In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that even righteous individuals can lose their discernment and be challenged by God. He highlights the importance of being able to hear the voice of God, even when one is off track. The preacher encourages believers to take their part in seeking God's guidance and to reject the influence of evil. He also emphasizes the need for the church to serve others and stand out from the ways of the world, ultimately pointing to the battle God has given David as an example of dwelling in the midst of God's people.

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And I think it, I don't know what Teresa's message is this afternoon, but I do believe this interweaves with what the Holy Spirit has given her to speak on. Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart. Lord, what an hour to be alive. Truly, you have risen up to defend your name. Lord, you're speaking clearly that for your name's sake you will now arise and you will set at liberty your own people. God Almighty, I see a great revival coming. I see a touch of your hand coming to your church. Ordinary Christians becoming extraordinary in God. I thank you, Lord, that you're going to vanquish our enemies and their defeat is going to be sudden and their shame is going to be total. God, I thank you for it with all my heart. Help me today, Holy Spirit. Help me to convey this the way you've spoken it to my heart. I ask this in Jesus' name. Now, Psalm 6 is a psalm of David at a time of distress in his life. Now, how many here this morning, you've been fighting in your mind like never before? Yeah, I thought so. The last month or two just seems to be this incredible warfare going on in the mind. There's a reason. I'm going to explain it to you, Psalm 6. David says, Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. O save me for thy mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee, and in the grave who shall give thee thanks? I'm weary with my groaning, and all night I make my bed to swim, and I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief. It waxes old because of all my enemies. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed. Let them return and be ashamed suddenly. Now, this psalm is written at a time in David's life when he felt that God was looking down at him with heated anger. Actually, the word is hot displeasure in the King James, but in the original text, it has a reference to heated anger. That God is looking down at me, and he is fiercely as it is angry with me. In verse 2, it says, Have mercy, O Lord, for I am weak. My bones are vexed. You see, this perspective that he had embraced at this particular moment of how God was feeling about him had taken away his strength. Even David, who was anointed to be a king, a wonderful young man of God, found himself in this position of having embraced this perspective of how God sees him, or was seeing him at that particular time, and that perspective that he embraced took away his strength. You must be very careful which voices you are listening to in this last hour of time. Verses 3 and 4, listen to the cry of David. He's saying, Oh, how long will you be angry with me? How long will it be before I feel your mercy towards me again? God, will you retain your anger towards me forever? Will you not be merciful to me? Verse 5, he says, For in death there is no remembrance of me, and in the grave who shall give thee thanks? He says, I'm losing strength to the point where I feel like I'm not going to make it. It's not so much that I'm contemplating that I'm going to get through this, but if we have embraced a wrong perspective, if the enemy succeeds in placing thoughts even about God in our minds, you can get to the point where you feel you're not going to make it. And, of course, you know that's not the voice of God. God doesn't bring you to the place where you think you're not going to make it. It's the enemy who brings you there. And then once you've embraced that, then he'll turn around and begin to accuse God of not... See, he's the accuser. He'll accuse God of not being faithful to you. He will accuse you of not being faithful to God, then accuse God of not being faithful to you, and the endgame is to get you to give up, because he wants you with him in hell for all of eternity. He will fight against your faith in God because there's no other way he can defeat you but by getting you to embrace a contrary argument to truth in your mind. David says, I'm losing strength and I feel like I'm not going to make it. Listen to where he's at now, spiritually. I'm weary with my groaning. All night I make my bed to swim and I water my couch with tears. I mourn and I weep day and night. Now, if David was in our generation, he'd say, I mourn getting on the subway. I have this deep inner groan. I mourn getting off the subway. I mourn walking into my place of work. I mourn going up in the elevator. I mourn at my desk all day or my broom or whatever it is I've got. I mourn when I go home at night because, God, I feel that this is how you're feeling about me. And in verse 7 he says, My eye is consumed because of grief. You see, remember the scripture says the light of the body is the eye. In other words, David is saying I see no way out and at the end of verse 7 he said, A wax is old because of all my enemies. I look around and all I see are gloating enemies on every side. Everywhere I look it seems like I'm surrounded by these voices. I'm surrounded by enemies. I don't see the way out of this situation that I find myself in. Now, we take a look at David for a moment. And he was undoubtedly a righteous man. He was a man who was pursuing the heart of God. And, beloved, let me tell you something. If that's who you are today, righteousness is not that we have no struggles. Righteousness is that we are following God to the best of the ability that God has given us. We want to be people of truth. We want to do right. We want to live a life that truly glorifies Jesus Christ and we have trusted him for our salvation. But yet for various reasons we find ourselves in times of difficulty. But, nevertheless, we are pursuers of God. And the moment you become a pursuer of God, you become a target of darkness. There is no way around this. You're going to hear about it again. I don't know why I keep saying this, but I don't even know what her message is. But I know you're going to hear about it again this afternoon. The moment you set apart to be a pursuer of God's heart, you become a target of darkness. You will find yourself in a war like you've never known before. And it's not a war because you're unrighteous. It's a war because you are righteous. You are walking in right standing with God. The accuser will come against you with full force. He will accuse you. He will accuse Christ. His whole reason for even being here in the world today is to accuse. That's all he can do. Jesus said in Matthew 5, chapter 5, verse 10, You see, this simple pursuit of righteousness will invite this onslaught of opposition, such as we have read in Psalm 6 this morning. You see, the devil knows that the greatest threat to his kingdom comes from the hearts of men and women who have truly chosen to pursue Christ. That's the greatest threat to his kingdom. He's not threatened by religious political activism. He's not threatened by people who are pursuing hallways of power and love the admiration of men. He's not threatened by people who run around opening the Bible looking for reasons to become rich. He's not threatened by any of this. This has no power over his kingdom. No, it's the man or woman who sets their heart to seek God for God's sake alone. And say, Lord, I want your will. I want your ways. I want to know who you are. I want you to be revealed to me. This man, this woman, irrespective of age, social standing or ability, is a great threat to the kingdom of darkness. The devil knows history. The devil has been around, folks, longer than you and I have. And he has seen when individuals of no significance and no report, no education, and they've not come from the halls of power or learning, have gotten in their hearts to seek God. And he's been the recipient of the prayers of many who have begun to understand that we have authority in the name of Christ to tear down powers and principalities of darkness. He has time and again been the recipient of the prayers of the weakest of God's saints who have laid hold of the heart of Jesus Christ. You see, but David also made mistakes just like you and I do. He's in this time of feeling God feels about him this way in Psalm 6, firstly, because he's a righteous man. But secondly, being a righteous man did not mean he didn't make mistakes. And we make mistakes. You make them and I make it. We all make it. We make them every day. You don't believe that when you get to the throne of God, you're in for an awful surprise. Don't turn there. But let me share with you. Second Samuel 11, one tells us that it was a time when kings should go forth to battle as it is today. We're living in a season, folks, where the church needs to be going forth to battle. We need to be in prayer meetings. We need to be in the word of God. We need to be standing as lights in a darkened time. We need just to simply to choose to live righteously in our living in our work environment. Because we know from the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, if God could have found ten righteous people, he would have spared a wicked city. But he couldn't find ten righteous people. It's time for kings to step up and go to war. It's time to stand for the truth. It's time to fight for the souls of men. It's time simply to live righteously. And God does all the fighting that needs to be done through us. Just simply his presence. The way we speak. We respond in kindness when people are angry. We speak truth when others are lying. We respond in mercy when others are exhibiting violent behavior. We do the things that Jesus did. We do it by the power of the Holy Ghost indwelling us. And we stand as a testimony of the fact that there is a God alive in this generation. It is time for the church to become servants one more time to people around them. Not just in the household of faith. Primarily it should be there. But secondarily to a society and a world that is headed for hell and don't even know it. It's time for the church to stand out. And not be intermixed with the ways and practices of our generation. It's time for kings to go to battle. You see this battle that God had given David to do was so that he could dwell in the midst of his people. And his people's hearts would always be turned towards him. This was the fight God has always wanted to bless humanity. Not curse humanity. He's always wanted to save and not to judge. He's always wanted to bring healing and not sorrow. It's his delight and it's his desire to bring healing to even the most deep and depraved fallen of humankind. It's time for kings to go forth to battle. But in this season David's eyes and his mind were occupied by a diversionary pursuit. Now we know what he did. He went up on his household. The top of his house looked over the railing and he saw a beautiful woman and his heart began to desire her. But you see it could just as easily have been the pursuit of fame. He could have been diverted by that. He was after all a king. And he could have been pursuing his legacy. I need to have my name engraved on pillars all over the place. I need to have people remember the name of King David. It could have been the pursuit of wealth that could have been a diversionary thing in his life. It could have been personal comfort. It could have been the pursuit of ambitions outside of the will of God for his life. It could have been the desire for unrighteous vengeance. After all, a lot of people had talked about him and he had been betrayed by a lot. He could have gotten to the point and said, well, I'm just going to kill everybody. I'm the king anyway. I'm just going to head out and just slaughter people that I don't like. He could have done it. And it would have been an unrighteous pursuit. But his eye looked over his balcony. And in a time when kings are supposed to be doing battle, he was diverted. I want to ask you a question this morning. Where are your eyes looking in this generation? Are you looking for the glory of God as the body of Jesus Christ? What are you looking at? Where are you looking in the secret times? This was a secret place. Nobody else is in that bedroom but David. But what are you looking at when you're alone at night? Where is your heart focused? What are your eyes seeing as something that will bring fulfillment into your life? You see, this was a king diverted. And I believe in my heart it's been the devil's design to divert the church of Jesus Christ in any way, shape or form that he can. He will tempt the church of Christ. He will bring false theologians into the church of Jesus Christ. He will put billboards all over in front of the church of Jesus Christ to get your eyes off of the glory of God being revealed through you. The light of the body, Jesus said, is the eye. If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light. The only singleness of eye that I know of in the scriptures is that I choose and want Jesus Christ to be glorified in my life. I want the desires of his heart to be fulfilled. I know the desire of his heart. He's yearning for this generation. He's yearning for these young ones in New York City and surrounding area who've been raised and told there is no God, who come from broken homes and broken promises at every turn. There's a yearning in the heart of God for this generation. I know, I know, I know what's in his mind. I know what's in his heart. If my focus is the focus of God, Jesus says, your whole body will be full of light. I'll be able to flood you. There'll be no corners that are dark in your life. I'll be able to come and give you illumination. You'll understand what I'm thinking. You'll know where I'm going. And even better than this, you'll understand that I'm the one who gives the power to accomplish the journey. He says in verse 23 of Matthew 6, But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. Folks, there's nothing darker than a religious darkened person. There's nothing darker than somebody who can quote scripture and is living almost none of it. That's the darkness that is the scariest darkness I've ever seen in my life. Just enough religion to send them to hell. That's all it is. And they feel happy on the journey. They're spouting the name of Jesus Christ, going to church, clapping their hands, singing songs, heading to hell the whole time. Just enough light to make them exceedingly dark. Better that they'd not known the truth than have come to the knowledge of the truth and then turned away from it. David didn't know that this looking away, this looking over the balcony, this abdicating as it is the place that God had given him as a king. Do you not know this morning, church of the living God, that we are kings and priests unto the Lord? The scripture bears witness to this. David now is not in the place he should be. He's looking over the balcony. He's looking to satisfy something in his heart that only God could satisfy. And he had no idea that the direction he's looking to would bring him to an abandoning of righteousness for personal lust. How many people in our generation have abandoned righteousness for personal lust, to fulfill some inner desire that they are unwilling to bring to God and let Him become the satisfier of everything that they feel they need in their heart? He didn't realize it would lead him to adultery, to the betrayal of a loyal friend, a friend that would stand by him, a friend that would sleep at the door of his own home rather than go in and satisfy the desires of his own nature. He didn't realize that looking in the wrong direction would lead him to murder and a loss of discernment as to his own true spiritual condition. Here is David when Nathan comes into him and tells him, there's a man in your kingdom who had a visitor come to his house. He had all kinds of wealth and instead of taking from his own flock, he took another man's little lamb. And this lamb was so precious to this man and he mercilessly took it and he slaughtered this lamb and used it for his own need. And David's anger rises up in him and he says, Oh, this man will be put to death for this and he will pay back fourfold. Of course, he knew the Scriptures. The price was a fourfold payback if you stole something unrighteously from another person. And that's when Nathan turns to him and says, You're the man, David. You see, he had lost his discernment. But because he was a righteous man, God could still speak to him. You see, this is the issue. A righteous man can still be spoken to. A righteous person can still be challenged. You can be so far off track that you can't even see the train this morning. But if you are righteous, if you are righteous, you can still hear the voice of God speaking to you. You can still hear the plea that is in the Holy Spirit. He's not condemning you. He's pleading with you. Come to me. You'll find everything you want in a living relationship with the living God. The deepest desires of your heart and even more will be met. If you delight yourself in the Lord, I will give you the desires of your heart. Not just the things you think you need, but I'll give you new desires. And then I will be the fulfiller of those new desires. And it will be so far beyond anything you ever thought would bring you to a measure of success and fulfillment. If you will simply delight yourself in me. And I see David finally, finally, it's as if the scales fall off his eyes. And he finally realizes his true condition. I do believe with all my heart that a sovereign moment is coming to the church of Jesus Christ in America. When the scales are going to fall off her eyes and she is going to see her true condition. She's going to understand that God is not angry with her. God is longing for her. God is pleading for his bride. God is saying to her, come out. Come out to me. Leave Babylon. Leave all of its false comfort. Leave all of its misguided thinking about success and wealth and fame and prosperity. And come to me and learn the desires of my heart again. Now, God is faithful. Proverbs 3, 11 to 13 says, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, and neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loves, he corrects, even as a father the son in whom he delights. Happy is the man that finds wisdom and the man that gets understanding. First Corinthians 10, 13, Paul says, There's no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. Now, the devil will always try to tell you, you've gone too far. You're too deep in this. You can't get out now. I'm all around you. I've surrounded you. God hates you. God is angry with you. God endures you. But he doesn't love you anymore. He's not going to set you free. You've stepped over the line. You've messed up his name once too often. He tries to convince you that your testing or temptation is something unusual. Something that has not happened before and that all other men are not having to go through. But the Bible says, there's no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. That means you look on your left and right and everybody in this room is going through the same thing as you are in one stage or another and in one form or another. But God is faithful. God is faithful. God is faithful. Who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able. The enemy himself. You see the word temptation here in its original text means two types. It's a testing of God to prove those that are his, but it's also a temptation of Satan to make you fall. Neither one comes your way and will take you beyond your endurance. God says, I will not test you beyond your endurance. God can't tempt. He can only test. And Satan comes to tempt. And he said, I won't test you beyond your endurance. And the Satan will not be allowed to test you beyond your endurance. But with the temptation also will make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. God says, I'm going to make a way out for you. And folks, I want to tell you something. You're going to know it this morning before you leave this sanctuary. I'm not saying this to build a message. I know it in my heart. Your enemies. You many of you come in here with enemies. Many of you come in. You're surrounded with enemies. You come in here and I've just read Psalm 6 and you say, Pastor, you just preached my month. You preach my life as it is right now. Now, if the message ended here, then it would be rather dismal, wouldn't it? You say, well, you showed me my condition, but you didn't really show me the way out. I'm telling you. I'm telling you today that your enemies are going to leave suddenly, suddenly. There's going to be an instantaneous moment when you are aware that your enemies are defeated and they're going to leave you ashamed, which means that they have not been able to fulfill their assignment over your life. They're going to be ashamed. They're going to go back to hell. They're going to go back to the devil himself. There are demonic powers that are going to go back to hell itself this day and say, well, we had her surrounded. We had him surrounded. We had her completely convinced that coming to church Sunday morning was a waste of time, that God was angry. We had her convinced she should stay in Starbucks and not bother coming to the church or get off the train at 47th and just go downtown and spend some time there. No, but for whatever reason, she stayed or he stayed on the train and came here to Broadway and 51st, and we did our best. She sat, he sat in his seat, and we surrounded him. But there's a power there. You see, the force of our argument was diminishing moment by moment. And finally, there was this look that came across the saint of God's face, and we knew the jig was up. We knew it was over. They finally realized that we are just a pack of liars. That's all we are. Just an absolute pack of liars who have lied about God in the minds of God's people. Now go with me to 2nd Kings chapter 18. I think this is the best place that you're going to be able to see this. 2nd Kings chapter 18. Now, with the advent of the airplane, we became aware in greater measure of a tactic in warfare called psychological warfare. Now, psychological warfare is where the planes of the enemy, in this case, let's just say it's the planes of the enemy. They fly in over the invading army or the army that they're attempting to conquer and drop in leaflets. The leaflets fall seemingly from heaven. They fall to the ground, and unsuspecting people pick them up, and they begin to read them. And on these leaflets, there's an objective. And the objective is to persuade your opponents of the hopelessness of their cause. It's hopeless. Imagine if you're walking down Broadway on Monday, and a leaflet just drifts down. You're saying, God, can you give me a word? Then a leaflet falls, and you pick it up, and it says, it's hopeless. Give up. Well, you see, that's what the devil does. The objective of psychological warfare is to give false reports of troop strength, locations, and victories. False reports of the strength. It's to offer mercy for surrender. Oh, just give up. Why fight the way you're fighting? Just go home. Take a holiday. I know it's time for kings to fight, but go home. Take a look over the balcony. Maybe there'll be something there that might interest you. To offer contrary arguments against the justification of your resistance. And to threaten further misery if you refuse to cooperate. That's psychological warfare. That's dropping leaflets all over a land and trying to get the people to lose their resolve. No wonder, no wonder, no wonder, Paul in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 2, seems to make a reference to Satan being the prince of the power of the air. He is truly the prince of leaflet dropping all over the church of Jesus Christ. Now, nowhere better do we see his leaflet campaign than in 2 Kings chapter 18 and chapter 19. The Bible tells us in chapter 18, there was a king, his name was Hezekiah. He was 25 years old, verse 2, when he began to reign. And he reigned for a certain period of time in Jerusalem. He did that which was right, verse 3, in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. He took away the high places, he broke the images, cut down the groves. He broke in pieces even religious symbols, the brazen serpent that Moses had made. And for in those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it Nahushtan, or a piece of brass. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. He claimed to the Lord and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him, verse 7, and he prospered with whosoever he went forth. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not. Now, Assyria is always symbolic of mixture. Because Assyria was a nation at that time that would come in and when they would conquer a people, they would take them and they would divide them all throughout the kingdoms that they had conquered in the earth. Hoping that the people would intermarry with them, they would be assimilated, and they would lose their culture. That was the Assyrian strategy. Hezekiah was a man of God, and he said, I will not be assimilated into the society around me. Oh, folks, I'm telling you, that's got to be almost the first resolve that gets into your heart. And many of you started this way. You came to Christ, and you said, no more mixture in my life. No more sitting looking at things before my eyes. No more divided heart. I'm going to live for God. You even answered all the calls, and you became a great threat to the kingdom of darkness. The enemy began to move against you like never before. This man Hezekiah said, I will not serve this mixture anymore. I'm going to have to go through this quickly, so follow with me. And in verse 17, the king of Assyria sent ambassadors and a great host against Jerusalem. Now, we find the king of Assyria has been conquering. He's been conquering other peoples, and he's been allowed by God, we find later in the Scripture, to do this because they were intermixed. We find assimilation is conquering great portions of the church of Jesus Christ, not only throughout history, but in our generation. Assimilation means we look exactly like the society around us. There's almost nothing in us that makes us stand out. Our conversation is the same. Our pursuits are the same. The society produces fame. The church seeks fame. The society seeks wealth. The church seeks wealth. The society seeks power. The church seeks power. Almost nothing in the church looks different from the world all around it. We see this happening in our generation. And because of this, the king of Assyria was allowed to go in, and he conquered great portions of what claimed to be even the people of God. Now, he came against Hezekiah. And when he began to threaten Hezekiah, Hezekiah began to make some concessions to him. Well, maybe I've been a little too extreme. And it says in verse 15, he gave him the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house. He cut off the gold from the doors of the temple and the pillars, which had been overlaid in Judah with gold, and he gave it all to the king of Assyria. He said, I'll make some concessions. I'll only go to church twice instead of five times in a week. I'll pull back. I won't be quite so extreme at work. I want to warn you. The moment you pull back, you have an enemy that will never stop. He's not intent on just making peace with you. He's intent on destroying you. The next thing that happens is Hezekiah gets a report that a great army has now been emboldened and come against Jerusalem itself. Now, Jerusalem represents the very center of God's heart. It's the very place that God wants to dwell among His people. I do believe with all my heart, we have been living in a season where Jerusalem, meaning the place of true worship, has been under siege in the house of God. Especially in Western society, it's been under siege. And this king of Assyria comes with a great host, and it's amazing. In verse 17, it says, they camped by the conduit of the upper pool. Now, that's the water. That's the water supply. They camped by the water supply. The enemy says, now, if I'm going to take this city, I've got to shut off the water supply. Now, it's obvious where this is heading, because the Bible clearly depicts the word of God as living water. There's no way around this. And he says, I've got to go, and I've got to shut off the water supply. I've got to inundate the church with false prophets that prophesy out of the visions of their own heart. I've got to turn away people from the word of God. I've got to shut down the water supply, or I won't be able to get to the very heart of worship. The devil has always been against the seed of the woman. The sooner we understand this, the better off we're going to be in this generation. The psalmist in 119 verse 130 says, the entrance of thy words gives light. It's the word of God. It's not coming into church, and worship is wonderful. Thank God for good worship, but true worship is the end product of the word of God having found a lodging place in the heart. You can't have worship without the word of God. It'll just be noise, and it'll be relegated to that. And in verse 22, now this king is coming against Assyria, and he begins to threaten him. And he says, but if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away? And here's the subtlety of this strategy. You see, you say, no, God's going to fight for me. But the enemy says, no, I say you've failed in service and in worship. There was a place of strength, but you took it away. You forfeited it, and you've lost it. And because of it, you're going to be also conquered like those who have been conquered before you. In verse 23, he says, I pray you give me pledges to the king of Assyria. Provide some strength, and I'll give you 2,000 horses if you'll be able to set riders upon them. The enemy comes and says, you have no strength to fight. You can't fight this fight. You know you have no strength. You know you can barely stop your gossiping tongue. You know you can barely love the unlovable. If anything comes out of you, it just seems like a drip out of a leaky faucet. You don't have this river of living water that Jesus speaks about. You've barely got anything to fight with, and now you think you're going to be able to stand up against me. And in verse 25, then he really gets dirty. This is the enemy now. He says, I might come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it. The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. This is the devil speaking, saying, this is the voice of God. This is God sent me to come against you. God's sick of you. God is tired of you. God is now going to shut you down. God's going to put you on the shelf. God is going to destroy you. God's hand is out against you, and that's why I've arrived at the gates of what you think is true worship. And now in verse 29, he says to the people, don't let Hezekiah deceive you. He shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand. In other words, God is not for you. He's against you. In verse 31, he says, don't listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria, make an agreement with me, and come out to me, and everyone will eat of his own vine, and everyone his own fig tree, and drink every one of the waters of his own sister. He says, in other words, give up. Give up, and I'll take you to a place that looks like victory. I'll give you rest. You will look like you're walking in victory. Yeah, well, you'll know it's the B plan. But give up and come to me. And I'll take you to a land just like your own land, he says in verse 32. Amazing. Chapter 19, verse 3. And they said unto him, thus said Hezekiah, this is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy, for the children are come to the birth, and there's not strength to bring forth. I once had such hope, but it seems like all hope is lost. Remember David in Psalm 6. And it says in chapter 19, verse 1. When King Hezekiah heard this, he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and he went into the house of the Lord. And that's exactly where many of you are today. You've received this report. You're surrounded by enemies. You believe that God is against you. You've come into the house of the Lord, and it's almost like it's your last hope. This is a day of trouble, rebuke and blasphemy. For God, I had such hope within my heart, and now I find no strength to bring it forth. I felt such expectation when I first got saved and I first started to walk with you. I felt like there were a million tomorrows. I thought that the life that you planted within me was inexhaustible. But now I have hardly enough hope to even come out to the house of the Lord. And in chapter 19, verse 6. The word of the Lord comes, and Isaiah says to them, You shall say this to Hezekiah, to your master, Be not afraid of the words which you've heard, which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, he says, I'll send a blast upon him, he'll hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I'll cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. So they return and found the king of Assyria warring, etc., and he leaves. Now, verse 10, he says, Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah, This is the enemy again, Let not God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Now, this is interesting. This is the enemy, even now, trying to get into your mind and say, Okay, you're sitting under the word of God. You're hearing something from God's heart. All right, you're going to get temporary relief, as you've gotten used to doing, from service to service, church to church, Sunday to Sunday. But it's not going to last. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back twice as strong as I was last week. You're going to go home and you're going to live under the deception that you're free, but you're not going to be free. Now, this is a sign, when this argument hits your mind, that the enemy is beginning to lose his hold. He's beginning to realize that he has to go, because the word of God has started to come forward. The most wonderful thing that could happen to your heart today is you let the Lord begin to speak to you like He's never spoken to you before. And Hezekiah received these letters and went up, in verse 14, into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And this is exactly where many are today. God, this is the report that's been brought to my mind and to my heart. This is the report that I am not sure if it's true. Do you feel this way about me, Lord? If I send away my day of grace, is the ministry you once gave to me, given to me, is it over? Have I missed it? Are you angry with me? Are my enemies overcoming me because of some thing in my life that seemingly I'm having difficulty getting the victory over? Now, here's where the Lord begins to enter the battle again. In verse 22, you see, when you do this, you are inviting the Holy Spirit into this fight now. When you take these letters of the devil and you stop trying to fight this battle in your own strength and you bring it in with an honest heart and spread it out before God and say, Lord, I'm not playing games with you. This is exactly how I'm feeling. These are the thoughts that have found a lodging place in my mind and in my heart. And when you do this, you're going to find that Jesus Christ is not only a lamb, but He is a lion. And He comes out of this place as a lion. It's amazing when it finally hits you and you begin to see it. When He says to you again, I've loved you with an everlasting love. I've engraved you on the palms of My hands. A nursing mother could forget her child, but I will never forget you, O Jerusalem. You are Mine. I bought you with a price. And all of a sudden I see in this passage of Scripture the lion that comes out of His lair as it is. The lion that we've forgotten that loves us with a passionate love. The lion that hates our enemies and triumphed over them 2,000 years ago on a cross. The lion that says, I'll be the source of your life, your high tower. I'll be your strength. I'll be your future. I'll be your guide. I'll be your friend. I'll satisfy the deepest desires of your heart. The lion comes and says, yeah, you may have been diverted for a season. Your eyes may have been shifted from this focus, but I'm now coming out and you're going to see who I am one more time. Now, in verse 22, He says, now here's God Himself speaking to the enemy. He said, who have you reproached and blasphemed? And against who have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Even against the Holy One of Israel. By your messengers you have reproached the Lord. And you've said, with the multitude of My chariots, I've come to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Levadan and cut down the tall cedar trees and the choice fir trees. And I'll enter into the lodging of His borders and into the forest of His karma. He says to the enemy, you've lifted up your voice. You've lifted yourself up in arrogancy. And you've said, I'm going to go in to where the Lord's people are and I'm going to cut down those who are the strongest. I've digged in drunk strange waters and with the sole of my feet dried up all the rivers of besieged places. Have you not heard long ago, verse 25, how that I have done it and of ancient times that I've formed it? And I've brought it to pass that you should be to lay waste-fenced cities into ruinous heaps. God said, you had a small power for a season and you were only allowed to touch what I allowed you to touch because in many cases they were beyond repair. And I allowed you. This is the voice of God speaking to the devil himself. I allowed you to touch them because they had lost the voice of crying out to Me. And there was an evil that had gotten a hold of them that gave you power over them. Therefore, their inhabitants were of small power and they were dismayed and confounded. They were as grass in the field and as a green herb and as the grass on the housetops and as corn blasted before it has grown up. I know your abode and you're going out and you're coming in and your rage against Me because your rage against Me and your tumult has come up into my ears. Therefore, I'll put my hook in your nose, my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. This is the devil himself being spoken to by the voice of God Almighty. God says to the devil, you've raised up your voice against Me. You've set your hand against My flock. You've touched the apple of My eye. Therefore, He says, I'm coming and I'm going to put a hook in your lips and every false prophet that has spoken in your name, I'm going to put a hook in your lips and turn you back by the way that you came. And verse 29, He says, now this is for you. He said, this shall be a sign unto you. This is a sign to you. It's to you who have come into the house today and you've been in this incredible battle with darkness. You shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves and in the second year that which springs of the same and the third year you will sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruits thereof. God said in the first year, here's your sign. I'm going to show Myself to be God to you. You're going to start bearing fruit and you're going to know this fruit is not something of My own effort. This is born of the life of God within Me. It's going to happen one year. It's going to happen the second year. And in the third year, you're going to go into the harvest because you're going to have something to say. You're going to know a victory. He said, I will defend this city, verse 34, and save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake. I will defend this city. If we want to talk about a contest of power, I see the enemy with thousands of planes flying over the church of Jesus Christ, dropping these leaflets. Surrender, give up. It's hopeless. God is angry with you. Your cause is unjust. You had a ministry, but you've lost it. You had a chance, it's gone. How does God respond? Do you see another army coming in? Another group of airplanes coming from the opposite direction? With just piles of little leaflets with encouragement? No, He doesn't. He shows His power. He drops one angel. One angel, that's all it takes. I think He just looked around. Who's available? Probably had thousands times ten thousands. We'll all go fight for the testimony you've established in Jerusalem. He said, no, I don't need all this. I just need one. Just one. One angel comes down. And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out, verse 35, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when they awoke early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. All of the arguments, all of the attacks, all of the things the enemy has sent against your mind. So, the king of Assyria departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of his God, that his sons smote him with a sword and they escaped. He got killed at his own house, at his own game. Oh, folks, I'm telling you, the devil has been already killed in his own house, at his own game. God sends one angel. God sends one message. You could have bought the lies of the devil for five years, ten years, fifteen years running. You could be here so sown in the wrong concept of God and who you are in Christ. But God sends one angel. One word. One messenger. One blast of truth as it is. Comes. And a hundred and eighty-five thousand arguments fall to the ground dead. And you are set free by the word of Almighty God. You have to know today, God is not against you. God is for you. God is not angry with you. God loves you with a passionate love. He has not written you off. He's saying to you today, stand up and get in the battle. Stand up and get in the battle. I will come and be the source of life that you've longed for. I'll give you the power. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. David says, depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. You see, there comes a time when you've got to get there. That's your part. What's God's part? God's part is to defeat all your enemies. What's your part? To say, get away from me, all you workers of iniquity. The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and sore vexed, and let them return and be ashamed. Suddenly, suddenly, they return. They're ashamed. They fall. There are some people here this morning. It's taken the devil five years to build an argument in your mind against God. And suddenly, suddenly, all these things are falling away from your mind. Suddenly, you're starting to realize that you are a son and a daughter of God. You do have a heart for truth. You are on the winning side, not the losing side. There is no limit to what God can do through your life. Suddenly, 185,000 enemies are on the ground, dead. Suddenly. And the king, seeing that his strategy has failed, turns and heads back into his own land, where certain death awaits him. Certain punishment awaits Satan. Certain doom. Certain torment. It is certain that he is defeated, and he's not taking you with him. Hallelujah. You are staying in Jerusalem. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Let's stand together, please. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. I want to open this altar in the main sanctuary and in the annex. You could stand between the screens, please, if you would. To everybody that the Holy Spirit has spoken to. And you say, this is me. This is where I've been. This is what I've been going through. And today, I thank God that he has sent a message to set me free from all the tormenting powers of evil. You come to this altar, we're going to pray together, and then we're going to rejoice together. In the balcony, you can slip out. In the main sanctuary, just slip out of wherever you are. Make your way down. Stand here with those that are coming. And we're going to pray together. And we're going to thank God for the victory. He's been speaking to us the whole service, throughout all the worship. He loves you. He loves you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Just think how they must have felt when they got up in the morning and 185,000 enemies are dead. Just died of natural causes. Supernatural causes. How does that sound? Your enemies will die of supernatural causes. That would be a good title for the message, wouldn't it? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Oh, God, we give you praise. We thank you, Lord, from the very depths of our heart. Your good and your mercy endures forever. Forever and ever and ever. Oh, God, you are merciful to those who cry out to you, Lord. God, we thank you for this. Thank you, Lord, that we will not be defeated. Thank you, God, that the enemies of righteousness will never triumph against the church of Jesus Christ. We are built upon a rock and the gates of hell cannot prevail against the testimony of Christ. I thank you, God, with all my heart that you will have a bride in this last hour of time. You will have a people who shine as lights in a darkened world. You will have a people whose confidence is not in the flesh, but in the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. You will have a people who are not living by the natural sight, but living by a supernatural meeting of the Spirit of Almighty God. God, you will have a people whose hearts are intertwined with yours, whose will is lost in your will, oh, God. Oh, Jesus, I thank you. I thank you, God. These will not be the strong. These will not be the noble. These will not be of royal blood. They will be the foolish. They will be the weak. They will be the despised and cast down to the world whom Satan has laughed at. But, God, you have loved. You will raise up your church. You will raise up your bride. Jesus Christ, be honored and glorified. We cry out to you in this sanctuary. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, be glorified in New York City. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, be glorified. Be glorified, Son of God, Messiah. Be glorified, be glorified. Let your name be spoken again with reverence. Let people bow the knee to you, oh, God. Let your mercy and your justice be known, oh, God, in our generation. Thank you today. Thank you for breaking the cords of the enemy from off of us. Thank you, God, for demolishing the arguments of darkness. Thank you, Lord, one more time, telling us we are your sons. We are your daughters. We are your children. God, we give you praise. Hallelujah, hallelujah. We give you praise. We give you glory. We give you honor. We give you thanks. Oh, Jesus, be glorified, be glorified, be glorified. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. We give you praise. We give you glory. We give you glory. Satan, I take authority. I take authority in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot have the testimony of Christ in these children of God. You cannot take away their joy. You cannot take away their hope. You cannot have their victory. We declare you today to be what you are. You are defeated. You are a deceiver. You are an accuser. Hallelujah. God, thank you. God, thank you for victory. Give him praise and glory. This is the conclusion of the message.