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 World Challenge
P.O. Box 260 Lindell, Texas 75771 or
calling 903-963-8626.
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to friends.
Uh, I want you to go to John,
third chapter please, John 3.
My message today, Living Under the Wrath of
God.
Let's go to third chapter of John.
I'm going to read one verse, verse 36,
please.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life.
In fact, if you have a King James,
will you read this verse out loud with
me, please, in the annex and wherever you
are.
When, uh, he that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him.
I want you to know that I didn't
invent that phrase.
You heard it and read it from the
Word.
Heavenly Father, I don't know who came to
this church today, moved on by your Holy
Spirit.
Perhaps I hadn't planned to come.
I don't know who came having been visited
or invited by a friend.
I know who just drifted in here, maybe
a tourist or more.
Know who is here, Lord.
I didn't plan this service.
You planned it.
You are in control of all things.
You are, you have divine authority.
You're the one who brought this congregation together.
You're the one who laid this message on
my heart.
You instructed me to go to this very
verse and preach about it this morning.
So Lord, I, my job is simply to
obey you.
That's all I'm to do, to obey what
you put on my heart.
I ask you to give me mercy and
grace to preach this in mercy and grace,
to preach it in the love that you've
intended it to be preached.
Lord, soften my heart as I minister a
hard word.
Lord, speak to those that are in this
church this morning within the sound of my
voice who are not right with you, Jesus,
who have turned their back on you, who
have rejected you.
And I pray for those who have never,
ever fully surrendered their heart and come to
the light.
Oh God, open their eyes and their understanding.
Holy Spirit, anoint me.
Let the word go forth freely and let
it flow abundantly from your heart.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Folks, for months and months I've stood in
this pulpit and I've preached grace.
I've preached mercy and I've preached primarily to
the body of Christ, to build up the
body of Christ.
When I was evangelist, I preached primarily to
sinners.
But the Holy Spirit has prompted me to
preach perhaps a series to those who are
lost, those who have not come to the
light of Jesus Christ.
You are not born again.
You're not a true believer.
And here in the third chapter of John,
Jesus is talking to ruler of the Jews
called Nicodemus.
He's trying...
Nicodemus has come to him asking a question
and Jesus has explained to him how to
be born again.
And he explains it very clearly.
You have to be born of water.
In other words, you have to be born
of a human mother through, you know, the
bag of water through which a child comes.
And that's flesh.
That which is flesh is flesh.
He said, but you have to be born
again in the spirit also.
And what is flesh is flesh and what
is spirit is spirit.
And this ruler, Nicodemus says, how can these
things be?
How can you go back into your mother's
womb?
And Jesus answered, he said, you are a
master or a teacher in Israel and you
don't know these things.
Jesus was dumbfounded by him.
He's an intelligent man, a man who is
taught in the law and the scriptures.
And he says, you can't understand this very
simple thing.
Folks, if you've ever been bewildered when you
try to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ
in its simplicity to somebody, a friend or
relative, you explain the plan of salvation.
You talk about the simple thing of Christ
going to the cross, dying for sin, bearing
your sins and, and loving you enough to
take all your sins upon you and confess
very simple gospel.
And they look at you dumbfounded.
They said, I don't get it.
We have people that are here this morning,
just like we have in service at every
service.
There'll be people coming here from all over
the world.
And some of you walked into this morning
and there are people who have not come
to the light of Jesus Christ.
Oh, they've heard the gospel.
They know, but they've never come to the
light.
And others that walk in here, they may
be Jewish.
They may be people who've not even attended
church and some who don't know really much
about Christ, but they hear the singing.
They hear the choir and they hear a
simple message.
There's nothing complicated about what we preach here,
especially when we preach as we'll be preaching
this morning on salvation.
Nothing complicated about it at all.
But they walk out.
If you get to have a conversation with
them and go something like this, well, look,
I really enjoyed it.
He said, all these people seem so happy.
I love this thing.
I love the choir and interesting preaching, but
I don't get it.
I just don't get it.
I don't understand.
How many of you have relatives like that?
I mean, you, you have, you have explained
this simple.
The Bible said it's so simple that a
child can understand it.
There is nothing complicated about the gospel whatsoever.
And I'm amazed as I hear backsliders even
saying the Christian walk was just too difficult
for me.
So many difficult teachings.
I just didn't know how to make it
work in my life.
It's too complicated.
Really.
I didn't get it.
I've heard every conceivable excuse there can be
for not coming to the light traveling as
an evangelist.
I heard them by the multiplied thousands in
14 years here now, pastoring in Times Square
church.
I'm not ready.
Sometime I'll come.
I'll know when it's time.
Oh, you better believe you will know when
it's time.
Probably in a second when your life can
be snuffed out.
You said there was going to be time
and it's snuffed out of you.
It's happening every moment, every second that I
speak, it's happening all over the world.
I have my own religion.
Never heard that.
I'm not indulging any gross sin.
I'm not hurting anybody.
In fact, I'm a pretty good person.
I'm not perfect, but I'm better than most
of the people around me.
Oh, I've been hurt by Christians.
I've been hurt by a church.
Oh, I hear that a lot.
In fact, I see so many phony Christians.
Excuses.
Jesus got right to the point.
He said to Nicodemus and to those around
him, you just don't want to give up
your sins.
He said, it's that simple.
There is no excuse to the stand before
the heavenly father.
He said, you will not come to the
light for one reason.
Let me read it to you in John
3 20 here for everyone that do with
evil hates the light.
Neither will come to the light.
Less is deed should be exposed.
If reproved, sit here as you will think
what you will have my preaching or the
singing or what you hear here now, what
the gospel says, what the gospel of Jesus
Christ, what Jesus said from his own lips.
He said, you, you will never understand until
you're willing to deal with your sins.
And if you love your sins, you will
never see the light.
You will never come to light.
In fact, you will hate it because it
has a tendency.
The light exposes all the dark things that
are in your life.
This is why I understand now a lot
of people don't want to come to this
church because the light and other churches like
ours, where the gospel be preaching, simple, pure
and straight exposing sin.
They don't want to come here because they're
very comfortable than they sins.
And they, they love their sins.
Jesus said, Jesus said, men love darkness rather
than the light because their deeds are evil.
Verse 19, read it, check it out.
It's not for me.
That's from the heart and lips of Jesus.
Jesus is trying to get through the Nicodemus
by explaining first of all, that God loved
him.
And that there there's evidence of that, that
God would take his own son, put him
on a cross and heap the sins of
the whole world on him as evidence of
that love for God.
So loved the world.
He gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believed in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.
And the simple message to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, and
to every sinner that's ever been born.
God, first of all, has offered you love.
You cannot say that God didn't love you.
You can't say that God didn't try to
express that love to you.
God said he didn't send Jesus to condemn
the way he said, I sent him not
to condemn the world.
Jesus, I didn't come to condemn the world,
but to save man from their sins that
they could have eternal life.
You can't say that Jesus is here this
morning to condemn you.
He said, I am not going to condemn
you.
Really, when you're condemned, I'm going to show
you condemn yourself.
Jesus doesn't condemn you.
We condemn ourselves by turning away from the
light that he offers.
The light exposes every evil deed done in
all the darkness.
Sin is rebellion against God.
Sin hates God.
Sin will not endure it.
But in his love, he sends the light
to expose it that you may see it,
the exceeding sinfulness of it, the death of
it, the awfulness and ugliness of it in
your life, and how it destroys you and
your family and everything around you.
He shows you the destructive of it out
of an act of love, divine love.
God's solution to the sin problem has been
the cross of Jesus Christ that you have
heard about many, many times.
Let me tell you something.
If you don't know Jesus, you could go
to an isolated island, no TV, no VCRs,
no dirty movies, no half nude or nude
women pictures or anything else, nothing to seduce
you, nothing but blue sky and green surf.
You had plenty to eat and you had
a shelter and maybe some books to read,
some good healthy books, and you could be
there for years and not be doing what
people think are sinful.
You're not indulging here, you're not indulging there,
but you're still going to die in your
sins.
If you don't know Jesus Christ, even though
you don't touch anything that is of this
world, because the Bible said, as a man
thinks in his heart, so is he.
The heart of man is abundantly wicked and
who could know it but God.
Until your heart is changed, your circumstances can
change and nothing changes as far as your
eternal security is concerned.
So just trying to get rid of your
sin or trying not to do what you
do, not trying, doing your best humanly possible
to bite the bullet and say, I'll not
do that terrible thing again, that's not going
to save you.
Your deeds will, your good deeds will not
save you.
Yes, God is holy, is love, but he's
also holy and just.
He offered one way out of sin, one
solution.
He said, I am the way, I am
the truth, I am the life.
You confess, you believe him, you trust him.
He that believe in him is not condemned,
but if you love your sin, will not
allow the Holy Spirit to show you the
death in it.
The scripture says you've condemned yourself.
Here's what the scripture says.
Verse 18, look at it in John 3.
He that believe in him is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned already.
Folks, don't worry about if you're a sinner,
don't, don't even think about what it's going
to be like when you stand on the
judgment day.
Don't think about that day when you're going
to stand with nobody there to answer for
you and your sins are piled high to
the heavens.
You have no excuse and everything has been
written in the book of it down in
the book and you're going to answer for
every deed, every thought, every motive.
So don't even think about that day because
the Lord says that he, believe it or
not, is already condemned.
You are already condemned.
And that's a very strong word in Greek.
It means tried already.
You've been to trial and you have condemned
yourself.
You are punished and you are damned.
The word means damned.
He that believe it not is damned already.
It's already condemned.
He's condemned himself.
For years, I've rejoiced in seeing people come
to Christ and crusades all over the world.
And then here at Times Square church, it's
been a wonderful experience.
And everyone that comes to Christ, I keep
telling you, God's not mad at you.
God loves you.
God's not angry at you.
I've told that to the whole world, but
I told that to seekers.
I told that to people coming to the
light.
I told people that are honest enough to
admit that they were living in sin that
was going to destroy them.
I can't honestly tell you sinner, that if
you reject the light of Jesus Christ, time
and time again, I can't tell you that
God isn't mad at you.
That's not what the scripture says.
Young man stopped me on Broadway this past
week and he was really upset and he
grabbed my arm and both arms.
He said, Pastor, he said, I'm worried.
I feel terribly.
He said, I sit in church and I
still have lust in me and I'm trying
so hard and I love the Lord, but
I have a fear.
And people tell me if I don't get
rid of this right away, I'm going to
go to hell and I'm scared.
And I looked at me and I said,
so I'm going to tell you something.
Never in the history of the world has
God ever cast away a man or a
woman seeking him no matter what their problem
and what their sin was.
If there was a heart reaching out and
crying out to him, God will never turn
you down.
God will never cast you aside ever.
That didn't excuse us.
And he said, well, believe that makes me
feel like I want to go on seeking
the Lord for victory.
Yes.
God loves sinners.
He sent his own son because God so
loved the world.
But when you reject his son and the
only solution he's offered for sin, there remains
no more sacrifice for sin.
The scripture says you refuse the love and
you condemn yourself.
He said, you're already condemned.
It's another thing.
You see, it's one thing to have a
heart that says, I really want to change.
I really want Christ in my life.
I'm still fighting a battle and I keep
losing the battle, but there's something deep in
my heart.
There's a cry.
That's one thing.
But it's quite another thing entirely when you
turn away from Jesus and you reject the
call of love and mercy.
You continue in your sins because you love
it.
The scripture says the light shined in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not.
And that word comprehends means preferred, preferred it
not preferred sin above the light, totally rejected
the light of the gospel.
What you're hearing now is not preaching.
You're hearing light trying to shine into your
darkness, to pierce that wall that you've set
up so that the Lord can show you
how dangerous your condition is.
And he does that out of love.
This this helps me understand also why many
people continue in doctrines and calls that they
innately know are anti scripture.
It's been difficult over the years for me
to understand how intelligent people can can so
get involved and so give themselves over to
false doctrines of covetousness where they can continue
in their sins.
They can commit adultery and fornication and still
be elders in the church and and all
kinds of filth in their lives and go
to filthy movies and do the most impossible
things and get drunk and use drugs and
come to the house of God and have
no preaching against it, have no feeling as
they go to church because they're comfortable, because
if they go to the light, they're going
to be exposed.
If they go to a church where the
light is being preached and it's the light
is piercing from the pulpit, they know that
they're going to come under conviction.
They know God, the Holy Ghost, is going
to put his finger on that sin.
I understand now why people prefer these teachers
that have it.
They have itching ears, the scripture says.
The Bible said many of these women who
meet with them are laden down with their
sins.
They're laden down with their sins.
They love their sins so they're going to
find teachers who will appease it and hide
it and cover it.
And the reason many people stay in these
false doctrines is because they don't want to
deal with covetousness.
They don't want to have anybody talk about
their sins.
They want to hide it and they're comfortable.
They're hiding in the house of God.
The Holy Ghost loves you so much he'll
not let you hide.
He wouldn't let you hide this morning because
he loves you.
Jesus said they hate the light.
They don't want the truth.
He that doeth or loveth the truth comes
to the light that his deeds may be
manifest or exposed that they are right in
God.
In fact, the Greek word there's opened up
to his own eyes.
He wants his sins, his evil deeds to
be opened up and he comes to church
and oh God speak to me today.
See if there's been a hidden thing in
my life.
That's my prayer every day, every waking hour.
Oh God, search me, try me, see if
there be any wicked thing in my heart.
And every time I have a preacher stand
in this pulpit and I sit there and
listen to whoever I am in the face
of the earth, I said God speak to
me.
There may be something in my heart that
I don't know.
Throw the light on, turn it on.
Is that your attitude?
You come to the house of God saying,
Lord, I want to be purged of all
my sin.
If there's a sin in my heart that
has a hold on me, I want to
know from the scripture how to get rid
of it.
I want the power of the Holy Ghost
to give me the authority over it.
He comes to the light.
Please turn with me to Isaiah, the 49th
chapter, please.
Isaiah 49, the 49th chapter
of Isaiah, verses 8 through 10.
Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable time
have I heard thee, in a day of
salvation have I helped thee.
This is God speaking.
And I will preserve thee and give thee,
speaking of his own son, to give thee
for covenant to the people to establish the
earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritage,
and here's the work of Jesus Christ, that
thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth
to them that are in darkness, show yourselves.
I'm going to come back to those two
words, show yourselves.
They shall feed in the ways and their
pastor shall be in all high places.
They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall
the heat nor sun smite them, for he
that has mercy on them shall lead them
even by the springs of water shall he
guide them.
Show yourself.
He's saying to the prisoners now, show yourselves.
He's talking about a people delivered by the
power of Jesus Christ from their sins.
And it's a call.
It's a call first, everybody that's hiding sin.
He said, come out in the open, come
out of the closet now, show yourselves because
the Redeemer is here.
The one who releases prisoners has come.
You come to the light now.
Come and show yourself.
Stand before the word of the Lord.
Stand before God.
Stand before the light of the Holy Ghost.
Come, show yourself and he'll deliver you.
Show yourselves.
He's speaking now also to those who are
his own children on the job, wherever it's
at.
He says, come, you were a prisoner and
I delivered you.
I set you free.
Now, show yourselves.
Come, show yourselves.
Be an open book before the whole world,
before your people on the job and everyone
else.
Come, don't be afraid to show yourself.
Show yourself against every demonic power.
Stand up and show yourself strong in the
name of the Lord, because there's nothing the
devil has in you.
It's a wicked one coming and have nothing
in me.
He can't touch me.
Show yourself unafraid.
Come out.
He says, come out and show yourself.
Powerful verse to call every Christian hiding secret
sin.
Come forth now, get into the light.
Don't partake of the sins of this world,
but fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking.
Let it not even be named among you.
Be you not partakers with them.
Well, you were sometimes darkness, but now you're
light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness.
Isaiah prophesied of a darkness coming.
Go to chapter 60.
A gross darkness is going to cover the
earth.
But I believe that we have arrived at
this prophecy.
This prophecy of Isaiah in the 60th chapter.
We are at this very point right now,
this very month, this very week, this very
day and hour.
Verse three verses rise, shine for thy light
is come.
The glory of the Lord has risen upon
thee.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth
and gross darkness the people, but the Lord
shall arise upon thee and his glory shall
be seen upon thee.
The Gentiles shall come to thy light and
the kings to the brightness of thy rising.
A gross darkness coming and that word gross
darkness is deep gloom, despair, confusion, confusion.
Name a better word, a strong, what more,
what a better, what better word could describe
what's going on in our country, in our
nation, in the world, in the Mideast and
all over the world today than confusion, gloom
and despair.
A gross darkness, he said, is going to
cover the whole earth.
I hear people everywhere I go now saying
we've never seen it like this before.
What's happening?
This is all new, new territory, things we
don't understand.
Everything seems to be spinning out of control.
Daniel cried these words and see if these
don't apply to our time.
He said, we have sinned, we've committed iniquity,
we have done wickedly, we have rebelled, we've
departed from the law of God and from
his judgments.
We've not listened to his prophets.
Oh Lord, to us belongs confusion now, confusion
of face, confusion to our kings, confusion to
our princes, confusion to our fathers because we've
sinned against the Lord.
We have transgressed thy law, therefore the curse
is poured upon us because we've sinned against
the Lord.
Confusion.
There's nobody in our government knows what to
do about what is happening in our nation
now.
Have you, is anyone in this building hearing
me?
Anyone hearing me at the sound of my
voice that can deny that this nation's in
total confusion?
Does anyone in this world, any world leader
know what to do with the problem in
Israel right now?
You know, Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia,
the whole world is laughing right now, calling
us a banana republic.
That's what Casper called us yesterday.
Putin offered to send people to count our
votes, tongue in cheek, from France, all over
the world.
In England, it's the joke of the nation.
The strongest nation in the world that's boasted
in all of its great technology can't even
count its votes.
Confusion, gloom, darkness, gross darkness covering the earth,
the scripture says.
But did you hear that great big word,
but?
In the midst of gross darkness, when men
are in total despair, when men don't know
where to turn, but the Lord shall arise
upon thee and his glory shall be seen
upon thee and they shall come to the
light.
They shall come to the light.
Folks, things are going to get so topsy
-turvy in this nation in the world.
Things are going to get so confusing.
People don't know which way to turn.
And there are going to be multitudes turning
to the light.
I believe this is pastor Carter's prophesied.
I believe the time, even at this church
in Brooklyn tabernacle and every church in here
in New York, that's preaching the gospel.
We live here where wall street is.
We live here where the great harlot city,
modern Babylon, modern Sodom.
We live in this city with United Nations
and everything.
And one day when men are so confused
that they know the hand of God is
at work, many of their confusion, the prophet
Isaiah prophesies will come to the light.
They'll come to the brightness of the Lord
and even the Kings to the brightness of
the rising sun.
That's a prophecy.
Tragically, great numbers are going to prefer darkness.
You know that.
Listen to what John the Baptist said, he
that believeth on the sun has everlasting life.
We read it was my text, but he
that believeth not the sun shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abides on
him.
And what John is saying, if you reject
the light, finally, you say, I want nothing
to do with the light.
He said, you're going to face God who
will come at you with a violent passion.
You're going to face his anger, his indignation,
his vengeance, and his punishments.
The wrath abideth on him.
In other words, there's not a moment of
the day, not a moment of the night
that he is not living under the wrath
of God, the anger.
It is the anger of God.
Folks, we have very few churches even mentioned
the anger or the wrath of God.
We have stripped God of everything but his
love.
Very few preachers.
In fact, there are some preachers and even
some denominations now that say there is no
wrath in God.
Well, they don't know their Bibles.
Let me read you just a few things
for the wrath of God is revealed.
Now, not Old Testament, but New Testament Romans
1 8, the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Romans 2 8, he speaks of those who
obey not the truth, but obey righteousness.
There will be indignation and wrath.
Yes, God is slow to wrath, but when
the light of Christ is fully rejected, he
said, I'll smoke against you in my wrath.
This is the end of side one.
You may now turn the tape over to
side two.
Three, six, Paul lists all the evils of
darkness, and then he says, for which things
sake the wrath of God will come upon
the children of disobedience.
Now, what does it mean to live under
the wrath of God?
I have to say it as lovingly, and
I'm going to try not to raise my
voice, lest you think I'm angry.
Pray for me.
It's difficult not to lift my voice.
What does it mean to live under the
wrath of God?
Isaiah warned what happens to those who are
under the wrath of God, and this darkness
sets in.
He said, there will be a trembling heart,
failing of eyes, sorrow in your mind.
In the morning, you're going to say, would
to God it were evening.
In the evening, you will say, would to
God it were morning.
For the fear of your heart, wherewith you
shall fear, and for the sight of your
eyes, and the things that you shall see.
He said, you're going to get up in
the morning, and you're going to have a
cloud hanging over you, and say, God, if
I could only make it through this day.
And then at night, you try to sleep,
and you just hope and pray for the
morning.
He said, that's the way it is.
And folks, that's where multitudes in this world
are right now without Christ.
They go to sleep with pills.
They wake up with energizers, and they do
everything to try to calm this.
But you see, they are living under the
wrath of God because there's no Holy Ghost
in them to resist sin.
So the devil comes in and takes total
dominion and become absolutely harassed and directed by
demonic powers.
That is living under the wrath of God,
living under the wrath of God, never having
a moment truly of peace except a false
peace that I'm going to talk to you
about now.
Because you see, it leads to hardening of
heart.
And when you harden your heart, there's a
total judicial blindness so that you can't, you
just can't see.
Because God has, the Bible talks about turning
people over to their sins, turning people over
to a reprobate mind so that they believe
a lie to be the truth.
They call white, black, and black, white.
They call light, dark, and dark, light.
He said, everything is turned upside down.
You see through perverted eyes because you see
through the sin pattern now that's so possessed
and ruled your life.
There's no depth.
Now, deception is added to deception.
Sin is added to sin, the Scripture says.
For those, I've seen those that are totally
given to homosexuality, the majority become alcoholics eventually,
or they drink to quiet down that conscience
that screams.
Those that are in adultery, they add lying
spirit to that because they have to protect
their backside.
They're looking everywhere and they're having to lie
to protect themselves because sin is being added
to sin until finally there's no end to
your depravity.
You're on a slide racing to hell and
there's no end to what you will do.
The Scripture says even murder, hatred, bitterness, rebellion,
and all of these things, sin added to
sin.
In Deuteronomy 29, 19, don't turn there, but
here's what finally happens.
This is the end result.
It will come to pass, and I'm reading
for Deuteronomy 29, 19, when he hears the
words of this curse.
In other words, you've heard what God said
already.
You hear the words of God's curse, living
under the wrath of God.
He said very clearly, the wrath of God
abides on him who believes not the Son,
will not come to the light.
Jesus said, and John the Baptist said, the
wrath of God abides on you.
It lives on you.
It's there.
It's a part of your life and you
can't shake it.
You're living under that.
I don't care how you feel in the
morning because you can concoct a false peace
that puts you to the very gate of
hell where you could actually, if you putting
it literally so that you could see the
sparks and the smell the smoke at the
very gate of hell and think you were
at the gate of heaven.
Here's the scripture.
I will, it will come to pass when
he hears the words of this curse that
he will bless himself in his heart saying,
I have peace.
Though I walk in the imagination of my
own heart and I had to add drunkenness
to thirst.
In other words, in the Hebrew to add
drunkenness to thirst, it said, and to be
grateful for those who are in this with
me.
Add drunkenness to thirst.
He said, I've got this thirst, but there
are those around drunken and I will not
just taste the wine.
I'll go with those who are drunk and
I'll give myself over to it.
And when I'm in the midst of my
sin, no matter how depraved I may be,
I can say, I have peace.
All is well between me and God.
I'm raising my voice.
You see, I've asked God to let me
say these things in his great love and
mercy.
You better believe God will lecture you if
you're living in sin.
You better believe he'll come and warn you.
You better believe it because he loves you.
Here's a man who knows he's living in
gross sin.
Now he can sit under any kind of
preaching.
He can hear warnings, but he's so blinded,
so hardened by a sin.
He literally congratulates himself.
I'm not like anybody else.
I'm pretty good.
A false peace with a hard heart.
Never again to feel conviction.
You know what God's reply was?
I'll not spare you.
This is the very next verse.
I'll not spare you.
My anger and jealousy shall smoke against you
and all the curses written in the book
shall lie upon you.
The Lord shall blot out your name from
under heaven.
Awesome words.
A few years ago, I'm going to close
shortly, but a few years ago, I went
to the gay march, half a million gays
of Fifth Avenue.
I just wanted to see what was happening.
I went with love in my heart.
You see, we say it and it sounds
like a cliche, but it's not a cliche.
We love gays.
We hate the sin.
There's no other way to put it.
But I watched and I saw things I'd
never seen in my life.
I heard cursing like you've never heard.
And I saw hardness.
There was a spirit let loose on Fifth
Avenue that I'd never seen in my life,
traveling all over the world.
And there were a little group, I suppose
they'd be Christians.
They had signs, just three or four signs,
a beautiful small group of young people said,
God loves gays, but he hates your sin.
That's all he said.
And I saw a group jump off of
one of the floats and others that were
dressed in leather, half nude and with belts
and buckles.
And I saw them come in anger and
rip the signs and start pushing the people.
And these young people say, hey, look, look,
look, we're not mad at you.
We love you.
We love Christ.
We're just here to tell you, God hates
your sin.
And we're here, but we're not angry at
you.
And they wouldn't listen.
There was a heart, absolute heart, nothing to
do with it.
There was no way, nothing.
If an angel came down, if Christ himself
stood there, they would have mocked and pushed
him, tried to crucify him.
How hard can a sinner become?
Revelation 16, one, I read of a time
when God said, he's going to command his
angels to go their ways and pour out
the vials of his wrath upon the whole
earth.
And one of those vials is a scorching
of the earth, a violent heat.
The Bible said, men will be scorched with
great heat.
And here's a time when the whole world
is going to know that God is in
control of the weather patterns.
And the weather patterns are so drastically changed
now.
It's not just, you know, 10 degrees heat.
No, no.
The Bible said that the earth is going
to be scorched with heat.
And everybody knows that God is doing it
now because they cry from the rocks and
mountains to hide it from him.
They're acknowledging it's from him.
Is there a revival?
Is there repentance?
And they repented not to give him glory.
They nod their tongues with pain and they
blasphemed the God of heaven because of their
pains and sores and repented not of their
deeds.
That's how hard you can get.
Now I'm going to close with this.
Here's the worst part of all.
Living under the wrath of God ends up
with these awful words of Christ.
You shall die in your sins.
Jesus said, I go my way and you'll
seek for me, but you will die in
your sins because where I go, you can't
come.
He repeated again in verse 24 of chapter
8 of Matthew, you're of this world.
For if you believe not that I am
he, you shall die in your sins.
Bible said, it's appointed unto man once to
die and after that to judgment.
No matter what you believe, that is scripture.
You're going to die and then you go
to judgment.
This past week, these words, you will die
in your sins, it haunted me.
I'm trying to conceive what it would be
like.
Here, as I close, what it would be
like, and I'm not going to get theatric
on you.
What would it, what's it going to be
like?
Let those words sink in, to die in
your sins.
Every sin you've committed, every lie you've told,
every evil deed you've ever done and every
evil motive, all recorded the Bible says to
stand before God when you have no attorney,
no Holy Ghost, you have no friend, no
loved one, no one to excuse you, nothing
to stand on.
And you are face to face with the
judge, who at this time is your judge.
He's not your judge now, he's your friend,
but he's your judge then.
And how do you answer to all your
sins?
How do you answer God?
What do you do on that day?
We all go there.
You know, I've seen some of the worst
sinners living in the grossest of sins.
I'll go to the hospital, some of them
are dying of AIDS, explain the gospel and
have them look me in the eye and
say, leave me alone.
I say, pal, the doctor tells me within
an hour you're going to be an attorney
and you're going to face God and all
your sins are piled up against you.
Leave me alone.
How does a man say that?
How does a person come to that point
by sitting in churches like this and hearing
the gospel?
Better you were born in China where you
never heard the gospel than be born in
America where you could get it on radio
and television and every kind of venue possible.
You've heard it and heard it and heard
it and now you've rejected it and rejected
it and rejected it.
Now your heart grows hard so that even
now with a loving message I'd moved.
If I were a sinner and I said
in this message and I was not somewhere
deep in my heart moved toward Christ, if
I didn't see a little speck of light
somewhere and say I'm going to run toward
that light, even the smallest speck of light,
what's it going to be like to die
in your sin?
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord,
that take counsel but not of me.
They won't listen to me, he says.
They cover their sins with a covering, not
of my spirit, that they may add sin
to their sin.
You don't have to die in your sin.
You don't have to go to hell.
For God hath made Jesus to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we
may be made the righteous of God in
him.
I'm not come to call the righteous but
sinners to repentance.
This is a faithful saying that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners.
I want to speak in closing to the
husbands first.
Some of you husbands have been coming with
your wives to this church for many weeks
and maybe months, or maybe for the first
time, but you've heard it other places.
I want to talk to husbands first.
I saw husbands at the banquet last night
and I know their wives are praying for
them.
Those husbands sat there and they listened again
to a clear gospel and I knew in
my heart that they sat there just totally
unmoved and you sit here this morning unmoved.
God help you.
God have mercy on you to live under
his wrath and then having to die in
all of your sins.
This is your day.
This is your call.
As clear as you're ever going to get
it on the face of this earth.
You may get other calls but you're not
going to get it as clear as this.
You will not get it as anointed by
the Holy Ghost as you're getting it right
now.
You will never again hear the call and
the intensity of the Holy Spirit and the
love of God wrapped in it as you
are hearing it now.
Procrastinators who say some other time, this is
the time.
The Holy Spirit says this is the day
of salvation.
Today, right now, backslider, you that have known
him and walked away, turn back.
We have a young man that just walked
out of church.
He was working here in the church in
fact and God saved him from a horrible
life of sin and now he's back pushing
drugs and the police are after him and
he's living in misery and in shame.
Come back to the light.
The mercy of God will deliver you that
you no longer live under his wrath and
the sad thing is that in the annex
upstairs and all over this church, there's no
way on earth I know my heart and
my walk with God and I know how
he speaks to me and through me.
I know how he deals with me.
He's made me a pastor but I'm an
evangelist this morning and I know God laid
this on my heart because he knew you
were here.
He knew you'd be here listening and those
that hear see it on tape and video
or audio.
God puts that in front of your face,
in front of your ears, the right time,
the right place because saying now is the
peak moment.
Now, there'll never be a moment like this
again.
Come to the light.
Will you stand?
My God, my God, have mercy this morning.
My God, open heart.
Holy Spirit, go to this place and open
every heart that's been closed.
Open every heart that's been closed.
Holy Spirit, I plead with you.
I intercede with you.
I beg you.
Holy Spirit, don't let anybody harden their heart
under this preaching this morning.
That no one walk out of this door,
Lord, that's turned their back on you or
drifted away from you or have never fully
received you as Lord and Savior.
My Lord, come in your great compassion and
mercy and love this morning one more time.
Give them one more chance.
One more chance, Lord, in this loving atmosphere,
this moment now.
Holy Spirit, you have to draw them.
I can't.
Lord, I'm not going to try to scare
people because that won't last.
That doesn't work a miracle.
The only thing that works the miracle is
the grace of God wooing and calling through
the power of the Holy Spirit.
I thank you for what you're about to
do.
In this building, we're going to sing a
chorus.
It's not to create a mood, but it's
to give you time.
There's a great heaviness in my heart because
I know I'm preaching to some of you
for the last time, and that's a heavy
burden.
Some of you are going to go into
eternity, and I stand on the judgment day
there as a witness.
I'm not going to judge you, but I'll
be a silent witness that you heard.
You won't see me point a finger and
say, Jesus, they were in Times Square Church.
I remember the time.
I remember what I preached.
Know if we are able to weep over
sinners at that time, I'll weep over you,
but just my being there, every word will
come back to you as a witness against
the hardness of your heart.
If you feel the Holy Spirit tug on
your heart, I want you to get out
of your seat in the balcony, go down
to either side.
Just step up here.
I'm going to pray for a miracle in
your life.
I'm going to ask you to do something
different today.
I'm going to ask you to go back
into the lobby, usher, show them how to
get into this building, and I want you
to come here to the main auditorium and
stand in front of me so I can
pray for you.
Just make your way.
Just turn around.
Go right back to the back.
Get in the hall.
I want three or four ushers there.
Show them the way, and in the hallways
out here, usher, show the people from the
annexes how to get down to this front.
Step out of your seat and come as
the Holy Spirit told you.
Don't move unless the Spirit moves you.
Unless there's conviction of the Holy Spirit.
But if you want to just take a
move by faith, just step out and say,
God, this is for me.
Come and join me here now.
Wife, if you're here and your husband or
wife is not right with God, why don't
you just take your mate by the hand
and squeeze it and whisper to him, do
you want me to go with you?
Let's go.
And we're going to sing it maybe two
or three times to give people time that
are coming down now from the annex.
That's it.
Come together or come alone, whatever it is.
The Holy Spirit's doing a deep work here.
Deep work of His Spirit.
Right now, changing lives.
Even as you walk down the aisle, He's
changing you.
Sing it again, give us time.
Wherever you're at, don't reject the call of
the Holy Spirit.
We'll not prolong this, we'll not beg you,
but don't reject the Holy Ghost, please.
You know,
in the Bible, it talks about a man
that came to Nathaniel.
Philip came to Nathaniel.
He said, come to Jesus.
We've met Christ.
Come and meet the Christ.
And Jesus answered him and said, behold, Philip
calleth thee.
Before Philip called thee, when you were under
the fig tree, I saw you.
Nathaniel comes up to him.
Jesus says, I saw you way back there
under the fig tree.
There's no way you could know it.
And Nathaniel answered and said, Rabbi, you're the
Son of God.
You're the King of Israel.
Jesus said and answered, because I said unto
thee, I saw you under the fig tree,
believe you that you'll see greater things.
You will see heaven open, angels of God
ascending and descending.
You know what, the Holy Spirit just spoke
to my heart when you were coming down
the aisle.
I want you to believe that Jesus saw
you, not under a fig tree, but he
saw you sitting here at Times Square Church.
He saw you this morning.
He saw your need.
He prepared a message.
And you came to Jesus just like Nathaniel,
you came to him.
And I want you to believe in this
miracle that the Lord arranged this whole thing
right now.
For everyone that's here, he's arranged it.
He said, if you'll believe that, if you
believe that I spoke to you today, if
you believe that my word has come to
you and you receive it now and confess
and believe this, I'll show you greater things.
I'll open up the scripture.
I'll open heaven to you.
You won't be living in darkness.
I'm going to open heaven.
You're going to see, when you open heaven,
what do you see?
Light, ever increasing light until it becomes brilliant.
God's going to do that for you this
morning.
Good to see so many couples come this
morning and may the Lord, you didn't come
here to join this church.
We don't have a membership.
The thing that holds people to this church
is the power of the Holy Ghost, the
unity of the Holy Spirit.
Now, I can't do what I know the
Lord wants to do.
In moments like this, you feel so helpless
and you don't have words.
And I don't feel like I can put
many words in your mouth because it has
to come deep and out of your heart.
You wouldn't be here unless the Holy Spirit
moved you.
Let him take you through now.
He brought you to the door.
Let him walk you right through.
But you have to open up your heart
right now.
Would you just open up your heart to
him?
Just open up your heart right now and
pray this prayer from deep inside your heart.
Jesus, thank you for caring about me and
loving me enough to shine the light in
my heart.
Thank you, Holy Ghost, for convicting me.
Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me.
I've come to the cross.
I come to the blood to be cleansed
and transformed.
The power of sin broken in my life.
Jesus, I'm coming to your light.
Remove the darkness.
I've been in darkness too long.
I want to see the light.
I believe you called me.
And here I stand.
I answer your call.
I receive you as Lord.
I receive you as Savior.
I give you all my heart.
I surrender my sins.
Oh God, make this real.
Make this real.
Not just my emotions, but my heart and
my life.
Take it, Jesus.
I surrender to you.
Now, will you believe that in your heart?
Will you just, in your own words, look
up to heaven and thank him right now?
Jesus, thank you for taking my sins.
You said if I confess, your faithful just
to forgive me and cleanse me of all
unrighteousness.
Lord, we give you thanks for this.
We give you praise.
What room upstairs?
Listen, I'd like all of the counselors that
we have, we have counselors and who else?
All the counselors, go to room 206 quickly,
please, before others come.
In the annex, the counselors in the annex
here and the man on the term, would
you please make your way through the crowd
and get up there first?
Would you do that, if you will, please?
I would appreciate it up there first.
Look this way, please.
I want everybody that came forward this morning.
Listen closely.
I want everybody that came forward this morning
to give your heart to Christ, or you'd
run from Christ and you're returning.
I'd like you to go to room 206.
Go back.
If you were in the annex, go back
up there, just room 206.
We have people waiting to pray with you,
to minister to you, to take you by
the hand and just help you to make
sure that you walk through that door and
that nothing is taken by chance, that you
are going to go through with this, that
you just didn't come here for a moment
of emotion, but you said, I mean business.
If you mean business, I want you to
turn right now and go, and even those
that were in this auditorium, go upstairs, follow
the crowd, please.
Usher's back there.
Make sure you let people know how to
get up the stairs.
Turn right around.
Make your way right through the crowd right
now.
Everybody that's coming back to Jesus, or those
who have given their heart to Jesus for
the first time, husbands and wives that are
coming to Christ, we want to make sure.
We don't want your name and address.
We just want to make sure that when
you leave here, you know where you stand
with Christ.
This is the conclusion of the message.