In this sermon, the preacher begins by acknowledging his unworthiness to stand in the pulpit and emphasizes his reliance on the righteousness of Jesus. He prays for the conviction of the Holy Spirit and asks for God's authority over any distractions or evil spirits. The preacher then describes a scene of King Solomon heading to the house of worship with his entourage, but despite his wealth and accomplishments, he appears preoccupied and sad. The sermon highlights the importance of not turning away from the word of God and emphasizes the need to approach it with love and the authority of the Holy Ghost.

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or by calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. Well, we're ready, aren't we? Ready to see him. Amen. By the way, for those, the announcement was made for this Saturday, August 26th at 3.30pm, Broadway Chapel. For those interested in Jesus for Muslims Fellowship ministry, Dr. Lewis Hamada is going to be the speaker. He's a powerful speaker, and that chapel ought to be filled over there with people. You really want to hear the word, as Dr. Lewis Hamada will be speaker in that meeting. Now, keep that in mind. That's Saturday at 3.30pm over at Broadway Chapel. Amen. Welcome to our visitors. We pray the Holy Spirit touch you tonight. You walk out of here, you'll be touched, challenged, and changed by the Spirit of the living God. A message, how quickly we turn away. How quickly we turn away. Heavenly Father, I have no right, no merit, no righteousness of my own, no right to stand in this pulpit other than the blood. I come in the righteousness of Jesus by faith. I come now, Lord, for clean hands, pure heart that you'd sanctify me. Lord, that I would preach myself under conviction first, and everybody in this building be under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And I pray, Lord, that you take your holy authority over every wild thought, every evil spirit, every prince of power and power of darkness, that the glory of the Lord be manifested here tonight. Lord, we thank you for your presence. Now speak clearly to our hearts. Lord, don't let us push this word aside. Let it come directly into the heart. Lord, let me preach it with love, but with the authority of the Holy Ghost. Lord, I stand only under the covering of the blood. I have no other plea but the blood, the precious blood of the Lamb. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, for your precious word. In Jesus' name, amen. How quickly we turn aside. Why don't you go with me in your imagination to the city of Jerusalem, and it's a Sabbath, and King Solomon is about to take an incredible trip. His trips have been so incredible when he went to the house of God that the Queen of Sheba was breathless when she saw his ascent. It was so colorful. It was so spectacular. Just going to church was spectacular for Solomon. Years later now, and I want you to follow Solomon as his entourage. He traveled in style. This man had fourteen hundred specially made chariots. He had twelve thousand horsemen. This man traveled in great… these were gilded chariots that he traveled in. Can you imagine this man coming out of his palace, his sparkling white granite palace, and this great entourage going to the house of worship? What a sight. I picture his chariot being black, gilded in gold leaf, and I picture all the other chariots and the horsemen with their bright uniforms and the plumes and the golden shields. Just the golden shields had to be so blinding. What an entourage it was. And I want you to look at this man coming out of his palace. He's an older man now, and he's in his chariot, and he's with his entourage, and he's heading for the house of worship. But he looks preoccupied. He looks sad. And there's a woman at his side, and this is the daughter of Pharaoh, and she's smiling from ear to ear. They're on the way to the house of worship, and they pass on the way the landscape parks and the lush vineyards that he'd built over the years, the exotic gardens and orchards of all kinds. And they pass ponds and fountains and a great city zoo with peacocks and apes and exotic birds brought by the ships of Tarsus. And he passes sparkling government buildings with treasures of gold and silver and art collections. And he's built a summer palace, a winter palace. This man is the wealthiest, wisest man on the face of the earth. And he passes all these gorgeous buildings that he's erected. And he comes near the great temple, that great sparkling temple that he built to the glory of God some years before. And usually when the President of the United States travels, people line up when they know where he's going. I remember being over here just a few blocks when President Clinton was there, and it was all blocked off. The streets were crowded because they said in about an hour, President Clinton's going to walk. They were there just to see him get out of his car and walking into the Hilton Hotel. The streets were crowded. Everywhere Solomon would go, those that came from Israel heard of his fame from around the world. Visit Jerusalem, they would find his tour and they would line the streets. But he comes and approaches the temple, the great temple that he built to the Jehovah God, where he had at one time slew 12,000 oxen, 120,000 sheep. One of the greatest religious revivals in the history of the earth. But there are no crowds and the streets are not lined. And this man preoccupied and sad. And now he's old because he's lame because of his sensuality. He's wasted his life. And he pulled up right by, the entourage goes right into the avenue leading to the great temple, but he doesn't turn. He doesn't even look. There are no crowds. The doors are shut. There are no priests there to welcome him. I don't even know if he gives it a second thought. I don't know if he remembers the past glory and other things that God had told him because he turns east. And when he turns east, it's a boulevard. And the scripture, the real name in the Hebrew is the mountain of disgrace. It's called embassy road by some of the theologians because along this great road east of the temple, he has built these great temples to the gods of his strange wives that he's married. And the daughter of Pharaoh is smiling from ear to ear because she turns and they're looking down the avenue at the great temple of Baal. The crowds have gathered. People are in their finery. People are dressed in their very best. They're going into all of these various temples and shrines to these gods of Astaroth and Milcom. Here's this great King Solomon, a man who was once so touched by the Holy Ghost. He wrote three thousand three songs. A man of great power and wealth, a man who was once anointed of the Holy Ghost because we have right now here in the canon of scripture, his written word in the Bible said these words were written by holy men of God as the Spirit of God moved upon them. So the Spirit of God had moved mightily upon this man. This man had been gifted by God. And you see the crowds waiting now at this temple. And you're saying to yourself, he's going to let her off and he's going to go to his summer palace. But no, the chair is open. His guards stand there. They roll out the carpet. And this man, great Solomon, with the daughter of Pharaoh in front of him, and there about four hundred orange-robed priests chanting. Here's the king and the multitudes watches the king who once took away the very breath of the Queen of Sheba as she came to watch him. Just watch his devotion to his Jehovah God. How devoted she was absolutely. She almost fainted at the sight of the glory of the scene. And now this man dissipated. A shell of a man. The Spirit of God is gone. Four hundred priests of Baal are chanting. This man walks into that temple and takes a place and kneels on one of those oriental rugs. And can you imagine this man of God kneeling there while they sacrifice their mice and their pigs and their serpents and their creeping things. And can you imagine how this man, incomprehensible, one of the most incomprehensible things that has ever happened in all of God's Word. He kneels before Milcom, the detestable God of the heathen. He kneels before him doing obeisance. The Scripture said, his wives turned away his heart. For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods. And his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Astaroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites. There he is watching these priests sacrifice their pigs. Just a few years before this, this same man had dedicated the great temple to Jehovah. He had knelt before the Lord humbly and stretched out his hands and he had prayed, O God, my Lord, whatever prayer is made by any man or by all the people of Israel, each knowing the plague of his own heart and spreading his hands toward this house, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive all whose hearts thou knowest. For thou alone does know the hearts of all the sons of men, that they may fear thee all the days they live. He had commanded Israel, this very man had commanded Israel, let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in all his statues, to keep his commandments all thy days. That was the preacher. That was Solomon, the man of God who preached the word of the living God. What happens, what happened to this man that in such a short time he turned away? How is it that those who've been so anointed of God can turn away, turn away from Jesus Christ, turn away from the living God? God said he turned aside. Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned aside. He turned away quickly, in other words, from the Lord, the God of Israel, who'd appeared to him twice. His wives turned his heart away. Now this story is so important because he represents a righteous spirit anointed child of God who quickly turns away and in the end is destroyed. Let me give you what I believe the Holy Spirit has given to me about how men, women of God have turned away. There are people that I could run it through my mind right now that used to sit here. I know right where they sat. They praised the Lord. They loved God with all their heart. They worshiped and they're not here now. Some of them are in the arms of some illicit lover. Some of them are out now in the porno shops. Others are drunk. Others are back on their drugs. They're not here anymore. People used to dance here in the front. They're gone. They have turned quickly aside. They're gone. There are some of you here tonight. You're here praising. I'm telling you one of these days unless God's fear gets all your heart tonight you're going to quickly turn aside. You say it could never happen to me. Well it happened to this man. Here's the man who missed Christ. He missed Christ. He was a type of Christ and he missed it. He's used. In fact one scholar found 100 ways in which Solomon was a type of Jesus Christ. 100 ways. First of all Solomon turned aside because he lost the fear of God. There was not a wiser man born on earth other than Christ and God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart. He was wiser than all men and he spoke 3,000 proverbs and his songs were 3,003 and all the kings of the earth came to hear his wisdom. He himself had said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom and the fear the wisdom that he had had to have begun with a revelation of fear. If he said the beginning of all wisdom is fear the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So if God gave him wisdom he had to first start with a revelation of the fear of God. He preached. Listen to what he preached. The strange woman her feet go down to death her steps lay hold of hell. Solomon had once preached why should you embrace the bosom of a foreigner you will be held with the cords of your own sins and you'll die for lack of instruction. This man once warned of the smooth tongue of the adulteress of the strange woman that she trapped you with her beauty and with her eyelids. It will cost you the substance of your house. You will groan in your latter days. Out of his own mouth you'll find the answers to why he turned aside because he chose not to maintain the fear of God. He chose to jettison. He chose to ignore the fear of God that had been planted in his heart. He himself had said the fear of God is to hate evil. I made my words known unto you and this is what God said to him. I made my words known unto you. You said it not all my counsel you hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. You despised my reproof therefore you're eating the fruit of the goings of your own way. He himself said the fear of God is to hate evil. He preached the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death and incredibly this man said by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. How do you depart from evil? By the fear of the Lord. How is it that you don't go out and live like other people? What is it folks? I know what keeps me. It's the fear. It's not just the love of God. I know many people love God passionately and that doesn't keep them from their sins. It's balanced by this incredible fear of God. Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. Proverbs 23 17 all the day long. But Solomon deliberately cast aside the fear of the Lord. He turned aside to riches and pleasure and mostly to lust. Solomon loved many strange women the scripture says. And when he was embracing these godless strange women I wonder how many times the Holy Spirit came to him and reminded him. Her steps will lead you to hell Solomon. Solomon you preached in the latter days that you will grow. You're headed for death Solomon. How many times did he shake it off? How many times when we are in sin do we shake off the conviction? And when you shake off the conviction of the Holy Ghost you're shaking off the fear of God. How is it that so many can sit under the house of in the house of God and hear the word so many times and the Holy Spirit speak to them so often about it be setting sin and yet they keep shaking it off and shaking it off and in that process little by little losing the fear of God and hardening their heart. It's been the history of God's people folks to quickly turn aside to idolatry and lust wanting to play rather than to pray. It took only 40 days for the children of Israel to shake off the fear of God. 40 days. God appeared on Mount Sinai with you remember that scene with thunder and lightning and a piercing sound of a divine trumpet. Folks that trumpet sound made Moses tremble. I can't even conceive in my finite mind what it's like to hear a trumpet blown from heaven itself. I can't imagine that scene. It was awesome. They trembled. They fell on their faces. Bible said they all trembled. The smoke the mount was covered with smoke. It was it was it was an incredible earthquake the whole mountain shaking. A divine trumpet sound that lasted and lasted until they covered their ears and the people so trembled they had to stand at a distance and Moses explained to them why God allowed this fearful display this incredible display of his power and explains to the people why God did it and folks I tremble when I hear preachers who preach nothing but grace who don't believe in judgment at all. I tremble when they mock Mount Sinai where they mock the law and said we passed we're not at Mount Sinai. Of course we're not at Mount Sinai but the law is good. It has a purpose and God shook that mountain and that was a display that had a purpose for them and for us today. Moses said to the people do not be afraid for God has come in order to test you in order that the fear of him will remain in you so you may not sin against him. He said God's trying to implant his fear in you to safeguard you against your lust against your sin. That's what it's all about that you will see that God cannot be toyed with. That God is faithful that he's a just and holy God. That the fear of him may remain with you so that you may not sin. Now just prior to this era Nadab Abihu and 70 elders had just come from the most awesome experience that you can describe in the word other than the three men that were on the Mount of Transfiguration. This was awesome. They went up with Moses. They saw the God of Israel and under his feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire as clear as the sky itself. Yet he did not stretch out his hand against them and they beheld God and they ate and drank. They ate and drank in God's presence. Now folks I would think that if I had eaten and drunk in God's presence and I had seen him walk toward me on a sapphire pavement, I would have thought never again in my lifetime would I do anything to grieve such a God. What a vision! And you would imagine that in your own heart. And all Israel pledged faithfulness to the Lord with great fear and all the people answered together and said all that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses brought back the word of the people back to the Lord. Now I want you to go to Exodus 32, 7, 9. I want you to go to Exodus 32. How long did they maintain the fear of God? Anybody tell me? Less than 40 days. Less than 40 days. Look at Exodus 32, verse 7, beginning to read, And the Lord said unto Moses, Go get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. God didn't even at this point want to acknowledge them as his own people. They have turned aside quickly. That was the name of my message, if you recall. How quickly we turn aside. Verse 8, They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed thereunto and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I've seen this people and behold it is stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them that I may consume them and will make of thee a great nation. Beloved, listen to me. They quickly turned aside. The psalmist tells us why they soon turned aside. Don't turn there, but Psalms 106 says, They quickly forgot his works. They waited not for his counsel because they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness. They lusted exceedingly. Paul said, Now these things were written for an example to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. The key word is lust. And here is how he lost the fear of God. He allowed his lust to consume him. It was a lust after evil things. And this is what drowns out the fear of God. Israel got weary of the straight and narrow way. They got weary of reproof. They wanted to play. The way was too tight. And folks, if you go to a church that preaches the gospel the way that Lord Jesus wants it preached, there's going to be reproof. You're going to feel like you're under that yoke, even though his yoke is not heavy and his burden is light. You're going to be reproved. You're going to have some time to saw the Lord come and cut right through to your heart until you bleed. And it's going to hurt and it's going to be painful. But that's the love of God. That's to keep us in the fear of God. And God closed these doors if it should ever come that there is not a word like that that goes from this pulpit. We believe in mercy. We preach mercy. We preach grace in this church. We believe it. I looked over some of my old sermons recently and every other sermon was mercy and grace, even though they call this doomsday preaching here. There was mercy and grace, but there's always been a word of reproof. And that's a sure sign that God loves us. It's a sure sign that pastors love their people when they get up unafraid to reprove and rebuke when the Holy Spirit says, speak. And it's not the love of God to go to some candy cotton church where they just flatter you and they give you pablum and they want your money, but they're afraid that you'll turn away and take your tithe with them with you when you go because they're preaching a strong message. There will always be a message in this church that'll provoke you to righteousness, hopefully, prayerfully for all of us. But they wanted to play. They got weary of the warnings. They wanted to dance. They wanted to play. They wanted to fornicate. Solomon just had to have beautiful women around him. This man was a lusting man. This man was full of lust. Folks, we don't turn aside to nothing. There's either someone or something that always takes the heart. What is it that has your heart tonight? What is it that God is dealing with and says lay it down? God by His Spirit. I pray myself. I want God every time I preach to preach myself under conviction. I want you and everyone in this house to be under conviction so that the thing the Holy Ghost brings to your mind and you know it, you say, oh God, take this black stone out of my heart. Take this one thing, lest it consume me, lest I so play with it, it so attach itself to my heart, that I lose the fear of God. I would rather die than lose the fear of God in my heart. I don't want to preach this gospel unless I have the fear of God in my heart. It's been the fear of God that's kept me all these years. And I've prayed even today, God, I'd rather quit preaching than you ever let me live or preach without the fear of God burning in my heart. I fear sometimes I don't have it like I once had it. I desire it. I pray, oh God, keep your fear burning in my heart. I remember a young man coming to me when we were down in the other theater. It was, it was, been on drugs for a number of years. And he came to me after one of the service and he was pale. He had just walked in. He'd been out and came in back after service and he was absolutely pale. He said, brother, I got to talk to you. I got to talk to you. He said, I fell asleep. And he said, I've just had a two-hour vision of hell. I've been to hell. And he was trembling. He said, God showed me hell. He said, I can't explain it all. But he said, God told me that he was showing me hell to scare me out of my drugs and keep me because there's no other way. And he said, I know God told me that if hell, this vision of hell, if this did not put the fear of God in me and I went back to my drugs, I'd die my sins and go to this place. And he said, brother, I don't want to go to hell. I saw it. It's frightening. The thought of it is just overwhelming me. I can't even explain. I don't want to talk about it, but I've been to hell. Two weeks later, he's on the street in drugs. I don't know if he's even alive now. The longer you play with your lust, the dimmer becomes the fear of God. The scripture said there is no more fear of God within the heart of the transgressor. And you know what bothers me? In the church, what is called the church today, there is such a lightness of preaching. There's such a ridiculing of the holiness gospel of preaching that every time someone preaches a strong message, they cry, legalism. I got a letter today. My wife showed me from somebody that goes to a sinner friendly church rebuking me for some of my recent newsletters that I send out around the country and said, look, I came out of legalism and the message I preach, folks, there was nothing strong about it at all. It was milk. A baby wouldn't have spit it out. You see, that's the cry, legalism, legalism. Folks, that cry has never scared me off from preaching it, and I don't pay any attention to that cry, legalism. Number two, Solomon forsook the written word of God and relied instead on dreams and voices. Folks, I want to talk plain to you tonight. Hear it, because if you don't, you're going to turn aside like Solomon. The Lord appeared twice to Solomon in dreams, and twice he heard the clear voice of God. In Gibeon, he appeared to Solomon in a dream at night, and God said, and another scripture says, the Lord appeared the second time to Solomon, and the Lord said, and you hear it again and again, and the Lord said to him, and the Lord said to him, he heard from heaven through dreams, but those dreams did not keep him from iniquity. Those dreams did not put the fear of God in him. He did not read or heed the written word of God. In fact, the word of God was hidden during Solomon's reign, and was not found until Josiah's day by. He'll cry of the priest, and it was hidden in a basement, dirty, filthy coroner's room. It had been hidden since Solomon's time, and Solomon simply opened up Deuteron. If Solomon simply read, and he had this in his possession, I want you to turn to what could have saved his life, and can save yours and mine. Deuteronomy 17. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. Now, he had this. All he had to do was have a scribe read it to him. David read it, and hid it in his heart. Verse 14, beginning to read Deuteronomy 17, verse 14, When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me. Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose. One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayst not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. Listen now. But he shall not multiply horses to himself. This man had 12,000 horses from Egypt. Nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses. And the Bible even tells us the price he paid for Egyptian horses. For as much as the Lord has said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way, neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. Now, folks, it's the Bible says that God blessed him and prospered and gave him all this wealth. But God intended him to use it to bless nations and to use it for those who are in need and not to consume it on himself, because the whole Bible says that. And it shall be when he is seated upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law and a book of that which is before the priest Levites. It shall be with him, not in some dusty room. It shall be with him. He shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, that he turn not aside from the commandments to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. Oh, listen, do not turn aside. If he would only read Deuteronomy 28, do not turn aside from any of the works I command you today to the right hand or the left to go after other gods. If you will not obey me and observe all that I say, I charge you that all these curses shall overtake you. The Lord shall send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you undertake to do. Now, folks, that is important in light of what I want to tell you right now. Look this way, if you will, please. The Bible predicts that in the last day there's a great falling away coming, that people are going to turn away by multitudes. It predicts that the love of many is going to grow and wax cold. Multitudes are going to go that way. They're going to turn aside because they depend on voices and dreams and visions and prophecies and not on the written word of God. I had handed to me just last night. My wife reads thousands of letters and my wife handed me a stack and I went through it and I can't believe, I can't believe the lack of discernment. I can't believe what people who call themselves Christians are sending to me say, isn't this a wonderful word? You have to read just half the page and realize it came out of the pits of hell. It has a mixture of psychology. There are Christian psychics, so-called charismatic psychics that are standing in the pulpit now, reading people's lives, telling them their addresses and their names and giving that. Folks, the amazing Kreskin did that on the Johnny Carson show for the last 15 years. There's nothing new about that. We've got people right now who want God to give them dreams and visions and prophecies. Why would God speak to you in a dream, a vision, a prophecy or send you to some man to get the word of God when you won't take the hours it takes to be shut in with this book like Solomon should have been? Where you get rooted and grounded in this book where nobody can shake you? A prophet comes to Paul who's about to go to Rome and Agabus, a wonderful man of God, comes and the Bible says he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, this is what the Holy Spirit is saying and this way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind, he was going to Jerusalem, will bind the man who owns this belt. And it's very dramatic and all the Christians are saying, Paul, don't go. But this man had been shut in with God. He knew the word of God and the command to go to Jerusalem. He knew the word. Jesus had revealed himself not to him but in him. There's a difference of having Jesus revealed to you and in you. This man had the word in him, living, abiding, this man lived in the word. I don't think there's been any more thunder come out of my heart than this pulpit than to cry out to this church to get into the book, get into the word of God so that all of these false doctrines will not shake you in the last days. You don't have to get on TWA and fly to Chicago to hear some prophet give you a word. He's going to get, he'll give you a word, it's going to cost you a hundred bucks on the side. But a man who's associated with certain events, I won't name his name, but there were 1,200 people in the audience just a few weeks ago, and he stood, he said, the Holy Ghost told me that every single person in this building is to give $100 tonight. Every single person. The offering was $18,000, so a lot of people didn't get the Holy Ghost message. And I'm not trying to be facetious, but if the Holy Ghost is going to tell anybody, he's going to tell the people and not the man. Folks, I am still flabbergasted that there are people that have been sitting under our ministry for seven years or longer still running around to get a word. Still running. And they're not in this book. If they were in this book, they wouldn't be running anywhere. They would have been running to the Lord every time they ache and hurt, every time something's wrong, they run to the Psalms, they run to Proverbs, they go into the book and they pray, oh Holy Ghost, this is the revelation of Jesus, give me your heart. Lord, there's going to come a time you're not going to be able to afford to go anywhere. You're not going to be able because there'll be riots. What are you going to do then? Who do you call? Paul wasn't much impressed. Now folks, I believe in the Word of God, so did Paul believe in prophecy. But you see, he was so sure of the Word in his heart, Paul said, what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? For I'm ready not only to be bound, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. I know where I stand. Yes, there is a true word of knowledge, but that's given primarily for those who are unsaved. It's given for those, the Bible says the drunk man should be given wine. If you're going to give anybody, give it to a dying man. This is for a dying society. The word of knowledge comes from that dying society that just has to have that. The word of knowledge works. The only place it works through me is on the streets to wicked people who need Christ and the Holy Spirit often will let me know everything that's in their heart. And when their heart is exposed, they know that Jesus is talking to them. Where nobody can see it, nobody's playing a game, nobody can applaud. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, Solomon turned aside because he did not share God's hatred for idolatry. He didn't share God's hatred for idolatry. He began first by thinking it's harmless. God appeared to Solomon and personally warned him of this danger of idolatry. He said, if you turn away from me, Solomon, and serve other gods, this house will become a heap of ruins. Now, folks, we want to talk about your house becoming a heap of ruins. Your house becoming a heap of ruins. All who pass by will say, why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house? And they shall say, because they forsook the Lord and adopted other gods and served them. Therefore, the Lord has brought all this adversity on them. Let's talk about a heap of ruins for just a moment. Solomon marries these strange wives. And knowing human nature, and I think here's how it went, Solomon, when he sees them bringing in their little golden mice from Egypt, when he sees all of these little carved gods, Solomon is thinking, how foolish can they be? How blinded they are. Foolish women. And I read some of the commentaries that say, well, Solomon had to have all these wives because they signed peace treaties by giving one of their women as a wife. That's garbage. God had commanded no strange wives. You don't add wives, and folks, God doesn't wink at sin. And so Solomon at first is probably so turned off by that, these stupid women with all the little, and I'm sure he made fun of them, he may have mocked them. And finally, a little bit of curiosity as he would visit his strange wives and in their homes that he had built. And he would say, this little thing here, what is that? And she begins to explain. And folks, that curiosity then became interest and finally grabbed his heart. Because if you toy with it, if you play with it, if you're curious about it, it's going to take your heart. You give the devil one inch. Jesus said, Satan cometh and hath nothing in me. He has no ground. You give the devil any ground and he's going to move right in. He sees what's in your heart. Somewhere along the line, he got intrigued. Somewhere along the line, this brilliant mind turned into the history of these gods and to all of the meaning of their worship and all of the things that they went through. What does that mean? And as he studied it, got a hold of his heart. As it got into his eyes, it got into his heart. You simply give the devil a place to exist in your house. If you bring any form of idolatry into your home, now let me talk to you. It's been a long, long time since I've talked to you about your television set. Remember me telling you Solomon and his chariot? Do you know what your chariot is? Your couch with a little button with a remote control. And that can take you down embassy row, down through the mountain of disgrace and you can push a button. You say my television is not an idol. Okay, but it's your chariot. You push a button. The devil in this last days through electronics has made it possible for you to hide your idolatry. You don't have to leave your home. You press a button. Now, if your thing is pornography, if your thing is lust, you push a button. Now, if your idol is sports, now there's nothing wrong with sports. If you just, if it's something that does not consume your time, does not take you away from the work of God or your family, that's one thing. But folks, I know men that cannot sit in the house of God for two hours without getting nervous. Some of them even can't sit enough. I know one man who told his wife, she told me, she may be here tonight. Her husband said, I can't go to that church. It's two hours. We're going to the other church. It's one hour service. He wanted a one hour service, but he has no trouble watching a three and a half hour football game, switching channels and watch another three and a half hour, seven hours to watch two football games. That is idolatry. That's idolatry. And you can push that button and you can bring, you can ride your chariot without moving out of it. And God, the devil will take you right into his shrine. He will open up one shrine. You know what amazes me? We have Christian wives and mothers. We have sisters who are, you would think are the holiest people you ever met, but they are addicted to soap operas. You don't see me laughing. You watch people jump from one bed to another. You watch adultery. You watch fornication. And what you have done is the same thing Solomon did. You have moved out of the temple of God into the shrine of Milcom and you're going to lose your fear of God. And I'm going to thunder about it. Now, many of you have a television in your heart, in your house, and you use it as a monitor. That's a different story. Some of you have television and you know how to handle it. I'm not going to put a trip on you, but I'm talking about idolatry, a court or shrine. The devil right now is bringing in even on computers, even computers now. You say, I don't have television. But what about all the absolute incredible blasphemous filth coming now on electronic windows? Networking. The worst filth that's ever been invented is coming now. All of this stuff that's coming. These are new temples, new shrines that are being built. And that chair, it's right in your living room. Folks, I'm warning you in the love of God. You remember the times I would stand here and shake my fist at you in a fear of God and say, you say, if you change, no, I feel just as strong as I've ever felt. But are you going to bring filthy videos and put them in your VCR? You're going to sit there and watch films that blaspheme the name of Jesus and take God's name in vain, then come to God's house and say, oh, how I love Jesus, Lord, and have communion. Folks, this is what causes people to turn away quickly. They turn aside. And I wonder how many that are here now hearing me are going to turn aside because I've already touched in your life something God's dealing with by the Holy Ghost. And he's telling you tenderly and lovingly tonight, I want to free you. I want to deliver you. Folks, before I close, you know I always bring in something good before I close. It's a good part. God has a Josiah company. Josiah follows later. And what does he do? Josiah tore down and defiled the high places, which was before Jerusalem, which was on the Mount of Destruction. And that's what God called it. God named it the Mount of Reproach or the Mount of Destruction, where all these temples have been, which Solomon, the king of Israel, had built for Astaroth, the abomination of the Sidonians, and Shemosh, the abomination of Moab, and Milcom, the abomination of the sons of Ammon. And Josiah removed all the abominations from all of the lands belonging to the sons of Israel and made all who were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God throughout his lifetime. They did not turn from following the Lord God of their fathers for his lifetime. Oh, that's my prayer. Throughout this pastorate, as long as God has holy men in this pulpit, as long as you live the whole lifetime, that your idols will be turned down, your heart will always be on fire for God, you'll always be affectionately in love, passionately in love with Jesus, and you say, oh God, let me walk in your fear, the holy fear of God. Keep the fear of God in my heart. Tear down the idols. Tear down the idols. Hallelujah. I want that to be my testimony. Oh God, all my lifetime. Folks, I have to tell you, the life of Solomon has put more fear of God in me probably than any Old Testament story. I love the story of Joseph and all of that, but when I read Solomon, the man who missed Christ, the man who missed it, who had everything, I think of so many of God's people. Folks, I for one don't want to end up turning aside. I want, if my funeral's ever held in this church, I want such fire coming out of that casket of mine that they can say he lived for God and he died for God. Hallelujah. At my funeral, I want a revival. I want the glory of God to come down. Hallelujah. We stand in his presence.