David Ravenhill emphasizes the urgency of not laying down our spiritual sword, which represents the Word of God, in the face of demonic attacks and societal challenges. He discusses three critical issues confronting the church: the demonic overtaking of cities, the ecumenical love trap that dilutes true worship, and the erosion of faith among believers. Ravenhill calls for a return to bold, uncompromising preaching of the Gospel as the means to combat these threats and urges the church to remain vigilant and engaged in spiritual warfare. He reminds the congregation that the sword of the Lord is unsheathed and actively working against the forces of darkness, and encourages them to wield it in their daily lives.

Jeremiah 47, two verses I want to read that won't make any sense to you at all when I first read them, and then we hope and pray that God will open them to us tonight. Isaiah the 47th chapter to, I'm sorry, Jeremiah, Jeremiah 47, Jeremiah 47. Boy, you're on the ball, you cut me. Don't lay down your sword, is my message, don't lay down your sword. Let's read Jeremiah 47 verses 6 and 7. O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard, or thy sheath, rest and be still. How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon and against the seashore? There hath he appointed it. I want to read it again. O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard. You know what that is, that's the sheath that the sword fits in so that it can't hurt anybody when it's at rest or quiet. How long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest and be still. And the question, how can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon and against the seashore? There hath he appointed it. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the revelation you've given to us from this word, and I pray you open it up to us tonight in a very special way. Lord, you're speaking to your church in very clear messages in these last days. There's no fog. Lord, it's clear what you're saying. Give us this clear word tonight. Spirit of the living God, find the mark in our own hearts. We take authority over every demonic spirit, every principality and power of darkness. Anything, Lord, that's standing against the revelation of the truth of Christ, the word of the living God, we bind it, we take authority in Jesus' name, and I pray for unction and authority to deliver the heart that you've given to me, the word from my heart in Jesus' name. Amen. Don't lay down your sword. I want to talk to you tonight about three important issues facing the church of Jesus Christ in these last days. The first issue has to do with the demonic overtaking of our cities by Satan himself and the clouding of the evangelistic manners, in other words, how to reach our cities that are demonically oppressed. In other words, the outbreak of demonic power, the demonic overtaking of our cities, and how to evangelize them. And secondly, I want to talk to you about the ecumenical love trap. Ecumenical love trap. That's a great concern that's going to get more and more of a concern. It'll become more and more of a concern as the days go by. Then I want to talk to you thirdly on the issue about how the devil is coming forth in these last days to try to destroy and rob the faith of the Holy Remnant. I'm going to talk about all of them. Now these two verses deal powerfully with all three of these issues that I've mentioned to you. The unsheathed sword of the Lord. Hear it now. The unsheathed, in other words, out of the harness, out of the scabbard, and brandished in the hand, the sword of the Lord is the simple secret of victory in all three of these areas that I'm talking about, and we're going to get right into it immediately. Now even a Sunday school child would know that the sword of the Lord represents the Word of God. When it says, take the sword in your hand, that means the living Word of God. Ephesians 6.17, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And also in Hebrews 4.12, for the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Remember when John was on the Isle of Patmos, he saw Jesus standing there, his eyes a flaming fire, and his feet a burnished brass, and he said in his description, out of his mouth went a two-edged sword. That is his Word going forth out of his own mouth. Now we come to these two verses in Jeremiah. In fact, when the Holy Spirit told me that the message I was preached tonight was in Isaiah, or in Jeremiah 47, verses 6 and 7, I read them, it made no sense to me at all, and I studied it, and I said, Lord, I don't know what this is all about, and then the Holy Spirit just suddenly opened it up to me, and I want Him to open it to all of us tonight. The Philistines had five pearl cities that they were called, west of Judah. Now Judah represents the Holy Remnant. Judah represents those who are involved in God's eternal purposes in the last days. The Philistines, of course, represent those that hate that eternal purpose of Jesus Christ. They are out to destroy everything that Jesus stands for, and five of these cities to the west of Judah represent the battle that was faced in that day against God's eternal purpose. There were five cities, Ascalon being one of the major cities. It was a trading mart, in fact its name means mart, or trading center. And it was the most seductive of all the cities, and many Israelites went down there to Ascalon and got involved in the idolatry and sensuality of Ascalon. And remember when Samson wanted to give 30 coats that he had bargained for with his bride-to-be's brothers, he went down to Ascalon and killed 30 of the Philistines there, and took their garments and paid off his price for the riddle being answered. Ascalon represents everything that stands against God's eternal purpose and the Holy Remnant of this last day. And here is the spirit of Ascalon saying, O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be till thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy sheath, rest and be still. Now I want to unfold this for you. Let me outline to you the devil's three-pronged attack against the church of the last days. He is invading bodies of multitudes in our major cities. There's an outbreak of hell. Hell has literally opened up and vomited out its innards, and multitudes, host of demonic powers, have been released in our cities and are invading the bodies of masses of evil, ungodly people. And that's why we see what we're seeing in the degradation of our major cities right now. And this is a demonic attack against the last-day church of Jesus Christ. And then his second prong, the second prong of his attack is that he has invented a love trap. The ecumenical movement in the United States and around the world is a love trap to trap the children of God and to do away, listen to me please, do away with the pure worship of Jehovah God. That's what the devil's after. He hates the pure worship. That's what Ascalon was against in Judah, because the Jews were saying there is only one place of worship here in Jerusalem, one place where God moves, and that's at the temple in Jerusalem. It was a complete separation. It was a narrow message that says the only God on the face of the earth is right here in Judah, and they couldn't stand for that. That's the only pure worship that was left on the face of the earth, and the devil was after that pure worship out of Judah. Israel had already backslidden. Judah was the only place left where there was pure worship. And now the ecumenical movement, I'm going to prove tonight or show you the best I can, is a love trap. All the messages about let us get together, let's love one another, is all a trap right out of the pits of hell, and I'll show you that in a moment. And thirdly, he's introduced powerful new forces of doubt and fear, in hopes of destroying the confidence in God's faithfulness among the Holy Remnant. He's trying to get after your faith in Christ, that faith that Jesus involved in your everyday life. He wants to get rid of that. He wants to destroy it. Let's go right into these. I want to talk about this three-pronged attack of Satan. The first attack I want to go into immediately. Satan's first line of attack is the empowering of evil men through overt demon possession. He is coming now with overt demon possession. Brothers and sisters, there's never been a time like this when you walk the streets of New York, where you have seen so many demon-possessed people. They are not just mentally disturbed, they are demon-possessed. They're on all sides. There are hundreds of thousands of demon-possessed people on these streets, and on the streets of all of our major cities. Satan is trying to raise up an army of Christ-haters, dedicated to overthrowing born-again Christianity. Born-again Christianity. I received urgent prayer requests from Darmstadt, Germany, the Sisterhood of Mary, the Lutheran Sisterhood of Mary, dear friends of mine. They've sent out a worldwide appeal to all prayer warriors, all over the world, and the prayer requests came in this past week. The witches and the warlocks and the occultists from all over the world have called an international conference in Australia, and their advertised purpose is to get together and call down an empowerment of Satan to come against born-again Christianity. That's their very term, and they have acknowledged that this is their last chance. And this, folks, is not just a joke. This is international. They're coming from all over the world, and one of the charismatic bishops from Australia is begging for the prayer support of prayer warriors all over the United States, and they said, this really is our last chance because there's been a spiritual revival in many prayer warriors, as they call themselves, all over the United States and around the world, rising up, and they are going to defeat us unless we are empowered from Satan now. Now, beloved, you don't have to fret yourself about any of their threats. They say that they're going to try to wipe out and discredit born-again Christianity. They're coming against the Holy Remnant because the devil hates it. But you don't have to worry, folks, because the sword of the Lord is in the hands of our precious Savior, and it's not in its sheath. It's unsheathed. How can my sword be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ascalon? He hath appointed it. These witches and warlocks and occultists represent the spirit of Ascalon. That spirit has been in the world from the very beginning, this attack against the eternal purposes of Jesus Christ through his gospel, and they have always been there. But the sword of the Lord has always been unsheathed. The sword of the Lord has always come against it, and he's always cut down his enemies. And folks, don't worry about it because they're going to be cut down like grass, the Scripture says, and they are crying, how long before the sword or this Word of God is quieted? The powerful Word of God has gone forth in the last days like a piercing two-edged sword. It's been cutting through all the corruption in many Christians. It's cut down self-centered wickedness. Now there's a rising up of a holy praying remnant full of faith. The remnant is not half-hearted. They're not playing church. They're not materialistic. They're not double-minded, but they're full of the Holy Ghost. They're full of faith. They're not afraid of the devil, and that's why they're all saying, when is he going to put his sword away? How long does this sharp word come to transform people? Folks, it's been the powerful Word of God coming forth from holy dedicated servants of God that has been changing the course. God is raising up a holy remnant all over the face of the earth, and it's come through the sword of the Lord, the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that's changing lives. And the enemy says, how long before it's quiet? How long? And the cry of the occult is to say, put up your sword, Lord. Put it back in your sheath. Put it back in the scabbard. And God comes and says, how can it be quiet? I've commissioned it to come against you. I've commissioned it to pronounce judgment on you. I've commissioned it. It can't be stopped. Folks, you don't have to worry about the homosexuals taking over the United States or New York. Now folks, I'm telling you, the enemy has apparently, he looks like he has more power than any time in the history of this earth. The homosexuals have such power in America today, and they don't have to hold high offices. They hold the politicians in their back pockets. They have power. They make politicians cower. They make Clinton cower before them. And they don't have to have everybody in offices and high places, but they have infiltrated the whole American system, the whole American government. Homosexuals and lesbians hold the reign of power behind the scenes in many cities. Liberal, demonic powers are behind the abortion movement, the women's lib movement, the new AIDS movement, the new world order movement, the militant environmental movement. Satan is organizing every level society to push his agenda, and you can believe it. There are dark, evil, sinister forces behind these movements. I have seen women's liberals out on the streets where some are in front of abortion clinics, anti-abortion groups, and I've seen the devil himself looking through the eyes of some of the women liberals who are coming up and screaming and cursing, vile curses, and mocking the name of Jesus Christ. But you see, folks, when I look in the eyes of some of those people from these movements, I realize that woman or that man, that person that's spewing this out, that's not our enemy. That's not our enemy. There's a dark, sinister force behind it. It's the enemy himself. It's Satan behind all of that. There's a force of Ascalon behind it all. The Bible says we don't fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places. And folks, there's a power behind these movements, a sinister, dark, mighty power behind it all. But I want you to know something. There's a greater power behind God's people. That's the sword of the Lord. Hallelujah! The living Word of God. How can the Church of Jesus Christ evangelize demon-possessed cities now? Oh, folks, when I first came to New York 32 years ago, even in Harlem, they weren't even locking their doors. In 32 years, what a change that's, 33 years, the change that's taken place now. Even the most liberal, ungodly people are saying, I got to get out of here. And so they get in their stretch limos and go to New Jersey. Sorry, New Jerseyites. Pennsylvania or wherever. I can't tell you how many hours I've wept and prayed from my apartment overlooking this city a block down the street here, and crying. You know, some people are offended when I said, when I see these tall buildings, all these apartment houses, these multiple, I mean these 40, 50-story buildings around here, I see them as tombstones. A lot of people took offense. They said, this is a beautiful city. You mean those look like tombstones to you? You know why they look like tombstones to me? Because millions are going to hell. They're going to die and go to hell. And those are tombstones because they're entombed in these buildings. You know, you can't even get in now. You get through the concierge, and you can't even get near the door. They're entombed. Nobody can get near your door. They can't get near mine. I got six locks, and I got a little peephole, and I look through that to get through the concierge. I have to get through everybody else to get near my elevator and get up there to the 30th floor, and then I got to get past six locks. But I'm not entombed. I'm ready to go home. But I weep over this. Oh, Lord, all I do is preach. I preach, preach, and preach. Lord, what are we going to do? How are we going to reach this city? How do we get into those homes? I've tried television until I wound up so deep in debt. That was years ago. I was one of the first on television, along with Oral Roberts, years and years ago. As you heard me say last night, I tried every gimmick there was to reach this city, and I prayed and prayed. And while I was praying about it, the Lord said to me this past week, the secret's right there. You're looking at it. You're looking at it. What did we say the sword of the Lord is? It's the word of the living God. You know what the Lord said to me? The answer is so simple, you're missing it. The answer to reach from this city is old-fashioned, Holy Ghost preaching. Preaching. The Scripture says, the world by wisdom knew not God. All of our wise plans, all of our gimmicks to try to reach people have been in vain. It pleased God then by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. He said, just go out in the New York City and preach Jesus. Preach Him crucified, raised again from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father. Preach Him on the job. Preach Him in the subway. Preach Him in the church. Preach Jesus. Preach Jesus. Preach Jesus. That's the only way. Stand in front of the abortion clinic, preach Jesus. Jesus was crucified for you, so you don't have to go in this abortion den anymore, or this pornography den, or the abortion clinic. Preach Jesus crucified. You don't preach against abortion, you preach Jesus. You preach Christ crucified. That's Paul's only message. Now, folks, he didn't win Athens. He went there to this city, and he was moved just like we're moved. You can't be a godly pastor and not weep over this city. You can't be godly and sit in that pew where you're sitting now, in that chair you're sitting in right now. You can't sit there as a godly saint and not be moved by this city and all the dying people around you. It's got to get to your heart. If it doesn't, you're not really saved. You say, well, what am I supposed to do? I don't care whether it's on the home, in the job, one by one. You don't have to have me laying my hands on you and anoint you to ordain you as a preacher. He's already ordained you to preach the gospel. Everybody in this house is a preacher. Your family may get tired of you preaching, but preach it. Preach it. Preach, preach, preach Jesus. Hallelujah. This is the sword of the Lord. God has commissioned it. He said, I've given it a charge. I have commissioned it. He said, in other words, this is the way I'm going to defeat Asclan in the spirit that's coming against all the eternal purposes of Jesus Christ. I have given you a weapon. It's the Word of the Lord, the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. And also, folks, that sword of the Lord has pronounced the end of all enemies of Jesus Christ. Fret not thyself because of these evildoers, neither be envious against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like grass. They're going to wither as a green herb. Hallelujah. I have never lost a fingernail. I've never chewed a single fingernail over worrying about what the homosexuals are going to do, or what anybody else is going to do, or the abortionists, anybody. I'm not worried about it because the Lord said, my sword has pronounced judgment just as it did on Asclan and all the cities of the Philistine. If you go to any one of these cities now, there's nothing there. They're all gone. They're all gone. And one of these days, they're all going to be cut down like grass. That's what the Scripture says. So, in the meantime, don't be afraid. Don't get your eyes on how evil it is. Don't get your eyes on the power of these movements. Let them go move as fast as they want. Let them get as many millions involved in their movements as they choose. It's all soon going to be over. Don't fret yourself about it. Don't worry about it. Folks, the power is in our hands, in the living Word of God. Hallelujah. All right, Satan's second prong of his three-pronged attack is what I call the ecumenical love trap. Now, the devil himself is the driving force behind the modern obsession to bring all the churches together into one universal brotherhood. Now, that sounds so spiritual and so biblical. You know, let's all get together, they say, and let's obey our Lord's commandment to love one another, and let us forget all doctrinal differences and find the areas of agreement. The church is too divided. We need just one great universal church with one universal worship. Folks, it's a love trap. It's a love trap. We're going to love everybody. Let me tell you where one of the leaders of the modern ecumenical movement just came from, and he's one of the leaders, the top leaders. He just came from two years in India, worshiping with the Buddhists and the gurus and the mystics, and he's coming back now with a wonderful new message of ecumenicalism, ecumenism, that everybody, you can worship no matter what God it is, no matter what idol it is. Worship is worship. And now he's come back having learned how to worship with Buddhists and Taoists and mystics, and it's all one to him. And now he's coming back and he's saying, let's all get together as one. It sounds so beautiful. It sounds so loving, and it's right out of the slippery tongue of the devil. It's right out of the raging pits of hell, and it's a trap. It's the Philistine spirit of Ascalon, and God lifted his sword of wrath upon them because they despised the exclusiveness of the Jews' worship. It was exclusive. Folks, I want to tell you something. The true worship of Jehovah, the true worship of Jesus Christ, is the most exclusive thing on the face of the earth. It's exclusive. There are no giving in here, giving in here. God holds it dear to him, and that's the one thing the devil is after more than anything else, to destroy true, pure worship from true, holy, pure vessels. And God will have no compromise with this worship. He has encircled it. He will not let anything touch that worship. And the devil comes along, and he's chipping away at it. It doesn't matter who you worship. It doesn't matter how you worship. No doctrine, no doctrine. Folks, I believe in the doctrine of the crucifixion. I believe in the doctrine of the resurrection. I believe in the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. I've got a lot of doctrine. I believe in these biblical doctrines. Modern ecunemism is not about love. It's not about brotherhood. It's about aborting the worship of Christ, and that's what the devil's goal was in Jeremiah's day, and it's his supreme goal right now. Every, listen to me, every blood-washed, blood-sprinkled believer on earth is already united with every other believer on the face of the earth. I stand here right now in total union. See, true ecumenical movement started at Calvary, when Jesus broke down all the walls. The scripture says, for he is our peace who's broken down the middle wall of division between us. Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. I stand before you right now as a fellow citizen with every born-again spirit-filled believer in Russia, and in China, and in Mongolia, and in Cuba, and all over the face of the earth. I don't need some movement coming along asking me to jettison everything that I believe to be at one. We are already one. We are already united. The ecumenical movement has been here since Calvary. That's the true one. Every born-again spiritual believer is one. You may not know them. You may not know their names, but right now wherever they worship, we're worshiping as one. I can go anywhere in the world, into any restaurant, and bow my head, and pray, and I can say hallelujah, and there'll be four or five others in the restaurant, whether it's in Germany or whether it's in France. There'll be hallelujah, hallelujah. They come up and they pat you on the back. They don't speak any language. They say hallelujah, yeah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. That's why God loves that word, hallelujah. Universal. I can speak in Japanese. I can speak in Chinese. I can speak in Russian. I speak all the languages of the world, hallelujah. Anybody ask how many languages Brother Wilkinson knows? Everyone on the face of the earth. You know what Jeremiah said? He said, don't lay down your sword on this matter. You know the ecumenical spirit now is creeping into the charismatic movement, infiltrating the charismatic movement. Thousands of pastors and evangelists have gotten together. There's one organization, got about 4,000 of them involved right now, joining organization. They are advocating agreements to not judge anymore. They don't, in other words, don't judge me, and I won't judge you. Toleration is the key behind it all. Toleration. I'm not going to judge anybody, and they use the text, judge not that you be not judged, but then they forget about 20 other verses about righteous judgment being judged, and this is sweeping the whole charismatic movement right now. The end result of it is that many charismatic pastors are becoming so spiritually low, in such a low state, that they allow ungodly ministers to share their pulpits, and they are exposing their flocks to ministers that are preaching heresy, like the pastor from Crystal Cathedral. He's in many Assembly of God, major Assembly of God churches now. I had a pastor backstage last week in tears. He belongs to the Pentecostal Church of God from Cleveland, Tennessee, and one of their leaders stood before a whole group telling what a great pastor and what a great preacher of the gospel this man is. This man is blasphemy on the face of the earth. He doesn't even believe in the preaching of sin. He hates preachers like me and others that will expose sin, because he doesn't believe in guilt, and it causes guilt, and his writings and his preaching, I believe, are from the pits of hell, and yet this man is being wined and dined in Pentecostal circles, and the whole charismatic movement now. See, you can suck anything in if you go for this love trap. It's a love trap. Folks, I want to tell you something. God's always going to have his prophets who are going to be able to point a finger and say, you're the man. I would tell you, if I'm preaching error, I want somebody not to pat me on the back and say, well, in my mind, I know you're preaching error, but I don't want you to judge me. You don't judge me and hug me. No, if I'm preaching error, I want some man of God to come and show me from the Scripture that I'm wrong. I don't want to go to hell for preaching error, and I want a man who walks with God enough who would come to me and say, Brother Dave, here's where you're wrong. God will still have men like Paul who will stand up against Peter and say, hey, on this issue, you have missed the mark. God's always going to have his men who will not lay down their sword. They, this ecumenic saying, lay down your sword. Put it in a sheath. Put it away. Rest it, because we're all going to get together. We're going to love one another. I am not going to associate with Bishop Spong across the river here in New Jersey, who's advocating and promoting every kind of evil perversion, sexual perversion, into the church of Jesus Christ. He's saying masturbation is honorable. Homosexuality is a preferred style of life, acceptable, trying to bring it into the church. I have nothing to do with fellowship with those Lutherans that are on their national committee to bring homosexuality into the church. I have no fellowship with them, and this church is not a part of that ecumenical movement and never will be. We're not going to betray Jesus Christ just for the sake of unity. The Lord said, I've commissioned you to brandish the sword of his word and expose their evil deeds. Have no fellowship with the unfaithful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Reprove them. Oh, God raise up more shepherds that are not afraid to stand up against this trend toward ecumenism that is from Satan himself to try to destroy the pure, true worship of a body being sanctified by the Lord himself. All right, Satan's third line of attack is to bring down the Holy Remnant one by one by trying to seduce them out of their faith in the Lord, their confidence in Jesus. Now, Satan's first line of attack is to discourage all evangelism by making things appear out of control. Now, let me say it again. He tries to paint the picture so bad that you're just going to roll up your hands and say it's hopeless, we can't do anything about it. He does that to cause discouragement, and then his second line of attack, he tries to raise pure worship, trying to rid the church of the presence of Jesus. Folks, I sat here tonight during worship when the Lord was manifesting himself, and I talked to the Lord, and I talked to the Holy Ghost. Well, I said to her, I said, Lord Jesus, the only thing this church has that can reach people is this presence that I deserve right now. Jesus, it's your manifest presence. If we don't have that, there's nothing here. It can't be done by preaching alone without the presence of the Lord Jesus. It's that presence, and Satan is after that, and folks, that's why the devil will come against a church like this more than anything. See, he's not concerned about those dead, dry churches out there. They're not even a part of his program. He doesn't care a hoot about that stuff. What he's after are those who truly worship and bring down the wonderful, glorious presence of Jesus into his house. That's what Satan despised. I think a church like this here at Times Square Church, if the devil's got a strategy board down there, we're right there somewhere near the top where he says, if I can just affect that worship, if I can infiltrate, if I can just corrupt that worship somehow, then the presence of the Lord, he's trying to rob us of the presence of Jesus, because that's life. That's life. And the third attempt, of course, his last line of attack is to rob individual servants of their trust in God before the sons of men. That's very clear. So, he's after disengagement, despair, and doubt. These three attacks bring disengagement from evangelism, despair in your heart, and doubt. Now, let me talk about this third attack, if you will. Satan's seduction of the rites of saints has to do with the spiritual realm and not the physical realm. Now, let me tell you something about the devil's incredible seductions of this last day. Never has it been a day like this. You know as well as I do that he's got all kinds of new electronic gimmicks to enhance temptation now and seduction. Look what he's got that our forefathers never had. They never had television, never had MTV, never had theater like we have, motion picture theaters. He never had videos, never had pornography. He's got all these new electronic things, and now that the two great media forces are getting together, they're claiming they're going to have one great big screen, 12-foot screen in some homes, six to 12-foot screens. You're going to have all kinds. You're going to have TV over here. You can watch all kinds of things on one screen. You have 10, 12 different inputs. See, you can have X-rated over here, R-rated here, PG over here. You can have it all. I mean, they're just going to feed the mind. The devil has all this electronic garbage now. Very intricate kinds of seductions that no other generation has ever faced. My goodness, if Paul the Apostle walked the streets of New York, he'd grab my slave and say, Brother Dave, what is this? Is this the porticles of hell? Is this hell? Could you imagine Paul the Apostle seeing all these pornography places and coming into the homes of some Christians, and he reaches under the couch, and he pulls out one of those hidden tapes, and he slips it in and says, What's this? This is a new electronic thing. He slips it in. He says, How can they survive? How can you survive? Paul the Apostle would be appalled. Appalled. I'm sorry. He wouldn't be able to understand it. Let me tell you something. That has nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with a holy, Christ-filled man or woman of God, because if you're reading, watching MTV, it has nothing to do with you. Television has nothing to do with you. Video has nothing to do with you. Dirty movies have nothing to do with you. Pornography has nothing to do with you, because Satan comes and has nothing in you, because that has nothing to do with the overcoming Christian. I don't care what electronic device comes. I don't care what they're piping into homes. I don't care what's happening out on the street. That has nothing to do with the holy remnant, because that is not an enticement, and if you call that an enticement to you, you don't know Jesus the way you should. If you're being enticed by all of this electronic garbage, you have not paid the price, and you're exposing yourself to demon attacks. It has nothing to do with you. So what's the devil going to do? I'll tell you. Think about it for just a minute. The devil's had 2,000 years to observe, and he knows the Word, because he quoted it Jesus. You know, he was there when Peter was sinking in the water, and Jesus said, why didn't you believe? He saw what doubt could do to make a man sink. He was there when the apostles' disciples couldn't heal because of lack of faith and doubt. He heard and knows the Word very clearly. Jesus did not many works there because of their unbelief. He knows Mark 6, 5, and 6, and he could there do no mighty works, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them, and he marveled at their unbelief. Here's the devil's had 2,000 years to observe what makes the kingdom of God work and what destroys the kingdom of God, what hinders the working of God. I think one of the devil's favorite Scripture verses has to be James 1, 6, and 7. I believe he quotes that to his demons every day. Oh, let him ask in faith, nothing wavering or doubting. But he that doubteth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. Well, if you were the devil and you didn't want God to do anything for anybody, what would you do? You have a whole, you have 2,000 years of experience. You've seen what unbelief did. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. What is he going to do? He's going to go after the Word of God. He's going to try to get you to quit reading the Word of God so you won't get any faith, and when you have no faith, you cannot bring about the glorious promises of God. God works through faith, so he's after your faith. He knows he can't turn you into a pornographer nut. He knows he can't turn you into a couch potato in front of a Babylonian idiot box. He knows he can't get you another way, and he sees what your faith has accomplished in your life already. How far have you come by faith already? So that you're standing right here, sitting right now in God's house, full of the Holy Ghost, loving Jesus. Faith brought you to this place right now, and if the devil is going to get you, how's he going to get you? Your faith. He's going to try to rob you. He's going to try to tell you that the Lord is not faithful in details in your life, that God is not going before you to make crooked paths straight. He's trying to destroy your simple, childlike confidence in the everyday faithfulness of Jesus in every detail of your life. Folks, more and more, the older I get and the more I walk with Jesus, the more I talk to him about everything, and the more I trust him about everything, even about what I eat. Now, here's where Jeremiah 47, 6 and 7, it has its best application. Listen to me, please. I'm not going to preach much longer. If Satan can get you to ignore your Bible, he's going to shake your faith. Brother, sister, the one thing you're not going to need in the dark days ahead is faith before the sons of men. Not private faith, but faith before the sons of men. I gave a prophecy here, I think it was last week, on a Tuesday night. The Holy Spirit came upon me, and I remember the heart of it. It was something like this. We're headed for the darkest times when everything's going to be shaken, the economy, race, everything else, but that's going to provide Christians with the greatest opportunity in all of church history to shine forth in faith. We have the greatest opportunity mankind has ever had to show faith before the sons of men, and that's why this is so important. Oh, thou soul of the Lord, how long will be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard. Rest and be still. That's what the world and the devil is crying for. And I'll tell you, a lot of Christians are saying the same thing. They can't stand reproving preaching that reproves them. They want a soft, easy message. They want the sword back in the scabbard, back in the sheath, back in its holster. They want to go to church where the pastor's put away a sword. No, folks, the best thing to get you to heaven, the best thing you can do is to go to a church like this that preaches the Word of God and convicts you and gets the sword down to the marrow of the bone. I can say that because of all the other preachers that stand with us here and preach. I'm not talking about my own preaching alone. I'm talking about being able to love reproof, love the Word of God. How can it be quiet? Folks, the sword's never going to be quiet here, not from this pulpit. How can it be quiet? Sing, the Lord has given it a charge against Ascalon, against the seashore, there hath He appointed it. Ascalon and the seashore, the seacoast represents all of those Philistine enemies coming against you to remember that. How can it be quiet? Do you know that Jesus Himself in the wilderness, when the devil came to Him, He pulled out His sword and He used the Word of the Lord? I'm telling you now, the temptations that are coming are going to be great. The temptation you're going to face is not so much sensuality. I don't fear wives. I don't fear your husbands being seduced. I don't fear the wise being seduced by the things of this world. The concern that the Holy Spirit has brought to my heart to share with you right now is this, that you would be satisfied just to come to this church and accept the Word of God, the preaching in itself as being all the Word that you need, and occasionally go through it and leaf through it and pick a verse here or a verse there and call that Bible study. No, it's more than just bringing your Bible to this church with you. Many, I suppose 95% have your Bible with you here tonight. I see them all over this church. Folks, God's been telling me as pastor, I have got to get into this book more and more, and I have been. I've been absorbing it. I've been going through it. I've been praying. After I read it through carefully, then I say, Lord, give me recreational reading. In other words, first of all, I go in right through the Psalms. I'll go through some other parts of the Scripture, and then I close it and open it and say, now, Holy Spirit, you lead me to the place that you want me. And He always brings a word to my heart, and you're going to have to know this. The word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you, and we're not going to be kept in these last days. We're not going to have the faith that our Lord wants. The enemy's going to rob you unless you are into this book every day. Take it to the job. Take it everywhere you go. By just having it laid out there and you're reading it, you've got the sword in your hand. Hallelujah. Everybody can see it. Take it on your subway. Take it everywhere you go and read it. I saw at least three of our people this week on the streets preaching. I saw their little brother over here that dances all the time over here. Last two weeks, I've seen him four places. I don't know how he gets from way down here to way uptown. And that dear brother is preaching to everybody. I mean, the other day there were five or six workers there over here on 49th Street, and he was going away and those dear brothers preaching the Word of God, and I see others of you, and the Bible right there in their hand. Everywhere they go, that Bible is right there, and they are not just carrying it like a purse. It's not a pocketbook, folks. Somebody might as well put a strap around it and pretend. Now, the devil says, put it up. Let it be quiet. The Lord says, no, never can it be quiet. How can it be quiet? I've commissioned it. Hallelujah. Oh, God, put this Word in our heart. Engrain it in us. Put a hunger and a thirst for the Word of God. Will you stand with me, please? Don't put up your sword. Stand. Hallelujah. I want you to be able to leave this church tonight. This is Halloween night. And I'll tell you, it's called the devil's night. But I believe he's doing something in our hearts, folks. He's bringing us all together in a true ecumenical spirit where blacks, white, Hispanics, Korean, every race and every tribe, all of us together as one. Oh, I love it. It's great, wonderful. But that's not enough. Brother Don preached this morning, compassion, love is not enough. We've got to have this Word. You've got to be able to quote it right back at the devil. Throw it right in his face. The devil hears what the Word says. Thus saith the Word. Thus saith the Lord. Hallelujah. It's not coming out of your imagination. It's not just coming out of something you've heard from the air, but you're on this rock. Hallelujah. Folks, you know, if we're on the rock, the Bible said everything else is sinking sand. The lower everything around us sinks, that only removes us more from the flood. It sinks down. We don't have to do a thing. It's just going further and further away from us because it's sinking. Hallelujah. We're getting higher and higher on the rock simply because the Word, the world is sinking deeper and deeper in despair. You should not be in despair. Everybody you work with should see the joy of the Lord that comes from the faith that you have from having been in this book. Hallelujah. You know, we've had prayer revivals here. Maybe it's time for a Bible reading revival. Lord, turn this church into a church that is so consumed and filled with the Word of the living God that the sword is sharp, two-edged, and accomplishing that which God has intended it to accomplish. Lord, you're going to keep this people. I really believe, Lord, that every message I preach anymore and every message the pastors, Brother Don and all the pastors that come here to preach, Lord, you're getting us ready for something. Something awesome is coming. Something frightful is coming. Something that the world has never seen, this nation has never seen. Lord, you're getting us ready. You're building up a holy remnant. You're building us up in the faith, and that faith comes by reading and hearing the Word of the living God. Hallelujah. Lord, we're not going to be afraid. No, we will not be afraid. We're going to evangelize. We're going to preach Jesus with everything we have in us. Hallelujah. Bible readers and no more love trap of phony ecumenical movement. Lord, we don't care about being one with those. We are only one with those who are in Christ Jesus, and we already have that union. Hallelujah.