In this sermon, the preacher begins by expressing gratitude for the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus. He shares a testimony of a young man who was delivered from drugs and alcohol and is now serving the Lord. The preacher then invites anyone in the congregation who feels the tug of the Holy Spirit to come forward for prayer and to experience the rest and confidence that comes from being in the heart of Jesus. He emphasizes the importance of having a settled peace and not relying on external manifestations or innovations. The sermon concludes with a reminder to trust in Jesus and have faith in Him.

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the Sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge P.O. Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. First Peter, first chapter, here. First chapter, verses 5, beginning to read verse 5. First Peter, first chapter, verse 5, beginning to read. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Where we greatly rejoice, though now for a season. If need be, we are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, though much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor the glory of the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now, keep first Peter open. I'll be taking a number of scriptures later, but I want you to keep your Bible open to that particular verse. Now, let's pray. Your faith is going into the fire. Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, I ask you tonight for eternity in our hearts. Lord, I just can't see the purpose of meeting on a Sunday night or any night or any morning in the house of God unless there's eternity, unless something happens. Unless the glory of the Lord is manifested, the presence of Jesus is made real. Holy Spirit, I need you tonight. I need you to speak eternity through these words. We thank you for the messages that have come forth Tuesday and again this morning on faith and the trial of our faith and the working of God to bring us to the place he wants us to be. Now, Lord, bring the church further into your heart. We have no other desire than to bring a people into the image of Jesus. No other plan, no other strategy but to bring this body before the throne of Christ on judgment day and be able to say, Lord, we gave them the heart of God. We brought a people in, Lord. We tried to bring a people in through the word. Wash us with the word. Cleanse us. Sanctify us. Reclaim absolute authority over every demonic spirit, every wild spirit, everything of Satan that the word of the Lord would have free course. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Your faith has gone into the fire. I received a call this week from a very confused young pastor, a young man who was saved during the Hippie Revival in the late 60s. He's been preaching for about 15, 18 years. And he called me this week and said, Brother David, my faith is absolutely shattered. He said, I love the Lord, but I just don't know how I'm going to hold on. After he got saved and got into the ministry, he got enthralled with television evangelists and especially their methods of evangelism, and he tried to copy them. And then when they began to fall, of course, his faith began to shake because he had built so much of his ministry around their methods. He wasn't tied down with any denomination. And usually when you leave one camp, if you don't go directly to the heart of Jesus, you join another camp. So he went right into another camp, a group of independents, pastors and churches, and they thought they were a part of what they called the new move of God in America. Prophets. They were all prophets. All the pastors were prophets, led by a man who called himself a prophet. And for a while it worked because some of the prophecies came to pass. Some of them were about him, and they were major prophecies, and he said, it must be of God because some of them are happening. But then the prophecies began to fail, and it left the man no right. And it left his church in confusion. And he went to a conference last month, because the church now is that whole group, probably 30, 40 churches involved. He said, they're all going into this new craze in America, the religious craze now of directional prophecy, where you go to a prophet and you get the mind of God. And he said, I went to a convention last month, and he said, I had to walk out, Brother David, because my heart is so hungry for Jesus. And I saw them bring in choreographer ballet dancers, and he said, I saw sensuality. And what happened, they began to prophesy flatteries to one another, and the leaders got up. Everybody was prophesying good to each other. And it was almost like he said there was a spirit that said, if you prophesy good about me, I'll prophesy good about you. And he said, that's all it was. It was just flesh. He said, I got up and walked out. And he said, I'm going to tell you where I'm at right now, Brother Wilkinson. He said, I don't want to join another camp. He said, my faith is shattered. He said, my people have stood for hours with me in my city and thundered in tongues against the strongholds. We've prayed against the east, the west, the north, and the south. He said, we have prayed for hours and thundered against the strongholds of Satan to bring it down. And he said, our city's just getting worse. There's no evidence anywhere that our tongue and tongues for hours and hours and thundering and crying about it has done anything at all. He said, and then furthermore, he said, I used to move by inner voices. And he said, they began to fail on the left and on the right. He said, for example, about six weeks ago, I heard a voice say, my son. It's always my son, my daughter. You're somebody's, God can speak that way very clearly. And after the Bible, he uses those terms, my son and my daughter. He said, I heard this beautiful voice saying, from now on, this day on, I release funds to you. You're never going in your ministry for funds again. I've released funds to you. You've cursed and answered. All the money is available that you need. And he said, my finances got worse. He said, now I'll tell you what, I'm doubting the validity of tongues. I'm doubting all voices. I'm doubting prophecies. And he said, I've come to a place where I wonder if it's just Jesus and me from now on, if there's anybody in America or in the world today that just wants the heart of Jesus without all of these other things. And he said, I don't want to join anything. I'm tired of voices. I'm tired of prophecies. I said, good. You're at the point now where you can get to the place God wants you to be. Where you have your eyes off men and you're going to the heart of Jesus. I said, I'm sorry, we don't have a camp that you can join. You know what people say, down at Transparent Church, that's the repentance camp. No, repentance is not our message. Jesus is our message. It's always been that. But you see, this pastor's trial of faith is not an isolated experience. Multitudes of God's people right now are in the most severe test, highly testable faith they've ever had since they've come to Jesus. Their faith has been absolutely cast into the fire, and they don't understand what's happening. And I'll tell you, I believe with all my heart, Satan has mounted an assault against the faith of the beloved. And I believe it's going to get harder and more intense the closer we get to the coming of the Lord. You and I are going to be tested by fire. And we're going to see things in the way of testing. We've never seen in all of our lives. Paul, writing to Timothy, said, This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected, and they've suffered shipwreck regarding their faith. They are in shipwreck. Their faith is absolutely shipwrecked. Now brother and sister, I'm telling you, you've got to fight for your faith. There's a fight, there's a battle. The children of Israel failed when they were tested in their faith. They went into a trial of faith and miserably failed. Their faith folded up, and they succumbed to a spirit of unbelief. Now I want you to go to Hebrews with me. Hebrews, the third chapter. And I want to begin reading at the seventh verse. Hebrews, the third chapter. And don't forget to keep your markers in Hebrews. Hebrews, the third chapter, beginning to read at the seventh verse. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation and the wilderness. For your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their hearts, and they do not know my ways. So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you, in even the heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. They exhort one another daily, while it's still called today. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. Now it is said, Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke. Had it not all, they would come out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And behold, swore he, that they shall not enter into his rest. But to them that believed not. So we see, they could not enter in because of unbelief. Beloved, the faith of the children of Israel did not come forth more precious than gold. In fact, in the testing and in the trial, their hearts began to harden. The Bible says, So we see, they could not enter in because of unbelief. Now, look at me, please, a mission person. I want to unburden my heart to you, but I am feeling in my heart and sensing by the Holy Spirit, he's saying to me about my faith. First of all, faith is not an absence of distress and sorrow. It's not the absence of heaviness of heart. Or what mind games we play when trials come upon us. When suddenly there's a crisis in our life. We play every kind of mind game. We face this great trial, and we begin to deny our feelings. We try to erase all thoughts of distress. We grit our teeth, we take a deep breath, and we smile, that silly smile, and say, I'm okay. I've got faith. We're afraid to cry. We're afraid to grieve. We're afraid to endure the heaviness or the panic of the moment. And all the while, we're condemning ourselves because we don't want to be doubted in. But in reality, we can't deny the truth that there's a heaviness in our heart. Now, Peter was speaking to Christians. He was speaking to a godly people who were kept by the power of God through faith. He says it very clearly. They were greatly rejoicing in the Lord. Yet now for a season, they were in heaviness through manifold temptation. And that word heaviness in Greek is great distress, sorrow, and grief of heart. Their hearts were grieved. There was sorrow. There was distress in them because of a sudden season of testing and trying that came upon them. Jesus, in Gethsemane, expressed sorrow and heaviness of heart. The scripture says he began to be sorrowful and very heavy. The scripture says, Then saith he unto them, in fact, some have called this a very negative confession. Then saith he unto them, speaking to the disciples, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful and heavy. He said, there's a distress in me. You say, well, that's because you bear the sins of the world. But often it's our sins. Our sins are the sins of others that cause their heaviness. Whatever cause it, there's a heaviness of heart. So I'm telling you now, distress and doubt are not the same thing. Listen closely. Doubt is the belief or the fear that this distress is going to tear you down. It's going to get the victory and that you're going to lose. The distress sets in. The trial comes. And this unbelief or this fear of it, this is taking me down. Doubt is doubt. Not the distress, but the feeling that that distress will expand and get out of hand and finally destroy you. But faith comes along and says, No, Jesus is in this boat. I'm in a storm. And He will not let me down. There is distress. There may be sudden panic. There's a season. Distress can suddenly hit you. Some unforeseen demonic attack. The storm will start the waves and pound against your spiritual ship. But you've got to see Jesus in that boat with you and say, I am in no danger when He's with me. I am not in danger. Now listen closely. Use the heart of my message. Faith cannot be divorced from God's eternal purpose. I talked about God's eternal purpose last week, that we be conformed to the image of Jesus. That's been from the foundation of the earth. God's had no other plan for you and I, other than you and I come into the full image of Jesus, so that He can present us as a spotless bride to His Son. That's the eternal purpose of God. And the Bible said all things work together for good, who then will love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. And what you see is eternal purpose. That you're here on this earth to be conformed to Jesus, to become man like Him, totally devoted, totally dependent to Him. Then all things begin to work together for good because you are flowing with God's eternal purpose. No clapping please. But you see, from the beginning God has been looking for a people He could bring in. To bring in to His Son, Jesus. If Jesus had given them rest, speaking of the children of Israel, if Jesus had given them rest, in other words if Canaan had been the rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remained therefore a rest of the people of God. In other words, that God promised is still unclaimed. He is still looking for people. Now, some have entered in. In fact, Paul the Apostle, under the right of Hebrews said, some must enter in. There is a place that He's trying to bring us. God has a plan, He has a purpose. He's trying to bring us to a place. Canaan was just a type of that place. Canaan was not. If you think that God was interested in giving Israel only some real estate, a tract of land for every tribe, you've missed the point of the word of God entirely. No, He was trying to bring a people into His own heart. He was preparing them for this eternal purpose from the very beginning. That rock was Jesus. They drove from that rock the scripture says. He was trying to bring a people into His own heart. To bring them into a land, give them peace, so that they would be totally depended upon Him. There would be no other arm of the flesh. They would be devoted and totally given to His heart. He wanted a people on this earth that were totally His. That needed nothing else. They would find absolute fulfillment, every needs of kind from Him. That's always been His purpose. You see, God's purpose is not simply to deliver us from our sins. Now, get this in very good briefs. God's purpose is not just to get us out of Egypt. They were out of Egypt, but not into God's eternal purpose. They were out of Egypt, but they still were not in the land. They were still not into the heart of God. They were still not growing. They had been delivered, but they were not growing. They were not in the place of spiritual growth. Now, His eternal purpose is to bring us into the heart of Jesus. Christ is the end of our faith. That's where God's heading with us. God is interested in much more than just getting you and I out of a present crisis. You see, faith is not special energy for special events. And this is where we have always missed it. We try to build up our spiritual muscles. And we say, God, if you just get me out of this. And then we find ourselves in another, and another, and another. And we keep thinking, I'll just build upon that and build and build. Until finally, I have faith these things will disappear. I just think they're gone. And we miss the point entirely. God is not interested in just giving you victory over what you're going through right now. God has allowed it. He allows these things in our lives. Whether it's our fault, or the devil's fault, or God permits it. It doesn't matter. God has an eternal purpose. If the devil does it, it's only because we let the walls down. And God has a purpose behind it. Now, if you're going to try to get out of that fire, that testing, without learning God's eternal purpose. What purpose has it been? What good has it been? There's no value to it. There's no purpose to it. We're done, folks. We might as well wrap it up. But there's no purpose to what you and I are going through. If we're going into the fire, just so we can prove our loyalty to Christ, or something, or whatever. In our wilderness, so that we can say we're loyal. It's more than loyalty. It's more than God who's trying to prove his power to us. He's trying to bring us in. He's trying to bring us into the heart of Jesus. Into Christ. You see, it's not God's greatest glory to have people running around the earth saying, Oh, I've been set free. I was in a hard place. You can't believe what God just did for me. I thought it was hopeless, and God brought me out. Now, that's a wonderful testimony. The Bible is full of it. But that is not God's end. That's not the whole purpose of God. He delivered you for a reason. He delivered you for a purpose. That is to give you a testimony of his power. We could glorify him in these deliverances. We could testify to the world. Folks, there's a reason for all of these testimonies. We've got to be brought into the land. We've got to get out of the wilderness. We've got to cross Jordan. Ten times. I'll tell you what, God is a loving Father. He said, I'll not let you bear more than you're able to bear. But will with your child or temptation. I'll make a way of escape. He does that because he's a loving Father. But most people have been delivered time and time again. How many times have you not been delivered? And yet we have not learned that God is trying to teach us through these great trials. Ten times, Israel proved God faithful. You find that in Numbers. God said, ten times now you've tested me. Ten times God said I proved myself faithful. And still acted. Ten times of being delivered miraculously. They were not in the land. They were still in the wilderness. They were still learning. Still complaining. All of their testing had proved nothing to their hearts. And that's where many of us are now. We have not learned Jesus. We're not resting in him. We've failed to see God's eternal purpose in all of these trials. Brothers and sisters, our trials are not accidents. You didn't stumble into that danger in that land. Not at all. God's gone somewhere with you. You see, we get into trouble. And then a trial hits us. And we sit there and say, whoops. What'd I do wrong? I did it again. And now I'm paying for it. Listen to me. The giants that were in the land of Canaan were not a result of the sins in Israel. Those walled cities had nothing to do with the fall of Israel. Are you understanding what I'm saying right now? Israel didn't create those giants. Israel didn't build those walls. Those walls were in the land and God had a purpose to them. God had a reason. I tell you what, it's a good thing God didn't tell them about the giants and the walls while they were still in Egypt. They'd have never left. It's a good thing God hadn't told you how you were going to go through when you got saved. Some of you would have stayed in the world. Do you know why we've been so vehemently opposed to what is called the faith doctrine in America today? Because it's been totally divorced from the eternal purpose of God to conform us to the image of Jesus. It's been divorced. And we've had shepherds telling people who are still in the wilderness, you can have all the milk and honey on the land without bringing them in to the fullness of Jesus. And that's why we've been so deeply opposed to it. Because the claim has been missed entirely because the land has so much more. See, God's purpose is to bring us into the heart of Jesus, a place of total dependence on him, a place of no confidence in our flesh. Go to Numbers 14, please. We'll see this very thing we're talking about. Numbers, the 14th chapter. Now, in the 13th chapter, you don't have to turn there, but in the 13th chapter, I'm going to read to you, you go to Numbers 14 and I'll go to Numbers 13. And I'm going to read just a few verses. This is the report of the spies. And they returned from searching of the land after 40 days. These are the 10 spies. And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, under the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought that word unto them, another of our congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they came to him and said, We came into the land where you sent us, and surely it does flow with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land. The cities are walled and very great. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. Now the Kites dwell in the land of Bashar. The Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites dwell in the mountains. The Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stood with people before Moses. The people were angry and they said, Yeah, we were there, but there are giants up there. The cities are very high. They just brought this report. And unbelief was speaking. In fact, in Numbers 14 you see both the language and the definition of unbelief and faith. It's all in this story. Both the definition of the language, of unbelief and faith. Unbelief speaks. We're not able to cope this time. The crisis that we're facing right now is different from all the other crises. This one's going to eat us up. Forget all the miracles we've seen. This is bigger. I don't forget anything God ever did for you. This is something else. I'm talking to you, saints. I'm talking about your battle right now. We're not talking about Israel right now. We're talking about the spirit of unbelief that comes and says, I know God set me free. But those were smaller items. Those weren't as big. This is bigger. The land's going to eat us up. This is a giant. This is too much. Here comes the voice of faith. Caleb says, Let's go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. That's the spirit of faith. Unbelief answers again in Numbers 14. And it says, in fact, we can read it, Numbers 14, 1 to 4. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried. And the people wept that night. And all the children wept a moment against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said unto them, Would God we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in the wilderness, bear what faith they had. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return unto Egypt? And they said, wonder not. Let's make it happen. Let us return to Egypt. Then faith comes back. Verse 7. Look at the voice of faith again speaking. And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, The land which we pass through to search it, yes, it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. And rebellion not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. Hey, please, look this way. Let me tell you what I believe God is saying to the church tonight. The church in our age, our time. There still remains a place to be brought into. They did, their children finding that in, they never did fully possess the land. And the writer of Hebrews is saying now, if some people had entered in, to the promise to the inheritance, God wouldn't be saying there still remains a rest. So he said, it still remains that some must enter in. So God is still looking for that people. Tell me, please. He's still looking for the people who will get out of the wilderness and come into the land. And that land is the rest of Hebrews. It's the rest. And that is a place in Christ of total dependence, total devotion, ceasing from your own works, meaning you never have to manipulate again. You never have to work an angle. You don't have to pick up the telephone. You don't have to have somebody standing at your right side or your left side. You have cast yourself completely on the care of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has become your very life. You say with Paul, Let the Christ live within me. Before Jesus comes, you've got to have a people that enter in. Now I want you to follow me. This is what your battle of faith is all about. This is what the fire in the Testament is all about. Satan does not want a people who cease from their own works. He does not want a people who are going to start coming into this place of confidence in the Lord where they're no longer striving. Do you know the priest, when he entered into every place, was to wear linen so he wouldn't sweat? There was to be no sweat in the presence of God? I'll tell you what. I've been to church and I've seen nothing but sweat. I mean everybody's sweating to get the Sunday school record up. Everybody's sweating to pack the pews. Everybody's sweating to build a big church. Everybody's sweating. Everybody running around is caramel. The Lord said, no, there's no sweat. There's no striving because you've entered into a rest. And that rest is nothing more than a place that God wants us to bring us in, in the heart of Jesus. That is his eternal purpose. This is what the Testament is all about. God wants to know what's in our hearts. When we're tested about going on with Jesus, we say, this is what it's all about. Are you going to go on with Jesus? That's what faith is all about. It's not about your present crisis. Faith is all about Jesus and going all the way with him. You get in the heart of Jesus, you will have a settled peace. You won't have to pump something up every time a crisis comes. You will have a settled peace. It will be settled. You won't have to go on your face for ten hours to try to get some strength and muscle to face this battle. You will have a place. You will be in a position of rest. God's not wanting us up and down, in and out, hot and cold. Special energy for special events. You see, you're going to let the giants scare you, or is there going to be a daring abandon? And that's what faith has to eventually be, a daring abandon to the absolute, ultimate power of Jesus Christ to keep you in this present age. I believe Cain had understood God's eternal purpose. He knew the devil has no power to stop God's people from going in if they'll step out in faith. We bear not against the Lord. We deceive the people for they're bad for us. Their defense is departed from them and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. Think of that big giant that's facing you right now, that problem or that trial. You know what it's not to get you down, it's to keep you out. Let me say it again. That is not to get you down. The devil's not trying to get you down. He's trying to keep you out. He's trying to keep you out of that place in Jesus of absolute confidence. But you're resting in his faithfulness. Hallelujah! He's trying to keep you out of God's eternal purpose for you. You see, what you're going through is not an isolated trial. It's all hell raging against you to keep you from going on to the fullness of Jesus. I'll tell you, all of heaven and all of hell is watching you in a crisis. When the fire comes, boy, what a spectacle we become before heaven and hell. The devil's looking at you and you know if unbelief is going to harden your heart, you're going to say, look, and brother Bob mentioned this this morning, look, if going all the way with you, if going in means that I'm going to face one giant after another, if going in means that one wall after another, I'm not going in. I'm not going on. And there are some of you, you say, why didn't somebody tell me that the Christian life was full of giants and there were strongholds and walls everywhere you look? Why didn't somebody tell me? Now the report is that I'm facing all these giants ahead of me and all I see are giants. All I see are walled cities. All I see is the Jordan. I don't even know how to get across the Jordan. You're going to have to have a miracle for me to give you a start. You see, this is what the battle of faith is all about. Are you going to go to the bank of Jordan and say, I'm going in, I don't care what it costs. I'm going on with Jesus and that's the battle right there. That's what the devil is after. And that's not the test. Are you going to give up and say, I might as well go back to drinking, I might as well get stoned because I can't stand this person anymore. And the battle of our faith is, are you going on? You want the fullness of Jesus. Okay, what this matter of going on with Jesus is very serious with God. If you look at verse 10, chapter 13, verse 10, it's very serious with God. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. The Lord said unto Moses, how long will this people provoke me? How long will it be that they believe me? For all the signs which I have shared among them, I will smite them with the testaments and disinherit them. And I'll make it be a greater nation and mightier than they. Moses said unto the Lord, then the Egyptians shall hear it. For thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them. And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land that have heard that thou, Lord, art among this people. That thou, Lord, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud stands over them. And thou goest before them by daytime in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night. For thou shalt kill all the people as one man, then the nations will hear it. Verse 17, now I beseech thee that the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken. And folks, he began to prepare before God. He appealed to the love and kindness and the mercy of God. And he said, pardon therefore, O Lord, thy people. And the Lord said, Moses, I have heard your prayer and I pardon the people. But, and that's a big word. Verse 19, pardon I beseech thee iniquity of this people. According unto the greatness of thy mercy. Verse 20, the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. But, now listen to me, what a tragedy. Here are people pardoned, but banned from going in. Now, you've heard the term eternal security, or once forgiven, always forgiven. And brothers and sisters, that's not even the issue. The issue is not of forgiveness, but growth. Of going into the land, of going into the heart of Jesus. These people were pardoned. They were absolutely pardoned. God, Moses appealed to the kind of mercy. We've got a merciful, loving Father. But I want you to look at the charge of these people. Absolutely pardoned by God. And they were forbidden to go on because they didn't want to go on. They didn't have a heart for God. They didn't have a heart to face the ballots. They didn't want the hardship. They wanted the easy road. I believe there are all kinds of people like this in America today. And our churches are packed with them. They've had King after King have come and called them to a deeper life. They've heard the message to go on with Jesus. No way you're shallowness. Brothers and sisters, we've got people in our churches today that are glad, but glib. There's a glibness. My Bible tells me in the second chapter of Acts that when Pentecost came down, they fell in love with the Word of God. And they said they were devoted to the Word of God. And they followed Him with gladness and sincerity of heart. A lot of people have the gladness, but they don't have the sincerity for the Word of God. And they're turned away to silly doctrines. They're turned away to foolishness and to sin and to pride. And they sing and they dance and they talk in tongues. But their heart has never been changed. There's no sincerity in the Word of God. There's no desire for the Word of God. They don't want the Word of God to change them. They're glad, but they're glib. And there's a glibness in the church. And I tell you what, when you get truly sincere about the Word of God, you become devoted to Jesus Christ with all your heart. If you run into tongues and purify you, there'll be a gladness. There has to be a gladness. A Holy Ghost gladness from heaven. Thank you. Think you'll find it in Acts 2, 32 or 36. It's in the second chapter of Acts. I was reading it this afternoon. You see this doctrine of once forgiven is forgiven. That's not the issue. They were fully pardoned. But because of their unwillingness to give in, unbelief robbed them of their intimacy with God. God says, I'll pardon them. Put them back. Let them go. Back to the wilderness. Burden. Dryness. A form of godliness with no power. Let them go. He said, I'm going on with another people. And God keeps moving on. God's always moving on. His one desire, His purpose is to bring a people into the heart of Christ. And He's going to find that people. And if you and I don't want to follow Him, you don't get it. You'll go to China. You'll go to Abu Dhabi. You don't get it. These people are going to go back to the wilderness. They're not going to see the captain of the Lord's army. They're not going to see any walls come down. They're not going to be by the cool streams. There'll be no green pastures. There'll be no victories. There'll be no milk. There'll be no honey. They'll spend the rest of their life pardoned at birth to death. Pardoned that their carcasses die in the wilderness without life. And the whole message of Jesus is about life versus death. I don't want to be pardoned and dead. I want to be pardoned and alive. These people go on living the shallow life of misery, cut off from the real work of the Holy Spirit, and left in their dryness. Look at verse 20. The Lord said, I'll pardon according to thy word, but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. He's talking about a people that he's going to pick up and go on with. Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles since I've been in Egypt in the wilderness, they've tempted me now these ten times, and they've not hearken to my voice, surely they shall not see the Lamb. See, they're not going to Him. Which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke me see it, but my servant Caleb, because he hath entered the Spirit with him, and he's followed me fully, him will I bring in to the land wherein till he went, and his seeds shall possess it. Folks, there's a Caleb people. There's a Caleb body he's bringing in. Hallelujah. A people of faith who say, I'm bringing it, I don't care what it costs. And that's what faith is. Faith is not something, oh, God, get me out of this. Faith is saying, God, get me into Jesus. Get me into His heart. Let me know Him. He said, these people have walked with me for forty years, and they don't know my ways. They don't even know me. Now, I'll tell you what. Mourning after faith is not acceptable to God. Mourning after. And that's all these people could ask for God. They got this message that their carcasses were going to die in the wilderness, and they slept on it. They didn't repent. They went to bed. And the next morning they got up, looked at verse 39. And this is where a lot of Christians are today. Mourning after faith, I call it. Verse 39. And Moses told their son, unto all the children of Israel and the people, mourn greatly. And they rose up early in the morning. This is the morning after. And they got them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, here we are. We will go up into the place which the Lord had promised that we would send. Folks, look at me, please. You see, the test is over. The fire is dead. And they failed. It's the morning after. They slept on it. Now they're saying, we've seen. Here we are. They present themselves to the Lord. Let's go in. The Lord said, no. I needed your faith when you were in the middle of your test. Brothers and sisters, I don't think we can understand the full impact of what God is saying to our hearts. I want it to hit me. I don't want to wring my hands and fret and stew and say, God, how are you going to get me out of this? And then God delivers me. And then when I see the deliverance coming, oh, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. And then call that faith. There is no such thing as faith after the fact. Let me ask the Holy Spirit to make it real to you right now. I'm not going to steam it at you. While you're in this test, while you're in the fire, when it looks hopeless, when it looks like a giant bird down on you and the walls look impregnable, that's when God wants us to trust him. That's when God wants us to rely on him and just give it all to him and say, Lord, this is not my battle. It's yours. I commit myself. I surrender myself to you. I'm not going to try to solve this problem myself. I'm not going to work angles. I'm not going to wring my hands. You see, the season passes. There comes a season when there's heaven and hell. But that has to pass. It has to give way to that confidence. It has to give way to finally you say, Jesus, I'm coming into the land. I'm coming into the heart of Jesus. I'm coming into the rest. Hallelujah. Praise you, Jesus. I'm going to pause in just a few minutes. But in Luke 18.8, Jesus asks, When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? That always bothered me. We're living in a day when all you hear is the preaching of what they call faith. Faith, faith, faith. It's a faith message. We've got faith movements. We've got faith evangelists, faith television programs. We've got more faith tapes than any other kind of tapes we could build a temple with them. I tell you, when Jesus comes back, he's going to find all kinds of what they call faith for rights, faith for blessings, faith for prosperity. But what Jesus is really saying here, when I come back, am I going to find a faith that brings the last day people into a full surrender? Am I going to find a people who are going to go all the way into the perfect will of God? Am I going to have a people like Paul who counted all dung? Am I going to have a people who give up on the world and are becoming detached from the world? Which way are you going? Are you becoming more and more detached than dead? Or are you being weaned away from the material things of this world? And are you getting your heart and your eyes switched on Jesus? That's where faith is taking us. Hallelujah. And finally, in Hebrews 11, 1 we read, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And I think the American Standard calls it assurance and conviction. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. But said any way you want, there's only one substance that I know of, there's only one place of assurance that I know of, there's only one evidence of it, and it's this book. It's the Word of God. And Jesus is the Word. And He has given us right here. This is substance. I've got it in my hand. I can feel it. I can touch it. It's the living Word of God. Nobody has ever gone in without it. Nobody. This is the substance. This is the evidence. This is the evidence. Hundreds and hundreds of pages of evidence. Centuries and centuries of evidence. This is the evidence. God is faithful. God is faithful. If God never says another word to me as long as I live, He's said enough right here. God's faithful to His Word. I don't want a prophet trying to pump up my faith. I have the substance. I've got the evidence in my hand. The whole purpose of this is to get us away from the arm of the flesh. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'm going in, folks. Some people talk about going to heaven, but I tell you, I'm going to heaven. But I want to go with peace in my heart. Fully trusting in His care. In His love. And of course, let me tell you what a joy it is for the pastors. For God and Father and I, the pastors of this church. You know what the joy is? We came here determined that we would go in. We would have no strategy. We'd have no plan. We've got seminary students come here. And it blows them away. They sit down and say, we'd like to know the strategy that's filled the house. What's your plan to win New York City for Jesus? And I tell you, they've been absolutely flabbergasted. They say, we don't have any plan. We don't have any strategy. We seek God. We just follow Jesus day by day. We've committed the church to Him. Honestly, it's the first time I have ministered without sweat. Now, Don and Bob sweat physically. I mean, all over the place. You ever see Bob at his hanky, his training in Harvard? Don has to buy me Thai every week. He said, when you get older, you don't sweat. You know what I mean. Spiritually, there's been no sweat. We sit here and say, Lord, the service is yours. It's all yours. Lord, you know we need a place. We've waited almost two years now to find a place. We've just been waiting for God to open the door. We go to one place and God says, no, that's not it. Just wait. We've waited. A year ago, we looked down here at number one, that building where the ball comes down there on New Year's Day. They've got a whole floor up there. We were there a year ago. Nice place. And God said, no, just wait. And we waited. And when God's time, He opens it. We're going to live our lives depending on Jesus. I'm depending on you. Jesus. Let's sing that. Jesus, I'm depending on you. Jesus, I'm depending on you. Hallelujah. Let's stand. Will you stand, please? One, two, three. 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In the damn streetless silence, we know that it is true You see that fellow, he is a liar, there is nothing he can do He tried hard to stop us, but we always come through Jesus! We're depending on you! Jesus, Lord! Hallelujah! Praise to you! All right, please bow your heads for just a moment of prayer. Father, that those that stand here tonight have heard this message, and we've just sung a word depending on you, that, Lord, there's been fear, terrible fear, the enemy's been lying, saying, you'll be destroyed, you can't make it, you're not going through, Lord, remove all that. Remove it by your power tonight. Now, I'm going to, while you're heads bowed, let me ask you, there are many of you up in the balcony here in the main floor who need to come down here tonight and settle something with the Lord. I'm going to ask you to come down here and empty all of your doubts, empty all of your belief at the foot of the cross, and those who've been lied to by the enemy, and you've been swamped, the waves are coming over your boat, so to speak, and you say, Lord, I want to enter in, I want to understand why I'm going through this, that Jesus is teaching me to trust him. Jesus is teaching me that he'll hold me through it, and I've got to give him confidence while I'm in the battle and not the morning after. If you're here, wherever you're at, maybe you're not even walking with Jesus. A Friday night, people bombed by drugs and alcohol and cigarettes, the whole front was full. We've got a young man, they took him to Pilgrim, he's here tonight, took him into the Pilgrim in the Bronx, he's serving the Lord, God's touched his heart, and where's the young man? He was, yeah, right here. God bless you, son, and Lord's going to help him to grow. But wherever you're at tonight, in this building, you'll feel the tug of prayer of the Holy Spirit, your being, come and let me pray for you right now, up in the balcony, hear my name from the balcony, go to the stairs and come down any stairs and down any aisle, and let's ask God to touch you tonight, set you free, and bring you in, absolutely bring you in to a place in Jesus, of total rest, confidence, and take away the unbelief out of your heart. Let's lay it at his feet, hallelujah. Yeah, sure, Jesus, we're depending on you. You can still come, while we're talking and praying, you can still come wherever you're at. The JVs that are standing here now. You've been up here, look this way for just a moment, please. Did you come up here because you want to go all the way with Jesus? One hundred percent. How many came up for that? Raise your hands. I'm going all the way, I've come up here to give it all to Jesus. Keep your hands raised right now. And tell Jesus, close your eyes, tell Jesus right now, that the devil's coming to take The devil doesn't have power. Say, Lord, I know you have the power. The devil can't hold me back from going on. Lord, I trust you. I trust you. I give you my unbelief. I give you my doubt. I give you my fears right now. Pull the plug and let it go. I've got it, Joe. Pull the plug and let it go. Let it go. Lord, I release my doubts. I release my unbelief to you. I give it all up. Help my unbelief. Jesus, help my unbelief. Bring me into your heart, Jesus. Oh, God. I want more than deliverance. I want more than forgiveness. I want Jesus. I want to grow. I want to be like Jesus. I want to grow. I want to be a man of God. I want to be a woman of God. I want to be full of Jesus. I want to be full of the glory of Jesus. Hallelujah. Take this prayer with me, right over your heart. Jesus, cleanse me. Forgive me. But take me on. Beyond forgiveness. Beyond forgiveness. Help me to grow. Help me to grow. I want to be a child of God. I want to be a child of God. Full of Christ. Full of Christ. I want the glory. I want the glory. And the image of Jesus. And the image of Jesus. Stamped on me. I want to be a mirror. Reflecting. Reflecting. The presence and glory of Jesus. The presence and glory of Jesus. I believe God for it. I believe God for it. And I thank him for it. And I thank him for it. Right here, now. Right now. I give my confidence. And my faith. And my faith. To the Lord Jesus. To the Lord Jesus. Just thank him now, Lord. I thank you.