In this sermon, the speaker begins by directing the congregation to raise their hands and guiding them to a place of prayer. He quotes a verse from the Bible about prayer and supplication, emphasizing the importance of seeking forgiveness from God. The speaker then shares a personal story about an elderly pastor friend who is filled with joy and growing in his faith as he approaches the end of his life. The sermon concludes with a call to repentance and a prayer for God's help in overcoming sin. The speaker also addresses the issue of compromising with the world and justifying sinful behavior, urging believers to separate themselves from such compromises.

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 PO Box 260, Lindale, TX 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. Sermon-proof Christians, let's find out if you're sermon-proof. That means gospel-hardened in another term. Gospel-hardened. And you'd be surprised where we're going to go with this message. You know, if I'm really going to preach on the anointing tonight, if God's given me this, and the same with Brother Bob this morning, Gary and Don, all the pastors, if we're preaching on the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he's given it to us, it's going to make you think we're preaching right at you. You'll get the idea, you'll go home, if your husband or wife say, do you think he was talking about us? You'll stop us in the halls like people have been stopping us in the halls, Brother, are you sure you weren't, do you get that once in a while, you sure you weren't speaking to me? Well, I'll tell you what, almost every message I've preached, he's been speaking to me. And none of these pastors, including myself, we don't sit down and say, hey, how come you can I get it, Brother so-and-so, Sister so-and-so, how can I get at him? That's not a pastor. No, a pastor's heart is to see Jesus formed, and if anybody comes to my mind when he's preparing a word for me, and I thought, well, maybe that'll fit. The Lord always says, no, David, this is for you, it fits you. And that's my comfort, that the Lord says, no, this is for you. Sermon, proof Christians, believe it or not, God dealt with me on this, dealt with me very strongly about it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray for that unction, anointing of the Holy Spirit, that without, we can do nothing, we can say nothing, we can't get through to anybody. Lord, I ask you for a pastor's heart tonight, for the tenderness of the Holy Spirit, and yet the unction, the anointing, as Pastor Bob was preaching this morning, that spirit of prophecy, O Lord, that is so necessary to preach it and also to hear it tonight. Give us prophetic ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. God anoint me. We covet the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We covet, Lord, the preciousness of your word, and those that are here for the first time, those that are coming regularly, all of us, Lord, tonight, speak to us corporately. And Lord, when the service is finished tonight, let us know that you have dealt with us as children, whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and if you have to chasten us, do so. We receive it with joy tonight. Lord, bless us as we worship together in the word. Amen. Sermon-proof Christians. Now, to be sermon-proof, oh, by the way, before I get to preaching, if you're not here Tuesday night, I don't, where have you been and why aren't you here? Well, we're having communion, God's blessing, the Word's going forth powerfully, and then the Thursday night Bible school from 6.30 on and then Friday night intercession. We're really believing God to find every intercessor in New York that wants to pray. We'd like to see this house filled with praying people, intercessors, Friday night from all true, we call it all city prayer meeting, intercession Friday night. Now, to the message. Sermon-proof Christians. Now, to be sermon-proof is to hear God's word, and you claim to love it, you claim you're going to obey it, but you never act on it. That's what I'm talking about tonight. To be sermon-proof is to become so hardened, the heart is no longer moved by the word of God. You can hear any kind of preaching you want, but you're totally unaffected by what is preached. Now, it's been called in the past by our grandparents as being gospel-hardened. Now, I want you to think of all the Bible stories you know and all the Bible characters that you've heard ever since you were in Sunday school. Who do you think was the most sermon-proof, the most hardened man or character in all the Bible? Who was it that sat under the strongest, straightest preaching and was totally unaffected by it, in fact, hardened under the word of God? Well, it comes to mind right now, first of all, the name that comes to me is Saul. Do you remember, this man received such a clear, powerful word from the Lord, go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, spare them not, slay both men, women, infant and suckling, ox, sheep, camel, and ass. And Saul disobeyed, he heard the word, it was a clear message, go, destroy Amalek. But Saul and the people spared the king Agag, king of the Malachites, alive, and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good. And suddenly Samuel appears, having already preached this sermon, go and slay Amalek. And here, way back over the hillside are all the sheep and the oxen, they're bleeding, you can hear the sheep and the goats, and all the animals making the noises, and here comes Samuel, and he says, Saul, what do I hear? And Saul said, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. I've done everything the sermon said. But he was a liar, of course. Samuel was horrified because he could hear the bleeding of the sheep. And he said to Saul, why did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why didn't you hear the sermon, why didn't you obey it? Instead, you did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now, I ask you, is this man hardened already that he could, is he sermon proof that he could lie to a prophet of God, a man whose very words never fell to the ground, a godly meek man, how can this man lie to his face? Saul said, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and I've gone the way the Lord sent me. And, you know, Samuel standing there, he's not believing, he can hear what his ears seem to be deceiving him. How can this man lie with all of the evidence all around him? There stands King Agag, the king, he was to spare nothing, let alone the king, all the sheep, the oxen, and he said, I've done everything God told me. And then when he got caught red-handed, he said, well, then what is the bleeding of the sheep? What does all this mean? Why is King Agag standing here? Then he makes excuses, he contrives these incredible lies and excuses. He said, well, the people did it. The people took the spoil. They took the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God. Samuel looked at that man, and he got right to the heart of the problem. He knew he was sermon proof, he knew he was hardened to the word of God, and he got right to the point, he knew that Saul was in bondage to witchcraft. He was under total control of demon powers, for rebellion is the sin of witchcraft. This is Samuel speaking to Saul, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is iniquity and idolatry, because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you. Now, this man became so hardened to the word of God that he ends up consulting with the witch. He says to the witch, God doesn't speak to me anymore, no prophet speaks to me, God is silent, and he goes to a witch, the witch of Endor. He winds up dying at an early young age, a decrepit old man in his spirit, totally bereft of the spirit of the living God. But I ask you, do you think he was the most sermon proof man in the Bible? What about Jude and Israel? What about the children of God? God said to them, and these were backslidden people, they're always backsliding, Israel was always backsliding. Moses said, ever since I've known you, you've had a backslidden heart, speaking to Israel. God said, I sent unto you all my servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them saying, oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. But you didn't listen, you didn't incline the ear to turn away from your wickedness. Therefore, my fury and anger was poured forth upon you. Do you know that the children of Israel had one illustrated sermon after another? They had these prophets who would walk with nothing but loincloths. They would have the prophets that would smash jars. They had illustrated sermon after illustrated sermon. Ezekiel said of the children of Israel, this people come saying, come, I pray you, let's go hear what the word is that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto you as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people. And they hear thy words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their own covetousness. In other words, they're going to do their own thing, no matter what you preach. Oh, how they loved to come and hear the preacher. They loved to hear Ezekiel thunder against the sins of the land. They loved it. They amended him all through it. They came because of his eloquence. They came because of the power of his words. Now, he was eloquent only because God's spirit was upon him. Lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song. And in the original Hebrew, you're like a popular singer to them. They're going to a concert, and one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument. That means you're a talented speaker. For they hear the words, but they will not do them. These people became servant-proof to all the prophets, no matter what they said. Look at the people standing. Amen, preach it. They would gather all their friends. Let's go hear what Ezekiel's saying. We have people just like that. They come to Times Square. Let's go down and hear what they... Let's go hear what they're thundering about next. And so they come, and they sit unchanged. They walk out, and it sounds like, well, I've been to a good concert. I have heard a good message. And they walk out totally unaffected by the word of God. Well, were these the most sermon-proof in the Bible? What about Judas? Wouldn't you consider that this would be the most sermon-proof man of all times? Here's an apostle, one of the chosen twelve, called and anointed. He'd cast out devils. He'd heal the sick. For three years, he sat under the ministry of Jesus. God in the fresh taught this man. God in the fresh called them aside and explained the deeper meanings of the teachings. And yet this man, though he had the word explained very clearly to him, he ends up opening his very soul to the devil. He betrays the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And I'm sure most of you would say, well, true, that has got to be it. Judas is the most sermon-proof, gospel-hard man in all the Bible. Well, it's true that all these I've mentioned are sermon-proof. They heard, yet they disobeyed. They pretended they loved the word of God, but they never yielded to it. Ah, but there's another man. There's another character. And this one that I want to bring to your attention tonight is the most shocking in all the word of God. His story breaks me. I tremble over it. I've wept over it. I don't think there's any decay of any man in the Bible that has so shaken me as the story of this man. He started out so spiritual. He was so close to God. So blessed, so anointed. It seems when you begin to read his life that it's incredible that this man could ever take a fall. Especially the depth of degradation that he fell to. His name is Solomon. And his story is shocking, to say the least. Here's a man who starts out led of the Holy Spirit. A tender-hearted king, broken in spirit, a servant of the living God. But this man, I'm going to show you all the steps that he took. I'm going to open his life with the help of the Holy Spirit tonight. And show you the steps that many people are taking today, just like this man. He ends up a sermon-proof idolater. He ends up wallowing in sexual lust and perversion. Now, I'm going to warn you. Up to now, most of you said very comfortable. And you said, well, thank God I'm not like Saul. I'm not sermon-proof. I love the word. I'm not one of those two-faced children of Israel. I'm not a Judas. But we're going to see tonight that the most incredible examples of being sermon-proof, or gospel-hardened, and not out in the street. They're really not the Judas types or the Saul types at all. No, rather they're usually inside the house of God. And like Solomon, there are people who start out right. And they're totally unaware. They're not even aware that they're becoming sermon-proof. They look at others and say, how could they do this? How can they sit under such preaching? And I got to working on this message. And I said, now, God, that could not be me. I preach it. God said, be careful, David. Read it and look at it and examine yourself. I'm telling you now, there's not a person here, not on the stage, not out here that cannot identify what God's going to say to us tonight. And one way or another, God's going to speak to us about these incredible shocking steps to being sermon-hardened. I want you to look at the downfall of King Solomon. But first, I've got to show you what God commanded through Moses about the kings of Israel. He was the king of Israel. Now, why don't you go with me to Deuteronomy 17. Now, you did bring your Bible, didn't you? I said you brought your Bible. Deuteronomy 17. Now, I want to show you something. You have to get this in your mind before you can understand anything I'm about to say about this man. I'm calling Solomon the number one sermon-proof man in the Bible. And I'm going to show you why. Deuteronomy 17, verse 14, beginning to read, When thou art come, this is Moses speaking, when thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and you shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me. Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose, one from among thy brethren, shall thou set king over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. Now, listen to this. Number one, he shall not multiply horses to himself. Will you say this with me? No horses. No horses out of Egypt. It's important now, folks. You know, I usually don't have people quote things after me, but this has to come down. This king shall have no horses to himself, multiply horses, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses. For as much as the Lord has said unto him, he shall henceforth return no more that way. Return no more to where? I know it's cut. Cut everything of Egypt. Have nothing to do with Egypt. Egypt is the world represents sin and the devil in the flesh. You've got nothing else to do with it. All right. Number two, verse 17. Neither shall he multiply wives. Say no harem. No harem. No horses, no harem. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turn not away. Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. Say no hoarding of gold. All right. There it is. Three of them. No horses out of Egypt. No multiplying of wives. No harem and no hoarding of gold and silver. And it shall be when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom. He shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is written before the priest. And the Levites. All right. Moses had also warned. And I'm just going to read it to you. For the Lord is a jealous God. Let's now make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. And they go a whoring after their gods. And you take of their daughters and their sons. And their daughters go a whoring after their gods. In other words, Moses said it's a law of God. And he preached this sermon. Solomon knew it. I'm before David died. David looked at Solomon and said, I want you to heed all the words of the prophet Moses. All the words of the prophet Moses. That was an explicit command. And King Solomon knew all of this. All right. Let's get into the steps that lead to becoming gospel hardener sermon proof. Step number one. A pocket of disobedience. A pocket of disobedience. It could be a single besetting sin. Solomon loved the Lord. But he practiced things contrary to the word of God. Go to first Kings with me, please. First Kings. We're going to go through quite a few scriptures. But we're going to stay mostly in the first book of Kings. First book of Kings. Third chapter. First Kings third chapter. Go to verse three. First Kings third chapter, third verse. And Solomon loved the Lord walking in the statues of David, his father, only. What does it say in New American Standard? Except I like that even better. Except he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. He said, this man loves the Lord. Except. Except it's that exception we're going to talk about. Solomon loved the Lord walking the statues of David, his father, except with this exception, he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. Now, of course, that was strictly forbidden. He was to sacrifice only where God ordained it and especially not in high places. Now, look at me, please. Solomon truly loved the Lord. He had a great respect for God's house. This man to this point was morally clean. With this exception, this one exception in certain areas, he had a weakness. Now, I want you to listen closely. I believe it's possible to really love the Lord with all your heart. To have a heart set for God. You can spend time and money on the work of God. You can put God first. You can become very dedicated. But you can still hold one area of disobedience in your heart. Contrary to the clear word of God. One area. With all his heart, Solomon, more than anything else, wanted divine wisdom. He wanted discernment to know between right and wrong. Because when God appeared to him in a dream, God said to Solomon, what would you have me do for you? And Solomon asked and says, all I want, Father, all I want is to know how to go out and come in among the people. I want to know the difference between right and wrong. Pureness and evil. I want to know the difference between the holy and the profane. An understanding heart was given to him, the Bible said, to discern between good and bad. But when God gave it to him, he also gave a warning. He said, if, if you will walk in my words, in my ways, if you will keep my statutes and my commandments as your father David did, then will I lengthen thy days. In other words, then will I keep my hand upon you. Now Solomon heard a divine sermon right from the very heart of God himself. God in a dream preached this sermon to him. David preached sermon after sermon to him. He'd had an example of David's sin set before him and all the consequences of it. This man had the law, he had judges, he had the writings of Deborah, of Samuel, the prophet Nathan. This man had all the words of God had been printed and preached up to that very day. And here's David's very warning. Take heed to all the statutes the Lord commanded Moses concerning Israel. Solomon knew the word. As a result, in fact, of all that God revealed to Solomon, he wrote 1,005, 1,005 psalms. He wrote 3,000 proverbs. And do you know what some of those proverbs said? Let me read one of them for you. And it's going to be very important. He warned about the evil power of strange women. He said, the strange woman, her end is bitter as wormwood. It's sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on hell. Boy, this man could preach it to others. Boy, this man had the truth in his hand. He had so much revelation, he could write 3,000 proverbs. Oh, that I had that kind of revelation. Oh, that I had that kind of a pen. But this man had a pocket of disobedience, contrary to the word of God. There were areas in his life he totally ignored regarding the commandments of the Lord. Now, do you remember these three things I told you? No horses out of Egypt. No harem. No hoarding of silver and gold. And Solomon broke all three of those commandments. I want you to go with me to the 10th chapter, 1 Kings, the 10th chapter. Get it to read verse 28. No horses out of Egypt. Well, that's verse 26. And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. And he had 1,400 chariots, 12,000 horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots and with the king of Jerusalem. And the king made silver. See, there was to be no silver gold. The king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones. Look at verse 28. And Solomon had horses brought from where? Had horses brought out of Egypt and linen, yarn. And the king's merchants received the linen yard at a price. And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150. And so for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria, did they bring them out of their means? Now, look at me, please. This man had a commandment ringing in his head, in his heart. No horses out of Egypt. No trade with Egypt. No contact with Egypt. And this man opens up a trade route with Egypt. And this man in absolute disobedience to the word of God. He heard it, but he disobeyed it. Horses. Multiplied wives. We're going to see that also. Let's go to 1 Kings 10, 21. Look at verse 21. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. And all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. And they brought every man his present vessels of silver and vessels of gold. In fact, look at verse 21. And all King Solomon's drinking vessels were gold. All the vessels of the house of the force of Lebanon were pure gold. None were silver. There was nothing accounted off in the days of Solomon. Look at me, please. And mother, he brought so much gold. He so flooded Israel, Jerusalem with gold. They didn't even keep an account. And remember what God said? You will not accumulate gold and silver. Now, I want you to listen. I want you to see something. Let's go to 1 Kings 7. You say, well, God gave him all of that money. God only gives money to people. Whether you make 10,000 and he keeps increasing, increasing, increasing. You get to the place, he'll give you so much, he'll test you with it. And this was a test for King Solomon to see if he would use it properly. But look, look at verse, look at 1 Kings, the sixth chapter and the last verse, verse 38. And the 11th year in the month of Baal, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof. And according to all the fashion of it. So he was, how many years in building it? Seven years. Look at verse one now. But Solomon was building his own house. How many years? So he spent seven years for God and 13 years on his own. Boy, that hit me today. Oh, listen. I'm going to move on. I could preach a whole sermon there, but I just don't feel I can stop there. I've got to get right on down. Neither shall he multiply wise to himself. Go to 1 Kings 11. 1 Kings 11. Did Solomon keep his word? Did he obey God's word? Look at, look at 1 Kings 11 chapter, verse one. Let's begin to read. But King Solomon loved, how many? Many. What kind of women? Strange women. Together with the daughter of Pharaoh. Women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidians, and Hittites. Boy, what a harem he had. Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, you shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you. For surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon claimed unto these in love. He cherished them, in other words. And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as was the heart of David his father. Look at me, please. God's sermon, God's message to Solomon was, look, Solomon, you don't have to make any compromises. You can be everything I want you to be. You can achieve anything that I want you to achieve in life without making a compromise to the world, the flesh, or the devil. And I'm telling you that right now, folks. God, without any compromise on our part, can bring us to the place he wants us to go. We don't have to make compromises to reach the goal. God said, if you'll trust me, I'll see you through. But you see, this man, he breaks every one of these commandments. All of Solomon's compromises could be traced to one fatal flaw in his character, one fatal flaw. He refused to close the door on Egypt. I'm going to say it again. He refused to close the door on Egypt like he'd been commanded. You know what Egypt represents, don't you? It's the world and the spirit of the world. It was an attachment he still had in his heart. 1 Kings 3.1. Go to 1 Kings 3, verse 1. How many times did God say no? He said, leave Egypt, have nothing to do in Egypt. Look at verse 1, chapter 3, verse 1. And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh. This was a marriage of convenience. And took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David. I'm going to stop right there. He brought her into the city of David. Now, look, God had already set up the kingdom. Look at verse 2, chapter 2, verse 45. This is God's promise. And King Solomon shall be blessed. And the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. So the king commanded Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, which went out and fell upon him and he died. And the kingdom was what? Established in the hand of Solomon. He had not made any compromise yet. And God was already establishing him. The kingdom was being established in his hand. Oh, but something's about to come out of this man. There's something there in his character. There is a flow in his character. Up to this point, he had not compromised. Up to this point, there's no harem right now. There are no horses at this time. He's not hoarding silver and gold and accumulating it. He didn't know that there's a lurking serpent within his heart. And I can hear him go to God and say, Oh God, all I want is you. I don't want riches. I don't want fame. I don't want acceptance. I don't want glory or reputation among men. It means nothing to me. I just want to know what is right and wrong and know how to serve you and go in and out among this people. That's what he's saying with his heart and with his voice. But he doesn't know what is in his heart. He doesn't know what's there. You may be sitting here tonight and you say, Well, but those are my words. I don't want anything in this world. Everything I have is God's. I don't want anything. I don't want popularity. I've said that so many times. Lord, there's nothing in this world that I want. I've said it sincerely, honestly. And as best I know my heart, I mean it. How many of us said that? There's nothing here that I want. But oh, sometimes there's something lurking down so very, very deep inside our hearts. And I promised God I would not put a guilt clip on you. I asked God to let me do this in tenderness tonight. But I want you to hear what God is saying. God knew there was something in this man, even though he's saying with his lips, God, all I want is you. All I want is discernment. And God gave him that discernment. All I want is righteousness. But God knew because when he appeared to him the second time, God came forth with a powerful warning. He said, and it says, The Lord appeared to Solomon the second time. And he said to him, If you shall at all turn from following me, you or your children, if you will not keep my commandments, you not obey my statutes which I've set before you, but you go and serve other gods and worship them, then I'll cut off Israel out of the land which I've given them. And this house will I cast out of my sight. He said, I'll just drop it. I won't touch it if you will not obey my word. If you'll not deal with these areas of disobedience. There's a wise old preacher who wrote these words. And I want you to listen. He said, Men are rotting inside today. And the pillars of their character are crumbling and decaying from the very same influences that brought down Solomon. The very same thing that brought down Solomon is bringing decay to the house of God among many Christians, even in the ministry. Solomon took a single step of disobedience and it eventually ended up in becoming hardened. He became a lust driven man. He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David. That was her holy place. That's where the ark was. And I'm amused at the theologians. I looked at all the commentaries. I was amused at how the theologians tried to explain Solomon because they know that Solomon is a type of Christ in some aspects. But they're trying to explain why Solomon was justified in bringing this woman into Zion. And they say, well, the only thing God forbid was marrying the Canaanite women, but not the Egyptian women. Another theologian, in fact, up to this time, I thought he was one of my best theologian writers. Not anymore. You know, his explanation, Brother Bob, was he said, the daughter of Pharaoh represents the Gentiles. And they're being brought into the covenant relationship. And so this represents the heathen being brought in to the covenant of grace. This is a perfect example, he said, of God's grace. Nonsense. This was a heathen. This woman was forbidden. If God said you can't even bring a horse out of Egypt, how can he bring a wife? She's one of those strange women he's writing about whose gates go to hell. You know who the daughter of Pharaoh represents in our life? A single cord that still holds you to something of this world. A single cord. A single besetting sin that's not surrendered. That single compromise that you keep justifying. Now, can you picture this heathen queen coming into Zion? The gates are open and here she comes with the trumpets blaring and the people lined the streets. Now, she's got her retinue with her. She's got all her hairdressers out of Egypt and I can just see that great big beehive on her head and all the diamonds. And you know, here she comes with her hairdressers and her maids and her housekeepers and her ungodly heathen priest with her. And in her baggage, she's loaded down with her little gods of gold and silver, the little mice out of Egypt that somehow the children of Israel love to worship. And here she comes marching in to Zion and I can see her looking around and because you see she comes from this very civilized society in Egypt and to her, Zion, Jerusalem is just a frontier town and these are uneducated people and this is just an emerging nation and I can just see her looking in and she whispers to a priest, my temple goes right there. This is going to be easy. She marches in. I wonder if there are any priests lining the streets that remember what Moses wrote. I wonder if anyone turned to the other and said, no, this is wrong. This is the very thing Moses forbid. No contact with Egypt. Not a horse, not a wife. Where is the sense of conviction? Where is anybody that believes the word of God? This is wrong. This is sin. Was there nobody that stood up to Solomon? Did Solomon have no tinge of conviction at all when he sees this ungodly heathen woman coming right in to the holy place? Right in to the holy place. Moses said, I want everything of Egypt severed from this day on. Never again in Israel's history will you have any contact with Egypt. And I tell you, I believe Solomon could give you all kinds of excuses why he had to go through with it. You see, this is government policy. I'll tell you what, we've got Christians with policies. They have a policy to do what they think is right no matter what is preached. They'll say to you right in your face, you can preach on the anointing of the Holy Ghost, give a dozen scriptures, and they say, well, I don't see it that way. That's their policy. You see, this is policy. And Solomon could have said, yeah, I know what the word says. Yes, I've heard all that Moses said in his sermons about mixture with the world in Egypt. But in no way is this going to affect my love for my God. I'm going to win her to Jehovah. Oh, how many young women I've heard tell me that I know he's an alcohol. I know he drinks. I know he smokes. I know he curses. I'm going to get him saved. Oh, yes, dear, you're going to get him saved. You spend the next 30 years trying and regretting every move you've made. Rather to save him, he's dragging you down. He would say to you, there are certain things that go with my job. They go by job. See, I'm king. I've got to be king to everybody. In no way is this going to hinder my work and dedication to the house of God. I'm on guard. I'm in control. This is strictly business. That's the same old excuse being used by compromisers in the church today, by those who love God and the world too. They'll say, yeah, I know what the Bible says about separation, about not touching the unclean thing. Yeah, brother, I've heard all the sermons and all the yelling you've done about television and about theater and about separation. But you see, this just goes with what I do. See, this is my livelihood. I've heard that from people in the theater. That's what I do. That's what my talent is. I'm in control. I don't see any conflict. God hasn't shown me anything different. I love the Lord. I'm called by God. I've got everything under control. The Lord knows I mean to do well. The Lord knows I love him. I don't see it your way. It's not a matter of seeing it my way. It's a matter of seeing what the Word says and believing and obeying it. They hear, but they won't obey. When the Word comes against their policy, their way of thinking, they disobey and they go on their way as if God winks at it. But you know that compromise, that single compromise opened the door for a flood of compromises. Because when he brought this queen into the holy places to live, then he went to Egypt after her. He set full horses right after he opened the door of trade. And then, of course, the day came where the house... Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll tell you about that later. Let me read something else. Great old man of God. And this is one of my good friends. He's dead now, but this is a writer that I really enjoy. Let me read what he said. It's a fatal delusion that there's a mysterious gift of God called grace. A mysterious gift of God called grace, which allows a man to sleep on the lap of some Delilah without being robbed of his strength, some magic power to keep a man in the right even against his own deliberate choice. As if grace is some magic power. You do what you please, but this power magically keeps you in the hand of God. That's nonsense. It's not true. Let's go to step number two. You see, if you've got... I'm going to tell you right now, there's going to come a time that you're going to explode into what we're going to see unfolding here tonight. If you're sitting here right now and that compromise there, and God's already dealt with you, you know what the word says and you're going to persist in it. All right? If you do, you're going to come to step number two. Solomon was a half and half believer. A half and half believer. He compartmentalized his life. He's going to have a section of his life for God, a section of his life over here for his pleasure and his personal life. He's going to divide it now. Now, I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened. I don't know if a prophet went to it. I don't know if Nathan was still living or not. Somebody must have gotten to him because he got halfway convicted about this woman. He got halfway convicted and he decided to make a halfway repentance and a halfway change. No other church is full of that. Halfway repentance, halfway conviction, halfway measures to make it right. I want to show it to you. I want you to go to 2 Chronicles. I want you to go to 2 Chronicles and chapter 8. Little by little, the Holy Ghost is going to convict us all before we're done. Are you getting a little bit of conviction right now? All right. Let's see what he says. 2 Chronicles 8, chapter verse 11. And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David under the house that he had built for her. For he said, my wife shall not dwell in the house of David, king of Israel. Why? Because, and the King James says, because the places are holy whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come. Then Solomon, see what he did. He made a half-hearted repentance. He was halfway convicted and he moved to halfway downtown. You know what he did? There was a breach in the wall called Milo. Milo means break or breach in the wall. And that was just, you could see it. It was just a number of hundred yards down the boulevard or down the end. He filled in this hole in the wall and he built this house for the daughter of Pharaoh. And later they say that the harem went next to that. Because you see, if you're just going to compromise here, it's going to end up in a harem, so to speak. It's just going to blossom out. And then after he sets this woman, he's convicted. He said that every time he went into the house of God, that thing started to nag him. That thing, it got a hold of him. God began to put his finger on it. And he said, this is not right. This is not right. There's something I want to do right. I want to do it. How many times every people, they come to me, I'll come right off the platform. They'll meet me here in the back. Oh, well, you don't understand. I'm not where I ought to be, but I really mean well. I mean well. So help me. God knows I mean well. I don't want to hear that anymore. I mean well. God, that's not enough. God said, don't talk about meeting right. Do right. It's not enough to mean well. It's not enough to say, well, God knows my heart. God knows I mean well. My wife shall not dwell in the house of David because the places are holy where to the ark of the Lord has come. You know, a true repentance would have cost him too much. He would have said, you know what he should have done? If he was really repentant, he should have shipped her back to Egypt. He should have got on his knees. We have so many people say, well, brother, brother, look what I did. I don't watch Dallas anymore. You moved down and you moved it down the block. You see, I'm a little more careful now. I'm watching the knob. Sure you are. You're watching it turn. Yes. Jesus said, if your eye offends you, put a patch on it. Cut it out. You know, a few years ago, our young business manager, his name was Ron, 33 years old. He had a cancer in the eye. He went to Houston, a cancer specialist, and they gave him a laser operation. And they told him, it's all clear. It's all gone. I had told him, my wife had told him time and time again, Ron, that I may need to come out if we don't see healing. Let's let's just if it's cancer, let's cut it out. The doctor said, no, it's all gone. Of course, it wasn't all gone. And within three months, it spread all through his body and Ron died. And the doctor, they called him up and he was shocked. He said, I thought I got it all out. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. You'd better get it all out, folks. You better cut the cord to Egypt. Everything in this world, I'll tell you something. God is so merciful. Solomon, he's built the temple now. Let's skip down about 20 years now. And he's built the temple. He's built his houses. But you see, he's growing now and disobedience is snowballing. Do you know disobedience never lays still? It always snowballs. But you see, he doesn't realize his deeds because God's still blessing him. God's still hearing his prayers. Oh, we serve a merciful Lord. God is so patient and so merciful with this man. You see, I believe that's the most difficult place for a Christian to be. Listen, the most difficult place for a Christian to be is where Solomon is right now. Well, there's a strange love. There's a strange thing that has a hold of him. But he's still going three times a year to the temple to pray. Now, we go every Sunday, perhaps. But this thing that's got a hold of the heart, that one thing that God has dealt with, and now it becomes another thing. But you see, God is still answering prayer. Solomon still had the joy of the Lord in his heart. In fact, he said he had joy and gladness in the presence of the Lord. I believe this man could still cry. But what a dangerous place because there's joy and gladness. And yet there's an area of disobedience. There's something that's not been dealt with. The Word is not the absolute authority. And there's a blind spot. And that blind spot is the blessing of God. Solomon was getting hard even though God was blessing him. Even though God was answering his prayers, under the blessings he's growing hard. How many Christians get blessed? They feel God's Spirit. They get happy in God. And they say, everything must be all right because God is blessing me. Folks, God's blessing is because he's merciful. And a blessing of God is meant to bring us to repentance, the Bible says. The goodness of the Lord is supposed to lead us to repentance. I'm going to tell you this, folks. Beloved, sometimes blessings can blind you terribly. All right, step number three. Disobedience to God's Word will eventually end up in a total breakdown. A total breakdown of all your morals and all your Christian character. There'll come an explosion where it'll all come out at once. Total perversion, total giving of oneself over to the world and the flesh and the devil. I want you to go to 1 Kings 11. Go back to 1 Kings, the 11th chapter. I want you to start reading verse 4. It came to pass when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went... Listen to this. Solomon went after Astaroth, the goddess of the Zidians. And after Milcom, the Abomination, the Ammonites, Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord. And went not fully after the Lord, did David his father. Then did Solomon build a high place for Shamos, an Abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem. And you know what? He's building all of these temples opposite the temple of God. For Malik, the Abomination, the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed to their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him. Look at me, please. You begin... Here it is. You begin with one blatant disobedience, a blatant act of disobedience to a clear word of God. Then you add to that a half-hearted conviction for sin, half-hearted repentance, halfway measures to make things right. Then you end up just where Solomon is right here now. He's now gospel-hardened. He's absolutely sermon-proof. The word of God has no impact on him whatsoever. Now, you look at this man now. He's an old, decrepit man. This man is really not old by our standards today. But this man is one of the most shameful characters possible. Where once stood a single house for the daughter Pharaoh, now stands a whole house, a harem house. There are a thousand strange women in that house, all vying for his attention, all wanting tax money. And he built those things by taxing the people. In fact, it was said when Solomon was gone, his son Rehoboam, he said, you've laid a heavy burden on us too heavy to bear. He built it through tax money, loaded down the people. This man now doesn't go to his harem. He doesn't want to go near his harem because he gets no more pleasure out of life. He's silent and angry. God is silent and angry at him. He's no longer praying. He has no joy. His heart's sick. He's writing pitiful prose now about the vanity and uselessness of life. The whole city of Jerusalem is polluted with false temples and false gods. He's drinking heavily now. His gorgeous houses give him no joy. His beautiful gardens are boring to him. All of the friends that he used to walk and talk with, they're now nothing but bitterness to him. His heart is full of idolatry. His days of touching God's throne are over. Is this the same man, the same man who at the dedication of the temple prayed this eloquent prayer? Listen to it. Oh, Jehovah, when prayer and supplication is being made by any man which shall know the plague of his own heart, and if he spreads forth his hands toward this house, oh God, hear from heaven and forgive him. Give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land that thou gavest. What a pitiful picture. Look, I've got a friend, pastor friend and evangelist friend in Texas, Brother Leonard Ravenhill. He's in his late 70s. He wrote Why Revival Carries and a number of other powerful, powerful books. And he's a white-haired old prophet of God. And it, you know, it's just wonderful, it's just marvelous to see people who are approaching their final days and the joy of the Lord is in their heart. There's a beauty of Christ. And you see them closing out their days, growing in the Lord. But what a pitiful thing to see people reaching, they go into their 60s and then into their 70s and some into their 80s and they get meaner and meaner. They get more wicked, they get more vile. I just got a call recently from somebody said, Brother David, isn't Brother so-and-so your friend? I said, yeah, I know him quite well. He was a pastor of one of the largest Assembly of God churches in America. This just happened a few weeks ago. I said, didn't you hear they've indicted him for making obscene telephone calls? And the man's probably in his 70s now making obscene telephone calls. What happened? It went way back to that one single act of disobedience. Not obeying the Word of God, not doing what God said to do. Not laying that sin down. Not breaking that tie to Egypt. You go ahead and cling to your idol. Justify those areas of disobedience. Excuse your sin. But one day it's going to break out into perversion and apostasy. Ah, but there's another side. There's another man. And I can't close without talking about him. Hallelujah. Here's a man who gave up everything to follow the Lord. Everything. Now Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, but Moses fled from her. I want you to go to Hebrews. I want you to get a little happy before we close. Hebrews. So you don't have to go the way of Solomon. Hebrews 11th chapter. Verse 24. Now remember Solomon. He marries her and brings her into the holy place. Look at verse 24. Chapter 11, Hebrews. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Glory to God. Boy, I feel like just stopping and preaching right there. Choosing rather to suffer a friction with God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures, all the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect of the recompense of the reward. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. He wasn't running from the king, but he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Oh, glory be to God. Hallelujah. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And I'll tell you what, that decision cost him everything. Everything. Because one day he said, I don't want this. I want nothing to do with Egypt. And he fled. I don't want to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. I'm the son of the living God. And this man had his eyes on Jesus Christ, my Bible says. Esteeming the reproach of Christ. I don't have to say any more about separation than that. You esteem the reproach of Jesus Christ greater than the world, greater than the theater, greater than your job, greater than your business. You esteem the reproach of Christ greater. It's going to cost you something. Any preacher tells you otherwise, not telling you the truth. It's going to cost you something, may cost you everything. You might be out of a job, maybe out of a paycheck. You may spend some years in the backside of a wilderness saying, what's it all about? You may have a time of confusion. You say, God, where am I? I paid the price. I stepped out. It'll be sometimes like God's forsaken you. It'll feel that way. But does it pay? Oh, let me, let me, let me show you how it pays. And I'm going to close now. But listen, does it, does it pay? Does it pay to hear the word and obey it and not get sermon hardened? Let's compare the two. Listen to Solomon. Now, he wrote most of Ecclesiastes in his final days and listen to what Solomon says. Whatsoever my eye desired, I kept not from them. I withheld nothing from my, I withheld not my heart from any joy. Then I looked on all that I had done. He's looking back over his whole lifetime now and behold, all was vanity. And vexation of spirit. And there was no profit under the sun. And not a good thing I've accomplished in my life. He's rich. He's famous. He's had everything. He's got a thousand women. Let me, let me, you want to hear the rest of it? Therefore I hated life. Think of somebody in their seventies. Looking back over their life or sixties. Therefore I hated life. My heart took no rest at night. What happened to fools has happened to me. I praised the dead more than the living. I kept my riches to my own hurt. I kept my riches to my own hurt. I dug a pit and I fell into it. My wisdom became a grief to me. My appetite was never filled. Now I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is a trap. And her hands are as bands. Had I pleased God, I would have escaped her. As a sinner, I was taken by her. Isn't that awful? Isn't that pitiful? That shakes me to the core. I'm 57 years old right now. And I see the sixties coming. Lord gives me strength. The Lord will not return until I have a few more years or whatever. I don't want to go into my later years degenerating. I don't want to look back and say it's all been in vain. I don't want to look back with regrets. I want to go out like Moses. He's 120 years old. His eyes are not dim. And all of his juices, the Bible said, are flowing in his body. He's as strong as the day he was a youth. Hallelujah. And God says, Moses, it's time. And I'll tell you what, the Bible says of Moses, God knew him face to face. And I believe that God, I believe the Lord Jesus Christ and all of heaven and all the angels. I don't know if they consulted and say, the earth has had him long enough. Bring him home. Bring him home. I'm sure heaven must have had a conference. And the father said, now we'll take him to the mountain. We'll send our chariot and take his body so they can't even find it. We'll let him come back in the transfiguration on the mountain. He goes to the mountain at full strength. He runs up the mountain like he's 20 years old. To die. Oh, hallelujah. And God took Moses home on that mountaintop. And then he wrote his epitaph. He wrote this. This is what God said. And he wants us to hear it. And there arose not a prophet sense in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face. In all signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Pharaoh to Egypt to Pharaoh. I wonder how you're going out. I wonder how you're going to go. Do you have tonight? Any area in your life? Is there any? Hear me. Is there any area in your life God's put a finger on? Is there an idol? Is there a cord that attaches you to Egypt? Got it. Cut it tonight, please. Because if you don't, it's going to open a floodgate to the very thing I'm talking about. Tonight, will you stand? Beloved, I've been praying today and asking the Holy Ghost to send conviction on this house again tonight like he did this morning. Like he's done in all of our services, but especially tonight to convict us. Look at me. We don't consider this the only church in New York where God's moving. Not at all. I can tell you one thing. I unburden my heart to you. Not know God was with the word. Not believe what he gave me tonight was his truth. I don't care if you've been walking with God for 15 years. I don't care how much of God you've known. I don't know how much. I don't care how much God's answered your prayer, how much discernment or the power of the Holy Ghost that's been in your life in the past or anything else. I'm asking you now. Is there an area that God's dealing with? One area. Are you disobeying God? Has he told you something you're not doing? Have you backed off of something you'd promised God? No guilt trip. No, no. But get rid of that character flaw tonight. Get rid of that thing. Send Pharaoh's daughter home and cut the string tonight no matter what it cost you. Cut it. Lay that besetting sin down. Lay that attachment down. And I promise you God's glory will touch your heart tonight. Heavenly Father, by your spirit, convict us tonight. Oh God, convict us. We can't play games, Lord, because time is getting too short. Jesus is coming. We're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And we're going to answer for messages like we heard all this past week and again this morning and tonight. We're going to answer for it. Those of you here tonight, answer for the word of God that's preached here right now. Holy Ghost, come with conviction. Holy Spirit, convict us. God, break that thing that holds and binds us. Curse it, break it, bind it. If you've got something in your life, some disobedience, bring it down to God in the front here. We call this an altar. Now, look, if you've been coming time and time again, I want you to wait until all the rest of the people come. If you've been down here five or six times, please just wait in your seat. We'll give you time. But for the others that are here tonight, Holy Spirit, has he convicted you? Did you sense God speaking to you tonight? Did you feel the knife of the Holy Spirit saying, this is for you, it's for you? Up in the balcony, go to the mid aisles, come down either side, near to the front, wherever you're at, get out of your seat and come and stand here. We're going to be God for a miracle in your life tonight and for cleansing and God to break that thing, cut the tie, to cut it tonight, break it completely and set you free. That you can walk out of here delivered tonight, absolutely delivered, set free from all bondage, every sin that ties you down, up in the balcony. I know God's convicting. You feel that tug, move out of your seat, go to the center and down either aisle. You're here at the main floor. I want you to come now as they're singing. Just step right out of your seat and join us here while the Spirit's moving on. Jesus is the Lord of all, Jesus is the Lord of all, the King that answers my call. Is that tug, that pull in your heart? We don't try to force anything in this church. But even strange people that are convicted sometimes just resist the Holy Ghost, try to shake it off. Don't shake off that conviction. This may be the night God's calling you. This will be the last invitation up in the balcony here in the main floor. If you feel the pull, the tug of the Holy Spirit, obey the Lord. We open the alders now to those, anyone in the church, you feel that drawing the Holy Spirit, you can come. Jesus is the Lord of all, Jesus is the Lord of all, the King that answers my call. Jesus be the Lord of all, Jesus be the Lord of all, Jesus be the Lord of all, Jesus be the Lord of all, the King that answers my call. You that have come forward, look this way please. All of you that have come forward, look here for just a moment. Did you come up here tonight to have Jesus break all the strings and all the cords that have you bound up? If you did, raise your hand. Raise your hand. Keep it raised right now. Just hold it up. And this is to say, Jesus, I came here to be changed. I want every cord breaking, broken down that's hold me to the world, to my sins, to the lust, to the flesh, the world and the devil. I want it broken. I want to break through Holy Ghost to a new place in Jesus. I want new hope. I want new life tonight. I want you with your hand raised to pray this. Now, listen, that prayer, if it comes from your heart, the inner side, right inside of you, if you pray this from your innermost being, God will hear it. God will hear it. He said, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. I don't care what you've done. Jesus can make you new. He can make you new. He can break every habit. He can break every power of Satan that binds you. You can be free tonight. I want you to pray it loud and clear right now. Dear Jesus, I need you. I need forgiveness. I need to be changed. I confess every filthy sin. Everything I've done, I'm sorry. I don't want to repent just halfway, but all the way. With all my heart, I repent. Jesus, I trust you to touch me and come into my heart and fill me with your presence and change me. I can't change myself. You have to help me. Change me, Jesus. Heal me. Break the power of sin. Help me tonight. Now, just thank him right now while you're standing in your own words. Say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. This is the conclusion of the tape. Listen close. How many of you that are standing up here have come forward for the first time in this church? Raise your hand, please. Your first time. All right. I'd like each of you to come backstage here. Come up these stairs right across the stage. I've got counselors waiting for you. We've got counselors. You're here for the first time. Up those stairs. Everyone had your hand raised. Go this way, please. Right backstage, my dear. That's fine. God bless you, honey. Everybody had your hand raised. We'd like to pray with you. This is the conclusion of the tape. Amen.