In this sermon, the speaker expresses his disgust and disappointment with what he perceives as lies being preached. He recounts a personal experience where he felt physically ill and wanted to leave because of the terrible preaching. He then goes on to discuss the mark of a mature Christian, referencing Ephesians 4:14. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not being easily swayed and being grounded in the faith. He also warns against idolatry and false doctrines, urging listeners to lay down their sins and cling to the truth of God's word.

The Doctrine of Jezebel. Go to Revelation, the second chapter, and let's start reading before I pray. Revelation, second chapter, 18. Revelation 2. And the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these things, these things saith the Lord, the Son of God, who hath eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience in thy works, and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding, means nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and the hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine. Verse 24. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you no other burden, but that which I have already hold fast till I come. He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches. Heavenly Father, we want to hear what the Spirit is saying to us tonight. I bind every demon spirit, every lying spirit, every prince of piety, power of darkness, that would hinder the word of God from being heard. Lord, minister your life tonight. Come forth with unction and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Lord, complete the work tonight. Finish the work in our hearts that you have begun. Let your word find a place. Oh God, deal with this in your love. Deal with this in your power and your authority. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Now, I have read to you from the book of Revelation, and this book is not the revelation of John. If you go back and look at it, it's called the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's a revelation of his heart. It's a revelation of his love for the church. It's a revelation of his wrath against sin. It's a revelation of what he is going to bring, and there's a wonderful promise if you turn to verse chapter 1. Look at verse 3. A marvelous promise to those who preach it, those who read it, those who hear it. Revelation 1 3. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Now, if we believe that, we can understand and anticipate by the Holy Ghost a special blessing on the Word tonight, because we're dealing with it as God has revealed it. Now, I could subtitle this message tonight, The Terrible Danger of Being Seduced by a False Doctrine. The Terrible Danger of Being Seduced by a False Doctrine. Now, the words I give you tonight, the words I've read to you came directly from the lips of Jesus. Now, if you have a red-letter Bible, you see them in red letters. Isn't that true? They're right from the very words of Jesus Christ himself. And look at verse 20. Listen to what Jesus is saying. I have a few things against you, because you suffer, and you permit that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed unto idols. Now, look this way, the Greek word for Jezebel here is a synonym which means false doctrine. That's what Jesus is. In fact, Jezebel, the Old Testament epitomizes. She became a synonym in the New Testament for all false doctrine. When you see Jezebel in the New Testament, we're talking about false, heathenish doctrines that are creeping into the church of Jesus Christ. Now, in fact, I read that to you in verse 24. Look at that. As many as have not this doctrine, he's talking about Jezebel as being a false doctrine. Now, here's a group of people. These are people that are children of God, and the scripture says they're full of charity and good works, and they're patient. But you see the eyes of Jesus suddenly appearing, eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. He's walked out of a fire, and his feet are brilliant brass. His eyes are ablaze. Now, why are the eyes of Jesus ablaze? Now, remember, John is the one who wrote this. He was the one who laid his hand upon the bosom of Jesus, and he was that beloved one. But now, John, in his vision here, doesn't even recognize this man. He falls as a dead man before him. His eyes are blazing. The very one he laid his head on, his bosom upon, now he sees him coming to the church, and his eyes are on fire. There's something terribly wrong in this church. Now, listen, I'm not going to get into all the doctrine of whether these seven churches of Asia represent seven dispensations. I'm not going to get into that, because I find all these seven types live in the church today. There are Ephesians here, there are Laodiceans, we have it all today. I can't tie it down. I'm not that nail in my theology. And I believe with all of my heart, he's speaking to the church of Jesus Christ today. Jesus is not just talking about a little group in Asia. He's talking about what he sees down through the church ages until his very coming. He said there's going to be something creep into the church, and it was there at the time, and this is a message. He said there's something happening, and I'm going to send judgment upon this church, and I'm going to make an example to all the churches. You read it right there so that all the churches will understand. Now, what's happened? There's certain members of this church that are actually, in spite of their good works, in spite of their charity, in spite of their patience, are selling out to the devil. They're absolutely being sold out to the devil. They are under the seduction of a false doctrine. They're under the spell of a false teaching, a teaching that came to them disguised as the holy word of God, but in fact is of Satan himself. And this is very alarming to me, and that's why God's put this on my heart. There's a seduction of the servants of God here. In fact, God himself, or Christ himself, is saying, my servants, seducing my servants. This is first and foremost a seduction, first of the ministry of pastors, teachers, and evangelists. And friends, I believe we've come to that very day in the church right now. When God, when Christ is coming with his eyes ablaze, he sees what he saw in the church at Thyatira. This Thyatira condition is in the church right now. A church doing good works. A church speaking much about faith. A church willing to give itself in charitable works. But he said, I've got something against you. You're permitting something in your midst. You're not dealing with the seduction that's crept in. You're letting it go on. And I'm telling you, I can't do that tonight as a servant of God, having seen what I've seen in the Spirit. I cannot stand by on the judgment day and have Jesus say, you suffered Jezebel in your church. You suffered to say nothing. You wouldn't say anything about the seduction in my house. I can't do that. Neither can Don or Brother Barbara or Gary or any of our ministry staff. These seduced teachers, the Bible said, were producing children of seduction, children of fornication. He said, I'm going to cast you and your children into a bed. And this is exactly what's happened. The teaching of spiritual fornication has become the main attraction of the church in many sections. Now, I'm not painting this brush. I'm not painting everybody with this brush. I'm talking about what I see arising in the church. And I want to say in no uncertain terms tonight, it's dangerous, critically dangerous to sit under false teaching. False doctrine can damn you is probably quicker than any other sin on the face of the earth. And I believe that false doctrine by false teachers are sending more people to hell than all the drug pushers and all the boo sellers and all the atheists on the face of this earth. Did you hear what I say? You said that's an overstatement, not according to what I see. I'm going to say it again. False teachers and false preachers and false doctrine is sending more people to hell than all the drug pushers and all the pimps and prostitutes on the face of the earth. Multitudes of blind Christians are going to churches and singing and shouting and praising the Lord in churches that are enslaved by false doctrine, and they don't even know it. Thousands are sitting under this, and they're having this gospel poured into them. In fact, they're so blind, they're going out saying, isn't it wonderful? Isn't it glorious? And they're blind that they're sitting under a false, completely false doctrine. Now, Christ doesn't take this matter lightly, or otherwise his eyes wouldn't be on fire. And he comes to warn and to expose, to save his people from seduction. And you and I better get serious about it. And I'm telling you now, it is serious about where you go to church. I'm not giving a commercial for Times Square Church. Not at all. First of all, when I'm finished, many of you may not want to come back after tonight. And I'm not being facetious, and I'll tell you why. In fact, my message will show you why you won't want to come back. But you know, it's serious where you go to church. It's serious the kind of message that you sit under. It's serious the kind of teaching that has your heart. Selling out to Satan conjures up all kinds of thoughts about burned out drug addicts and emaciated AIDS patients, and those atheists are screaming out against God. We say those people are sold out. No, the selling out to the devil is happening in seminars, teaching seminars. It's happening in churches where this false gospel is being preached. There are more people selling out to the devil in church than out there. It's happening in teaching conventions as thousands are saying, isn't it wonderful not even knowing that they're being seduced? Now, the mark of a seduced Christian is that he's always carried about. He's seeking some new, different, strange kind of teaching. He's always looking for that which tickles the ear. The Bible warns, be not carried about with different and strange doctrines. Hebrews 13.9. Now, that means in Greek, don't be driven, thither and yawn. Don't be carried place to place, from place to place. Now, this means, listen very closely. Now, I'm not speaking of those rare times when you as a rooted, mature Christian will go with a friend to hear a man or God that you know is walking in holiness. You know that when you go there, you're going to hear the truth. There's no doubt about it, and you go, and you're blessed, and you come back in courage. I'm not talking about those rare times. I'm talking about the Christian getabouts, the spiritual tumbleweeds who are carried around by all the winds and waves of doctrine in the land today. They don't land anywhere. They don't land anywhere. They're always tumbling. They're moving with every wind and wave of doctrine that comes along. They have no roots. Their ears are always striving to hear something new, something sensational, something entertaining, pleasing to the flesh. They're like the Athenians that Paul preached to, who spent their whole time in nothing else, the Bible said, but either to tell or to hear some new thing. In fact, Paul warned Timothy. He said, the day is coming when they will not endure sound doctrine. And brother, sister, there's not a mistake there when it says endure sound doctrine. That means just what it was. Stay with it until it finds its mark. Stay with it until it creates the fruit in your heart. But some people don't want to stay and dig. They want to stay until God exposes them. They don't want that. They will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They'll have heaps of teachers that go around just preaching their soothing message and scratching their itching ears. And the reason some of you are not going to come back here, we don't scratch ears. We refuse to scratch any itching ear. And the mark of a true mature Christian is that he is not tossed to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine, but he has roots. He's already got his feet under the table. He's already been led into green pasture. He or she is not fooled by all of the false doctrines that come along. In fact, if you're walking in the Holy Spirit and you've dealt with a sin in your life, the first thing God gives you back is your discernment. And when you walk in that purity before the Lord, you can smell it a mile away. You can sense it, and you can just sit there. Within five minutes, you can turn to your husband or wife or your friend and say, uh-uh, something's wrong. There's a sound that's not right. The Holy Ghost will bear it to your heart. You'll know it. You don't have to have somebody else tell you. You don't have to study books to tell you whether it's right or not. The Holy Ghost is there, and He tells you this is wrong. This does not ring true. Have you had that experience? I was in a meeting in Texas one time a number of years ago, and everybody was flocking to hear this man. I sat in the balcony. Hundreds and hundreds were there, and it looked all right, but he hadn't been speaking three minutes. I grabbed my stomach, and I grabbed Gwen, and she's felt the same thing. I said, honey, I'm sick. Hold me. I'm about to get up and rebuke this man. This man is full of the devil himself. This man is satanic. And all of those, and somebody got people sitting there, clapping and carried up, and that man was telling one big lie after another. Nothing but lies. Terrible lies. Horrible lies. And I had to hold on, and I got up, and I was going out, and I was pale, and my wife was sick, and everybody was raving, and one of my friends came up to me and said, Hello, Wilkerson. What do you think? I said, just let me out of here. Just let me out of here. I wanted to vomit. I wanted to vomit. It was so terrible, and I went on weeping that there were so many blind Christians. Blind! The mark of a mature believer is found in Ephesians Ephesians 4. Please follow me tonight. Let's go into the Word of God. Ephesians, the fourth chapter. You told me you loved the Word, didn't you? Let's get into it. Ephesians 4, verse 14. I'm going to show you the mark, show you the mark of a mature Christian is not tossed to and fro. Verse 14. Well, let's start verse 13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, to the measure of the stats of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth, or from now on, be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even to Christ. Look at me now, please. Do you see that? Do you see that the mature are not tossed to and fro? When you hear, hey, you ought to go hear this man. You ought to hear this woman. Ask a few questions. Are people repenting? Are people falling before God and are sins being exposed? Ask a few questions before you go. Now, there are only two doctrines according to the word of God. There's the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and there's the doctrine of Jezebel. We're going to talk about both of them tonight. I want you to turn to Titus. Just keep going right. For you from teen challenge over here, fellas, if you find Hebrews, go back one chapter there. Some of these boys have just been saved. I'm not being facetious. I want to help them. It's after Timothy and just before Hebrews, the book of Titus, book of Titus. I look at verse 10 with me to chapter two, Titus, second chapter, verse 10, not for learning with stealing, not stealing, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn what? The doctrine of God, our savior in all things. There you have the doctrine of Jesus Christ laid before us. All right. First of all, this is a doctrine. If you want to judge doctrines now, if you want to know whether, and the whole purpose of this message and to find out whether you, now you may be a visitor here tonight. And I think if you've been coming to tiny square church, you have every right to judge us by the word of God. You have, you must judge us by the word of God. I want to find out tonight and I want you to listen closely and let the Holy spirit speak clearly to your heart. Let's find out whether or not you're sitting under a false teacher. Let's find out if you're sitting under false gospel. There's no doubt about it. You don't have to be in the dark about nothing could be clear in all the word of God. First of all, the true doctrine of Jesus Christ is a doctrine that teaches the denial of all ungodliness and worldly lust in this life, not just an eternity, but here and now. I want you to go to, uh, let's just go on verse 11, Titus two 11 for the grace of God that, uh, that bring a salvation out of all men. And what does the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ teach us teaching us that what denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We should live soberly, righteously, and Godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from what all iniquity and do what purify himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak. What does the doctrine of Jesus speak? What do true prophets of God speak? These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority that no man despised. Is that in your Bible? Now, let me ask you a question. Look at me, please. The church you go to, and I'm not running down your church. I'm not going to name it. I don't even know what church you go to. I'm speaking Bible principles. When you go there, you just leave feeling good. You feel happy. Has your pastor stood in all spiritual authority? And as he asked the Holy Spirit to come in and probe you to the very depths, has he stood there with a broken heart and said to himself, and you can hear it in his words, I'll not let you go out that door carrying your sins with you. You may get angry at me. You may leave me. But I will say to you in tears that God has called us to preach a word that brings forth a godly response. He's here to purify himself a holy people. And the message of the grace of God is that the grace of God has been sent to teach us how to deny ungodliness and worldly lust to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And I want to tell you, if you're going to church and you can hide your sins and you can walk out and go right to your idols without feeling uncomfortable about it, you better watch out. You better watch out because it's going to get easier and easier to hide more sins than that. You're going to allow to add idol upon idol until finally you'll not feel the conviction. You'll know to hear a word that will bring the conviction. The scripture says, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That's the teaching. And we're to rebuke with all authority. God has given me the right as one who wants to walk before him in purity, to stand here tonight with all spiritual authority, not to lord it over you, not to beat you to the ground, but to come with a broken heart and say that God is going to have a New York City of holy people. If he has to go out, bypass every church and go out and get drug addicts and alcoholics off the street, God's going to raise up a holy people in this city. You say, are you mad, David? No, I'm not. I, I, other than at the devil, I have people call us and write to our office and we had it this past week and people write to us and say, and they're broken hearted. They say, brother Dave, our pastor, and this is in Pentecostal churches, our pastor gets up and he keeps saying, I'm not here to preach against sin. I'm here to lift up Jesus. Well, how else do you lift up Jesus, but getting the sin out so you can lift holy hands to him. I recently got a letter, a pitiful letter from a lady who attends a church and she's so burdened. She loves the church. She loves her pastor and her children are happy in the church and she's just praying, oh God, do something in my church. And the pastor keeps saying none of that condemnation preaching from my pulpit. I'm here to get rid of your fears. I'm here to get rid of your condemnation and your guilt. Well, I don't want God to get rid of the condemnation and guilt until it's done. It's good work. Then you have a right. And only then after the condemnation, the guilt has shown us the terror of sin and exceeding sinfulness of sin, then the Holy Ghost comes and cleanses. There are two extremes. You see, you have the preacher who gets up and he thunders that, that sadist message at people and he just cutting people. It's, it's harsh. It's cold. It's legalistic. It drives you to good works only. That's not what God wants. That's as bad as the other side. And the other side is to stand up and preach like a coward, afraid to hurt anybody in the congregation, afraid to preach the truth because of losing some money or support in the church. Or I have people like to say, well, brother Dave, I hear you preach against this prosperity message, but you don't mind. My preacher preached prosperity, but he preaches against sin. He names it every once in a while. Every once in a while, I hear him say holiness. He uses those terms, holiness. Yes. The terms are there. The words are right. I'm not talking about using the terms. I'm not talking about words. I'm talking about what the Holy Ghost produces in you as a result of those words. First Timothy. Go left from Titus. First Timothy. Sixth chapter. First Timothy, sixth chapter. The doctrine of Jesus Christ is built around the preaching of holiness and godliness. All right, look at verse three and four. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine, which is according to what? Now, see, you read that too fast. Let's go back to the first word of that verse again. You were reading too fast. Slow it down. If any man, if any teacher, any pastor, any evangelist, if anyone teaches otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine, which is according to godliness, he is what? And he knows what? Then why are you listening to him? I'm not being facetious. This is life and death. He's proud. He knows nothing, but he's doting about questions and strife of words, whereby come with envy, strife and railings and evil surmising, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Supposing that gain is godliness from such, do what? I didn't hear you. Withdraw thyself from any teaching, any doctrine that teaches you that gain is godliness. In other words, if you're being blessed, you're holy, you're being blessed, you're pure. I can show you some of the most atheistic churches in America that are rich. I can show you Christians who live in total depravity who are rich, but teaching that gain is godliness from such, turn away, withdraw yourself. Now, let me get to the doctrine of Jezebel, because that's the heart of my message, the doctrine of Jezebel. And we're going to talk about this doctrine of demons that's sweeping into the church. And there are three distinct marks of the Jezebel doctrine. In fact, Jezebel embodies this whole thing, this doctrine embodied in what Jesus is saying in Revelation chapter two to the church of Thyatira. All right, give me your very good ear now. First of all, the doctrine of Jezebel is a doctrine which teaches something evil can be good. Something evil can be good. It teaches that something profane can be sanctified and made pure. And I'm going to base my message tonight on this doctrine, where it started with Jezebel, the Old Testament, so it was first kings. We're going to find the doctrine of Jezebel, go to first kings 16th chapter, first kings 16th chapter. Oh, I love the word of God, don't you? I'll tell you what, I see it there in black and white, I believe it. It's right there, it jumps out of the pages. Now, we're going to go back to the Old Testament, see Jezebel in her Old Testament seduction, which embodies the New Testament seduction as well. 16th chapter, first kings. We're going to go to verse 30. We're going to introduce you two characters, Ahab and his wife Jezebel. Verse 30, and Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. Jezebel in Hebrew, now remember in Greek in the New Testament, she represents a synonym or another name for false doctrine. In the Hebrew, her name means chaste or pure virgin. Can you imagine the most wicked woman on earth, an adulteress, a seductress, a murderer, has a name called purity, chastity, virgin. But it's with a question mark. In the Hebrew, it has a question mark, when, where, and how. In other words, how did she become suddenly holy? How did she become pure? Why? Why would you call this woman pure? How could you call her pure? And that's what, that's what a question I ask right now. I ask it of all these so-called Christian rock-and-rollers. This is holy stuff now they say. This is godly stuff now they say. I'm my question, when, where, and how. The Holy Ghost has put a great big question mark there. Now Ahab in Hebrew means one just like his father. He was like his father the devil. This man was bound by every power of Satan there could possibly be released on a human being. Now Jezebel represents false doctrine. Ahab represents the victim of false doctrine. Now keep that in mind as we go on. Jezebel, the Bible states, I want you to see this very clearly. When you embrace a sin, if you're going to hold on to something in your life, the next step is to embrace a doctrine that will justify it. Did you hear me? God said it's not enough, Ahab, that you had this sin, you had this thing in you, this secret thing in you. It's not enough that your heart was like your father. It's not enough that you're going after some desire in your heart that you won't lay down. But you've got to marry Jezebel on top of it. No, it's not enough. And the spiritual analogy is this. It's not enough that you won't lay down that secret sin that the Holy Ghost has talked to you about. It's not enough that materialism has gripped your heart. It's not enough that you're bound by these things that you covet. You're going to run after a doctrine. You're going to go to bed, so to speak, with a doctrine that justifies your actions. And it came to pass as he'd been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, he took to wife Jezebel. The tendency of Christians that hold on to their lust is to run after these. Now the last thing Ahab needed in his life was a Jezebel. What Ahab needed was a Nathan. When David sinned with Bathsheba, he didn't need a happy-go-lucky positive preacher coming along and patting him on the back and saying, you can make it. You're all right. No, he needed a bony finger of Nathan saying, you're the man. You're the man. And if you've got sin in your heart and covetousness, what you need is not some positive thinker coming along telling you, you can make it and go for it. You need a Holy Ghost prophet that says, stop. The Bible says there was none like Ahab who did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred up. Well, here's the message. Here it is. You will find a doctor that will stir up these longings. There will come a doctor along that will magnify every sin in your heart. If it's there, you will finally move around, toss to and fro, following every wind and wave of doctrine until you sit down and say, aha, that sounds good. Those who preach the doctrine of Christ have called to show people the difference between the evil and the good. You don't have to turn there, but Ezekiel 44, 23 says, and they speaking of the Holy prophets of God, and they shall teach my people the difference between the Holy and the profane and what caused them to discern between the clean and the unclean. Once you say that's the job of a true shepherd to show the people in the congregation, first have the Holy Ghost show it to him, and then show it to the congregation, the difference between what is clean and what is unclean. That's why we have a whole generation of kids today that don't know the difference. They can go out and park in an automobile and have sex anytime they want as teenagers, and we have preachers who stand in the pulpit even now or counsel them privately saying it's all right as long as you respect her, as long as you respect him. It's okay as long as you have a real relationship. And do you know who is pushing, do you know where the so-called Christian rock, and now they've got punk rock, and now the slammer rock is coming in, slamming against the stage, slamming their bodies against the stage and against each other. I tell you it's already happening at Christian concerts. We're getting letters about it. Slammer rock now even in the church. I got a letter this past week from a lady heartbroken, because in every backslidden church there's a small remnant of holy people that are trying to pray down God's glory. And brother, sister, that only lasts so long, and then it's time to move on. The Bible says withdraw yourself. No matter where you go, withdraw yourself from that. Got a letter from this lady, and she said, Brother Wilkinson, I am so shocked, I'm so heartbroken, I can hardly write this letter, and it was a tear-stained letter. She said, I just came from our Assembly of God church, and she said on our stage we had a bunch of kids with purple, pink hair, dressed as clowns, and she said they were doing sexual contortions all over the platform. The pastor justifies it, and he finds fault with anybody who would stand against it. What's happening, folks, in our pulpits? No wonder a whole generation of young people don't know what is right and what is wrong. There have not been shepherds there to show them the difference between the clean and unclean, the profane and the holy. So few! Thank God he's raising up more, though, hallelujah! Jezebel denounces the false prophets, or rather, Ezekiel denounces the false prophets who enrich themselves by bringing a message that excuses sin. You must turn to Ezekiel with me. Keep your, keep marked here at First Kings. Mark that, if you will, please. And go to Ezekiel, please. Twenty-second chapter of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 22. You don't think there's a conspiracy in the church today? Oh, brother, sister, you better hear the word of the Lord. Ezekiel 22, verse 25. There's a what? There's a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring, what's, what's the There's a wrong line. There's a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They've taken the treasure and precious things, and they've made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law and have profaned my holy things. They put no difference between the holy and the profane, neither they show difference between the unclean and the clean, and they've hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I'm profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. Verse 28. Her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, saying vanity and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord, when the Lord hath not spoken. Isn't that frightening? Listen to the doctrine very closely now. The doctrine of Jezebel, secondly, first of all, it, it, it calls evil good, and good evil, it's got it all mixed up. Secondly, the doctrine of Jezebel promotes covetousness. Now I'm going to do something that I, I, I'd ask God that maybe I would never have to do again, but I'm going to do it tonight, and I feel I must. This tape goes out all over the world, and I, and, and I've got to say it, and I want to say it, and all the love Jesus can give me. But I want you to look at 1 Kings 21, 1 Kings 20, 21, and I'm going to read the first seven verses, and I'm going to show you this doctrine of covetousness. Yes, and I'm going to take the strongest stand I've ever taken in my life against the prosperity preaching, right here and now, in the next five minutes. And you can't get mad at me, I'm going to give you the Word. And I tell you, I say it in broken heart, I say it in love. I'm not preaching against men. There's some men that are preaching this that are just in blindness, and one of these days, if you pray for them, hold on, they'll come out of it. And if they don't, then they're going to spin off into everything we're talking about tonight. The doctrine of Jezebel promotes covetousness, verse 1, chapter 21, 1 Kings. It came to pass after these things that Naboth, the Jezreelite, had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hired by the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs. Because it's near unto my house, I will give thee a better vineyard than it, or if it seem good to you, I will give thee the money's worth for it. Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. By the way, look at verse 3. If you were given an inheritance by your father, the law forbade you to sell it or give it away. He was zealous for the law of God. He was zealous for holiness. Verse 4, And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth, the Jezreelite, had spoken to him. For he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my father. And he laid down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. He put on a pout. But Jezebel's wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is your spirit so sad? Why are you not eating any bread? He said, And it's because I spake to Naboth, the Jezreelite, and said to him, Give me the vineyard for money, or else, if it please thee, I'll give thee another vineyard. You know what he answered me? I'll not give thee my vineyard. But Jezebel's wife said unto him, Dost thou not govern the kingdom of Israel? In other words, don't you have rights? Arise and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry. I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite. I'll give it to you. Look me in the eye, folks. Lord, sanctify me to say it with love. And listen good. Here's the doctrine of Jezebel. Aren't you king? Aren't you somebody? You're number one. You have the rights of the kingdom. They belong to you. Don't let anything stop you from getting it. You know what she said? If you go your way, you'll be merry, be happy, be glad. I'll get it for you. And I want to tell you that for centuries the church of Jesus Christ has been preaching of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ that we're to fill up. Jesus has said, If you walk with me, you're going to suffer in this world. He said, Deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. If any man loved the world and the things of this world, he's not of God. Go get your eyes on the things of this world. For centuries the church is preaching that. But in the last 20 years, as prosperity came to America and we start having more and more things and begin to, our eyes reach, we're starting to look at Naboth's vineyard. There's something there. He didn't need it. He just wanted it. And he gripped his heart. And so a doctrine comes along that says, I'll get it for you. Are you hearing? Go ahead, clap, be happy. You're the king. I'm going to get your rights for you. And that's the basis, brother, sister, of the doctrine of covetousness that's in the land of America. And I'll look you right in the eye before a holy God. I'll stand before his judgment seat, released in my heart for telling you from a broken heart. This doctrine of covetousness is Jezebel's doctrine. It's a doctrine that says, I'll get it for you. You see, there was a nagging there. He couldn't do it himself. There's a nagging in the hearts of those who won't lay down their covetousness. They're not willing to suffer for Christ. They're not willing to pay the price. And so the doctrine's going to do it for them. So they can go on. You just go ahead and eat, you rejoice, you'll be happy. Sing and shout. You go ahead. I'll do it for you. I'll get it for you. And I want to tell you, it works. It works. Oh, it worked. By the way, I've got to say this. The greatest deception in the modern church to date is this matter of using God's word to put a badge of approval on covetousness. A badge of approval. We have a whole doctrine that's been raised up in these last days to defend covetousness. A whole doctrine in the church. And if you sit there under that, you're becoming blind. Blind. Look at verse 14. Jezebel, of course, you know what she does. She, she uses, uh, she uses the law. She, she uses the scripture. In other words, she, she, she, uh, sent out letters to, to Jezebel. She said, this man's blaspheming God, Naboth and his sons are blaspheming God. They're blaspheming the king. And if you blaspheme God, you were stoned. And if you are accused of treason against the king, you lost all inheritance to your property. So it was a beautiful setup and she was doing it all under the law. It's a, it's amazing thing that people use a scripture for this thing to justify covetousness, just like Jezebel did. And look at verse 14. Then they sent to Jezebel saying, Naboth is stoned and is dead. And it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money for Naboth is not alive, but he's dead. Go. Now I'll tell you something. Uh, this man goes and what a day that must've been when Ahab is walking through that. He says, you know, there are a lot of things about that woman I don't agree with, but boy, she gets the job done. A lot of things that make me, I don't understand about Jezebel. Some things bother me, but she gets it done. That's where people are. There's some things about this that bothers me, but it works. It works. I'm not telling you that this doctrine doesn't work. It works for Ahab. It got him his possession, but the only problem, every time you get into Jezebel doctrine, God hounds you with a prophet on your tail. He's walking through that, looking over all the herbs and he says, I'm going to plant clothes right here. And I'm going to, and there's somebody behind it and he senses it because he's known this man before. The end of side one, turn the tape over to side two to continue. Because sneaking into that very garden is that holy man of God, Elijah. And Ahab is saying, isn't life sweet? Isn't life sweet? Isn't God good? Ahab! Ahab! Murderer! He's, Ahab swings around. Look, look at verse, uh, let's go verse 16 then. And it came to pass when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth to take possession. See, it worked, didn't it? The prosperity gospel message works. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, witches and Samaritans. Behold, he's in the vineyard of Naboth. He's gone there to possess you. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed and also taken possession? Thou shalt speak unto him, saying, thus saith the Lord, in the place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine? And Ahab said to Elijah, have you found me, O my enemy? And he answered, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. And you know why this gospel's not going to work? Do you know why? Because God is raising up prophets in the land, all over the world now, saying, enough, enough. Oh, brother, sister, it's coming loud and clear. The message is coming from everywhere. He can't enjoy it because of a pesky prophet. And he's saying, you're sold out. But your sin has found you out. All right, number three, the Jezebel doctrine hates God's prophets and godly prophecies. Hates it. First Kings, go back to 18, chapter 18. Now we're going to get down to some nitty-gritty before we... All right, you still with me? Talking about the Jezebel doctrine, how Jezebel doctrine hates prophets and godly prophecies. First Kings 18, verse 38. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the bird sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. Now, you know the story here, don't you? They're up on Mount Carmel. They've already had 400 of the prophets of Baal all day long, dancing and shouting and beating themselves and cutting themselves. The blood was flowing. Nothing happened. And Elijah just gets up and pours 12 barrels of water. He pours all this water on the altar and soaks it and soaks it and makes a sacrifice and just speaks the word and fire falls. Well, look at... There it is, verse 38. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the bird sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God. Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. They took him. And it goes on to say that they took him down the brook and slew them there. All right, I want you to look at chapter 19, verse 1 and 2. See, Ahab goes... By the way, Israel repented. Most of Israel repented, but Ahab didn't. He saw all that. He saw God move, but he never did repent at this point. In Ahab chapter 19, verse 1 and 2, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done with all he had slain, all the prophets with the sword. Now look this way for just a minute. Can you see Ahab? He rushes home to the palace and he rushes in and Jezebel's sitting there painting her face. Evidently, she spent all her time painting her face. And my message is not against... I'm not preaching about lipstick either, so... She's sitting there. Here comes this excited man. He said, you had to be there to believe it. Jezebel, maybe we better, we better take stock. Maybe there is something to what this prophet of God is saying, this Elijah is saying. He said, our prophets were up there screaming and shouting, making all kinds of noise, but the presence of God wasn't there. God wasn't in it. Nothing happened. It was dead. It was dead. I'm telling you, Jezebel was dead. I mean, they did everything they could do to work something up. They primed the pump and primed it and no Holy Ghost came out. Nothing. And then this man Elijah, you should have been there. He poured water and water and water and he had dits around it. And he just stood there and called on his God. Fire came out of heaven, Jezebel. I saw it. And he said, you should have seen it. People repenting everywhere. They were falling on their face and they got so mad at their teachers for having deceived them. They took them all down by the brook, kicked them and killed them. He said, I couldn't help it. The Holy Ghost revives more than I could handle. I couldn't touch it. It's something awesome. You should have been there. And I'll tell you something, whether Jezebel, when this doctor has a hold of your heart, nothing can change you. No good report of repentance. No true word of God can change that. You listen to verse 2. Jezebel, do you think she's moved by this report? No. Jezebel sent a message unto Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more so if I'm not, if I make not the life, thy life is the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. He said, by this time tomorrow night I'm going to have his head. I'm going to kill him. You see, the true test, one of the true tests of a false prophet is it'll stand and rail against the true prophets of God. He will hear a message that is reproof and he'll call it gloom and doom. And he'll say, we don't want any of that in this church. We will not have it. I'm called here just to preach Jesus. We just told you that preaching Jesus, I showed it to you in the scripture, preaching Jesus is preaching godliness. It's preaching his holiness and his righteousness, giving all to him. Here she sits cold and unmoved, hating this man. And this is the sign. By the way, quickly to Jeremiah, the seventh chapter. Seventh chapter, Jeremiah. Please be patient with me and hold on until we finish this. I'm not far from finishing it, but I want to, Jeremiah, the seventh chapter. Jeremiah 7. All right, listen to it. Verse 24. But they hearken not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I've even sent unto you all my servants, the prophets, daily rising early and sending them. Yet they hearken not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee. They shall not call. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, this is a nation that obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God. They'll receive correction. Truth is perished. They cut off from their mouth. They don't want the truth. Now, Ahab was the man. Now, see, Ahab is the victim. Who are all these people being deceived? Who are these people giving in to covetousness, doctrines of covetousness? Who are these that we're speaking of, bound by the doctrine of Jezebel? Ahab represents the victim, but I want you to see something about this man. He did repent at one time. There was one occasion that he heard a message so sharply, it was in that garden. In fact, if you go back to 1 Kings, I hope you have it. Very quickly, I want to show you that people who are bound by false doctrines truly at one time had repented. They came through the door of repentance. It's not that they didn't start right. 1 Kings 21. People, would you look this way for just a minute? I usually preach just an hour or so, but I don't want to hurry this. Give me 10 more minutes. I've got to get this off my heart. Would you just settle back and let God, right now, this truth has to come like a hammer to our hearts. And I want you to listen to this. 1 Kings 21, 27, and 20, all the way to 27, 29. And it came to pass, this is 1 Kings 21, 27. It came to pass when Ahab heard those words. This is when Elijah prophesied against him in the garden at Jezreel, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. Now, I'll tell you, God called that repentance. God saw it, and He said, that's repentance. Because the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Chishpite, saying, and this is the word of the Lord speaking, seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? Because he humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon him. Now, look this way, that message of Elijah deeply affected him. Just like people who come to Times Square Church, or to a church that's preaching holiness and righteousness, it'll deeply affect them. It cuts like a knife, and they rend their heart, they circumcise their ears, and they walk for a little while in soft humility before the Lord. And if you were to ask Ahab from that day on, even when he's living in sin, Ahab, do you know what repentance is? He said, repentance? Of course! I can tell you the time and the place. It was under that great prophet Elijah, in my garden at Jezreel. I fell on my face, I rent my clothes, and I walked humbly before God. I repented. In fact, I repented so well, God sent the prophet back to me, and told me I'd been humble. God saw my heart, and this is the tragedy of so many who've repented, and they think it's a one-time act. It's something you do, and then get away from. No, repentance is a walk of holiness. It's not something you do, and then pick up something else. Bob and John and I've been preaching that time after time and time after time, and Ahab would not walk in repentance. And I'll tell you why. Because he'd made a covenant with the world. He'd made a covenant with the world, and you find that chapter 20. Go back to chapter 20. This is, uh, I want to show you, I want to show you where Christians are getting off. Here's the first step. You see, they repented, but they wouldn't let go of their covenant with sin. They'd made an agreement before they were saved. There was something that got a hold of their heart, and they suddenly made an agreement with it. It became their lifestyle. They repented, but didn't give up the covenant with sin. And here it's so powerful, it's so strong, it made me tremble this afternoon when I was reading 1 Kings 20 verse 31. You see, uh, Ben-Hadad, the Syrian king, the Syrian king is, uh, Israel's defeated their army, and God had told, God had told Ahab, he's an enemy to Israel. He's, he's cursed. Destroy him. But somehow Ben-Hadad had escaped, and he's running, he's in a city, he's going from house to house trying to escape, and they're, the lieutenants of King Ben-Hadad come to him and said, now we've heard that the Israelites are very kind, uh, big-hearted people. Let's throw ourselves in their mercy. So he sends some emissaries, his lieutenants, to read Ahab's face. Look at this chapter, uh, 20 verse 31. His servant said unto him, behold now, we've heard that the king of the house of Israel are merciful kings. The kings are. Let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins and ropes upon our heads, and go to the king of Israel. For eventually he will save thy life. They were speaking to their king. So they girded sackcloth on their loins, they put ropes on their heads as if, you know, here are, you can hang me or save me, and came to the king of Israel and said, thy servant Ben-Hadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, is he yet alive? He is my what? He's my brother. Was he a brother? You know what that word means? He's just like me. He's my reflection. That's what it means in Hebrew. He's my reflection. See, Ben-Hadad was reflecting. Everything was in his heart. All the heathen is, all the idolaters, Ben-Hadad. He said, this is my brother. I'm at home with him. Look at the next verse. Now the men did diligently observe whether anything would come from him. They were reading his face. They hastily to catch it. And they said, thy brother Ben-Hadad. Then he said, go bring him. Then Ben-Hadad came forth to him and he caused him to come up into the chariot. And Ben-Hadad said unto him, the cities which my father took from thy father, I'll restore and thou shalt make streets. And look, look at this. Then said Ahab, same verse, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him and sent him away. And immediately God sends a prophet, an unknown prophet and said, you've done wrong. You've sinned greatly against God. And you see, listen to it now. People go astray. Christians go astray because they will not let go of their covenant with sin. Something that's gripped their heart, right? Secondly, now look at Ahab for just a moment here before we close. Ahab was a man who said, I love the truth, but in fact, he hated it. How many people, how many people we've heard? Oh brother, preach it. I love that kind of preaching. To Jimmy Swaggart, they write letters saying, preach it Jimmy. Oh, they said, I love the word. You can't, it can't be too strong for me. Well, I'm going to show that to you. Look at chapter 22. Chapter 22. Please hold on. I'm coming down to the end here now. You know, Jehoshaphat, king of Israel and Ahab are about to go up against the Syrian army. They're always going against the Syrians and the 400 prophets of Ahab, they're all preaching success. Go up. You can do it. Go, go for it. I'm not making fun of anybody's slogan. Not at all. That's what they were saying. You read it. 400 prophets were all saying, go, go, go. But there was one man named Micaiah, a prophet of God. And they went to get him. And the man that came to get him said, they're all telling him good things. Go, go. You tell him the same thing. Micaiah said, I'll tell him what God tells me to tell him. And so these 400 prophets are saying, go, go, go. And Jehoshaphat knew better. He said, isn't there anybody in this land? Isn't there any other prophet beside these 400? He knew they were false prophets. Look at chapter 22, verse 7. And Jehoshaphat said, is there not a prophet of the Lord besides, besides what, beside these 400 blabbering false prophets that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, ah, there's yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord. But I hate him, for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. I'm not going back to that church. It's all negative. All negative. They don't tell you anything good. Oh, yes, if you hang around, you'll hear the good. After repentance, we get all the good. But you know, look at verse 14. As Micaiah, and Micaiah said, as the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. So he came to the king, and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go up against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? Shall we not go? And he answered, go, be prosperous. Nobody said, that's in your heart. You listen to these men for the Lord shall deliver it into your hand. And the king said unto me, and here's where he says, oh, I love good preaching. How many times shall I adjure you that you tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord? Preach it to me. Oh, that's, that's the calamity, brother Bob. Somebody's saying, I love the truth. When they actually, when they hear it, they chafe under it. They hate it. They grit their teeth. I can't stand this doom and this gloom. I can't stand any more of this reproof. Can't take it. Look at verse 17 and 18. And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills of sheep that have not had a shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master. Let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said to Japheth, did not I tell you he prophesied no good to me? Didn't I tell you he's negative? Before I ask you, how many have loved the truth? Didn't I? You raised your hands. You still love it? In closing, and this is about two minutes here, Ahab was blind to the fact that he was being directed by lying spirits and not by God. Look at 22. This is the last verse I want to show you. First Kings 22 verse 19. And he said, hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. This is the prophet Micaiah speaking. I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, on his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. The Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab that he may go and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said on this manner, another said on that manner, but there came forth a spirit that stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. The Lord said unto him, how or wherewith? He said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of his what? Prophets? And he said, thou shalt persuade him and prevail also. Go forth and do so. Now therefore behold, who? The Lord. What did he do? The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord has spoken evil concerning thee. Now lying spirits are not sent from God, but every spirit evil, every spirit righteous are at his bidding command. He can chase them from human beings. He can command them. They are used as his rod. And a spirit comes to him and says, I'll go forth. And how will you go? And he says, I will go as a spirit of deception and I will go into the prophets, those lying prophets, and I will speak a word that they will believe is true. And these lying spirits are very persuasive, and God said, you'll persuade him. There's a persuasiveness, a very powerful persuasiveness, and that spirit could actually clearly go saying, the Lord sent me. The Lord sent me. Now listen, when Ahab went up, and you've got to hear, because here's the foundation of this whole thing. When Ahab went up to Ramoth Gilead, he went up there not thinking, well now these 400 prophets, I know that they're not right, and I know that this Micaiah's a man of God, and I should have listened, but I've got him going up there, I'm just going to go. He said, these are just babbling. No, that's not at all. That's it. Ahab went up fully persuaded, the Bible says. Fully persuaded. He was convinced. He had so turned God off, he was so bound, he'd walked away from his repentance. He had this covetous spirit in him now. He's gripped of it, he's being driven by it, and he actually believes that this spirit that he has, and by the way, when Zedekiah, when these false prophets here, Zedekiah the son of Taniah comes forth, and he says, he slapped Micaiah and said, when did the Spirit of God leave me and come to you? He said, the Spirit of God's on me, and he believed that, and he was convinced of that. Why? Because a lying spirit told him that. A lying spirit told him that. I want you to know that those who preach these doctrines of covetousness fully are persuaded in them. All of these doctrines of Jezebel that will not preach against sin, they're fully persuaded that they're preaching love. Why? Because a lying spirit has told them so. And why, you say, well why would God turn anyone, why would God allow these spirits to come, and come to the mouth of the prophets, and they would speak this, and be so persuaded that even a whole host of their children are persuaded. I have to give you one verse to prove that to you. Jeremiah 7. We just came from there, but my last scripture, I said the last one was bad, but this is it for sure. Jeremiah 7. Because some of you sitting here say, Brother Wilkinson, just open Jeremiah 7, leave it there, because I'm finished now, in just a moment. Would you look this way, leave it open in your Bible, on your lap, and look here. You say, Brother Wilkinson, that kind of frightens me, because could it be possible that I could be deceived before Jesus comes? Is it possible I could be deceived? Listen, there's a guard against it. There's a way to be absolutely sure you'll never be deceived. Oh hallelujah. You know what it is? It's to come to the light, and let Jesus expose every hidden thing, and lay it down. And those who lay every sin down, every habit, everything that has taken their heart, every bit of covetousness, and they lay it all down, and say, Jesus, you can have it. I'm going all the way with you. Hallelujah. You need never worry about deception. God will bring you holy shepherds. He'll bring you those that will inspire your heart to pray and seek the face of God. You'll leave the house with your heart burning with a holy fire. You'll be in love with Jesus more than you've ever been in love with him before. The things of this world will go strangely dim in the light of this glory and grace. Look at this chapter, Jeremiah 7, verse 8. Behold, you trusting, lying words that cannot profit, when you steal, and murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal. In other words, you still have your idols in your heart. You walk after these gods whom you knew not, and then you come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we're delivered to do all these abominations. Now look this way. Hear it, and hear it good before I close. Here's where the deception is. Here's where the, here's where people are swallowed up, and sell themselves to the devil, actually are sold to Satan. God deals with them about their sin, about those things in their life. They won't deal with it. He said, you trust in lying words. Somebody come along and told you that everybody's weak, everybody sins, everybody's doing it. We can't be perfect. If God marked iniquities, who among us could stand? That's only half the story, folks. The Bible said the soul that sin is, it shall die. But you see, this leaning, this holding on, this gripping, not willing to lay it down, this covenant with sin, and you begin to trust in these lying words, and you continue stealing from God his time, adultery, burning incense to your idols. And to me, when a Baal says burning incense, the modern translation is sitting there wasting hours in your TV idol. I'm going to say it now. I'm going to say it with love. We're so close to the coming of the Lord, and he's dealing with such awesome unction, and power, and authority to those who are walking in his spirit. And he's speaking, in fact, when I speak these words to you now, I feel the holy thunder of, I'm not an Elijah, I'm not a prophet, but I feel the holy thunder of Elijah in my soul. I feel a thunder of God so strong, and I can look some of you right in the eye, and you say you want to go all the way with God, and we talk about television, getting rid of it out of your home. We're not talking about something legalistic. We're not talking about something that has any merit to it. We're talking about tearing down your idols, and I'm telling you now, and I'm going to say it loud and clear, and you're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and answer to what I tell you right now. And I love you too much. I say that in the authority of God's word. Thou shall bring no abomination into your house, lest you become a curse just like unto it. You have the eye of the devil himself in your house. You have the eye of Satan, and you say you want to go on with God. No, he said, you're trusting in lying words. You've got a little voice inside saying, I don't see it that way, and that's what it is. I've been delivered to hold on to these things, and then you come to my house. You cover my altar with your tears, yet you hold on to your idolatry. You say, I only watch sports. I'm telling you something, the commercials are more wicked than anything else now. And I'm telling you, God's saying something to his church. He said, you're going to either pay the price, or you're going to come to my house, and I've been delivered to do all these things. It's okay. That's the way you see it, brother Dave, but I'm not legalistic like that. I'm not preaching legalism. I'm preaching this message that says, if you're going to hold on to those things, you open yourself to deception. Is that about it, Bob? Open yourselves to deception. That's what we've been preaching. No, we're going to come to God's house with an open heart and say, Jesus, if I'm going to give any, I'm going to give it all. I'm not going to hold anything back. And God, by his Spirit, is convicting this body tonight about laying everything down at his feet. And I'm going to fast, I'm going to pray, and I'm going to seek God, and I know there are others going to join us. We're going to pray until the holy thunder of God comes so strong. I want to hear it. I want to see it. I want to see a people with such hunger. They'll not just say, yes, yes, yes, amen, amen, amen. But there's a commitment being made when you hear the Word of God. I hear it. I receive it. I'll obey it. I'll obey God. Get rid of all the idols. Lay it all down. Don't listen to the gospel of covetousness. Every head bow. Jesus, send a holy ghost tonight with convicting power. Come, Holy Spirit, now and confirm your Word, I pray. Let no one walk out of this house tonight carrying the idolatry they brought in. Let no one walk out of here tonight clinging to a doctrine, O God, that would bring spirits of blindness to them. Lord Jesus, we want to lay it all down, every sin. 9 6 3 8 6 2 6. Thank you.