...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, Lindale, Texas 75771, or
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They have done away with the cross.
Go to Galatians, the sixth chapter, please.
The sixth chapter of Galatians.
I'm going to read one verse, and then
we'll proceed.
One verse from Galatians, the sixth chapter, verse
14, "...but God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me, and I unto the world."
If you have a King James, will you
read it with me again, please, everybody reading
with me?
"...but God forbid that I should glory, save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me,
and I unto the world."
Let's pray.
Jesus, I want to glory this morning in
the cross, your cross, Jesus.
We pray that that cross be lifted high
in Times Square this morning.
We glorify your sacrifice.
We glorify your name.
Lord Jesus, bring us to the cross, to
the crisis of the cross.
Lord Jesus, we pray that you would open
our eyes and give us understanding this morning,
that we'd be never led away from the
cross.
We'd never be led astray into the idolatry
that's sweeping over this land and the world.
Oh, Holy Spirit, bring forth a pure, strong,
healing word this morning.
We love you, Jesus.
We thank of your presence in this house.
Let the glory of the Lord be upon
us.
Let the anointing of the Holy Spirit take
this word and let it find its healing
mark in all of our hearts.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
You know, in this sophisticated age, it's hard
for us to understand the idolatry of the
Old Testament.
It's incredible when you read that intelligent human
beings could worship graven images that they've graven
out of wood and stone and silver and
gold and say, this is God, and worship
that piece of stone or that wood.
In fact, the scripture talks about those who
would go out into the forest and pick
a hardwood tree, cut it down and bring
it in, and cut it in half.
Half of it, they would bake their bread
and cook their food.
The other half, they would get an engraver
and engrave a hardwood statue, put it in
the home, fall down before it, offer sweetcakes
before it, praise that piece of wood and
say, this is my God, this is my
Deliverer, save me from iniquity.
It's hard for us to understand that.
It was the sin of idolatry, however, that
angered God more than any other sin in
the Old Testament.
God was so incensed, his wrath was poured
out upon every idolater, every child of his
that turned to idolatry.
Jeremiah said, the children gather wood, the fathers
kindle the fire, the women knead their dough
to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven
to pour out drink offerings to their gods
that they may provoke me to anger.
Therefore, pray not for this people, neither lift
up a voice or cry or prayer for
them or make intercession for them, for I
will not hear thee, I will cast them
out of my sight.
Now that's God's declaration against idolatry in the
Old Testament, but I'm telling you folks, God
hates idolatry just as much in the New
Testament.
He despises it and it brings down his
wrath upon any generation, this modern generation that's
gone into a new kind of subtle, very
powerful idolatry.
We don't see people kneeling now before carved
images.
You don't see that kind of unsophisticated idolatry.
What we have in America now is an
idolatry, I believe, that anchors God far more
than any Old Testament idolatry.
This idolatry is sweeping America right now and
it's sweeping the whole world.
The Scripture warns us that there will be
ministers up here in the last days who
are coming as angels of light, but they
are actually ministers of Satan.
Now this is shocking.
This is something you and I have to
deal with.
If you are a Christian living in America
and you're hearing about reports of revivals, you're
hearing reports of God's moving in different parts
of the country, better be careful where you
go.
Better be careful under what spirit, because the
Bible said these ministers are going to be
transformed as angels of light.
They're going to preach another Christ, another spirit,
and another gospel.
And if you don't have discernment, you can
get swept up into an idolatry that will
damn your soul.
There are ministers who are clever, there are
ministers who appear to be as angels of
light, but they're under the manipulation of a
spirit that is not of God.
And folks, multitudes, I say millions of Christians
now, are into idolatry and they don't know
it.
They have been seduced into idolatry by these
ministers of light preaching another Jesus, another spirit,
and another gospel.
Now think carefully what Paul is saying here.
There's going to appear in these last days
ministers who seem to be honest, they're going
to have the right words, but they're ministers
who are under the manipulation of the devil.
They're introducing another gospel, they're bringing people under
the influence of another spirit.
It appears to be the Spirit of God,
but it's not the Spirit of God, it's
of another spirit, another gospel.
Paul saw it happen, it was beginning even
in his day.
He said, I marvel that you are so
soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ to another gospel, which
is really not, but there are some that
trouble you and would pervert the gospel of
Christ.
But though we are an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him
be accursed.
That other gospel is a gospel without a
cross.
It is without the cross of Jesus Christ.
They who preach this gospel, this other gospel,
who are under this other spirit, who preach
another Jesus, have done away with the cross
of Jesus Christ.
There is no cross.
I don't care what anybody tells you about
a revival, I don't care what anybody talks
about a moving of the Holy Spirit, any
fellowship, anything that calls itself church and does
not have the cross of Jesus Christ at
its center, if there's not the preaching of
the cross of Jesus Christ, it's anathema.
It is not of God, it's of that
other spirit.
Any worship, anything that identifies itself as the
church of Jesus Christ is blatant idolatry if
the cross is not in the very center
and uppermost.
The cross and its demands and its hopes
have been the very heart of the gospel.
You take the cross of Jesus Christ out
of any teaching, out of any church, out
of any fellowship, and you have nothing left
but chaff.
You have nothing left but another spirit and
another gospel.
It is not of God.
God won't touch it.
He says, I have nothing to do with
it.
I don't care if there are millions involved,
I don't care how loud your praises may
be, I don't care how successful you may
be.
If the cross of Jesus Christ has not
been the door through which the people have
come, it is not the work of God.
Where this other gospel is being preached, the
churches may be packed.
In these idolatrous churches, you'll hear all the
right words sung, you'll hear all the right
words spoken.
This word sin is mentioned in passing.
The theological terms are referred to, such as
the Holy Ghost and holiness, and even the
cross may be talked about in historical terms.
Yes, Jesus went to a cross, he died,
he shed his blood for sins, but the
reality of the cross is not presented to
the people.
The crisis of the cross is not preached.
The confrontation of the cross has not been
preached.
It is possible for ministers to stand in
the pulpit, for example, and give wonderful flowery
messages about the Holy Ghost and the man
not even know the Holy Ghost.
I have sat under preaching, I have listened
to a man years ago who pastored, he
was agnostic and pastored one of the great
churches here in New York City, wrote a
number of books about Jesus.
No one preached more about the kindness of
Jesus and the humanity of Jesus and the
goodness of this prophet that he called him,
but he didn't believe he was God.
He didn't know Jesus, but he flattered him
and people sat there and said, in fact,
he was an absolute agnostic and nobody, in
fact, my mother gave me one of his
books and I thought, wow, what a wonderful
vision of Jesus until I found out he
didn't even believe God, Jesus was God in
flesh.
And it's possible to stand before congregation and
preach, speak with tears about the blood that
came from his side and how they beat
him, and it can be, it sounds so
tender, it will sound so loving, but be
careful, folks.
If it is only about historical Jesus and
if the confrontation is not there about our
sins, if there is not a confrontation, if
it does not bring you to the crisis
of the cross, it is not the preaching
of the cross.
Now, folks, you're going to have to follow
me closely because you you may think this
is off the mark if you don't hear
the mind of the Holy Spirit on this.
There's a whole new generation now with smart
young ministers.
They're bright and they're intelligent.
They're very capable.
They're building huge complexes that offer people everything
from daycare to spas, bodybuilding classes.
They offer recreation and entertainment and family events
and musicals and it's all high technology.
It's non-threatening.
It's contemporary.
The messages are illustrated by drama.
The sermons focus on how to cope with
problems of life.
And I, folks, those are not the things
that grieve the heart of God.
It seems that God has a lot of
patience with a lot of flesh.
It seems like he endures a whole lot
of foolishness and well-meaning flesh trying to
promote the gospel.
God seems to be so patient on those
things.
But one thing God will never endure, God
will never allow, and that's to put aside
and cast aside the cross of Jesus Christ
and its demands.
That is idolatry that does not confront the
congregation, everyone who calls themselves by the name
of Jesus, if it does not bring them
to the cross and make them face the
demands of the cross and the death of
the cross and the victory of the cross.
It is not of his Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, if I be lifted up from
the earth, I will draw all men unto
me.
That lifting up was the very moment they
nailed him to the cross and they lifted
that cross and down into that hole.
And he was lifted up before the whole
world.
That's his crucifixion.
That's the lifting up of cross.
That's Christ dying for sin.
God looked down one day on this sin
-sick world.
He saw a society, saw people lost, bound
in prison houses, a society and a generation
about to self-destruct, full of doubt and
unbelief and without hope.
God sent his own Son and Jesus came
and took on the frailty of human flesh
and he died as a living sacrifice for
sin.
And then he says, come unto me, all
you that are weary and heavy laden, and
I'll give you rest.
And that's the invitation, that's the call of
the cross of Jesus Christ.
And that's why he came.
He came to a sin-sick world, a
world that was sick of their lust, tired
of the chains, tired of the lies and
the cheating of adultery, fornication, all kinds of
habits, chained by the forces of hell.
And Jesus looks out over this sin-sick
society, ours included, all down through the stream
of time.
There he is on the cross and he
says, come thou unto me, everybody sick of
sin, heavy laden with these chains.
You're tired of dragging your sins around.
You're tired of the sleepless nights.
You're tired of the weariness, because sin is
a hard taskmaster.
Sin wearies the flesh.
The fear of slander, the fear of exposure,
the lies that cover up our sins.
What an awful taskmaster sin is.
And then Jesus says, come unto me all
you that are weary and heavy laden, I
will give you rest.
He said there's no other way.
You see, the cross was plunked down right
in the middle of the broad way to
hell, and God said this is the only
door to eternal life.
There's no other way but through the cross
of Jesus Christ.
There's no deliverance from sin and its power.
He died not only to forgive us of
our sins, Jesus died to break the power
of our sins.
The cross is a cry to every soul,
saying if you're sick of sin, if you're
weary of sin.
You see, the Church of Jesus Christ is
not a supper club.
It's not an entertainment complex.
It's a hospital for sin-sick souls.
And when sin-sick souls come in, and
they are flattered in their sins, and they're
comforted in their sins, and they're not made
to confront the cross of Jesus Christ, that
is blasphemy.
And someday those ministers of called in the
Scripture angels of light are going to have
blood on their hands.
Now this is a serious charge I'm making.
I'm telling you that there are ministers who
have done away with the cross.
It's a serious charge that multitudes of Christians
go to churches now that are worshiping in
idolatry.
It's a serious charge that many pulpits are
filled by ministers who are clever agents of
the enemy of another Jesus.
You say, Pastor, what do you mean that
they have taken away the cross?
They have not taken away the references to
the historical Jesus or to the actual crucifixion,
because it's possible to give all vivid details
and still not present the cross.
It's possible to preach masterful sermons about the
cross and absolutely bypass it and climb up
some other way, because you see, the cross
is man's confrontation with his sins.
It's man's confrontation with his lifestyle.
The cross is offensive to every man or
woman who's made peace with his sins.
It's offensive.
If I stood in many of these contemporary
churches, these sinner-friendly churches in America who
are striving to make people comfortable and bring
Jesus in the back door, so to speak,
if I were to stand there and say
and preach what I am preaching to you
this morning, I tell you two-thirds of
the people would leave offended and not ever
return.
The preaching the cross is an offense to
those who are comfortable and cozy with their
sins, and they want Jesus and their sins.
They want to believe they are justified, even
though they have no intention of laying down
their iniquities.
They say, Jesus paid it all.
I can enjoy myself.
They're not ready to lay down their pet
lusts and their sensuality.
As one well-known writer wrote, I read
it last week and wanted to weep, this
writer said, don't get too bothered by your
sins.
After all, the Bible doesn't say much about
it anyhow, and that teacher's on television every
week.
When Jesus said, I am the way, I
am the door, he speaks of his cross.
You cannot be saved.
You cannot enter heaven except you come by
way of the cross.
He that entereth not by the door of
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way
the same as a thief and a robber,
and the minister is a thief, the minister
is a robber who's climbed up some other
way and made a breach in some place
and saying, come with me.
You don't need to repent.
You don't have to have godly sorrow for
your sin.
The big thing is that you fulfill the
law if you just love one another.
Just love God.
There's no repentance, no tears needed, just love.
I was listening to the news this morning
on 880, I believe it is, and they
had what they called church news, and a
church in, I think it's Los Angeles, Church
of Christ, Church of Christ or something like
that, has just appointed two homosexual lovers as
pastors of their church, and they were interviewing
the pastor and they said, people are coming
into such a wonderful fellowship of love.
Everything is love.
It's a love trap.
As long as you love, you can indulge
in homosexuality, you can shoot your drugs, you
can do as you please, just love.
One day I'm gonna preach that message, I
call it the love trap.
Jesus said, if any man will come after
me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me, and whosoever
does not bear his cross and come after
me cannot be my disciple, cannot be.
I don't care what your theology may be,
sir.
I don't care what you think of the
power of love.
Jesus said, unless you deny yourself and come
by way of the cross, you embrace my
cross, you cannot be my disciple.
Let me show you what I mean by
the confrontation of the cross.
In fact, I call it the crisis of
the cross.
Let's take a man.
Here's a man who's fed up with his
sins.
He's getting deeper and deeper into the clutches
of a lust or a habit.
His sin has brought him sorrow.
He doesn't even enjoy it anymore, but he
can't help himself.
He keeps going back to it.
He's covered his sins.
He's lied about it.
He's cheated.
He's promised himself a hundred times he'll never
do it again, but his word has no
power.
He can't stop.
For a while, he submerges it, but it
comes back with more power months later.
He knows that he's going to have to
stand before a judge one day, and he
goes through his life fearing exposure and scandal.
Sin has drained him, shackled him, deceived him,
brought him down to a weariness that he
can hardly exist.
If you want to see one of the
saddest sites in New York, go down 8th
Avenue here, block from here, and go down
about five blocks, and look at all the
porno shops, and look at those slaves, those
men walking into those places and coming out,
and look at those faces.
I came up there from Isaiah house yesterday,
and I saw these miserable men coming out
of these places, shoulders bent, sadness in their
eyes, their slaves being driven by their sins.
They're weary.
They get no pleasure out of it.
There's no pleasure in it anymore.
Sin loses its pleasure.
That's the problem.
The more you go into lust, the more
you go into pleasure, the less value there
is.
It loses its value completely.
It loses all pleasure, and so this man
I speak of is now at the end
of his rope, and in his sadness, the
Holy Ghost sends the word, thank God for
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the redemptive gospel
of Jesus, and the word comes and says,
Jesus died at the cross, and that's when
Jesus comes and kneels by this man, and
he whispers by the Holy Ghost, come to
the cross, come kneel with me.
They come to the cross of Jesus Christ,
and the Lord says, there is a way
out.
There is deliverance.
There's a place of victory.
There's a place of peace.
Run to the cross.
Beloved, when anybody kneels at the cross, you're
not going to hear an easy, soft word.
Not at first, because even though the cross
is the door to life, you're going to
hear about death, and even though the cross
is the door to newness of life, you're
going to hear about denying, self-denial.
You're going to hear self-denial.
You're going to hear about death.
You see, when you come to the cross
and you kneel before the Lord, you're going
to face the crisis of your life, and
this is what we are, I say, missing
in this church even.
There are many that come forward to this
altar who are not coming to a crisis
of the cross, because you see what happens
when you come to the cross of Jesus
Christ.
That's the moment you have to face the
consequences of continuing in your sin.
That's when the Holy Ghost comes to you,
and repentance is not saying, Lord, I'm wrong,
as much as it's saying, Lord, you're right.
You're right in your word about my sin
bringing death upon me.
You're right about my sin finding me out.
You're right.
Yes, I know I'm wrong, but more than
that, Lord, I come to the cross to
agree with you about my sin.
I agree with you, Lord, that if I
go on, you're going to expose me.
I agree, Lord, that my sin, if I
continue, will destroy me and ruin me, my
wife, my family, my children.
I'll be ruined.
And you come to a crisis.
The Holy Spirit will urge you right to
the brink to this crisis where you say,
I cannot continue in my sin.
I cannot continue and have the Holy Ghost.
I cannot continue and have his blessing and
his favor.
I'm going to lose everything.
There's a confrontation with your sin.
That's where the battle is fought.
It's before you get to the cross.
It's the Holy Spirit dealing with you.
Self-denial, that's not some heartache you have
to bear.
That's not some infirmity of your flesh.
Not at all.
I'll prove to you this morning that his
cross is our cross.
His death is our death.
His resurrection is our resurrection through identification and
union with Christ.
But folks, the real cross that you bear,
and this was what Paul said when he
said, I died daily.
I have come to the conclusion that I
deny my right to continue in sin and
be a Christian.
I deny that I can live like this
and have his favor and be eternally saved.
I agree with the Word of God.
I deny all of my justifications.
I deny that I have a dispensation from
God that I'm different because I care for
people and I do good things and I
can continue on the side with some little
dark spot in my heart.
It's a confrontation that said, sin ends today.
Now, at this point, if I die with
Jesus, I come into the glory of resurrection
and newness of life.
If I walk away from the cross now
under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, if
I harbor and tempt and toy with my
sin and walk away, it's going to kill
me another way, for the wages of sin
is death.
And you've got to come to that place
where if I continue in sin, I'm dead.
Physically, spiritually, in every way, I'm dead.
Something I've noticed.
I've lived long enough to know it to
be a true pattern.
Almost every minister friend that I knew that
walked away from his wife and ran off
with somebody or a preacher's wife did it.
I can't name anybody that I know that
lived more than five years.
Cancer, car accidents, the wages of sin.
You see, ministers of the gospel who've been
so challenged by the cross and so confronted
by the cross and confronted by that cross.
This is the end of side one.
You see, this is what Jesus is doing
here this morning.
I'm preaching the cross, but I'm preaching it
a way where you're going to be confronted
by the Holy Ghost with your sins.
You see, that's how the cross is done
away with.
It's not just words about a lovely Christ
bleeding.
It's the fact that he bled and died
to bring your sin sick soul and mind
into glorious liberty and freedom.
Break every power and chain of sin.
And oh, God help us.
I would not want to stand in front
of a mass of people who came in
some other way, never were confronted about their
sins, never preached about their sin.
Folks, in many churches, sin is never shown
to be exceedingly sinful.
It's just a word with no power, no
conviction.
I would not want to stand in front
of a whole people still living in adultery
and fornication, blowing smoke in Jesus' face and
nightclubbing and cheating and living in sin and
coming to a beautiful, quiet one-hour worship
service where the drama puts me at ease
to my sins.
God, I'd rather die.
I would rather die.
He said, you deny your right to live
in sin.
You deny any dispensation that you're special.
Then you deny that you have any power
to deliver yourself.
And folks, that's where many people cannot come.
That's a self-denial that many people have
never been able to make.
Because you see, you hear with Paul, I
die daily.
You hear him say, I'm crucified with Christ
and all my lusts have been crucified with
him.
And you say, that's what I want.
And here we are at the cross, sin
sick, weary of it.
We've been confronted.
We know we can't go on.
And then you read, he that's dead is
freed from sin, from Romans 6.
You read Romans 6 and you see a
man who's planted into the death of Jesus
and he's dead.
Sin has no more dominion over him.
You say, that's what I want.
But how do I get his victory into
my life?
How do I get the victory of the
cross into my life so that I'm not
sinning and confessing, sinning and confessing that merry
-go-round I want off?
Do you know, rather than deny self, we
say, I have to do this.
I'm so convicted of my sin.
Whatever it takes.
And we will bite the bullet and we're
going to try to deliver ourselves.
When I was a young preacher, I got,
I was so, I was reading the lives
of Ter Stegen and some others who had
been in such simple lifestyles.
I thought, Lord, that's what I want.
I could be a powerhouse for you, Lord,
if I go to my closet, I'm going
to take out all my clothes and give
them away except maybe two changes, and I'm
going to sell my car and get the
cheapest car I can find, an old used
car, and no more steak.
I'll eat hamburger.
Funny, it's from the same cow, but you
feel better.
And I'll sell this nice house and I'll
find an old house that's unattractive.
And Lord, I will so simplify my lifestyle
because one of my favorite men still alive
at the time, from, at the time was
in Philadelphia, and he only had one suit
and he lived in a little room, and
he spoke with such authority.
I said, Lord, I'll be a powerhouse if
I can just, really what I'm saying, if
I can suffer enough, if I can just
get a hold of my flesh and bring
it under here and be more ascetic, I
will be a powerhouse.
Only problem about that time, my hero got
into false doctrine and started destroying many, many
lives by his false doctrine.
He got into metaphysics and Lord said, no,
you got it wrong.
That's not what I'm talking about.
It's not your victory, David, it's mine.
The cross is not your victory alone, it's
mine first.
You have to come now and embrace the
cross.
You know, folks, the crisis passed, the crisis
will pass when you say, Lord, I am
fed up with my sin, I know I
can't continue, and I want it finished.
It ends now.
God, I have no power.
I've come to the place, I've, I deny
my rights, I deny my abilities.
Now Jesus says, now follow me, and he
takes us.
He says, now look at that empty cross.
He says, now you embrace the cross, you
embrace my victory, because you see, when we
get saved, we are in Christ, and we
were in Christ, we're into all of his
victories.
We're into everything that happened to him is
ours.
He did it all for us.
Hallelujah.
At the cross, Jesus broke the controlling power
of sin.
Paul said, I may know him in the
power of, whose resurrection?
Not mine, that I may know him in
the power of his resurrection and a fellowship
of his sufferings.
Now, the word says, at this point, if
I believe in the victory of the cross,
if I believe Jesus broke the power of
sin, let me show you what the word
says.
Now, if I'm to agree with the word
of God, listen closely, if I'm to agree
with the word of God that my sins
are exceedingly wicked, I agree with him that
I cannot go on with them, I agree
that if I go on, I'll die, and
I agree that he will expose it, I
agree with all this, then I'm to agree
with all the good things the cross offers
as well.
How do you know you're saved?
By faith in the word of God.
You have trusted your eternal salvation into the
hands of faith.
Is anybody here saved by any other way?
Are you saved by your works?
No, you're saved by faith.
How do you get victory over sin?
How does the resurrection power, the newness of
life, come out in you other than believing
what God says in his word?
That when you come to him and confess,
and you repent, and you agree with his
word, and you've confronted the demands of the
cross, then you say, Jesus will take you
by the hand.
That's where you go into union with Christ
and say, Lord, from this moment on, I'm
trusting my life in your hands.
I'm trusting you to convict me, to hold
me, and lead me, and guide me by
your spirit.
It's absolutely giving yourself to the power of
the cross.
You embrace it.
Take up the cross.
Embrace it.
Embrace this as the only way to victory,
by faith in the overcoming power of Jesus
through his shed blood.
What does the Bible say when you embrace
the cross?
It says, I am dead now with Christ
the sin.
The word says, I am crucified with Christ.
The word says that I am resurrected in
the newness of life.
The word says, now there's no dominion of
sin over me.
The word of God says, I can now
do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
The word of God says, I'm a free
man.
The word of God says that I can
now yield my body into the service of
the Lord and my members as instruments of
righteousness.
He says all of that in Romans 6.
Says it all through the word of God.
How?
By my struggles?
No.
By my just saying, Lord, I accept by
faith my salvation.
I accept by faith that when I need
it, the power will be there.
That is your word.
I may stumble a few times by my
unbelief, but I'm going to hold on that
ultimately victory is mine, because I'm going to
believe you till it comes.
I'm going to trust you.
My part is to believe what his word
says about me now.
Folks, I stand here before you now and
I agree.
I agree with God's word to me, because
I've come to him acknowledging my sins and
my failure.
I acknowledge that I have no rights.
I acknowledge that sin, if it's continued in,
is going to bring death, physical, spiritual death.
I agree now, Lord Jesus, to walk with
you.
I put my future and my life into
your hands.
Take my sins.
Take my weaknesses.
Take my failures.
You took it all, Lord, and you defeated
the devil at the cross.
He has no power.
He has no dominion.
I believe your word, O God.
It's by faith.
I die by faith.
I died 2,000 years ago at the
cross of Jesus.
I was resurrected back then.
God saw me in his eye, in his
historical eye.
He saw me down the stream of time.
He saw you.
He took all of us by the death
of one man.
We have all been reconciled to God.
Oh, thank God for the cross of Jesus.
Thank God for the cross.
Thank God for its crisis.
Have you had your crisis of the cross?
What about your present sinful condition?
What about that one thing you say, Oh,
God, I want to be delivered from?
There's deliverance for you this morning, but it's
not going to come until you kneel right
before him and you have this crisis with
the Holy Ghost.
You let him speak to your heart and
let him tell you, Now, you can't continue.
It has to come to an end.
The finality, the cross is the finality of
sin.
You're saying, God, I agree with you.
I can no longer, not for another hour,
continue in my sin.
Oh, God, I'm weary of it.
I bring it to you now.
Beloved, that is what is not being preached.
That's why we have such clever meetings, such
showmanship, everything but the cross.
But you see, the cross is only for
those who are sick of sin.
It's offense.
It's an absolute offense to anybody in this
building, anyone hearing me.
The cross that I've preached this morning is
an absolute offense to those who have learned
somehow to make peace with their sin, and
they're able to say with the lie in
the Old Testament, I have peace, though I
walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.
It's a false peace.
It's a damning peace, and I promise God
that in the days ahead, I'll preach the
cross.
I'll preach it's crisis and it's confrontation with
sin.
This church was founded on that kind of
preaching.
This church was founded.
First three years, we preached almost nothing but
repentance and the cross, and we're still preaching
it.
Because, see, we're not just trying to pack
the pews here.
We're not trying to pack seats.
We're looking for a Times Square Church Holy
Ghost Parade on Judgment Day, the great white
throne judgment.
We're looking for a people who, even as
they know that they finally stand before his
throne, are rejoicing, and they are hugging, and
they're saying, oh, thank God I sat under
the preaching of the cross.
Thank God there were ministers that confronted me
with my sins and told me I can't
get away with it, and then told me
how Jesus loved me enough to take me
into his death, into his burial, into his
resurrection, and bring me up into newness of
life.
That's his love, and that's his grace.
Folks, the greatest grace preaching in the world
is to preach the confrontation of the cross.
That's grace.
Will you stand?
Hallelujah.
Balcony?
Main floor?
If you stand here right now, you say,
Pastor, I'm sick of my sin.
I'm tired of it.
I want victory.
I know God's talking to me this morning.
Nobody needs to know why you're coming down
this aisle.
It can be covetousness.
It can be pride.
It can be anything.
Get out of your seat the moment the
Holy Spirit touches you.
Even while I pray, up in the balcony,
you go to the stairs on either side
and come down any aisle and meet us
here.
I want you to come before the cross.
You're coming to the cross of Jesus right
now.
You're coming to the cross.
You're coming to have a crisis.
Oh God, I want to have it out
with you today.
This has to end.
I'm tired.
I want your blessing and favor in my
life.
Oh Holy Spirit, I know you'll help me.
Come on.
Lord, send your Spirit.
Holy Spirit, come mightily now.
Convict us of our sins.
Oh Lord, heal us.
Set us free as we come by faith.
Bow before your cross.
Come forward.
I've never come forward in this church before.
Lift your hand, please.
You say, I've never come forward in this
church before.
Yes, yes.
In the office.
God bless you.
Okay.
Look at me, please.
You're not coming up here just to say
a short little prayer and go back to
your seat, trying to feel better about yourself.
You're up here right now, face to face
with Jesus.
And all he asks you right now, are
you really ready to lay down your sin?
Are you really to say, Jesus, I know
I can't go on like this.
Lord, no more excuses.
No more justifications.
You're no respecter of persons.
God, my sin has found me out.
Isn't it rather, isn't it better to be
exposed here, quiet when nobody knows but you
and the Holy Ghost, than for the Lord
to send a sparrow and carry it to
the four winds?
Thank God for his grace and his mercy.
Every one of you standing here right now,
listen to me.
Jesus is not a hard task master.
He's a loving Savior.
But he won't tell you now.
It has to go.
It's enough.
Have you said that to your heart?
Yes, Lord, I agree.
It's enough.
It has to end.
How many have come to that place?
Raise your hand.
You've come to that place.
Come on, raise it high.
I've come to that place, Jesus.
I want you to pray this right out
of your gut, right inside your deep, your
innermost heart.
Pray this loud and clear.
Jesus, I have sinned against you, against your
love and against your truth.
And I have fallen and fallen time and
time again.
Lord, I know you're confronting me now.
It has to stop.
I want it stopped.
I want victory.
I want to be cleansed and I want
this broken.
I don't want it to hold me anymore.
I repent, Lord Jesus.
I will not hide it from you.
No excuses.
I give it to you, Jesus.
I want it crucified.
I want it dead.
Now, Jesus, take me into the victory of
the cross that I may die to sin
by faith in your death.
Raise me up, Jesus, without any chains, without
any habits holding on.
Raise me up, a free person, as I
believe you, Jesus, to give me the victory.
Fill me with the Holy Spirit.
Do whatever has to be done to keep
me in victory, because I trust you now,
Jesus, to keep me.
Hallelujah.
Oh, Lord, I pray now that you break
every chain that binds.
Bring hope, Lord, to those who've acknowledged their
sins.
Bring hope for victory now, and let the
peace of God that passeth all understanding come
now and flood these hearts.
Lord, where there's repentance, you said you'd pour
in your joy.
Hallelujah.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful and
just to forgive us of our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
All unrighteousness.
Look at me, please.
Some of you are going to have to
ask the Holy Ghost to break some relationships
today.
Some of you are going to have to
call somebody and say, look, I can't see
you again for the next 60, 90 days,
whatever it takes.
You're going to have to take some steps
now that the Holy Spirit needs you to.
You can't.
If you've been into pornography, sir or ma
'am, and you've got some magazine in your
home, the Holy Ghost is going to tell
you right now, you go home and you
burn them immediately.
You burn them, and the next time the
enemy tells you to go down a certain
street, and you used to go in those
places, you say, no, Holy Ghost, take me
three streets north or south.
Wherever you have to take me, Lord, give
me.
Day by day, he gives you direction.
Hallelujah.
That's where the newness comes, the direction.
We walk then in the Spirit.
Hallelujah.
The Holy Spirit is here right now.
The Holy Spirit helped you to confess.
The Holy Spirit helped you walk down here
and humble yourself before the cross.
The same Holy Spirit's going with you out
this door.
The Holy Spirit's there when the devil goes
out out there, and he's going to try
to inject in your mind lies.
The Holy Spirit's right there just trusting.
Hold me, Holy Spirit.
I trust you, Holy Spirit.
Keep me by your power.
Hallelujah.
We're kept by the power of God unto
salvation.
We're kept by the power of God.
He's your keeper.
Hallelujah.
Now, thank you, Lord, for the victory of
the cross that's ours, for we've confessed humbly.
Now, look at me.
Even though some of you were crying when
you confessed, you don't judge the depth of
conviction by some outward appearance, because I've seen
people scream and roll on the floor and
wallow in tears and get up and walk
right out into their sins, but is there
a godly sorrow in your heart?
Oh, God, I don't want to wound you
anymore.
And you know why our sins wound the
Lord?
Because they cut off our communion with him.
That's what grieves him about your sin, because
the tendency to hide from him, take away
the intimacy.
So, Jesus, I want that intimacy again.
Do you know the Holy Ghost is with
you right now?
You know Jesus is with you right now?
He's here.
He's in you.
Thank God for that.
Say, thank you, Jesus, for my union with
you now.
Thank you, Jesus.
Hallelujah.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
Say that when you walk out here, Lord,
I'm going to bless your name at all
times.
Through everything and everything, I will bless the
Lord at all times.
This is the conclusion of the tape.