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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Heavenly Father, I ask you now to open
the word to our hearts.
Let us hear from the Holy Spirit, not
from man.
Lord, I know you put this in my
heart.
I got it from your throne and not
from a book.
I got it in prayer.
I pray, Heavenly Father, now that you multiply
it.
Oh God, encourage our hearts for only the
truth sets us free.
Nothing but truth.
Lord, nothing in the world can deliver us
but the truth.
That sets us free.
Now, Lord, set us free by your truth,
I pray.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Now, if your babies begin to cry, you
can go into exit 7 through exit 7.
We have a wonderful nursery there to take
care of your children.
Then you can come back and enjoy the
service.
In the annex also, if you'll go to
the hallway, they'll show you how to get
to nursery facilities.
The Lord bless you.
The preservation of Zion.
Now, God has a holy remnant of people
in the nation today that grieve over the
abominations in the land and in the church.
They weep over it.
They're concerned about it.
They talk about it.
My recent book that's gone out, America's Last
Call on the Brink of a Financial Holocaust,
has brought in literally thousands of letters.
My wife and I have been reading them
for hours and hours, and everybody's saying the
same thing.
They say the Holy Spirit has spoken the
same thing to us that our nation is
headed for a crisis.
And they said physically there's an amount of
fear, but our hearts rejoice because the name
of the Lord is going to be vindicated.
And all over the country we hear people
writing to us now saying, we feel just
as you do.
There's something on the horizon.
This bubble's about to burst.
And folks, it's not just a few.
It is a massive response, not only here
but on the 700 Club and wherever you
go.
People are concerned, of course, about the Y2K.
The Y2K is the year 2000, when many
computers are supposed to break down and bring
disorder.
Tomorrow, here in New York City, Wall Street
is doing a mock rundown.
They're going to have this as the year
2000.
They're going to have the computers turn to
year 2000 and see if it turns over.
They've made the adjustments.
And these are the people that are way
out in front.
And if this doesn't work, then most computer
experts say we are in deep trouble, that
the only government agency that is compliant now
is the Social Security Agency, where the elderly
will probably get their checks, but they claim
there could be a great breakdown, power failures
and so forth.
And that's being widely disseminated all through the
country.
And, of course, there's always a doomsday chic
about the millennium and a lot of voices
in the land, a lot of talk about
the destruction of the nation and the downfall
and either a depression or a total collapse
of the computer systems.
Our government is not prepared.
Our national defenses are not ready.
The computers are not compliable and will not
be probably until the year 2007 to the
year 2010.
Hard times, no question, are in store for
America.
The entire world, Jesus said perilous times are
going to come, crisis times, frightening times.
But there's good news.
There's wonderful news, exciting news for God's people.
And once you lay hold of the truth
I'm going to give you this morning, you
never again in your life have to worry
about coming prophetic events.
You don't have to worry about a depression.
Should it come?
You don't have to worry about the mark
of the beast.
You don't have to worry about the tribulation.
It doesn't matter whether Jesus comes before the
tribulation, middle tribulation, then tribulation.
It won't matter to you anymore.
You won't talk about the mark of the
beast.
You won't even give a concern.
I'm going to talk about the mark of
the beast this morning.
And I'm going to ask God to knock
the fear out of you once and for
all so that you never again have one
thought about the mark of the beast or
any of these things.
I believe with the Puritan writers who said
it's not enough to warn the nation.
If you're a messenger, a watchman, it's not
enough to warn.
You must simultaneously seek God for the solution.
You've got to seek God for the hope
for the church of Jesus Christ in the
last days.
And that's where I'm headed in the days
to come.
Now all you have to know about the
future, all you have to know about the
times that are coming, in fact, all you
have to know is that God has made
an ironclad promise to preserve and protect what
is called Zion.
Zion.
Now first of all, this morning I want
to give you the incredible promises of deliverance
and preservation God has made to Zion.
And then secondly, I want to attempt to
prove to you that Zion is the overcoming
church of Jesus Christ and that you are
born into Zion.
When you give your life to Jesus Christ,
you're born again.
You are born into Zion.
I don't care if you're a Nigerian, I
don't care if you're a Mexican, I don't
care if you're who you are.
If you are in Christ, you are a
citizen of another country.
You are a citizen of what the Bible
calls Zion.
I want to enumerate all the promises of
preservation God's made to Zion and I want
you to know that you are Zion if
you're an overcoming believer.
And I want you this morning to lay
hold of these promises and never again worry
or think about prophetic events.
We have prophetic conferences everywhere and so much
speculation and folks, if you get into this
addiction to the prophetic events that come, you're
going to run in circles and you're not
going to have a day of peace or
rest in your mind.
The Lord said, when you see all these
things come to pass, look up and what?
Rejoice, because redemption draws nigh.
We're not to go around fearful and despondent
whatsoever.
Now, who is Zion?
You've read about Zion.
Some say a Jew is a Jew, Jerusalem
is a natural city only in a geographical
location in Israel, that there's one Israel, there's
only one Jew, and there's only one Zion,
that that was the city of David in
ancient Israel.
And they say that's it.
Many Christians preach that and many preachers preach
that a Jew is a Jew, Israel is
Israel, and Zion is the city of David,
an Old Testament revelation, an Old Testament truth
that has nothing to do with us today.
But the Bible makes it very clear that
there are two Israels.
There's only one kind of Jew that can
be recipients of all the promises of God.
There's only one kind of Jew in the
eyes of the Lord.
No matter where you were born, there's one
kind of Jew.
Paul the Apostle, in fact, Jacob was called
Jacob for a while, but he had a
spiritual name, Israel.
This is a two-named man.
Israel was his spiritual name.
It was his name given to him by
faith, by grace.
It was his regenerate name, a spiritual name.
In fact, I'm going to show you from
Scripture absolutely beyond question that there are two
Israels.
Paul spoke of the Israel of the flesh
in 1 Corinthians 10.18. That's the natural
Jew who is born in Israel, or wherever
you're born, of a Jewish mother.
In Galatians 6.16, Paul talks about another
Israel, and he calls it the Israel of
God, and not the natural Jews, because when
he speaks of the spiritual Israel, he's talking
about those in Galatians, the sixth chapter, who
are new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Now, the Jewish nation, when Christ was on
this earth, denied Christ.
Some, Paul said, were saved, and many will
be saved at the end.
Romans 9.6, For they are not all
Israel which are of Israel.
He said, natural Israel, that's not the Israel
of God.
They which are the children of the flesh,
they are not the children of God.
Do you hear me?
They that are the children of the flesh,
they are not the children of God, but
the children of the promises are counted for
the seed of the children of Abraham.
Those who come to Christ by faith are
the children of Abraham.
God's promises were made to a spiritual seed.
Know ye not that they which be of
faith are the children of Abraham.
The children of Abraham are those who by
faith have received Christ Jesus as Lord and
King in their life.
Now, there is a Jerusalem, and the New
Testament name for Jerusalem is Zion.
There's a New Jerusalem which is spiritual, it
is not natural, has nothing to do with
natural Israel in the Mideast.
For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia,
and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and
is bondage with her children.
He said, you can, actually, in modern language,
I'm going to be speaking in Jerusalem in
September, there's a conference I'm going to be
speaking, I'm going to go to natural Israel,
I'm going to fly by American Airlines or
something, I'm going to a natural Israel.
But that's not the Israel of God.
Not at all.
They are not really the recipients of the
promise, because the Scripture said it's they which
are of faith are the children of Abraham,
or the children of the promises of God.
But Agar represents Sinai in Arabia, and answers
to Jerusalem which now is, and is bondage
with her children.
But Jerusalem which is above, or spiritual Jerusalem
is free, which is the mother of us
all.
In other words, we belong to another Jerusalem.
I will write upon him the name of
my God, and the name of the city
of God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh
down out of heaven from my God.
The New Jerusalem, the Bible said, is a
heavenly Jerusalem, with a heavenly people who are
born into this Zion city of God by
faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, there are two kinds of Jews mentioned
in the Bible.
But Paul in Romans 2.28 says, For
he is not a Jew which is one
outwardly.
Now, this is hard to receive if you're
a Jew who does not believe in Christ,
and you do not accept the Word of
God as the final authority.
But we as Christians, we accept the Bible
as the final authority.
It says to us, he's not a Jew
who is one outwardly.
Neither is that circumcision which is outward in
the flesh.
But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart
in the spirit, not of the letter, whose
praise is not of men, but of God.
Folks, you, if you are in Christ, are
a spiritual Jew.
Now, folks, if that doesn't sit well with
you, I'd check your antisemitism.
We are spiritual Jews.
And we have been born into a city
called Zion.
Zion is the New Testament word for Jerusalem,
New Jerusalem.
We are Zionians.
I thank God for my American heritage.
I'm an American.
But spiritually, I am, and my future is
not in America.
My future is in Zion.
Folks, there's a song we've been singing here.
I want to change the words.
It says we're marching to Zion.
No, we're not marching.
We're in Zion.
We're living in Zion.
Who is Zion?
Zion is the last day church, blood-bought,
walking in the righteousness of Christ, and everyone
who is truly born again in Christ, you
were born into Zion.
Psalms 87, 5, 6, And out of Zion
it shall be said that this and that
certain man was born in her, and the
highest himself shall establish her.
The Lord shall count when he writes up
the people that this man was born there.
You can't get there except by being born
there.
When you accepted Jesus Christ, and you were
born again by the flesh and the word
of God, you were born into Zion.
I tell you again, you're a Zionian because
of your faith in Jesus Christ.
Isaiah the prophet said of the last day
church, Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and
her converts with righteousness.
This is proof that Zion is comprised of
a purged, righteous people being converted into Jesus
Christ.
God said of Zion, It shall be called
the city of the Lord, the Zion of
the Holy One of Israel.
I will make thee an eternal excellency.
That cannot be natural Jerusalem.
That's not an eternal city.
The Bible said all this is going to
burn.
The only thing that's eternal is the city
of God, the city of Zion.
Now, beloved, this is not some fanciful interpretation
of Bible truth.
This is not a theological supposition whatsoever.
It's not a doctrinal scheme that I'm talking
about.
This is a foundational truth that if you
get a hold of it today, if you
will get a hold of it, you will
never again in your lifetime ever have to
ask, How is God going to take care
of me and my family?
How's he going to take care of his
church when everything falls apart?
When there's trouble and perilous times on all
sides, you will never again ask, How is
God going to do it?
Folks, Zion is not heaven.
Zion is the church of Jesus Christ alive
and well on the planet Earth, consisting of
all believers from all over the nations, all
tribes, kindreds, and tongues.
We are the city of the great God
in the mountain of His holiness, the joy
of the whole earth.
Hallelujah.
Now let me list for you some of
the many promises God has made to protect
and preserve Zion.
Are you ready to acknowledge that you're a
Zionian?
Are you willing to acknowledge this morning that
by faith you're a Zion?
You're a Zion?
If that be true, every promise God made
to Zion is yours.
It's mine.
All right, first of all, God's promise to
provide a covering and a defense for Zion
through every storm and every crisis.
Mount Zion, the Scripture says, God has made
Himself known in all her palaces as her
refuge.
He said, I am going to make known
to you in every one of your homes,
rich, poor, whoever it may be, if you
will trust in me, I will be your
refuge.
Now I want you to go with me,
please, to Isaiah, the fourth chapter.
I'm going to take you through a number
of scriptures.
I want to convince you that you never
have to fear again, ever.
Let the economy fail, God forbid.
Let everything come apart.
Let the stars fall from heaven, the mountains
shake.
Let the planets collide.
Folks, you and I have a special provision
made for us.
Glory to God.
Verse 5, chapter 4 of Isaiah.
Isaiah, fourth chapter.
Let's start verse 3, really.
It has succumbed to pass that he that
is left in Zion, he that remaineth in
Jerusalem shall be called holy, even every one
that is written among the living in Jerusalem,
when the Lord shall have washed away the
filth of the daughters of Zion.
You see, these promises are not made to
every Christian.
So called Christian, it cries, Lord, Lord.
The Bible said, men will say, Lord, Lord.
And the Lord said, I don't even know
you call yourself a Christian.
I don't even know who you are, because
you're living in sin.
You never even tried to lay down your
sin.
You never tried to get victory.
You lived a double life.
The Lord shall have washed away the filth
of the daughters of Zion, and shall have
purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst
thereof by the spirit of judgment and by
the spirit of burning.
The spirit of judgment is the word of
God.
The spirit of burning is the Holy Ghost.
These are people who have applied the word
of God to their heart.
They've been sanctified by the power of the
Holy Ghost.
That's the spirit, burning of the word and
of the spirit.
And all of those who have been purged
by the Holy Spirit, who have received Christ
as Lord and King in their life, here's
the promise.
The Lord will create upon every dwelling place
of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies a
cloud and smoke by day, the shining of
a flaming fire by night.
For upon all the glory shall be a
defense, and there shall be a tabernacle for
a shadow in the daytime from the heat,
and for a place of refuge and for
a covert from storm and from rain.
Folks, there's coming to our nation not one
storm, but to the whole world, storm after
storm after storm.
We're headed in that.
Everything in this book says so.
Everything in the word of God says so.
It is going to rain down torrents of
fearful troubles and sorrows upon mankind.
But the Bible says that those who are
in Zion are going to have a covering.
He's going to be a covert in the
storm.
And even the rain is not going to
hurt them, the Scripture says very, very clearly.
I want you to lay hold of this
now.
In Zion, God promises you will never again
have to flee or run for your life.
You don't have to run to the mountains.
You don't have to run to the desert.
And you who live on 110th Street, 103rd
Street, Lower East Side, Brooklyn, Bronx, wherever you
are, you don't have to run.
You don't have to get through the Lincoln
Tunnel and get out of here.
I heard one guy said that when this
hits, everything's going to be packed and they're
going to be ten miles out of the
city, bumper to bumper, people sleeping in the
fields and everything else.
I would tell you now that you have
a promise of your Zion, you'll never run
anywhere.
You don't have to flee ever again.
You never have to be afraid.
You never have to run.
You don't believe me?
Then let me give it to you.
Go to Isaiah, go to Isaiah 28, to
the right.
Verse 16.
Mark this in your Bible.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I
lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure
foundation.
He that believeth shall not make haste, and
if you look there it says, shall not
be forced to run or to flee.
In Hebrew it says, to never run again.
Look at me.
Who's the rock?
Tried stone, a rock.
And he said, if you are on the
rock and trusting his keeping power, you never
again have to be afraid.
You never run.
The Bible said you resist the devil and
he'll run from you.
You don't run.
The mayor of this city has asked the
city to spend 15 to 20 million dollars
to build a special command center deep down
into Manhattan.
That's all rock.
They're going to have to dig it out
of the rock.
A command center in case the city goes
into chaos.
His rock shelter.
The Bible said their rock is not our
rock.
That rock is going to shake.
Let him go to the rock.
You have a rock, my friend.
We are on a rock.
God said, I'm going to shake everything that
can be shaken.
I don't care how deep they dig.
God said, I'm going to shake everything so
that the only thing that's going to left
standing are those spiritual things that cannot be
shaken.
That's your faith in the keeping power of
Jesus Christ.
You are on a solid foundation.
You may be living in a one-room
tenement house.
You may be living in a little hotel
room that you pay a hundred dollars a
week for and all you've got is a
bed and you can already turn around.
But you're on a rock.
Hallelujah.
Another promise?
God has promised to provide for Zion all
the essential needs of life in the hardest
of times.
I want you to go to Psalm 132.
You go back to the left for the
new believers.
Psalm 132.
You see, if I just give you these,
I want to prove to you that it's
in your Bible.
I want you to see it in black
and white and red.
Psalm 132.
You should be marking these in your Bible.
Beginning to read at verse 13.
For the Lord hath chosen, who?
Zion.
He hath desired it for his habitation.
He said, that's where I live.
You want to know where God is?
He's in his church.
He's right here in Zion.
In me and he's in you.
A born-again, blood-washed church.
Forgive me for screaming.
I get excited about his word.
Verse 14.
This is my rest forever.
Here's where I dwell, for I've desired it.
I will abundantly bless her provisions.
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
I will also clothe her priests.
We are all known as kings and priests
in Zion, the Bible says.
I will clothe her priests with salvation.
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
Now let me tell you why his saints
are going to shout aloud for joy.
Because this is given in a time of
great calamity.
This promise was given in a time of
great calamity in Israel.
Let me tell you what it means.
I will abundantly bless her provision.
Provisions in Hebrew reads like this.
I will provide her with...
You can get a stash of corn and
look it up for yourself.
He says, I will bless her provisions.
It means lunch, venison, which means deer, deer
meat, game, supplies, groceries, enough for a trip.
And the Hebrew word for bread here is
meat, fruit, bread, and all the grain for
making bread.
God said, look, no matter how hard it
is, I am going to make provision.
It's right there again, look at it.
I will, how is he going to do
it?
Abundantly?
Bless her provision.
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
You know, when I read this in Hebrew
on venison, deer.
New Jersey is not allowed to kill deer.
My wife and I were driving down the
road.
One deer went, another deer hit the side
and wrecked the whole side of our car.
There's so many deer, they could feed New
York for a year.
It's incredible, everywhere you go, thousands and thousands
of deer.
I don't know how, what I'm telling you,
God has ways that you and I don't
even know about.
I have a minister friend, a wonderful friend,
down south, and he has a heart for
the poor.
He takes in drug addicts, alcoholics, and every
Thanksgiving, every first of the year, he gathers
shoes and clothes and goes to Mexico.
Just a wonderful young man, a burden for
the needy.
Every Thanksgiving, he gathers up groceries and turkeys,
and he finds the poorest people and goes
from door to door.
This Thanksgiving, he had pretty well given out
all of the bags of groceries and turkeys,
and he had one turkey and one box
of groceries left.
And he and his associate bowed their head.
This young man said, you know, I want
to see a miracle.
I want God to lead us into a
house where somebody's actually praying in their food.
Just encourage my faith.
I want to see how God answers prayer.
So he kept driving around, and suddenly there
was a little lane, and he said, go
in there.
And he goes in, there's a little shack.
And he knocks on the screen door, and
a gruff voice says, come in!
And there's an elderly black man sitting in
a wheelchair with his Bible in his lap.
And my friend said, sir, I don't mean
to embarrass you, but we're Christians, and I
see you're a Christian, but you would understand
this.
We were praying that God would lead us
to somebody who needs a Thanksgiving meal.
A turkey and his groceries.
Would you be offended if I left this
on your table here?
Big smile and tears came down.
He yelled at somebody next door.
He said, daughter, get in here!
He said, I told you so!
A poor retired preacher.
He said, I told you, daughter, you trust
God with me, you'll make it.
We have people fretting about the Mark of
the Beast.
And they dread the time that they're going
to have to take a stand.
And whether it's, there's all kinds of speculation
about this thing.
You know, that there's going to be a
computer breakdown and the whole world is going
to go into chaos?
That could very well be.
And then there's some computer czar.
In fact, at a meeting of many of
the computer experts, one of the top computer
experts stood and said, we need a computer
czar standing by.
They recommended Gorbachev.
It was in the New York Times.
But they talk about an embedded ship in
the forehead.
They already have embedded ships in dogs now
that have their whole medical history.
An embedded ship in the forehead, an embedded
ship in the hand, because the Bible said
that there's coming forth a beast who's going
to insist that you can't buy or sell
unless you take this Mark of the Beast,
or the Antichrist.
And so we have Christians, there are books
written about it, and warning, don't take the
Mark of the Beast.
Now folks, most of what I read about
the Mark of the Beast is pure speculation.
You can find, you can go to, I'll
show you in my library, the Puritans thought
that the Mark of the Beast was coming
out of Rome at that time.
The Mark of the Beast, there are some
things that we will never know.
But I want to tell you once and
for all, and I want you to listen
to me because I believe I have the
mind of the Holy Spirit on this.
I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit so
get a hold of you, you will never
ever again even think of the Mark of
the Beast.
Because first of all, those in Zion are
already marked in their forehead.
They're already marked.
Let me read it to you.
I give it to you now, Revelation 22,
4, And they, the saints, shall see his
face, and his name shall be in their
foreheads.
Revelation 7, 3, Hurt not the cattle or
the sea nor the trees, till we have
sealed all the servants of our God in
their foreheads.
Here's another proof.
And it was commanded them, these were the
demonic locust powers of the last day, they
should not hurt the grass of the earth
nor any tree, but only those which have
not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Folks, when you gave your life to Jesus
Christ, he wrote his name on your forehead.
There's no room for the beast to mark
anything on your forehead.
These exotic, elaborate schemes about the Mark of
the Beast, and vision and computer chips and
all these things.
Brother, let me tell you, Jesus didn't die
for a bride that's going to be starved
just before her wedding.
My Bible says he
died for a triumphant church against which the
gates of hell shall never ever prevail.
Secondly, the Mark of the Beast is for
devil worshippers only.
You read it, it talks about those who
first worshipped the beast.
It's worship.
It is a demonic worship.
And folks, the way we're going with so
many now into demonic things, it's not inconceivable
that men, I believe a great number of
people on this earth will trade, will gladly
accept prosperity even at the expense of worshipping
a demonic image, a demonic power.
We don't know what this is, but I
know one thing, the Scripture makes it very
clear.
I don't care whether Jesus comes, it matters
not whether he comes concerning the Mark of
the Beast, whether it's before the great troubles,
the great tribulation that the Bible talks so
clearly about, or the middle or at the
end of it.
The Bible makes it very clear that we
will not be here when the wrath of
God, the wrath of God, that could be
after the tribulation, the wrath of God comes
upon the earth.
By the time the Mark, whatever that Mark
may be, where you cannot buy or sell,
you already be safe in the arms of
Jesus, so don't worry about it.
You know what you're going to be able
to say when you get before the throne
of God?
You think for one minute that Jesus who
died for his bride is going to have
you stand before him saying, I bear in
my body the Mark of a beast?
His bride?
No, you're going to say with Paul, I
bear in my body the Marks of the
Lord Jesus.
Glory to God.
I don't hear anybody in this church talk
about the Mark of the beast.
You're going to talk about the Marks of
Jesus Christ and focused on him.
Hallelujah.
Glory be to God.
God has promised to preserve Zion in perilous
times with creative miracles.
Go back to Isaiah 4, folks.
I'll get through this quickly here.
To the right.
Isaiah 4 again.
Same verses that I read to you, but
I want to show you something.
We can't pass over.
Isaiah 4 or 5.
Did you hear what I said?
God's going to preserve you with creative miracles?
You heard Denny Durant talk about how they
were praying in for their school.
They had no money for all these poor
kids, about 2,000 kids in the thing,
and prayed and prayed, oh God, we don't
have any money, we don't have any food,
and a guy calls them and said, Pastor,
do you have a freezer?
A truck has just broken down on a
highway outside your town.
He said, yeah, well, I think I can
get a couple of freezers.
He said, no, no, no, you're not talking
about...
He said, I got an 18-wheeler.
And that provided the whole summer food.
If God has to allow an 18-wheeler
to break down in your block, I don't
know.
Let me tell you what the Bible says,
alright?
Isaiah 4, verse 5 again.
And the Lord will what?
Create upon every dwelling place at your house,
at your home, every dwelling place of Mount
Sinai, and upon her assemblies, the churches, the
very buildings, the people that inhabit those buildings
and worship the Lord.
He says, a cloud and smoke by day,
that's guidance.
The shining of a flaming fire by night
for upon all the glory shall be a
fence.
What is the glory of God?
That's Christ's presence.
He said, if you have my presence in
your life, you maintain my presence.
I'm going to guide you, I'm going to
defend you, and I am going to create
out of nothing preservation for you.
Folks, tell me when God lost his creative
power, who created the heavens and the earth
and sent man and closed the lion's mouth
and walked through fiery furnaces with his servants.
Tell me when God ever lost that creating
power.
God says, I'm going to create for you.
But in 1970s, when we had that terrible
recession, I thought, well, I'm going to prepare.
I went out and we bought a big
farm in East Texas, and I bought 50
head of black Angus cattle, and I built
lakes and stocked them with fish, and I
was going to ride out the tribulation or
whatever.
Boy, I was set.
But it always dawned on me, well, why
me and all those Christians in New York,
what are they going to do?
What's so special about me?
And all the people running for the hills,
they got to think about that.
Well, who are you?
I mean, God's got millions of Christians in
cities that can't escape.
The cattle all got Bang's disease and had
to sell them.
The fish cost more to feed than you
could go and buy at the store.
I got in debt trying to save myself.
My secretary's sitting down here, been with us
for years, and Barbara's telling me way back,
somebody told her to store water, so she
stored these big plastic jugs a couple years
ago, went in the closet yesterday, and there
was no water, and they were bone dry.
They'd evaporated.
Now, if God tells you to store food,
I would store food.
If the Holy Ghost tells you to do
that, according to your faith, so be it.
I do believe you always should have two
or three weeks of groceries in your place
if you can afford it.
But some of you can't afford it.
And God's going to see you through.
How He does it, I have no idea.
I'm not going to give you a list
of things that you're supposed to do.
He said, I will create for you in
your house, in your dwelling, I will create
for you a preservation plan that will be
all designed just for you.
Hallelujah.
Now, folks, that's the Word of the Living
God.
Every household, bringing deliverance out of nothing.
Now, Christians have been writing to me saying,
Pastor Dave, what about Social Security?
What if that fails?
What if Medicare fails?
And what if I lose my job?
A thousand what-ifs.
And I'll tell you, if you're in Zion,
it really doesn't matter.
I mean this with everything in my heart.
God will get more glory out of doing
something out of nothing for you.
What a testimony for His glory.
Now, if you don't want holiness, forget security.
The Bible says, those left in Zion shall
be called holy.
Holy people.
Not the self-righteousness of the flesh, but
those who are trusting in the imputed righteousness
of Jesus Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to
mortify the deeds of their flesh.
All the Old Testament cries out, God is
miraculous.
God supernaturally.
Where can you show me anywhere in the
Old Testament that God delivers people except supernaturally?
What about the manna fall from heaven?
Do you think that could be manufactured by
General Motors or anybody else?
No malls anywhere?
Nothing?
Not a corner grocer?
And God took care of him?
He cried for meat, He rained meat down
out of heaven.
They needed water, He got it out of
a rock.
They needed transportation, He opens up the Red
Sea.
He takes a prophet, He takes an old
prophet and feeds him with a raven, and
then when that goes down, He sends him
to a widow, and that widow suddenly discovers
her barrel never goes dry and her oil
never fails.
That's creative supernatural deliverance.
And folks, until you're ready to believe that's
the kind of God you serve, that's the
only way you can have faith.
You've got to believe that my God is
supernatural.
He'll provide supernaturally.
Now, I'm going to close in just a
minute, but here's the most irrefutable thing.
Nobody can argue with this one.
God is going to preserve us in Zion
because He set up the throne of His
own Son there.
He has enthroned Christ in Zion.
I have set my King upon my holy
hill in Zion, Psalms 2.6. God says
in the same chapter, Why do the heathen
rage?
Why all this foolish imagination and counsel against
my people?
Why do they plot against me and my
anointed?
God says, I'm going to laugh at their
conspiracies and all their raging and all their
evil counsel against me and my holy people.
And God declares Zion will stand any storm.
Zion is immovable because in Zion there's a
King on the throne.
Where is He enthroned?
Here in my heart.
He's enthroned.
He's King.
He's Lord.
If God has enthroned Christ in your heart,
you are one of His servants.
You're one of His subjects.
And I want to tell you the only
way God, the only way the devil could
bring down Zion is to put Jesus off
His throne.
And that's impossible.
How safe are you?
You're as safe as the King on His
throne.
Glory to God.
The Bible said He's not going to turn
over His reign to the Heavenly Father until
every enemy is put under His feet.
Every enemy.
The King of the church of Jesus Christ
has the power to preserve His church.
If He's King, He has all power.
He's going to preserve His people.
Hallelujah.
Now let me summarize in closing.
Zion is the New Testament name for the
church and the body of Christ.
And you are born into it by faith
in Christ.
And before you can ever exercise true faith,
you've got to lay hold of the fact
that I am a Zionian.
I am in Zion.
And being in Christ, I am safe.
That doesn't mean you won't have some suffering.
But even in the suffering, He said He'll
bring joy.
He'll bring peace.
You'll not starve to death.
He'll put clothes on your back, He said.
He'll provide food for you.
David said, I'm old and gray.
I've never seen God's people beg for bread.
Can you imagine Jesus dying for a church,
a bride who in her last days, just
before she goes to her wedding, has got
a demonic mark on her head and on
her forearm and begging for bread and starving
to death.
God forbid that we should ever attribute something
like that to our blessed Savior and God.
No, no, no, no.
God loves Zion.
His eyes are before Him.
It's beautiful.
It's His eternal city.
Beautiful for situation.
He speaks of Zion as a land that
the Lord God cares for.
The eyes of the Lord God are always
upon it from the beginning of the year
to the end of the year.
365 days a year, my eye, God said,
is on Zion.
For the Lord does keep it.
I will water it every moment, lest anybody
hurt it.
I will keep it night and day.
For the Lord hath chosen Zion.
He has desired it for His habitation.
Alright, one last closing verse.
Now, please, balcony behind me in the annex.
I'm going to give you a verse that
proves that it's impossible that the devil can
destroy you without getting by the walls that
God has put around you.
And that's an impossible situation.
And I want to prove to you once
and all that you endeavor to fear the
mark of the beast, not to fear of
anything that's coming in the future.
One verse that nails it down.
I want you to go to Luke first
chapter.
And don't race around trying to find it
until I tell you where it's at.
Because I want us all to get it
once together.
Can you stand while you're holding your Bible
there?
This is so holy, this is so wonderful,
you ought to be standing anyhow.
Glory to God.
Are you ready?
Verse 73, beginning to read.
The oath which he swore to our father
Abraham.
Are we the children of Abraham by faith?
God has made a sworn statement to us,
a sworn promise, that he would grant unto
us that we being delivered out of the
hand of our enemies might serve him with
fear in holies and rites before him.
How long?
All the days of our life.
Now folks, if you're alive when there's a
mark of the beast, he said you're going
to live without fear all the days of
your life.
So don't fear it.
Don't fear a depression.
Don't fear a breakdown of the technology.
Don't fear the loss of a job.
Don't fear your rent payments.
Don't fear that you might not eat.
You're a Zionian.
You have promises that you will live without
fear in holiness all, all the days of
your life.
I intend to live that way.
Hallelujah, I intend to live that way.
Heavenly Father, I ask you to give us
messages in the days to come, Sunday after
Sunday, of hope and strength that we will
be strong in faith in the days ahead.
When all around us people are trembling, we
will have a testimony, a steadfastness in the
Lord, because we approach the storm with peace
and assurance that we're in Zion.
God says I have my heart in Zion,
my throne, my sun, rules and reigns in
Zion.
Let no devil, no demon, no power touch
Zion, for Zion is my city set on
a hill.
Hallelujah.
Beautiful for situations.
Hallelujah.
I want us to sing a chorus.
I'm going to give an invitation in just
a moment, but just sing with us a
moment this chorus.
Just hold steady, please.
I ask you not to leave.
...the Holy Spirit to lead me in this
invitation that I give to you now in
the annex and balcony here on the main
floor, wherever you are listening to me.
The invitation is this, and I believe the
Lord gave this to my heart, whispered it
into my spirit.
There are some of you here now that
need to get out of your seat and
walk down the aisle.
Come and stand here.
I'll pray with you.
If you'll come humbly before the Lord and
honestly.
And it's for this reason.
I believe the Holy Spirit's revealed to me
that there are a number of you here
this morning who find it difficult to even
sleep because there's a restlessness, there's an anxiety,
could be a depression.
And I'll tell you what, if there is
a sin that has not been totally surrendered,
it's that one sin you think, if I
can just get victory over this, I've got
it made, you know.
God's looking deeper than that.
But even that can cause you to be
restless and under guilt, fear.
There's really no peace where there's sin, where
there's failure.
The Lord's trying to bring some of you
back to your first love for Him because
something's happened.
You sit so comfortably now in front of
a TV set or a VCR and you
watch R-rated filth.
And some of you have really allowed your
mind to become gripped and polluted by this.
I want you to know that those scenes
are indelibly printed on your mind and you'll
never shake them off except some miracle of
the Holy Spirit.
And it's a pollution that disturbs the Spirit.
Now, some of you may come down and
say, Pastor, that's not my problem.
It's just that I have not been walking
close to the Lord.
I'm not seeking God as I should.
I'm not into His Word.
I'm drifting.
I'm not where I should be.
Simply put, I'm not where I should be.
And I want to draw closer to the
Lord.
Your love for Him may be waning, lukewarm,
or even cold.
I want you to have your seat.
While we sing it again, up in the
balcony go to the stairs on either side
and in the annex go to the back
of the auditorium and they'll show you the
door in here.
Come down the stairs and right down any
aisle and meet me here.
I'll pray with you and we'll believe the
Lord.
I'm not trying to just build up numbers
here.
This is life and death with me and
with you.
This is your day.
This is the time the Lord wants to
meet you.
The Holy Spirit's in this church and He's
in this service and He wants to change
your life.
Follow these and come.
Please move in close to make room for
those that are coming, if you will, please.
While we sing it.
Coming.
You can just line them across the back
there because the aisles are full.
Just across the back, just so they can
hear.
Get them inside the auditorium just so they
can hear.
All right.
You that have come forward, look this way,
please.
Coming to Christ for any need is not
a matter of just physically walking down an
aisle.
It's a heart matter.
It's something from the heart.
Now look at me, please.
With everything in you, if you've come to
Him with your heart, and said, Lord Jesus,
I want a change.
I don't want to go on the way
I've been going.
I want a change.
And God looks at the heart.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but God
looks at the heart.
He saw everything and heard everything and is
viewing everything as you walked even down the
aisle and as you stand here now.
Just coming up here doesn't do anything.
Nothing I can say can change you other
than the fact that your heart is willing
to hear the truth that sets you free.
There has to be confession, first of all,
and acknowledgement.
I am not where I should be.
I am not what the Scripture declares.
God said whether you're hot or cold, but
because you're lukewarm, I would spit you out
of my mouth.
He said, I'm not hot for God.
I'm not hot for Christ.
I don't have that heat, that passion.
And He wants to give that to you.
He wants you to walk out of this
building today with that passion for Him.
Now, I'm a minister and I pray and
I seek God and that's my calling.
But even as a minister, I have to
guard that.
Because it's so easy to just slip and
drift and allow things, little things, and say,
Lord Jesus, awaken my spirit.
And you're going to have to make a
pledge in your heart, to your heart, that
you will get into this Word and discipline
yourself to study it and ask the Holy
Spirit to make it life to you because
faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
And you hear it only by reading it
and the Holy Spirit gives you a hearing
for it, an understanding, in other words, of
the Word of God.
Now, you see, we don't have a membership
here at the church so you can't join.
We're not trying to get you to join
a church.
We're trying to get you into Zion.
And to say, I know whom I have
believed.
I know, I'm persuaded.
Hallelujah.
Now, this prayer I'm going to ask you
to pray doesn't mean anything unless it comes
from your heart, unless it becomes your prayer
and not mine.
Would you pray this with me now?
Jesus, I walk down this aisle and I
stand here now because I admit I have
a need in my life.
I need to be awakened.
I need forgiveness for living selfishly, for drifting,
for not seeking your Word, for not praying
as I ought.
O Jesus, I want to do these things
but not out of obligation but out of
the wooing of the Holy Spirit and the
desire of my own heart.
So put a desire in my heart to
live with passion, to absorb your Word and
to be consumed with Christ.
Lord Jesus, I renew my heart.
I renew my faith and my confidence in
you.
By faith, I acknowledge Jesus Christ as King
and Lord of my life.
And I acknowledge now that I'm born in
Zion.
He is my King.
He is my Lord.
And I trust you, Lord, with my present
and with my future.
Now will you tell him in your own
words how much you love him and give
him thanks for what he's doing right now.
Lord, I give you thanks.
I love you.
I praise you.
And I give you my heart.
I give everything that I am and all
that I have.
Hallelujah.
Now look at me, please.
If you were a super Calvinist, you would
say, you don't need altar calls.
And what can happen if people just come
up and say a prayer and so forth?
But I want you to know that boys
like Nicky Cruz, who were gang leaders, came
at an invitation that I gave just like
you, and now evangelists and preaching and winning
thousands to Christ.
And over the years, thousands and thousands have
come to altars like this.
And even though some people decry altar calls
and everything else, thousands are in the ministry,
missionaries, and God has answered prayer.
So I believe in it.
I believe in it with all my heart.
He said he made us fishers of men.
And when God gets you on the hook,
I'm not going to let it go.
I'm going to draw it in.
I'm going to wind it up and bring
it into the road.
Hallelujah.
Amen.
I'll tell you what.
If you really believe what I preached, and
you really believe that we can confess our
sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If you honestly believe that the prayer of
faith saves you and your commitment to serve
him with the help of the Holy Spirit
and the power of the Holy Ghost, then
let faith arise.
I am truly his.
Jesus is king and lord of my life.
Every promise in the book now is mine.
And I'm going to put my faith in
that.
He's promised to keep me from falling.
He's promised to give me power over my
sin and my lust.
I don't have to fight it in my
own strength.
I just call on him and he will
give me power.
He will say, don't do it.
He'll give me strength.
Amen.
Now that's something to be happy about.
That's something to rejoice about.
Amen.
I want you to turn around and with
at least ten people, every one, say, God's
good.
God is faithful.
God is faithful, my brother.
Yes, he is.
God's faithful.
God's good.
Amen.