comes a time when God says, you
have hardened your heart.
Nothing I say, nothing I do, nothing I
could do even as God of the universe
will change you.
And God talks of giving people over to
their sin to reprobate minds.
Folks, we are going to have to deal
with the reality of the Scripture in these
last days.
The truth alone that can set us free.
Somebody can come to you and talk to
you about your sin.
But until you allow the Holy Ghost to
take this word and cause you to tremble
at it.
You will never be delivered from your sin.
Especially now, if you have cozied up to
become your bosom sin and you're comfortable with
it now.
God had warned severe judgment upon those who
flaunted His mercy.
And He said, I will overturn, overturn, overturn.
That was the end of His patience.
I will overturn.
I will deal with this.
This people were, judgment was already coming because
the Assyrian army had already approached to the
north border in Dan.
And they said, we can hear the neighing
of their horses.
These are the Israelites talking who had idolatry
in their heart and the stumbling blocks of
iniquity in them.
And they were running, fleeing to their cities
for the walled cities.
And what they were saying, we will run
to the cities and we will sit in
silence and wait to see what God will
do.
And what they're saying, we'll go into these
walled cities and we will sit and write
out the judgment.
God had warned them by the prophets.
He said, your sin will find you out.
He said, there's judgment on sin.
I've been patient.
I've ruled you.
You're my children.
I'm your father.
I love you.
But you will not heed.
You will not listen.
He said, there comes a time I have
to deal.
I have to judge.
And God was judging.
The Assyrian armies were coming.
Those prancing horses, they were killing wives and
babies and children.
Everything in sight was being wiped out.
And the word came all through Judah and
Israel.
And they were fleeing to the cities.
And they were saying, let us enter into
the defense cities and let us sit silent.
God has given us water of gall to
drink because we've sinned against the Lord.
And folks, they didn't know the judgment of
God.
They didn't have the slightest idea what was
coming.
Their concept was, we will run into these
walled cities and there will be a time
of trouble.
There may not be enough food to eat.
There may be a time of no drink.
We may be a little thirsty.
We may have a time of trial, but
we will ride out the storm.
And there are people now...
I mentioned speaking to a pastor who was
involved in outright slander and gossip.
And I approached him about it.
And I said, do you know your Bible?
Do you not understand that God can cut
you off?
That all through the book of Proverbs, he
said, I will chew you to pieces?
I will deal with you?
I said, do you understand that the judgment
of God is on slander, whether you're a
preacher or anybody else?
And he turned and waved it off and
he said, all right, then I face the
judgment of God.
And I walked away thinking, oh, if you
only knew the judgment of God, you couldn't
say that.
You couldn't say that.
He didn't know anything about the judgment of
God.
He had no concept of the judgment of
God.
You can't sit silent and ride out the
judgments of God upon your sin.
You can't say, all right, and this is
what they were saying.
We have sinned against God.
We have failed God.
We have been disobedient.
We've held to our secret sins.
And now we're going to face a time
of judgment.
The will come out of it on the
other side.
They're going to hold their sins right through
the judgment.
And how wrong they were, because they didn't
survive the judgments of God.
And there are people, Christians, who honestly believe,
you know, God's merciful.
He will, they have no plans to lay
down their sin.
They have no plan to yield to the
Holy Spirit.
And you know, folks, all that God is
asking of you is that you surrender.
That's all it is, just surrender.
He's there with open arms.
He's there with power.
Everything you need.
He's there to help you hate your sin.
He's there as a loving Father, just hovering
over you, waiting for your heart to reach
out to Him.
Just wanting you to cry, I hate my
sin, Father.
Come and deliver me from my sin.
And He reaches down and pulls you out.
But when you become stubborn, you become hardened
in your sin, you become blinded to the
evil of your sin.
You no longer see the deceitfulness of sin.
And so you say, all right, so I've,
so judgment.
What is He going to do?
Is He going to, you know, all right,
I might lose my job.
How bad could it be?
Folks, I wouldn't want to wait around for
an answer to that.
Hallelujah.
I was thinking of a Christian man that
I counseled about a troubled marriage.
And he's another one of those who had
left his wife because he said she's like
a witch.
She's mean, she's arrogant.
And I warned him that God hated divorce
because I knew that's where he's headed.
And I said, you're going to lose the
blessing in favor of God.
I said, you're going to have God turn
against you because he hates it.
And you're blatantly walking against His law.
You know what he said?
I guess I'll just have to face the
consequences of my action.
I guess I'll just have to face the
consequences.
Face the consequences of the judgment of God.
That man didn't know the judgments of God.
My people don't know the judgment of the
Lord.
Like Israel, God had given His people many
warnings about the judgment against sin in believers.
Many, many warnings, but they turned those warnings
aside.
You know, in Romans, the second chapter, we
have a very clear warning from God.
He said, if you do the same things
that you condemn in others, if you sin
just like those that you condemn, your judgment
is sure.
He said, you that preach, you shouldn't steal.
Do you steal?
He said, you that condemn adultery in others,
are you committing adultery?
Do you sit here this afternoon in the
middle of an affair, a secret affair nobody
knows anything about but God and you?
But, sir, I'm going to tell you something
else.
You think your wife doesn't know, she knows
and she'll find out.
Because God said, be sure.
What?
Your sin will, what?
Who said that?
So, count your moments.
Take your pleasure now because it's all going
to be exposed, the Bible says.
Be sure your sin will find you out.
Now, that's God's word and that's a word
of mercy.
God puts these signs up, these warning signs,
because you see right down that road, there's
a precipice and it goes right over a
brink and God has all these signs saying
stop, danger, danger.
Be sure your sin will find out.
It's a danger sign.
So, God is trying to stop you from
going over the brink.
It's all mercy.
How many believe that?
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgeth
them which do such things, and you do
the same, that you shall escape the judgment
of God?
Would you go to Romans 2?
Let's look at it.
Romans 2.
Still with me?
Did I hear somebody say, Brother Wilson, you're
getting hard.
No, no, no.
I'm preaching mercy to you.
Romans 2.
Would you go to verse 21?
Well, let's start at verse 19.
You're confident that thou, that thou thyself are
guide of the blind, a light to them
which are in darkness, instruct of the foolish,
a teacher of babes, which has the form
of knowledge and the truth of the law.
Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not
thyself.
Thou that preachest a man should not steal,
dost thou steal?
Thou that sayeth a man should not commit
adultery, dost thou commit adultery?
Thou that abhors idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Thou that makest thy boast of the law
through breaking the law, dishonest thou God?
For the name of God is blaspheme among
the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
Look at me, please.
He's speaking to Christians.
He said, you're blaspheming the name of Jesus
when you practice something you're preaching against.
When you tell others, And folks, some of
us, we allow things in our lives that
we wouldn't excuse in anybody else's life.
We allow things in life that we would
condemn in others.
And the Lord said, that's blasphemy among the
unsaved.
That is something God says, I will not
endure.
He said, you treasure up wrath against the
day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God.
Paul said, there is no respect of persons
with God.
For the Lord shall judge the secrets of
men's hearts by Jesus Christ.
Now, let me tell you something.
I'm 65 now, going on 66.
And I've been preaching for many, many years
since just a boy.
And I've looked back over my life, and
I thank God for the grace, his keeping
power, how he's kept me by his grace.
Many times he could have cast me aside
and destroyed me.
But the grace of God came.
But let me tell you, I said, oh
God, how is it?
How is it that you have kept me
these years?
And there's one verse, there is absolutely one
verse that has been one of my key
verses all my life, all my ministry.
And it's this, I just want you to
listen to it.
It's Proverbs 16, 6.
By the fear of the Lord, men depart
from evil.
By the fear of the Lord.
Folks, the church of Jesus Christ has lost
the fear of God.
We've made God to appear like a man
like ourselves, just like us.
And we judge our sins as though God
were somebody just like us, that would appease
us.
That if we would cry and say, I'm
so sorry, we go sin again, cry and
repent, sin again, cry, repent, sin again.
You say, after all, he said we're to
forgive 70 times 7.
Well, I've got this habit, I've got this
secret sin in my life, and I may
have confessed it maybe 200 times, but I've
got 200 sometimes more to go.
It's not what that scripture means whatsoever.
God said, I am no respecter of persons.
And here's the point, and listen closely.
There are many people who hold on to
their secret sins because they feel that they're
special.
They feel that somehow because they don't hurt
anybody.
I've often wondered, I was in a church
once where there was a janitor that was
not a Christian, and he would sit, he
probably sat for 20 years hearing the gospel,
hearing all the speakers and everything, and never
moved by God.
And I thought, how does a man like
that hear preaching after preaching and nothing moves
him?
And he sits back in the back of
the church and just sits there unmoved.
He's a janitor, he takes care of the
church, and he's there watching, he's hearing, and
after a while goes in one ear and
out the other, doesn't mean anything, it's just
words to him anymore.
You know, because that man actually was thinking
to himself, like so many, really, those drug
addicts that come to this church, I'm not
like them.
These alcoholics, all these people get up and
say that they're safe from sin, I'm not
that, I'm a pretty good person.
And I feel in my heart that when
I get before God, I'll be okay.
The Lord's not going to judge me.
And you see, they know nothing of the
judgment of God.
They know nothing that they must stand before
the judgment.
It's appointed on a man once to die
and after that to judgment.
And that is final, that is sure.
That we have people that have absolutely, almost
the whole city out here.
You can take people that have not murdered
anybody, people that faithfully pay their income tax.
Oh, they've got their little secret things, yes.
But because of no big, blatant sin, I'm
okay.
And that's why they write books like I'm
okay, you're okay.
But I believe what Apostle Peter said, For
the time has come that judgment must begin
in the house of God.
And if it first began at us, what
shall it be of them that obey not
the gospel of God?
Now folks, this judgment of God, let me
talk to you about it for just a
moment.
We know so little about the fear of
God today, we know so little about the
judgment of God.
This is the end of side one.
The fear of God that
we run from evil, that we flee from
evil, from our idols.
The fear of God, and you can't incubate
that, you can't invent it.
You can't just make it arise in your
heart.
That comes through sincere crying and praying out
to God.
The Holy Ghost has to fire that flame
in you.
My prayer every day is, Oh God, I
want your fear to blaze in me.
When I stand in the pulpit, I want
the fear of God blazing in me.
When I go through, get up in the
morning, let the fear of God be ablaze
in my heart.
That when the enemy comes at me with
temptation and all these other things, the fear
of God will be burning bright and be
consumed in that fire and that blaze.
Hallelujah.
How many want the fear of God?
The holy, righteous fear of God.
You could never sin lightly.
But you see, the judgments prophesied against God's
people in Jerusalem were not eternal judgment.
This was not judgments that would come to
them when they die.
These were judgments that come to us while
they're here on earth.
And these are the judgments of God.
Folks, it's not just judgment on judgment day.
Sin that was not confessed and forsaken.
Sin that is not laid down, those secret
things that cling to us and grow and
take root and get harder and deeper into
our spirits.
That's what God is after.
And you know, sometimes people will ask God
to pluck up one sin and one idol
is knocked down and another is raised upright
in its place.
And God wants to take out all idolatry.
He wants to take away all stumbling blocks.
Hallelujah.
Not knocking one down and let another coming
up in its place.
But you see, these judgments of God that
God's people don't know anything about, He begins
to explain those judgments.
I'm going to give you just two evidences
of those judgments, two consequences of those judgments
listed in this 8th chapter.
First of all, verse 10.
Would you look at verse 10, please?
Therefore will I give...
First of all, it says, my people know
not the judgment of the Lord.
Look at verse 10.
Therefore will I give their wives unto others.
I will give their wives unto others.
Now look at me, please.
This is the judgment of sin, especially in
the life of a married person.
If you're married, listen to me closely.
God says, I'll give your wives to others.
This is blatant divorce.
This is pandemic divorce.
This is the breaking up of homes.
This is the dysfunctional family and we see
it everywhere we go.
Folks, the judgment of God is on America
and it's happening in the church.
Did you get the latest news?
I saw this in a Christian magazine, that
there are as many evangelical Christians divorcing as
those that are not going to church.
Just as much divorce in evangelical churches as
in the world.
Dysfunctional families.
This is the judgment of God.
He said, if you hold on to your
sin, you're married and you have sin, you
have lust in your heart and you will
not lay it down and you follow your
idolatry, it's going to cost you your home.
It's going to cost you your family.
It's going to cost you your children.
I have seen grandparents whose children have been
raised and those two never did settle things
with God.
They never did have it right with God.
And then when the children were gone, the
children were the only thing holding it together
when the children are married.
God, grandma, grandpa get divorced.
And you know what I've seen?
Especially with ministers, grandparent ministers of the gospel.
You know what I've seen over and over
again?
I've seen that divorce spread all through their
married kids.
One after another following the example of their
parents.
And he said, I'll give you wives to
another.
The judgment of God is a dysfunctional family,
a loss of children.
In Malachi chapter 2, God said, You've covered
the altar of the Lord with your tears
and with weeping and with crying out, yet
you're untrue to your wives.
Yet she's your companion, the wife of your
covenant.
You've wearied the Lord with your words.
You think God still delights in them that
do evil.
You think God still delights in you, even
though he sees what is in your heart.
I wonder how many wives there are listening
to me now.
Folks, I'm at the place now.
I've told God I have to make every
year count.
I have to make every message count, every
day count.
I have been faithful as I know how
to be.
I've made mistakes.
Yes, I know in the past years I've
made mistakes.
I'm not a perfect man.
I want to talk to you plain and
simple.
It may sound blunt to you.
But how many wives are sitting here right
now, wanting out of their marriage?
How many husbands are wanting out?
You're thinking of divorce, you're thinking of splitting,
you're thinking of going your own way.
God said, you come to my house and
you cover the altar with tears, and yet
you're unfaithful in your heart.
He's talking about what's going on in the
heart.
You're unfaithful in your heart.
You have treachery in your heart.
God says, I'll judge that.
I will judge that.
God, let it not be in this church.
Let it be that every wife that's here
thinking she's in an impossible situation believes that
nothing is impossible with God.
Let every husband that's hearing me right now
not even anticipate or think about it because
God hates divorce.
That is not an option for a believer.
It's not an option.
It can't even enter your thoughts.
It will cost you your home.
It will cost you your children.
It will cost you everything.
And that's the second judgment.
Verse 10, and I'll give your fields to
them that shall inherit them.
In the original Hebrew it says, I'll give
your fields to others.
Your field is the area, that whole substance
of what you spent your whole life building.
For me, my field is this congregation.
It's the church.
Pastor Carter, this is his field, New York.
It's the ministry here.
And God says, if you will not yield,
if you will not lay down your sin,
if you're going to hold to your deceit,
I'll give your field to somebody else.
And oh, I've seen that over and over.
I've seen missionaries come home from the field.
I'm dealing with a couple right now.
A man overseas fell in love, he said,
with somebody overseas.
And his wife came home and she's in
despair.
And he's going to fly over and get
her and bring her back and marry her.
And it's a mess.
But I've seen what happens now.
He doesn't have a dollar to his name.
His ministry's been taken from him.
Nobody on that field wants him.
He wants to go back to that field.
Nobody wants to touch him.
Nobody wants near him.
God said, I'll take your field away from
you.
And I'll give it to somebody else.
I'll take away everything you have.
Folks, that's what sin does.
Sin will take everything you have.
You want a divorce, sir?
It's going to cost you everything.
It's going to cost you alimony.
It's going to cost you heartache.
It's going to cost you probably your car.
I had a woman recently tell me that
her husband had divorced her about ten years
ago.
She said, Brother Dave, he divorced me and
had every right to because I shamed him.
I was not faithful.
He had every right.
I sinned against my husband.
And she said, I had a beautiful home.
I had beautiful furniture.
Very expensive.
Everything.
I lived in style.
I wound up sleeping in my car.
Thank God she got a hold of God
and the Lord began to bless her and
prosper her.
She's serving the Lord now faithfully.
Being mightily blessed of God.
But God took her fields.
He'll take your fields.
He'll give your best to somebody else.
Uh-huh.
The wages of sin.
Know you not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not deceived.
Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers shall inherit
the kingdom of God.
Marriage is honorable.
The bed is undefiled.
But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
You say, Brother Dave, why are you talking
about adultery?
Fornication?
Because the Holy Ghost told me to deal
with it?
Because God's trying to save some people from
hell?
God's coming right to your face.
Face to face.
Because you sit here and nobody else knows
about it but you and God.
Supposedly.
If you're in the office, everybody knows it
anyhow.
They're talking behind your back.
Uh-huh.
And God has come face to face with
you.
For a pastor who cares about your soul.
And the Holy Ghost says, I'm speaking directly
to it now.
That you be convicted of it by the
power of the Holy Ghost.
And you lay it down.
And get your freedom back.
And get the joy of the Lord back.
And get the blessing of the Lord flowing.
And all your rivers flowing once again that
have been held up by your sin.
Hallelujah.
Don't anybody look around.
Look in.
Now, I'm not suggesting we have many, many
into this.
If I'm speaking to one or two, it's
worth.
It's worth every word.
It's worth the time to stop and talk
it about.
I will give your fields to them that
shall inherit it.
Another present judgment is an invasion of serpents
and snakes.
Verse 17, Behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices
among you which shall not be charmed.
And they shall bite you, saith the Lord.
Folks, this is God's Word.
This is not a pastor getting up, venting
his spirit.
This is God's Word.
God said, Persist in your sin.
I've loved you.
I've been patient with you.
But He said, At comes a time, I'm
warning you.
Go on with it.
And I'll tell you, you're going to split
your home.
You're going to split everything.
You're going to lose everything.
I'll give your fields and your career and
your business.
I'm going to give everything to somebody else.
And then I'm going to send serpents to
bite you.
And you're going to live out your days
with poison in you.
Bitterness, rejection, guilt, shame.
These serpents will bite you.
God says, I will send these serpents.
Verse 17, Behold.
Read it with me.
Verse 17, Chapter 8.
For behold, I, I, who is it?
I will send serpents, cockatrices.
What cockatrices are, are the little snakes that
are the most poisonous.
Among you which will not be charmed.
And they shall bite you, saith the Lord.
Now what happens when you're bitten with a
serpent?
The poison goes all through your system.
And folks, I see Christians everywhere I look
now, full of poison.
Bitter, angry, full of rebellion.
Why?
Because of sin that is unsurrendered.
Unsurrendered, and folks, it produces nothing but the
cockatrice bite.
Show me a Christian who's living with a
hidden secret lust.
Or living a double life.
He refuses conviction, refuses the warnings of God's
word.
That Christian is going to become hard in
his sin.
And his very character is going to change.
I see people changing.
Folks, probably the saddest thing that can happen
in the church of Jesus Christ.
Is that those who should be mothers in
Zion, fathers in Zion.
Those with gray hairs, who should be sweet
and mellow.
Be a testimony to a dying world.
And young people looking for examples of God's
grace and mercy.
To see them become mean, and angry, and
bitter.
Nothing is more vile in my eyes.
Nothing bothers me more than to see a
grandma in her 70s or 80s.
Sucking a cigar, drinking a cocktail, and cursing
like a drunken sailor.
Nothing worse than in the house of God
to see grandmothers and women.
Above 50 and 60 years of age in
the house of God.
Growing every day and every week meaner and
angrier.
Their face creased with bitterness.
And they still come to the house of
God.
But the serpent has bitten them because sin.
Unforgiveness.
Bitterness.
And you look at them and say, Lord.
Their last days spent full of poison.
Oh Lord, I don't want that in my
life.
Oh God, I don't want any poison in
me.
Hallelujah.
I don't want any poison in my system.
I want to grow sweeter as the days
go by.
Hallelujah.
That's what happened to Saul, didn't it?
He had bitterness, jealousy, and hatred in his
heart.
An evil spirit from the Lord came upon
him.
That man died face to face with a
witch.
Full of anger, bitterness, and rebellion.
Folks, the thing that robbed these people was
that they knew not the judgment of the
Lord.
I'm going to close with this, but this
is so important.
Verse 8, please.
Verse 8.
I'm going to come to the close now.
How do you say we are wise and
the law of the Lord is with us?
Though certainly in vain made he it, the
pen of the scribes is in vain.
And in the original Hebrew, the pen of
the scribes is a lying pen.
What the scribes and the priests and the
prophets are preaching now, God is telling Jeremiah,
they're not preaching the truth.
They're saying we are wise.
Look, it says we are wise and the
law of the Lord is with us.
Look at this picture, please.
Jerusalem is bound by idolatry.
The judgment of God is at the door.
People know nothing of the judgment of God.
And they're in their midst.
They are being charmed by a false gospel.
And you know, these scribes said we know
the law.
They bisected the law.
They said we are wise in the law.
We know what the law means.
But you know what they did?
They perverted the law.
They took away the power and the sting
of the law.
Folks, we are not under the law as
a way of salvation, but we are under
the law as a moral code.
God has not done away with the law.
He has honored the law by his absolute
perfect righteousness.
He has exalted the law as a moral
standard.
That is our standard.
Tell me which one of the Ten Commandments
you are not to obey anymore.
Give me one.
Commandment of God of the Ten that you
and I are not supposed to obey anymore.
We are not saved by the law, but
it's still our moral code.
But you see, they've taken away the law.
They took away the law, and they were
saying peace, peace.
We have the law on our side, and
they were telling people we're evil and corrupted,
that you're a righteous person.
You are righteous people.
Beloved, let me tell you something.
There was a time I was probably one
of the hardest preachers in America.
I've told Pastor Carter sometimes I listened to
my tapes from 20 years ago and I
have to shut it off.
I said, I can't handle that.
Because you see, the Lord had to add
mercy and grace, and he seasoned it with
mercy and grace.
And I've preached a lot of mercy.
You've heard Pastor Carter preach great mercy and
love.
We have preached mercy.
We've talked to you about a Heavenly Father
who loves us, who's a nurse to us.
We've talked to you about being justified and
sanctified by faith.
We've talked to you about how Jesus Christ
is the only righteousness.
We have no other plea but His righteousness.
Because you see, even when you lay your
idols down, even when you can say there's
nothing between me and the Lord, it's still
not your goodness.
It's the mercy and the grace of God
and nothing else.
But folks, that's one side of this coin.
There's another side to the coin.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
There are so many scriptures here.
They said the law of the Lord is
with us.
And we hear some people preaching what they
believe is the truth.
But it's all mercy.
It's all love.
It's all grace.
It's all...
Don't worry.
You're okay.
Listen to what the Word says.
Listen closely now.
Lay aside the sin that so easily besets
you.
Lay it aside.
Now folks, that's not the law.
That's grace.
You've got a sin in your life.
Lay it aside.
Deal with it.
Listen to what the scripture says.
Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God.
And God means that.
Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
That's not law.
That's not legal.
That is mercy.
That is grace.
He says, but fornication, all uncleanness, all covetousness,
let it not once be named among you.
And then he says, come out from among
them, be you separate and clean, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, then
I receive you as a father.
You'll be my son.
You'll be my daughter.
Then I receive you.
That's the Word too.
Now I tell you always, we close with
hope.
Now I want you to go with me,
if you will, please, to Psalm 103.
Will you stand as we read it?
Psalm 103.
Did you hear what I said this morning?
The judgments of God are not vindictive, they're
redemptive.
He judges us to save us.
Paul said, I turn him over to the
devil, to the destruction of the flesh, that
his soul might be saved.
Judgment to redeem.
Hallelujah.
Do you have Psalm 103?
All right, let's begin reading verse 10 from
King James.
I'm reading.
He hath not dealt with us after our
sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the
earth, so great is his mercy toward them
that fear him.
As far as the east is from the
west, so hath he removed our transgressions from
us.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so
the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
He knoweth our frame, he remembers that we
are but dust.
As for man, his daisies are as grass,
as a flower of the field, so he
flourisheth.
The wind passeth over it and is gone,
and the place thereof shall be no more.
But the mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting.
Upon whom?
Upon them that fear him, and his righteousness
unto children's children.
To whom?
To such as keep his covenant, and to
those that remember his commandments to do them.
Folks, what is his commandment?
Confess and forsake your sin.
Touch not the unclean thing.
I say this the last thing I want
to say to you this afternoon.
I know some of you are battling a
horrible battle.
You say, Pastor David, I'm convicted.
I'm deeply convicted.
I know what it says here.
The mercy of God is upon them that
fear him and those who keep his commandments
and remember to do them.
But I don't have the power.
I keep falling.
Here's the issue.
Listen close.
Here's the issue.
Don't make peace with that sin.
Don't say, I'm going to live with it.
Say, oh God, put it in my heart
to hate it.
Help me to keep battling.
God has never once ever turned away his
heart from somebody, no matter how deep in
sin they are.
No time in history has God ever turned
his back or cast away a Christian or
sinner who hates his sin.
He has never turned away from those who
cry out for deliverance.
You may not have it yet, but you're
crying out for deliverance.
God sees that.
He will come.
He will bring deliverance.
Because that's what your heart yearns and cries
for.
Don't lose that cry.
He's not going to fail you.
He's going to deliver you.
Folks, I preached along this line this morning,
again this afternoon.
But God's trying to lead this church into
the greatest arena of worship and praise that
you and I have ever witnessed.
The glory of the Lord wants to come
down in this church, as he's doing it
in many churches today.
But he can't do that until we come
to him with clean hands and a pure
heart and nothing, absolutely nothing hidden in our
lives.
That you come to church, and you raise
your hands, and you know that you're clean.
You know that you have come and laid
your sin at the foot of the cross
and said, Jesus, here it is.
I don't want it.
I give it to you.
I surrender it to you.
Now you give me the grace.
You give me the power.
You keep me hating this sin.
He's going to rush in.
And I'll tell you, nobody's going to have
to pump up anything.
The choir's not going to have to pump
you up.
The orchestra, no song leader have to pump
you up.
Folks, you'll come to this church, and you'll
be running.
I mean, you will come with your hands
up, and you'll be running in mercy and
grace.
And there'll be a conviction.
There'll be a conviction upon everybody that comes
in just because of the awesome presence of
the Lord.
And you talk about joy.
Nobody has joy like people who've been set
free.
Nobody.
You guys from Timothy House and the girls
over here from Sarah House and everybody else
been delivered from sin and the power of
sin, you may be struggling about it, but
I'll tell you right now, so God, I
mean it when I tell you I want
to hate this.
I don't want to go back.
Keep me, Lord, from falling.
Present me faultless before your throne with exceeding
great joy.
And when you follow that and pray every
day and get into this word, you won't
be standing there anymore.
You'll be jumping all over the place with
joy and victory like you've never known.
Hallelujah.
I understand some of you have been doing
that up there anyhow.
Amen.
Yes.
Holy Spirit.
Bring the hammer down on us.
We thank you, Lord, that that hammer is
held by a velvet glove of love.
Hallelujah.
Lord, I pray for everyone in this building
that's been battling a besetting sin that has
been holding them back from the fullness of
God.
It's been such a burden.
It's robbed them of such freedom.
God, let there be total final victory in
this house today.
Nobody needs to know what it is.
You just get out of your seat up
in the balcony here in the main floor.
Hey, there's victory.
There's victory today right now.
There's victory within the next 10 minutes.
Yes, there is.
Get out of your seat.
Just get out of your seat.
Bring it to God.
If you're backslidden, if you don't know Jesus,
or if you've got this thing that you're
battling, bring it to the Lord right now.
The Bible says open confession.
Open confession.
Lord, I confess it.
I'm not ashamed.
I come to you now, Lord.
Please move in close, those that are coming.
Up in the balcony.
Just go to the stairs on either side.
This is the conclusion of the tape.