In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of learning from the examples in the Old Testament. He encourages the audience to seek the keys to overcoming sin, flesh, and the devil. The preacher invites those who are backslidden or do not know Jesus to come forward and believe in the Lord for a lasting change. He emphasizes the need to lay down our own efforts and trust in God for miracles and victories in our lives.

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 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. With the sword of man. Not with the sword. There is no victory by the sword of man. Not by the sword of man. I hope and pray that by the time I'm finished tonight, you're ready to lay your sword down. Lay it down. Not going to do you any good. It's useless, it's worthless. Put your sword down. Your human effort, your human abilities, all of it. Heavenly Father, I pray tonight you take us deeper into the new covenant. I pray you help us to see it. In the simple illustrations and the testimonies from the Old Testament included. And we go into the Old Testament, Lord, to learn the New Testament truth. Oh, Holy Spirit, I thank you for truth that sets men free. Lord, it's not just truth, it's the knowing of the truth. It's the revelation of the truth to our hearts. Lord, open our eyes. Take the scales from our eyes. Take the veil from our faces. And help us to see more clearly what you have accomplished at the cross. Let us see the victory, the absolute total victory. And Lord, the agreement you've made to keep us in these last days. You're going to have a people, Lord, that are going to stand. Not in their own strength, not by might, not by power, but by your Spirit, oh God. Hallelujah. Lord, I need you tonight. I need your strength, I need your power, your unction and your anointing. In Jesus' name, amen. We're going to go back again and talk about how to overcome the power of sin. You said, Brother Dave, you've been preaching an awful lot about that. Why are you preaching so much about sin? Well, first of all, I want you to know that I'm not preaching out of some kind of pain. I'm not preaching out of some kind of battle. I thank God that he's shown me a wonderful truth that's brought such a peace to my heart. I just want to share it with everybody. I want you to enter into the joy of the new covenant. There was an old covenant that failed in its purpose. And God said, I'll make a new covenant in the last days. And this new covenant that God has made with us is an irrevocable promise that God is going to take the pressure off of us. He's going to take the burden off of us, and he's going to take it upon himself. He said, I'm not going to trust you to bring me a good heart anymore. I'm going to take the heart of stone out of you, and I'm going to put a new heart in you that will have a desire for me. I'm going to cause you both to will and to do of my good pleasure. And he said, I'm going to keep you by my power. And the new covenant basically is the end, the total end of the old I can do man in my own strength. And it's the introduction of a new man says, I can't do anything in my own strength, but I can do everything through the power of the Holy Ghost. And folks, I've been talking about being seated with Christ in the heavenly place as being a settled condition. I've settled the matter. I cannot strive or work my way into the goodness and the grace of God. I cannot battle sin in my own strength. I cannot lick anybody, anything. I am totally helpless in my flesh. And until you come to that place, you'll never be seated in heavenly places. And I have found that seat. That seat in a heavenly place is a condition right here on earth. I don't have to leave my body. I don't have to imagine I'm out somewhere in paradise. Paradise is right here in my heart because I have a settled condition. I have a settled state of mind. Hallelujah. And then when the Lord began to talk to me about this, God said, this is the secret of the overcoming life in the last days. The enemy is going to come in like a flood. All hell is going to come against God's people. Demonic powers such as the world has never seen. And how are we going to have a people that are going to stand, especially because He has come even into the church with deceivers. He's come into the house of God with lies, false doctrines. We've got the deceptions outside, the incredible powers of hell, that in the church we've got false Christ. We've got all of these things inside the church, outside the church. How are we going to have a people that stand? How are we going to have a people? God says, I'm going to take it in my own hands. I am going to take it into my hands. Hallelujah. And I believe the revival that's coming in the last days will be a revival of knowledge and revelation of the covenant that God has made with His people. And this covenant works by faith and faith alone. Hallelujah. We told you that the old man is simply the I can do man. He's the one that looks at his sin. He looks at his habits. He looks at his besetting sin. He says, I can do that. I can lick it. Give me time. Give me enough tapes. Give me enough preaching. Give me a little time. It may take a time. I may fail, but I'm going to do it. I'll do it. They call it biting the bullet. They have all kinds of names for it. And effort and strive and strive and strive and promise and promise. Sin confess, sin confess. And it never works. And God's people end up in despair trying to finally say, Well, I know by faith I'm saved, but they don't know how by faith to live. See, it's one thing to come out of Egypt, but when you get out of Egypt and Pharaoh's dead, you've settled the sin question, the salvation question's been settled, you still have to cross a Jordan. And you're going to find when you get there, you're going to have the Jebusites, you're going to have all of these enemies coming at you to try to get you down and destroy you. You're under the blood, but you still have all the Canaanites to fight. You've got all the habits. You've got the lust. You've got everything coming at you from all sides. How are you going to stand? But he'd tell them, the battle's not yours, it's mine. He was just beginning to intimate the glory of the new covenant. The new covenant says if you will finally die, you know what it is to be dead to sin and dead in Christ? It's finally, I've said it, and I want you to understand before I go into the Old Testament and show it to you in the Old Testament, it's such a clear picture. God says, you know the Bible says you reckon yourself dead? You just reckon yourself helpless. The Lord, I cannot, I acknowledge that I am helpless. I have tried and tried to get victory in my life over covetousness, over lust, over problems. Now folks, please again, I'm not talking about my own life. God has brought me to a victory. I speak to you from a point of victory in Christ. I thank God for it. And it's through the new covenant that I've seen the glory of it. Listen closely. To be dead to sin is to be able to say, I am no match for it. I am helpless before my sin in my own power and my own strength. Now if you're in the flesh, your flesh doesn't want to hear that. I've told you and told you that if the flesh is at enmity against the Holy Ghost, it's going to be at enmity against everything in your life. It's going to fight the Holy Ghost until the day you die. The flesh doesn't want to be put aside. The flesh says, I can do it. It's going to rise up and try to take the throne. The flesh doesn't like to hear it. We like to say, well, that's just easy believism, and that's going to make it, people are just going to sit back and relax. No, no, no, no. Follow me. Tonight, God's going to take you into the Old Testament now, and I want to show you in an Old Testament picture what we're talking about. God's going to make it clearer and clearer in the days ahead. Now the Bible says very clearly that these things happened to Israel in the Old Testament as examples to us upon whom the ends of the world have come. In other words, the Lord says, do you want the keys? Do you want to know how to overcome sin, flesh, and the devil on all your lusts? Do you want to know how to battle the enemy? Now some of you may be sitting here, Mr. and Mrs. Goody Goody, and you're saying, no, no, no, wait a minute. There's no lust in me. There's no pride in me. I'm humble. Well, you've just blown it right there. You just blew it. There's none of us righteous, the Bible says. And I'm going to tell you something else. Your righteousness, unless it's accomplished by the power of the Holy Ghost, is not going to be acknowledged by God. He acknowledges nothing except that which comes through the mind and the will of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit alone, he will not accept any righteousness of your own. Anything that's accomplished by your flesh, God will repudiate. He will not put up with it. He will not endure it. All our righteousnesses of the flesh are as filthy rags as stench in his nostrils. I can't do man stands before God and says, I did it. And he says, no, you didn't. I don't accept you. The only way I accept you is in Christ Jesus. You're accepted in the beloved and no other way. And so he says, go into the Old Testament, because these are examples. Now, you see, I'm going to take you into a battle field tonight in Isaiah, and I'm going to show you a picture. Now, this is a historical account of a battle that happened in Jerusalem and Judah. It's a literal battle, but it's history. God could have just wiped it away and said it's history. They've learned their lessons. It was for that generation. God says, no, I recorded it. It's written for you to get your lessons. Now, folks, if you want to get into the fullness of God, you're going to be a student. You're going to study. You're going to pray and ask God diligently for revelation. Doesn't come to those who just try to float through. Doesn't come at all. You can't become a doctor unless you study. You can't become a psychologist unless you study. You can't become anything in this world unless you study and prepare for it. We've got Christians who want to be mature Christians without studying, without digging into the Word of God. So let's put on our Holy Ghost thinking caps, and let's do what God says. You go into the Old Testament. These are examples to you. The lessons are learned. The secrets are there, hidden. If you go in and dig them out by the Holy Ghost, I'll show them to you. Oh, one of the most powerful. See, I see the New Covenant everywhere I turn in the Bible now. Everywhere I turn. Every Old Testament truth comes alive now. Go to the 31st chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah 31. Now, if you get Isaiah 31, would you leave it open on your lap? And then just look this way if you might. A king by the name of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army is besieging Jerusalem. They've already marched through Judah and captured most of the cities, and now they are surrounding Jerusalem. Sennacherib means successful. The Assyrians, Assyria means sin on the increase. Sin on the increase and success. You put them all together, it's a picture of the success of the enemy coming against God's people, how successful he's been. In fact, that's what Rabchak has said. He's the captain of Sennacherib's army, and the first time they come against Judah, Sennacherib is not there. His army is there, and his captain, Rabchak, is there. And he is mocking them. He said, we have been successful. Nobody's been able to stand against our gods. He's surrounding Jerusalem now. And there's a panic. Now, folks, this is important because Assyria represents every sinful, demonic, lustful thing that comes against you. Didn't he say that these are examples for us upon whom the ends of the world have come? Sennacherib is the devil himself who's convinced he's going to succeed in defeating you and bringing you down to despair. I don't care if it's a demonic temptation of lust, covetousness, whatever it may be from all sides. And sometimes, I'll tell you folks, you can be in a situation where it looks like you are surrounded and it's hopeless. And the princes of Jerusalem, rather than turn to the Lord, they turn to the old man, the old nature, the old can-do. We can do it. All we need is a little help. They look at this huge army. They are surrounded now, and they decide they're going to go down to Egypt. They sent ambassadors down to Zoan into Egypt, and they were loaded down with gifts and silver and gold, and they were going to hire the Egyptian army, the whole cavalry, their horses, their horsemen and their army, to come and push the Assyrians away. You see, this is the arm of the flesh. And look at verse 1. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay or may depend on horses and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong. But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. Look at me, please. These are Christians. These are a type of Christians, and the Lord recorded this so that we can see the mistake they've made. Now, God gives them two chances. He gives them first a chance. They opt to trust in the flesh. And if you read on in verse 3, now the Egyptians are men, and they're not God. Their horses are flesh and not spirit. There's the dependency on the flesh. God says, you have revolted against me. You'll find that in verse 8, I believe. You have revolted against me. And God considers it's a revolt among His people when they believe that through their own power, they trust in the strength of the flesh, they trust in man and his methods to deliver them from the powers of darkness. God says, you've revolted against me. It's not just saying, well, God knows that I don't have enough faith. God says, no, you have revolted against my ways. So they're sending down to Egypt. They're going to hire. They're going to depend on these horses because they're strong, and on this army, these chariots, because they're swift. And God said, you are turning to the arm of the flesh, and you have not turned to me, your only source of victory. We have our own chariots today. We have our own horses today. These are the vehicles by which we try to achieve victory over the flesh. We've got books by the thousands on how to, how to improve the flesh, how to charm the flesh, how to subdue the flesh, how to submerge the flesh, ten ways to get victory over loneliness, six ways to find a new wife or a new husband. AA's got twelve steps to victory over alcoholism. They've got all of these man-made tapes and seminars. Folks, we've got it coming out our ears. People running everywhere to find, leaning on some man, leaning on the arm of the flesh, looking for a word, looking for a man, looking for a vehicle, for something to deliver them from their bondage. They go to revival meetings, want somebody to put their hands on them, zap them, or go over here. There's a man over here. He has a word. He uses scripture and he can tell you, he can read your mind. And I'm going to run, I don't care if it costs me $3,000 round trip, I'm going to go. I need a word. And this man stretches out his hand. They're leaning on horses and chariots from Egypt. He says, no. Now, the Egyptians are men. They're not God. Their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is hopin' shall fall, and they all shall fail together. That says, all right, you go ahead and you exercise your will. Folks, God has given us a will, but that will was perverted. That will was perverted back in the garden of Gethsemane so that we cannot, without the help of the Holy Ghost, choose properly. We always choose wrong in the flesh. We lean on the arm of the flesh. God says, all right, go ahead, make up your mind, use every bit of your ability, dig deep into the inner man, pull out all of your strength and your energy, do everything within your power and grit your teeth and say, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it. Do everything you can, but you're leaning on the arm of the flesh. It's not going to work. I hope by now most of you come to the realization that you have tried so many times and failed so many times, you're about to give up on the flesh. God will let you really go through it. He'll put you in the wringer until you're totally convinced that you've got to die to your efforts in the flesh. Hallelujah. He said it's all going to fail. So why go that way? Why battle in the flesh anymore? God said it's bound for failure. Folks, that's when you die, you see. I know from experience it doesn't work. I know that the flesh cannot give me the victory. Hallelujah. They lean on them because there are many and because they are very strong, but God says these, that's flesh, that's flesh. I told last Sunday, I believe it was about Marshall Applewhite, this 68-year-old gentleman that took 38 into suicide with him. And Mr. Applewhite, you know, was the son of a Presbyterian preacher. In fact, he was a choir director and very active in church. And even when he was in Houston, he was active in a church there and called to a ministry. He was married. He had two children. But you see, he had a problem. He had a homosexual drive in him. In fact, he checked himself into a hospital in Houston and wanted to be delivered. He said he'd tried everything, and he acknowledged to a psychologist that there's a beast in me that's driving me. A beast. The flesh. This homosexual drive in him was destroying him. This man tried everything. He went to doctor after doctor, hospital after hospital, and finally he said there's no way out. He talked about weeping, crying, praying, and couldn't find deliverance because he was trying so hard to lean on the arm of flesh. He was looking for some man. He was looking for a psychologist, a psychiatrist. And finally, in total despair, he castrated himself. In fact, at least a third of those who committed suicide were also castrated. You see, he took it in his own power. You see, if you're going to believe that you have the power, if you're going to believe that you can do it, it's not going to be much of a giant step to believe that a spaceship is going to come and deliver you. And so, Haley Bob, the new comet, you can see it out there now. You go outside, now you can see it there. The comet's out there, and it's riding high. And they committed suicide because they said in that trail, there's a comet. I mean, there's a spaceship, and that spaceship is going to pick us up. But you see, the despair of these people, the absolute despair, one after another, in their videotaped last message, they talked about, some talked about castration and talked about how they finally, what they're saying, God failed us, but we took it in our own hands and we did it. You see where it ends, don't you? You see where it ends when you take matters in your own hands and try to do it in your own power and your own strength. We grieve over what happened. It seems so incredible that anybody could believe that. But that's where flesh ends up. That's where flesh takes you. It takes you out in outer space. The more I search God's word, the clearer it becomes to me all human striving for deliverance over sin and the dominion of sin and the energy of the flesh is bound for failure. Israel attempts here to defeat their powerful enemy at the gate through flesh, through man's power, and it's immediately denounced by God. When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helps shall fall and he that is being helped shall fall. They all shall fail altogether. God says, I'm dead set against your call for help for man. Hallelujah. But listen to what it says. Skip down to verse 8. Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man, and the sword not of a mean man shall devour him. Look this way, please. In the original Hebrew it says, not the sword of your mightiest warrior will cause him to flee. You take the strongest Christian who has a good will and he's got a good moral background, he's clean, he's really not polluted in his mind, but you take the strongest warrior that you have in the flesh. And the Bible said, God says that's not going to work against the powers of hell. He said the enemy's going to come down but he's not going to fall by your sword. He's not going to fall by your efforts. Now folks, we come into the new covenant here right now. The Lord says, you cannot, you have got to come to the place where you put your human sword down. God says, oh yes, he's going to flee. I read on. But he shall flee from the sword and his young men shall be discomfited. He shall pass over to his stronghold for fear. His princess shall be afraid of the Enzyme. For the Lord who fires Enzyme in his furnace in Jerusalem. God says, I have a fiery sword and I will defeat your enemy. He's going to flee not from your sword but from the sword of the Lord. No other sword. Glory be to God. Hallelujah. Not with the sword of man. He shall flee from the sword but it's going to be a smiting sword that comes from the voice of God. Look at chapter 30, verse 30. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard. We sing that song in this church. He shall show the lightning down of his arm with the indignation of his anger and with the flame of a devouring fire with scattering and tempest and hailstone. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down with smoke with the rod. How is your enemy defeated? By the sword of the Lord. The very voice of our holy God. All he has to do is speak the word to those who trust him. All he has to do is say enough. Remember in Revelation, he talks about coming forth in the white horse and a sword piercing out of his mouth. A sword coming out of his mouth. In verse 5, chapter 31. As the birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. In the Hebrew, it simply means as the hen birds flutter over their young. In other words, it's the mother hen that stretches out her wings so shall the Lord stretch out his wing over his people. God says you want to be protected from the onslaught of the enemy against your life. He said only under the wings of our heavenly father. He said I'll stretch out my wings. See, folks, when you go God's way and you lay down your sword and say Lord, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to trust the power of the Holy Ghost that you promised in me to empower me. I'm going to go your way trusting in you completely live or die. The first thing God does is secure you under his wings. He secures you. Thank God for the security that we have when we trust him. The first thing God does when you trust him is to secure you so that you don't have to fear. David said I will fear no evil because you see, those of you who've been on drugs or you've been on alcohol or you've been into pornography or you've been into something that has latched itself to your spirit and you feel bound. The enemy has halfway victory in your life if you're walking around with fear you're walking around on the streets afraid that a spirit of pornography will grab you over here or some drug addict is going to just grab you and tempt you and everywhere you go you're living in fear and nervousness that you're going to fall. No, the Lord says if you'll trust me I just spread out my wings and you come under my wings. You don't have to live in fear. You don't have to be afraid of it. The first thing you have to do is get over your fear of sin. There's a fear of God, yes, but we're not of David said, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. The devil will keep whispering you're going to fall, you're going to fall. Don't pay any attention. Your flesh will try to take over and bring that fear on you. Don't listen to your flesh. Glory to God. You know, the scripture makes it clear that the first thing God does when he comes when you lay down your sword and you take up his sword by faith and you say, Lord, the battle's not mine anymore because I've failed so many times. I come to you now in simple faith. First thing he does is give you assurance that your enemy is going to be defeated. He's going to be totally defeated. The Assyrians shall fall by the sword. That's, God said he, that's settled. Now folks, that's good enough for me. God said your enemy's going to fall, not you. I'm going to keep you from falling but your enemy's going down. Is that what it says there? Your enemy, the Assyrians shall fall? The Assyrian is that sin dominion that's coming against you. He said it shall fall. He shall flee from the sword. You and I don't run from the devil. We resist the devil and he runs from us. Resist him by faith. And secondly, he promised to come down and fight for us. So shall the Lord of hosts come down and fight for Mount Zion and for the hill thereof. He shall stretch out his hand and cause the enemy to fall. This is the end of side one. You may... Could you go to Isaiah 35, turn to the right to Isaiah 35 for just a minute? No, make it, I'll tell you what, go to chapter 37. Go to chapter 37. Now I don't have a long sermon tonight. But I want to bring some hope to you right now. Are you beginning to hear what the Holy Spirit's saying tonight? That you're no match for the devil? And you need to quit making promises to yourself and to God? And you need to quit striving in your flesh? You see, God gave... Hezekiah was king at the time. Isaiah was the prophet of the day. In fact, Isaiah lived in... was in Jerusalem all this time. He's the one who's speaking against this. He's saying, now look, you're going to fail. And God let them do it their way. And they failed. Literally failed. First of all, Egypt didn't respond. Egypt was a broken reed. There's no hope. It failed. And folks, the flesh always fails you. And so, Sennacherib's army comes again. This time, Sennacherib comes with his army. He's got a huge army. It could have been as many as a million men. And he comes and he surrounds Jerusalem again. And this time, in chapter 37, Hezekiah allowed his princes to go to Zoah and Wonsan. I think he's saying, now we're going to do it God's way. We're not going to lean on the arm of the flesh this time. And look what happened. It came to pass, verse 1, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he ran his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. He humbled himself and went to prayer. He humbled himself. Folks, let me tell you what humility is. It's not that down-in-the-mouth poor look. Poor me. Humility is coming to the end of yourself. Humility is coming before God. I have nothing to give you, Lord, but my faith. I have nothing in myself. It's the end of self. That's it. It's the end of self. It's no feeling. It's an absolute condition of saying, God, I am nothing. I have nothing to offer you. I can't fight. I'm helpless in my own strength and my own power. It has to come from you. You go to the Lord. You go to his presence as Hezekiah did and said, Now, Lord, what do we do? What do I do? Look at the army around me. I'm surrounded. I don't know what to do. And God says, Go to the Word. And the Word was with Isaiah. And so he sends Elikim and Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests covered with slack cloths to Isaiah the prophet, son of Amos. And they said to him, Thus said Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy for the children who come to the birth, and there's not strength to bring forth. He says, Look, we're going to go God's way now, but we're totally weak. There's no strength left. What do we do? And that's where God wants you. Where you have finally come to the end of everybody, everything, and you say, Oh, God, here I am. Take me. Show me what to do. God has told me time and time again. If God has ever spoken to me in my life, this I can tell you, He's spoken. David, your part is just to cling to me. Come to me and pour out your soul. He said, You seek me with all your heart. I'll take everything. I'll take every enemy. I'll take everything around you. I'll protect your ministry. I'll protect your family. You walk in covenant. Your part is simply to humble yourself and seek my face. And in seeking my face, you'll get your word. You'll get your direction. The word of the Lord was with Isaiah. He will send you to this word. He will speak it into your heart. You will hear a word behind you saying, This is the way. Walk ye in it. Isn't this where you've been for the children that come to the birth? There's not strength to bring forth. God, I have no strength. Are you facing a situation in your life, in your home, that needs an absolute miracle? Glory to God. Get on your knees. Don't get on the phone. Don't pick up a book. Don't put on a tape. Not mine. Not Brother Carter. Not Greg's. No tapes. No books. No seminars. No how-tos. Get along with God. Humble yourself. Say, Now, Lord, this is your job. Now, Lord, you're responsible. I turn all responsibility over to you. I'm going to stay on my knees. Do you know something? That's all they did to get their victory. They weren't running around now. They weren't spending money. They weren't sweating. They weren't figuring. They weren't looking for money. They weren't giving money. They weren't doing anything but praying, seeking God, and trusting Him, waiting for the Word. Isaiah had the Word. And Isaiah said, verse 6, unto them, Thus shall you say unto your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Syria have blasphemed me. Behold, I'll send a blast on him, and he shall hear a rumor, return to his own land, and I'll cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. God said, My sword. He said, Don't you be afraid of this man. You know what he's saying, this? Any enemy as yours, God says, now is my enemy. You've made him my enemy because you've turned it over to me. Anybody talks against you, anybody abuse you, anybody hurts you, any demon against you is a demon against me. Verse 10, Thus shall you speak as the king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, this is the enemy talking now. Hezekiah says, Don't believe that the God in whom you trust, you're deceived that he's going to deliver you. You've heard what the kings of Syria have done to all the lands, destroying them. Folks, listen to me. You can see people fall all around you, but that doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean a thing to you because you're walking in covenant with the Lord. Hallelujah. Verse 33, Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria. That's your enemy, folks. That's your lust. That's your besetting sin. That's the dominion of sin. He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there. Glory to God. Nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. Listen. God must have one incredible sense of humor. They go to Egypt because there are many. He sends one angel. One angel. What a paradox. What a difference. One angel. Now listen to this. Then the angel of the Lord went forth. All they're doing is praying and humbling themselves. Isn't that amazing? Well, you know, wonderful folks, when you don't have to sweat and strive. Do you know that I preached this morning about Jacob saw a ladder, there're angels coming and going? Do you know I still have those angels coming and going for me? You got them coming for you? They're there. The angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and four... It's 185,000. When they rose in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. Folks, they wake up in the morning and blow reveille and hardly anybody comes. And they start peeking into tents. They're dead. And they examine the body. There are no sword marks. There's no bleeding. There's nothing. They call the camp physician, I'm sure, and they examine these corpses. This is amazing. There's not a mark on them. There's no bugs. There's no skin-eating disease, you know, like we have now that can kill people in a few hours. I mean, they're beautiful corpses. They're all dressed in their nightclothes or whatever they slept in. And there's not a trace of anything. The angel of the Lord, he just went through the camp and smote them. Folks, I don't care how he does it. Let him do it his way. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed. Oh, you better believe he departed. His army's gone. Doesn't the Bible say, he shall flee from you? And when he returned and dwelt at Nineveh, it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch, his god, and Abrammelech and Sherezeh, his sons smote him with a sword and they escaped him to the land of Armenia. Isn't that amazing? His only two sons killed him. What a picture. What a picture God is painting for us. All these things happened for an example to us upon whom the ends of the world have come. I see it. I accept it. I believe every word of it right now. I believe this, that the enemy's not going to shoot an arrow at me that's going to strike. He's not going to come against me with his shields. He's not going to cast up a bank against me. And by the way he came, he's going to leave? God said, I'll defend David Wilkerson for my own sake. I'll defend him. I'll defend everyone who believes in me and puts down his own. So I'll defend you. Glory to God. The battle is the Lord's, it's not mine. Hallelujah. Will you stand, please. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Why don't you just lift your hand and say, Lord, I'm going to trust you. You're going to bring me out. I'm going to have victory in my life. I'm not afraid anymore, Lord. God, take the fear out of the hearts of everyone in this house. Smite the fear. Take away all fear, all bondage. Hallelujah. God, you said, the age of the Lord encamps around about them that fear him and deliver them. Glory to Jesus. Lord, you've won a glorious victory. It's not by might. It's not by power. But it's by my spirit, sayeth the Lord. Hallelujah. It's by my spirit, sayeth the Lord. My spirit spoke to my heart, and let me tell you what he said. There are at least 10 people here tonight. There may be more, but no less than 10. That God is speaking very clearly to. Because before you heard this message, when you came in here tonight, you came in with this burden. You were on the brink In fact, you may have already stepped over and gone back to an old sin. And you've been in a struggle. You've been in a losing battle. And God delivered a word to you tonight. You're here for a purpose. Now, God wants you to take the second step. We don't count heads. We don't try to pack an altar here. We're here on a life and death mission. Let me tell you right now, the Holy Ghost is speaking to a number, and you're balking in here on the main floor. You stepped across the line or you're on the brink ready to cross the line. You're saying, I just can't fight it anymore. It's too big for me. I've tried and tried and it doesn't work. Oh, yes, it does. And the Lord says, you come now. You take a step. You cross the line. Come back over the line. You went this way. Come back this way toward the Lord. He says right here, even in 31st chapter, just return now unto the Lord. Return. I want you to get out of your seat if the Holy Ghost. Don't come because I say so. Come because the Holy Ghost is convicting you and you feel the tug and the pull of the Holy Spirit. Come and say, Brother Dave, I don't want to cross that line. I don't want to give in. I want victory. I want God's way in my life. I want victory. Upstairs, go to the stairs on either side and come down any aisle. And we're going to believe God tonight for absolute victory. God's wanting to set a whole lot of people free from the fear of what you're going through He wants to give you peace about it. He wants to give you assurance that He's going to bring you through if you will trust Him. Right out of your seat, wherever you're at, and come, and let's believe God. If you're backslidden, if you don't know Jesus, you come with these that are walking down the aisle right now. Come and believe the Lord tonight for a change that'll last you till eternity. This is the conclusion of the tape.