In this sermon, the preacher discusses the pouring out of the vials of God's wrath upon the earth. The fourth angel pours out his vial upon the sun, causing men to be scorched with great heat. Despite this punishment, the men blaspheme God and refuse to repent. The preacher then turns to the book of Judges to illustrate the consequences of unchecked lust, emphasizing the need for repentance and seeking God.

The destructive power of lust. I want you to go to James, the fourth chapter. Fourth chapter of James. If you find Hebrews, just keep going right. Just beyond Hebrews. James, the fourth chapter. I saw something this past week that did just, I couldn't shake it. I said, I've seen it many times, but there must be a mistake. It can't be that serious. The destructive power of lust. Let's start reading. I'm going to read, I'm reading from King James. Whatever version you have, I'm sure you'll see it very clear. From whence comes wars and fightings among you? Don't they come hence, even of your own lust that borne your members? You lust and you have not. Look at these words. You kill. You kill. He's talking to Christians. You kill. And your desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight in war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lust. You adulterers and adulteresses. Don't you know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy to God. Would you look at verse 2 again? He's talking to brethren. He's talking to the church at Jerusalem. And he's saying, you lust and you have not, and you kill and desire to have. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we think of the Christians in the nation today, even those that may be in this room tonight, that are battling a battle with lust. Oh God, tonight, show us how serious this matter is. Show us, O Lord, that you're trying to deal with this so that we'll have victory, that it's not your will that we live in bondage to any kind of lust. This city, O Lord, tends toward lust. This city bombards people with temptation on every side, and so there's so much giving of people to the spirit of lust. So break forth tonight with your Word. Set people free, Lord. Let there be freedom of the Holy Ghost. God, I bind every lying spirit that would come against those who would hear the Word. We bind every enemy spirit, everything unlike Jesus Christ, so there'd be anointing, there'd be liberty to preach the Gospel tonight. With the unction, the power of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Now, here in one powerful scripture, James outlines the deadly, fatal consequences of playing with lust. He clearly defines what is a downward pull of lust, and he's showing us where it finally ends. He said, you lust and you have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain it. Now, remember, you go all through the book of James, he's talking about my brethren. He's speaking to the brethren. He's addressing it to the twelve scattered tribes abroad. And these are all who profess to follow Jesus Christ. And all through this epistle, he's saying, O my beloved brethren. He's talking to those who are assembled together. Beloved brethren, he's warning them not to despise the poor, for example. He's trying to tell them not to exalt the rich in their midst. In this very same chapter, he says to them, submit yourself to God, resist the devil. Now, you don't tell that's ungodly people. He's speaking to brethren. Now, in light of that, this began to hit me. He's saying to these people who were bound by lust, he said very clearly, you lust and you kill. And I looked at that, and so I turned to my commentaries. In fact, I looked at every version of the Bible. And the commentary makes it clear that none of the early fathers could believe it was that strong either. And they tried to soften it, and they were talking about character assassination. They talked about envy. They tried to put many other terms to it. But they had to finally come back, even the revised standard. All of them had to come back. It's there. It's so clear. You kill. He's trying to show something in the church of Jerusalem and to everybody in this place tonight. They'll hear it. There's a downward pull to lust. He's showing where it ends if it is not checked. He's saying it's a door that you open to hell, and it's a spiral staircase. And when you reach a certain point, if it isn't checked, it becomes a slide. It's called backsliding perhaps, but it's a slide right into hell. And if it's left unchecked, James is showing you the end result of lust. He's saying you'll end up with a beast nature. You will end up with a murderous mind, and you will let nothing stand in your way. It is so overwhelming. It will so bring you down. You will end up killing. You say, well, Brother Dave, you mean that in the church of Jerusalem, there were those who had been to Pentecost, James the bishop, and he's telling some of those, he said, you are killing? There is no way to get around it. It's there in black and white. No one's been able to dispute it. It's actually... Think about this for a minute. If the high priest would murder Jesus, the Son of the Living God, if the church at that time was so corrupt that they would take the living Son of God, they would take others, they would take... Who was it that murdered Stephen? They would murder Stephen. There was a spirit of murder, but was this creeping into the church? What caused this? It's all because of a spirit of lust that has never been checked. Runaway lust. Now, James is trying to show us here that lust is not just a weakness. It's not just something singularly you fight with, a little isolated battle that no one else is affected by. You say, well, this is my little world, it's my little problem, it's my sin. No one else is going to be bothered by it, as long as I don't involve anybody else. No, it's not a weakness. It's not just your singular little inner struggle. No God sees it as something more than that that affects so many, many other people. It finally ends up, in these very fatal words, you will end up with a mindset of hatred, a mindset of murder. In other words, he's describing a mindset that says you will stop at nothing until you achieve it. You will stop at nothing. There will come a time that the very thing that you believe could never happen in your life, you could look at something right now and say, I would never do that. How awful, how terrible, how shameful. That if there's lust in your heart that's not checked, if it is not stopped, if God does not heal it, if you play with it, if you flirt with it, you're going to end up one day doing the very thing that you once were shamed of, that you could never conceive were possible to do, because there is a dramatic downward pull to lust. What happens is that the addiction becomes deeper. With each step there's an acceleration. There's a greater desire. There's less satisfaction than before. We become more and more wicked and evil in our thinking. There's a weakening of all moral backbone. And step by step the mind becomes polluted. Sin becomes less hated than it was before. We become more comfortable with our sin. Until finally that lust is driving us as a hopeless victim. And we are overcome by it until it absolutely possesses us. And it ends up in death. That's exactly what James is describing in lust. When lust conceives it brings forth sin. And sin when it's finished, what? Now, David opened this door of lust to hell one day. And just as James describes it, David became a killer. Now, if your spiritual sensibilities are shocked right now to think that you as a Christian, if you let your lust that you have right now in your heart go unchecked, and if it isn't stopped tonight, it's going to degenerate. It's got such a dramatic downward pull that it's going to possess you. Oh, there's not a homosexual that started out wanting to be a homosexual. There's never a murderer that started out to be a murderer. It's been a downward step after step, loss after loss of moral conviction. And if your sensibilities are stirred, thinking, how could you possibly even suggest that? I love the Lord. So did David, the mighty poet of God. This holy man, a man after God's own heart. If you would go to David and say, David, the day is coming that you're going to kill because of your lust. You're going to become a murderer. You're going to plow a man with alcohol, an innocent man. You're going to get him drunk and you're going to send him out to battle and murder him. David would have been shocked. He said, never in a thousand years. And he would have got out his harp and sung you one of his songs of holiness. But the day comes. And I will tell you, it comes at a time. If you read the chapter before, the issue with Bathsheba, you will find that the Scripture says, and whether so ever David went, the Lord was with him and blessed him in everything he did. And the Bible says, the very next verse, that he judged Israel with righteous judgment. But three months later or so, just a few months later, David has allowed his lust to run away. David has allowed it to overcome him. David is running pale-melt down these steps to hell. And the day comes that David's looking out over a rooftop. And the lust enters his heart. And it conceives and it brings forth sin. And the word comes months later, after he has an affair with Bathsheba, the chief with child. I'm sure David blushes. But he says, she's married. He calls Uriah from the front lines. Uriah loves his king. Uriah acknowledges him, here's a man of God. You think of this great man of God. Think of the scheming. Think of the lies now. Because he's on a downward path. He sends him out with some provisions and sends him home. But this Uriah is more righteous than David at this point. This man after God's own heart has a spirit of runaway lust just taking control of him. And now you see, the word coming to David said he slept at the gate. He said, I can't go home and be with my wife when all my soldier friends are out there struggling, sleeping out under the stars. No. No. David plies him with alcohol and liquor and gets him drunk. And he's ready to have his soldiers take him in a drunken stupor and throw him in his wife's home. So that he can have an alibi. But even in his drunkenness, this young man would not go home to Bathsheba. And so David saw it was over. Can you see David? This great prophet of God in the Bible on two occasions calls David a prophet. This man after God's heart, this one who at one time was so close to the Lord, so walking in righteousness, that his conscience smote him for just cutting a piece of Saul's garment. Remember when he went into the cave and cut off a piece of his garment? And then he went back and his heart smote him. He said, that's the anointing of God. Why did I do such a horrible, abominable thing? Because you see, when you're walking in righteousness, you have that kind of discernment. You have that sensitivity to sin. You don't want to grieve God. You don't want to break His Word. But look at David now. No, his heart's not smiting him. He's planning and he writes a note. And you know who bears that note? Takes it right to Joab, takes it right to the captain of the army and says, put him in the front lines. In other words, kill him. Kill him. And I don't think Joab understood it to this point at all. I don't think the captain of the army understood it at all. But he sends Uriah out into battle, a hopeless situation. And he's overcome. It's just like in Iran where they throw those 13-year-old kids against those machine guns. Yes, floods and floods. David flooded it and he knew that Uriah would be killed. And the note comes back. He said, Uriah is dead. You know, David, even then, he's so far down. He's so bound by his lust now. He sends a note to his captain. You know in essence what the note says? Well, it just happened. That's the way things are. It just happened. It's one of those things, don't let it bother you. And it didn't bother David until Nathan the prophet came and put a bony finger in his face and said, you're the man! You're the man! And I want to tell you something. That's the work of the Holy Ghost. To come to a meeting like this. Maybe you're here for the first time. Maybe you've heard the Holy Ghost talk to you about your sin time and time again. Nobody's raiding against your sin here. We're here to ask God by His Holy Spirit to convict you of your sin. But the work of the Holy Spirit through my preaching tonight is to be a knife. It's to be a finger. It's to be a finger. It's to be a finger and says, out! You're the one! If you continue with it, there's a downward pull. And like David, the time will come you'll lie and you'll cheat. You'll be treacherous against the Holy God to cover it up. You'll have murder in your heart. He said, you'll lust and you'll kill. And I tell you on the authority of God's Word, if David's lust had not been stopped, if God did not put a stop to it, he heard this prophet of God and he melded before a holy God. He spent a week on his face fasting and praying. He wouldn't touch a drop of food. His heart was smitten because he said, I've sinned against God. And David repented. And that downward pull was thwarted. It was thwarted, it was stopped by the Holy Spirit of God. If David had not repented, if David had not returned from his sins, I tell you on the authority of God's Word, he would have been worse than Saul. He would have filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to the other. He would have murdered by the thousands, just like all the other corrupt kings of Israel did. I tell you on the authority of God's Word, if his lust had not been stopped, if he hadn't had his life turned around, returned to the Lord with godly fear, he would not only have turned like Saul to a witch for instruction and direction, he would have become a demon worshipper, he would have become the most occultist mind on the face of the earth, and David would have become a devil incarnate. Because he had more light, he was so close to the heart of God. And when you walk with God in holiness, you've heard Holy Ghost preaching, you've heard it coming loud and clear, and God's saying, Lay it down! Lay it down! Lay it down! And you don't lay it down. The message finally is not heard. Your ears are closed. That's what Bob was preaching about this morning. David opened his eyes. He opened his ears. He heard the conviction. There have been times in my life that I've wished a man of God had such holy thunder, walked close enough to God that could have preached a message wherever I sat, that put me under such Holy Ghost conviction. I couldn't sit there. I couldn't play or toy with that thing that was in my heart and my mind. I would have run from it. I could have saved my life from many, many tears. And I'm telling you tonight, I feel anointing and anointing of the Holy Ghost tonight that God called some of you here tonight to deliver you from your lust before you damn your soul, before you're lost. Because you're already being magnetically pulled down. You're going faster and faster. The hole is getting stronger. Now, I want you to turn to the book of Judges, and I want to show you what happens when it goes unchecked. Judges, the 19th chapter. One of the most horrible, sad stories in all the Bible. You read this story and you can't believe that a people of God could backslide so much. They could become so immoral. Please turn with me. You've got to see this. I want you to read. Judges, the 19th chapter. We're going to see the frightful end of lust. Lust. What to say? You lust and you kill? Boy, will you see it here. Very, very clear. I'm going to start reading in the first verse. There's a Levite here. A Levite is a type of ministry. Those who minister at the tabernacle of the Lord. Verse 1, it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of Mount Ephraim who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem of Judea. Now, a concubine is a slave wife. She didn't have the same rights. She's just a cook and a housemate. That's all. She had no rights. And his concubine played the whore against him. You see that? She played the harlot against him. Now, look this way, please. One sentence in the Bible, and she played the whore. She cheated on her husband. It's the same line we hear over and over again. It sounds so innocuous. It sounds, you know, you see it, you hear it every day. He cheated on his wife. She cheated on her husband. Just one line. But oh, how it shook Israel. How many people were killed? It ends up with 65,000 people killed. You say it's just my own little inner struggle, or maybe it's just the two of us. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's an ever-widening circle. This Levite takes this concubine as his wife, and she plays the harlot, and she runs away, goes back to her father's house. Verse 2, to Bethlehem and Judah, and was there for a whole month. Now, she's gone for four months, and he begins to miss her. And the Scripture says her husband arose and went after her to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, taking his servant with him, and a couple of asses, and she brought him into her father's house. And when the father damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. All right, look at this. Five days he spends with his wife's father, and he stays for five days, and finally he said, look, I can't stay anymore, I've got to go. So they head out. It's about noon, and they head out to go home. And they get a few hours away from this place, and they wind up in Jebus. Now, that's Jerusalem today. And Jebus still was inhabited by the Jebusites. And David was going to come in later and drive them out, and this is going to become the holy city. But these are heathen at the time. Jebusites are heathen. They're wicked. They're vile. And they get to Jebus, and the servant said to the Levite, let's stay here for the night. And the Levite says, no, I don't want to stay here. These are strangers. These are wicked people. I want to go to be among my brethren. So they go on to Gibeah. And Gibeah means hilltop. And they go to this little town of Gibeah. But something's happened to this little town of Gibeah. Now, remember, this is a Benjamite town. Benjamin was the smallest tribe of Israel. Benjamin had one of the greatest promises Moses gave to any of the tribes, one of the greatest blessings, that God was going to hold him in their hands, and they would ride between the shoulders. Ride between the shoulders means that God would carry Benjamin on his back. No tribe had that kind of a promise. Now, keep in mind, they arrive in the evening in Gibeah, this town of Benjamites, and nobody offers any hospitality. No one offers to take him in. He's in the city square, and he's about to lay down for the night. He's got enough hay for his donkeys. He's going to lay his blankets out, and he's going to sleep in the middle of the town. In fact, he tells an old man later, he says, in fact, God trusts me to keep me in his house, but nobody here trusts me to bring me to their house. I'm a man of God. God trusts me with his house. They won't bring me into their house, even though I'm a man of God. An old man from the hill country comes down. He says, what are you doing here? He said, we're spending the night. He said, don't spend the night here. Come to my house. A little old man. But I want to show you what lust has done to the society, to the Benjamites, to this Levite, to the old man, to marriage, everything. How lust has so corrupted the moral values. Everything in this story is crazy. It's incredible. Somehow, in the middle of the night, there's a knock on the door, because what's happening in Gibeah, this town, it's become a Sodom. There's no king in Israel at this time, but there is a holy high priest, Phineas. Remember, Phineas was the one who went in and killed those two that were committing adultery in the tent? Phineas was a man of God. He was a high priest that stood for holiness. And here, an amazing thing happens. A knock on the door. And outside the door, this little man's house, poor man, they're trying to knock down the door just as they were in Sodom. They wanted to commit sodomy. They said, we know there's a man in there, a stranger. We've never seen him before. Bring him out. And what they want to do is the same thing they wanted to do with the two angels that visited Lot's house. Bring them out. They were going to molest them. This Levite is frightened. Later, he told the princes of Israel, he said, they meant to kill me. Wouldn't you think that if a man had any regard for his wife, he would not do what this man ends up doing? First of all, the old man, the little old man, goes out and he says, don't do this. He said, I have a daughter. I'll send her out to you and you do what you please with her. This old man was about to send his own daughter to the wolves, to a raving, craving madman, a group of madmen outside the door. Can you imagine a father like that? I've got two daughters. I can't imagine such depravity. A man that still has hospitality, but his values are so corrupted now, he's willing to throw his daughter out. He knew she couldn't live the night through. It was murder to send her out. If you read the story, the Levite ends up sending his wife, his concubine, out to that mad crowd. The Bible makes it clear. The Bible doesn't try to hide any evil. The Bible says, it's the same to speak of the things they do in secret. This is not done in secret. This is done before all Israel. And they, all night long, that woman in the morning, the Levite goes to bed. What's happened to this man that he can send that woman out there? Look at the moral depravity now. What lust has caused in this nation? Here's a Levite who sends his wife out. Wouldn't you think he would at least keep her there and take a stand? Where is, where is the heart of God that says, if anyone gets hurt, I'm the one who gets hurt? He sends her out. The morning, he gets up. She wasn't even able to get to the door. The Bible said she laid there with her hands outstretched. You've got to read it here with me. Look at Judges. Judges 22. Now, as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about and beat at the door and speak to the master of the house, the old man saying, bring forth the man that came unto thine house that we may know him. And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them and said, Nay, my brother, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly, seeing that this man is coming to my house, don't do this folly. Behold, here's my daughter, a maiden, and his concubine. Them I will bring out now, humble them, and do with them what seems good to you. But unto this man, do not so vile a thing. He's trying to save a stranger and he's offering his own dyer. But the men would not hearken to him. So the man took his concubine and brought her forth unto them. And they knew her and abused her all the night until the morning. And when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was till it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning. You see, he'd been sleeping. And he opened the doors of the house and went to go his way. And behold, the woman, his concubine, was fallen down at the door of the house and her hands were upon the threshold. She must have been scratching all night as long as she had breath left trying to get him to wake up. And he said, look at this. Woman, get up. Time to go. Get up, it's time to go. Can you imagine the depravity? Is there any man here who thinks he could fall so low as to offer his daughter to this mad mob? Is there anybody here who thinks they could stoop that low? No, we don't think we could. We are not capable of even comprehending the depths of the depravity of this story. But none answered. Then the man took her upon an ass and the man rose up and got him to his place. And look at this. And when he was come into his house, he took a knife and laid hold on his concubine and divided her together with her bones into twelve pieces and sent her unto all the coast of Israel. It was so that all that saw it said, there was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day. Consider it. Take advice and speak your minds. It's there, folks. I have to read it because I find it hard to comment on it. I'm just having to read it to you. It's so ugly. There it is. It's a man cutting up his wife, twelve pieces, sending to Israel. And Israel receives an arm, leg, little piece of a body and say, what's this? It's never been like this before in Israel. We are a God's chosen people. Four hundred thousand Israelites gather together to go up against the Benjamites. They send up emissaries to Benjamin. They go through the Benjamite tribe saying, what's happened to your tribe? Show us these men. We want to bring them to justice. There's blood on their hands. God wants this thing dealt with. Benjamin wouldn't give up those men of Gibeah because I'll tell you what, there's something happening in this tribe of Benjamin that you see happening in America and in our churches today. Why wasn't this tribe shocked like the rest of Israel? Why didn't they fall on their face and say, listen, these are our brethren. This is our tribe. We've disgraced God. Think of it. Think of what these men did. They should have marched into Gibeah and demanded that these sons of Belial, these sons who were supposed to be carried on God's shoulders and become the sons of the devil, sons of Belial. Why would a whole tribe risk their very lives? Their very lives. In fact, you're going to see in the story, the whole tribe is wiped out. Every man except 700. Thousands and thousands are going to die because of unity. There was no blessing for sin because self-esteem was more important. The honor of the tribe. There's a saying now in charismatic circles when somebody that's on television falls into sin or another well-known preacher or anyone falls into sin, they say, let's rally the wagons around them. That's exactly what Benjamin did. They rallied the wagons. We're all in this together. These are our brethren. Let's protect them. It's a love trap. And folks, I don't want anything to do with that kind of love. No, the true love is for God first, the honor and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness. When there's true repentance then, and there's a change. And by the way, when there's true repentance, as there was with Manasseh who caused Israel to sin more than any other king according to the scripture, when he repented, he went back and undid all the damage he did. It's a sign of his repentance. This is the end of Psalm 1. But we're not to rally around any advances. We're not to rally any preacher. We're not to rally anyone until there's total repentance and the sin is dealt with. So they rallied their wagons. Self-esteem. And this is the one thing that bothers me about the preaching of success and self-esteem. It's that it has no conviction against sin. Self is more important than the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So they rallied their wagons. They protected their own kind. Oh, I grieve over this. It makes my heart just grieve. Look at this marriage. Marriage is being mocked in this story. There's adultery. There's murder. There's self-interest, self-esteem. All these things that are born in lust. That little seed that's planted and conceives and brings forth sin and sin when it's finished, death. There's a total breakdown here of every moral value there is. Let me read this Scripture. I meant to read this to you before. Don't turn to me. It's Deuteronomy 32.12. This is Moses giving a blessing to Benjamin. And to Benjamin he said, The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him. And the Lord shall cover him all the day long and he shall dwell between his shoulders. God said, I'll carry you on the back. You're my beloved. Do you understand? They started out as the beloved of the Lord. They started out as those who were carried on the very back of Jehovah God. They end up more concerned about the reputation of the tribe of Benjamin more interested in standing together with brothers rather than to stand behind the cross. Folks, I'm not interested in saving my reputation or any other man's reputation. It's the honor of God that's at stake now. It's his name. It's his holy name that's being besmirched. Now, I'll tell you what. Benjamin, the Bible says, was the child of prosperity. He was the child of Jacob's old age. He was the last child representing the last generation. Benjamin represents our last day generation. Beloved of God because of the grace that's been shown to us. Carried on his very back at the cross. And yet, look what's happened. There's never been a generation in history so full of lust, so driven by lust as this generation. There's never been a generation that could have a porno palace in their own home. There's never been a generation before that could go down to a store and get an R or an X rated movie and bring it right down in the house and lay it right beside the Bible. There's never been a time like this in history where you could go right outside the door and you find anything you want. Never has there been any day like this when our eyes and our hearts and our minds are bombarded. And when somebody takes a stand against Christians sitting and watching television hour after hour, you call it legalism? No, we're trying to get you out of that downward spiral. We're trying to have that thing stopped and turned around. I've got to get into a prophecy now. I want you to go to Hosea, 5th chapter. This is all part of the message. Do you know that the prophets, all the prophets tell us what's going to happen? You really don't need some new revelation, it's already here. It's all in the Word. Hosea, the 5th chapter. Hosea is one of the prophets that so challenged me, tears my soul apart and puts it back together again. How is God going to break? Folks, turn to Hosea, the 5th chapter, and just leave your Bible open in your lap and look at me for just a minute. There's a free fall right now. A lust free fall. It's a free fall. There's no bottom, it's just going down. How does God break that free fall? Some of you may be here now saying, Brother Wilks, I'm in that free fall into lust. Nothing seems to be able to stop it. There's a powerful prophecy about what God's going to do. I want you to look at the, let's start the 4th verse. Okay, let's start verse 1. We've got some time, I've got another 10 minutes. Hear this, O priest! Hearken ye, house of Israel, and give ye ear, O house of the king, for judgment is toward you, because you've been a snare, a misbeh, and a net spread upon Tabor. The revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. I know Ephraim and Israel is not hid from me. And now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled. He said, you're full of lust. You commit whoredom, you're defiled. Look at verse 4. They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God, for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they've not known the Lord. And the pride of Israel does testify to his face. Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity, Judah also shall fall with them. Look at verse 6. They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find him, because he's withdrawn himself from them. Would you look this way, please? You've heard Brother Phillips say it. You've heard Don say it. You've heard me say it. God is not hiding. But there's a qualification. He's not hiding from those who seek Him. But He's hiding from those who toy with their lust. He's hiding. And a time will come, and I'll tell you why. You're going to see it here very, very clearly. They shall go with their flocks. Remember He said, you've got a spirit of whoredom on you? I've just read two verses there. And He said, you're treacherous against the Lord your God. They've been warned. The prophets have been warning and warning and warning. At this time, they've had three prophets thundering at them. The prophets side by side during this time. And look at verse 6. They shall go with their flocks and with their herds. They'll go with the congregation to seek the Lord. They're going to go out seeking Him. Look this way, please. Do you know that there are people all over the United States right now, while we're here in California, it's three or four hours early. The churches, many churches are packed. Thousands of Christians supposedly seeking the Lord. Worship and praise services all over the United States. People raising their hands and saying, what a wonderful service. Going with their flocks and herds out to seek the Lord. But if there's lust that's unchecked, He said, you can go and seek all you want. But I'm not there. You make all the noise you want, but I'm not there. I'm not going to stay around while you toy and play with your lust, while you've had prophets point a finger at you. The Holy Ghost has dealt with you time and time again. You've had the Word and you've hardened your heart time and time again. And you're on a free fall. And God's saying, stop now. Stop. They shall go with their flocks and their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find Him. Because He's withdrawn Himself from them. He's withdrawn. And I'll tell you what, when the Lord withdraws Himself from a people, they turn to theatrics and noise. I've been to churches where I've heard noise. It sounds like Holy Ghost thunder, but it's not. It's noise. That's all it is because there's sin in the pulpit, there's sin in the pew, and there's not a righteous man in the bunch. Now folks, I'm not putting churches down. I'm not putting preachers down. But God is saying, look, if you're going to play and toy with your lust, I'm not there. You seek me all you want, make all the noise, shout, talk in tongues, but I'm not there. There is a hiding of God. Verse 8. Well, verse 7. They've dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have begotten strange children. Now so, a month devour them with their portions. Blow the trumpet. I'll give you the trumpet in Ramah. Cry out. Verse 9. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke. Alright. Look at verse 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked. It says after. It's willingly walked away from the commandment. He willingly, he heard, God dealt with. Look at me. You know what's amazing? It's amazing. Some of you sit here right now, so bound. My heart bleeds for you, and I say it with tears and brokenness in my heart. You've got that thing that's lost itself to you. What's it going to take? What's it going to take? I want to tell you something. Don made a statement the other night, and I agree with 100%. Fear in itself won't do it. But if the fear of God won't do it, what's going to do it? What's going to do it if the fear of a holy God won't break that? If the word, you hear it, and it won't break it, you won't let it break, what's going to take? Willingly walked away from the commandment, therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth into the house of Judah's rottenness. Now, listen to me. I'm not trying to make the United States, Ephraim, or anything else. I'm showing you Bible principles. Here's how God works. He's showing us. He said these things are example to those of us who are at the end of the world in the very latter days. He's showing us Bible principles. And the principle is this. He said there's going to come a time that I'm... God says that's enough. That's enough. And He said that on Monday. He said it loud and clear. This is not a slap on the wrist that we had the first two weeks where it was 90 points and 70 points. No, God says enough. And God says now, the time clock has started. You watch what happens. God says, alright, now I'm going to invade with a moth. There's going to be invasion of moths and there's going to be rust on all sides and decay and rottenness. I'm going to send an invasion. The moth. What does the moth do? He comes and eats. Silently. Without a sound. And that moth has been eating away at our economy. It's been eating away at our moral standards. It's there. There's been decay. There's been rottenness. When Ephraim saw his sickness. And here is the problem. Judas saw his wound. Did he start seeking the Lord with all of his heart? No. He goes to the Syrians and sends to the king Jerob. And Jerob, their king, means Baal shall prevail. Baal means the devil shall prevail. They went, instead of when the moth was eating, when there was trouble, they weren't driven to God. They hardened their hearts. And they run off to the Syrians saying, Help! Help! Do you think for one minute that the stock market turned anyone's heart, the cross turned anybody's heart to God? No. Do you think an AIDS plague with millions dying is going to turn people's hearts to God? I'm going to show you in just a moment it's going to do just the opposite. People are going to shake their fist at God and curse Him. But you see, God says, I'm going to move now with distress. I'm going to send distress upon distress. And God says, first of all, He blesses us that the goodness of God would lead us to repentance. Now, I don't care what your politics may be. Somehow or another, God allowed Reagan to be president during a time of unprecedented prosperity. There has never been more unemployment, the lowest unemployment in the history of our nation. The highest per capita income. The stock market went through the ceiling. And God was blessing. God was prospering. And we even developed a doctrine to defend it and keep hold of it. We created an all-American Jesus. That fun Jesus who loves the Dallas Cowboys and drinks and just a good old boy. We've concocted this all-American Jesus in our perverted thinking. But now, God says, Enough. He said, The moth has been there. You've been invaded with the moth. There's been the rust. Now, I'm going to accelerate it. And there's going to be distress and affliction on all sides. You're going to fall. One, two, three. It's going to fall on all sides. The next thing I believe on the calendar, and I saw it so clear, it's probably as clear as anything I've ever seen. And I'm not a visionary. But I was standing in our apartment and I saw one of our American flags on a tanker and that tanker is burning. And I see our bombers strafing every airport in Iran. We're going to be strafing the silkworms. And Russia has called off their conference. Gorbachev said no to Reagan, didn't he? If you read it in the paper. And you know why? He knows there's a crisis coming in just a few short days or weeks. He's not going to be here during that crisis. Because the bear is going to rise in anger. The stock market again. And this time I can't even conceive what it's going to be like. And you and I are living right now on the brink of disaster after disaster after disaster. And I want you to read on down. Verse 14. I will be unto Ephraim like a lion as a young lion in the house of Judah. I even I will tear and I'll go away and I will take away and none will rescue him. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face in their affliction. They will seek me early. No. Not the world. Not the stock market crowd. Not the ungodly masses. No, he's saying I'm going to get the attention of my people. I'm going to unfold things that are so clear they can't. They're going to line it up with the prophecy and the scripture. There's no denying it. It's there in black and white. And every time you pick up the paper now. Watch it. Every time you pick up the paper now you're going to see this acceleration of calamities of panic of war of stress upon distress. So much so that men's hearts Jesus said will fall them for fear of watching those things that are happening accelerating on the face of the earth. And why is God allowing it? He said I give you prosperity that the goodness of the Lord would lead you to repentance. Instead you ran off in your lust. You wouldn't seek me. You ran off to the Assyrians. Now I'm going to send distress upon distress hoping that one last time my people will begin to seek me with all their heart. I'm going to close in just a minute but I'll tell you what broke my heart in prayer this past week. It's just broken me up. It was this that still small voice the Master. And I'll tell you something. You don't visualize Him. I don't believe in visualization but I do believe in perceiving Him by faith. Perceiving His presence by faith. By faith knowing that He's there. By faith saying I seek not my voice they hear when I call. And to be shut in with Him until the Word begins to come and you feel His heart. You feel His grief. Now we're shut in with the Lord just perceiving His presence and saying Lord tell me what's on your heart. Oh Jesus share with me so I can get up Sunday night with the people and I can just let it flow and I'll know it's You Jesus. What is it that's grieving you about your children? What is it about me? What is it about my family, our staff, the church? What is it that grieves your heart Lord? And oh it's so clear. David no one's really seeking me. They're not seeking me. You're not seeking me like you should. With all your heart He said seek me while I'm near. Seek me while I be found. He's saying in the come of time you can't find me. I'm gonna have to hide while these calamities are on the earth. You won't find me not because He hides from those who seek Him but He said you're going to be so wrapped up in your own things. That you won't even see me if I were there. You won't find me. You won't find me. You know when these things begin to happen people are going to run to psychiatrists and psychologists. Even though we have a dear sister here I think she's saying that the only answer is through Christ. She knows that. She preaches that to all of her patients. I'll tell you what God's going to get our attention. He's going to get the attention of His people. He's going to shake you. He's going to shake me. He's going to shake our families. He's going to shake everything that can be shaken. He's shaking the stock market right now. He's going to shake the Persian Gulf now. He's going to shake Iran. He's going to shake Israel. He's going to shake everything. He's going to shake Russia. He's going to shake the whole United States. Oh brother, sister it's coming. We are on the verge. Prophets have preached it. I've preached it for years and now there's a sense that it's coming and we're so close. Why aren't we on our face? Why aren't we? Why? Why are you parked in front of a television set laughing at Bill Cosby? Why are you sitting watching Dallas and Dynasty when Jesus is about to come? Why? Why? Why? I'm not against listening to music. I'm not against reading books. I'm not... I go out to eat with my wife and family too. But the Lord's saying is your heart broken enough? Are you going to start seeking? He said, the day you seek me with all your heart and mind and soul and strength you'll find me. I know I'm a little loud but I'll tell you something. God is saying something to the church right now. You'd better start seeking me the Lord's saying. While I can be found you'd better do it now because the time's going to come that you won't know where to go. You're not used to going to Him. You're not used to seeking Him. So used to calling a friend. So used to just sitting there in your despair. God says, learn to come to me. Seek me. That's all I hear from God now. Seek me David. Seek me. Every spare hour. Seek me. Let Him call you fanatic. Reach out. Feel after my heart. I want you, in closing, turn to one last scripture. Deuteronomy, the fourth chapter. I want to give you a wonderful promise God's made to us. Church of Jesus Christ, I want you to rejoice in this scripture. The fourth chapter of Deuteronomy. Now in this chapter, the fourth chapter, Moses has already told the people what happened, the curses that they disobeyed. But now he's saying to a people, look at verse 29. And we're going to read a few verses. 29, fourth chapter of Deuteronomy. Do you have it? Alright, let's go look at it. But if from, friends, from now on, you shall seek the Lord your God. You what? You'll find Him. If you what? Seek Him, or look for Him with all the heart and with all the soul. When thou art in tribulation, didn't we say tribulation is coming on all sides? He didn't say, before it comes. He said, you're in it now. When thou art in tribulation, all these things have come upon thee. They're already here. The stock market's already crashed. The bombers are already strafing. Everything that's been shaken is being shaken. Even when? In the latter days. Are these the latter days? Is this promise for you and for me? And there you seek with all your heart, you'll find me. Hallelujah. If thou, if what? If you turn to the Lord your God, and shall be obedient to His voice, for the Lord thy God's a merciful God, and He will not forsake you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which He swore unto them. Oh, hallelujah. He's gonna keep those who seek Him. Those who are on their face, God's gonna keep you, brother, sister. His power and His might and His glory, God said, I'm merciful to those who seek Me with all their heart. Hallelujah. He's a God of love. He's a God of mercy. To who? To those who seek Him with all that's within them. Hallelujah. Now, I said that was last verse. I'm gonna give you another. I'm gonna give you three more, and they're all in the same chapter. Go to Revelation. The end of the book now. The end of the chapter. I'm gonna show you what's gonna happen to those who don't seek the Lord. Go to Revelation, ninth chapter. Revelation 9. You know, a friend of mine sent me a book. And he said, AIDS is gonna bring a revival to America. Because there's gonna be so many dead people and so many annoying people dying from AIDS it's gonna wake up America. Let me show you from the Bible that can't happen. Not through AIDS. The only way there's gonna be a revival is through the Holy Spirit moving sovereignly. But look at chapter 9. And I want you to go to verse 18. By these three was the third part of men killed by the fire, smoke, and brimstone which issued out of their mouth for their powers in their mouth and in their tails for their tails were like serpents and had heads and with them they do hurt and the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone look at verse 21 neither repented they of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their fornication nor of their thefts look at that there's fire and brimstone and smoke falling on all sides the almighty judgment of God and they're still stealing they're still raping they're still murdering and they're cursing God and they're not repenting you want a little strong? we'll go to Revelation 16 just over a couple more chapters chapter 16 verse 8 the fourth angel poured out of his vial upon the sun and powers given unto him to scorch men with fire now look at this men are being scorched on the face of the earth verse 9 and the men were scorched with great heat what did they do? was that a revival? they blasphemed the name of God which had power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast and his kingdom was full of darkness and they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds you can have all kinds of sores you can have all kinds of these kinds of judgments that will not bring repentance to the ungodly or to those bound by the sins of this age no, the only ones who repent are those who read the signs of the time and say God said seek me and I'm going to seek him the Lord said seek me so I sought him with all my heart David said hallelujah tonight, with this I'm finished some of you may think that the preaching here at Times Square Church is hard but I want to tell you something it's born in tears born in agony before a holy God we want to be able to look out of a congregation and know that you've been provoked to righteousness that you couldn't sit in this church and be comfortable in sin not because we're angry at you because we want to see God do something that doesn't mean that any of us have arrived not at all no I have to stand in my face and seek him night and day I seek him and that's the secret of it all that's the secret of breaking everything Don preached it so ably and Bob preached it again this morning you've been hearing it he said come to the rock Jesus seek the rock seek him seek him that's all you're hearing that's all you're going to hear from men of God if they're true men of God they're going to say seek the Lord seek him turn from your sins turn from your wickedness every head bowed quietly before the Lord Jesus there's an awesome sense of your presence here tonight oh Lord there are people that have not been convicted of their sins because they've been going to a church where the preacher never did preach at them straight but you're dealing with us tonight you're saying lay it down I want to heal you I'm a merciful God and there's going to come a time that if you mock my mercy you mock my grace you mock everything that I've given you then I've got to hide and then I'm going to send affliction but Lord that affliction is just going to drive many deeper in their sin it's going to drive them deeper because they don't have a heart for you Lord break through tonight send conviction on sin Lord Jesus break and heal this is the end of this tape for a copy of this tape or any other tape by David Wilkerson write to worldchallenge.com or give me a call at area code 214 963 866 thank you