This sermon emphasizes the spiritual battle Christians face against the powers of darkness, urging believers to actively engage in prayer and spiritual warfare. It highlights the importance of recognizing and removing hindrances like unbelief, and the need to stand firm in faith amidst the challenges of idolatry and occult practices. The speaker draws parallels to historical battles and wartime speeches to underscore the urgency and seriousness of the spiritual warfare Christians are called to engage in.

Now, dear friends, I don't know how many people go to conventions and retreats in order to have a good time. You know what is meant by a good time, fun, food, and, in brackets, fellowship, you see? And we have reduced some of our conferences to mere talkathons. Now, that will never do. You know, I have read and studied some of the great battles. My, what prize was paid! You know, and when I think of Christians singing onward, Christian soldiers marching as to war, are these fellows retreating? Or are they in the rest camp? Or what are they singing? I begin to wonder, you know. Mr. Churchill made a great speech just at that time, critical time in the war, when Hitler appeared all poised to invade Britain. And Britain was in a helpless state. We will fight in the beaches, we will. And blood shed, blood, sweat, and tears. And he roused the nation to action when they were very poorly in military supplies. And most of the help that was going from America was hitting the bottom of the Atlantic, being torpedoed. Now, dear friends, you know, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We should really begin there. You know, but we have put this thing in parenthesis. That is, we have relegated it to, okay, that may be there also. No, no, no, not at all. Actually, this is the beginning point in the battle. And you will see it even in the Lord Jesus Christ's ministry. If you turn to Mark, first chapter, and this, the Lord Jesus Christ being in this synagogue, you know, in the 23rd verse, there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone, what have we to do with you, thou Jesus of Nazareth? You know, my friends, when I first saw how my dad had to deal with an evil spirit which almost scrambled up a meeting, a very solemn meeting, a revival meeting, and daddy had to leave the platform. I was just a young fellow in my teens, and he went up and rebuked that evil spirit and killed it because he wanted the meeting to close before he could deal with that case. So, really, if the spirit of God is at work, you will see some weird cries. And as a matter of fact, when I heard that cry ring out through that big church in Toulouse, Toulouse, incidentally, is the place where the European Union has its big aircraft industry in France and where the big planes are assembled and, you know, they are very much in the sky today. However, in this big church, when this blood-curdling scream rang out as I was closing the meeting, well, I must honestly say, I didn't know what kind of case this was. And I said, Lord, before I go to see this case, the demons must run away. And the Lord did it. So that after the meeting, when I came to pray for that girl, I found her weeping. She had been afflicted for many years in that fashion. You see, folks, now when I hear that in New Jersey and I'm sure some other parts of the country, we have got Hindu processions complete with their idols being carried in great celebrations. And I don't know how many ignorant people are eating those things that are offered to the idols. You see, when Christians sit still, iniquity grows. That's it. All that the devil wants you to do is to be a happy chorus-singing Christian. You see? And the devil will be happy if you're kept busy that way. No, my dear friends. On the contrary, the spirit's work is to disrupt the works of the devil, to destroy the works of the devil. Yeah, you all know that scripture. And in John, 1 John, and the third chapter, and the eighth verse. Mark you, you must all know this scripture. He that committed sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. You see, every time that the people of Israel departed from God, they betook themselves to idolatry. You see, friends? And the devil can... My father used to say, behind every idol there's a demon. And you know, in certain houses where there has been this idol worship, which is called puja, the local lingo would use the word puja. They demarcate a room and use it exclusively for that. And some Christian families who rent those buildings following the... after the heathen have left, find that they can't sleep, and they begin to suffer from nervous diseases. And I do not know, actually, because, you know, I have not specialized in that field. I cannot help but deal with these cases because they are brought to me not because I choose to do so. You know, when my dad was in the midst of revival, there were a number of others far senior to me. I was a mere stripling. And they would deal with these hard cases and cast out these evil spirits. So, friends, he was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. And in John 10, the first verse, in fact, what does it say? When he had called to him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits. To cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now, actually speaking, I do not know to what extent some of these proliferating nervous diseases can be ascribed to these works of darkness. But when I see all the variations which are currently employed, you know, VG boards was a very old thing and used extensively in this country. And children playing with these VG boards and calling on spirits, you see, they are going to suffer. There is a backlash. There is bound to be, you see. And these works of darkness have invaded the ignorant and the innocent in many cases. Now, there is so little light cast upon these matters today. I can't understand that. If the fiercest fight is going on to my right and I'm supposed to be a soldier or even a captain and I choose to look left at other matters and claim that I am so busy with other matters, would you call me a soldier at all? What would happen to a captain who does that on the field of battle? The best thing that might happen to him is dishonorably discharged. But court-martialing would be more appropriate. Hey, how did you dare do this when the battle was being waged right in front of you and you turn your attention to some other little small matters? You know, if every captain, every soldier does anything like that, not a single battle is going to be won. Now, that's the state of our churches today, unfortunately. The devil seems to be very comfortable. He is not even provoked by the message. You know, in some other campaigns, I have seen just as I get into the real tick of the fight and the presence of God becomes very real, oh, there is considerable disturbance. Some people flee the place Some people fall down. You see, as in Indiana, as I was preaching, one of those strong young men who was intending to divorce his wife suddenly found himself on the floor. He was stricken by conviction. You see, that happened regularly in the ministry of John Wesley. You see, and some doctors said, oh, they are faking it. So it has so happened in one situation like that, a doctor was close by when a person was struck down by conviction. You see, the thing called conviction of sin is no longer there. We want comfortable messages. You see, now when you are on the operation theater, just before the surgeon begins to operate on you, would you dare tell him, no, I love comfort. Surgeon, you may do whatever you please, but don't disturb me or some such rubbish. What does it mean? You know, when the demons are not even disturbed in our meetings, what does it mean? The Lord is not there. The spirit of the Lord is not there. The Lord Jesus saw that he needed to empower his disciples before he sent them out to give them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out. You know, sometimes people partake in some of these occult practices ignorantly. They do not know the harm that will result and therefore they just stand by. You know, a friend of mine who was a great investigator of this subject and who did a lot of work, Dr. Koch, he told us of a minister in Switzerland. It appears he stood by curious to know how these glasses were moving by themselves. He thought, well, what's happening here? And he did not participate in the game or whatever was happening to any further extent. But then he could not administer Holy Communion following that. Then after some time he quit altogether. He just could not continue as a minister. You see, these sinister powers, you know, we ought to know. You know a boxer, a featherweight is never listed to fight a heavyweight. How would a featherweight fight a heavyweight? The poor fellow would be knocked clean of the ring. Well, featherweights sometimes proceed to meet heavyweights. You know, my father was very careful. He would say to me, this case which I am handling is beyond you. You see, when I was a young fellow and he knew that I would be out of my depth, couldn't handle such a situation. Excuse me. And he would say, don't touch this case. And he would handle it himself. Now, there are many people who don't realize that. They think it's a little game or something. And they suffer horribly. In the 47th chapter of Isaiah, this is what God says. Isaiah 47 and from verse 10. You know, just about this, we are told, because of the multitude of your sorceries and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. You know, people are advertising themselves as great magicians and astrologers. Some of these advertisements amaze me. And they are accepted by the papers. And evidently, a lot of people resort to these men, to the sorcerers. Isaiah 47, 10. For thou hast trusted in your wickedness. Thou hast said, none seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted you. And thou hast said in thine heart, I am and none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon you. Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth. And mischief shall fall upon you. Thou shalt not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which thou shalt not know. You see, some of the calamities that are overtaking, if I were a farmer, and I had my yearly picking of apples, and I found that I could only pick 10, where 100 were expected, that would be a real calamity. How would I pay the bank? How would I exist? You see, some of the droughts, some of the floods, some of these horrible, you know, in Western Europe, they're having some furious winds, blowing down trees, killing people. You see, friends, some of these works of the devil, they're not wholly natural features. Now, prayer has gone down. The prayer meeting has become a talking meeting. You know, prayer meeting means now everybody talks, and by the time the time is nearly up, oh, let's go to prayer now. So there's just a concluding prayer or two. Is that a prayer meeting? Now, my dear friends, I hold you responsible. You know, sometimes there's a big gulf between the preacher and the people in the pew, and the people in the pew say, think, oh, the preacher hardly knows what he's saying, and certainly these things are not expected of me. But my dear friends, before both the preacher and the people stand before the word of God, we stand or fall by the word of God. And look, if you choose to be a heathen person, a pagan, who say belly is my God, I exist just to earn my bread, to draw my paycheck from whatever source, and shut my eyes concerning all these other matters in which people are drowning and dying. Well, my dear friends, I don't believe you have anything of a conscience. How can a man be silent? You know, one of the things that my father pursued, and I'm amazed at his persistence. And, you know, when he went amongst a criminal tribe, my, I had never seen such specimens of humanity, sickly people, demon-possessed, demented, mad, possessed by evil spirits. And when revival broke out, and, you know, this weekend in that very place, there is to be a student's camp where somewhere around 4,000 or more young people will gather. We have a campus there now, which is the venue of some of our big meetings. Just imagine a criminal tribe being converted into a missionary base out of which people who are touched by God, transformed by God, go out to various places to glorify God. Now, it's estimated that the crowd is upwards of 100,000. And you can imagine the water supplies needed for such a camp and all the rest. But many of them don't live very simply. They can get by with so little. And they are there principally to hear the word of God. So it can be done. You see, as I work amongst headhunters and those that have had, down the ages, awful enmity towards other tribes on the borders of Burma. You know, many soldiers died in the war in that region. Rugged territory. Hard territory. They died from dysentery. They died from malaria. And so many GIs and British Tommies they never returned from that war with the Japanese. In those jungles and so on. Now, as we begin to preach in those areas, we feel, you know, we come head on with the powers of darkness that have ruled them for ages. Now, my dear friends, the idea that I am sitting pretty comfortably over here in my couch before the television is self-deception. Now, all around you, desolation and destruction. And the works of darkness are rampaging and destroying lives. You know, there's no time for you and me to be comfortable. So, my dear friends, when I went and began preaching 20 years ago in those regions, well, to find people who will stick there seemed very hard. One young man whom we had trained, very clever fellow. He had had his university training and then went through our Bible school. But suddenly he took off. He couldn't bear, he saw no future to that work. You know, self-preservation, he felt, was sufficient cause for him to desert his post. My dear people, I have seen very few deserters. Very few. You know, but self-interest can be very strong and in that very place, they threatened to stone me. Did that stop me? No. Not by any means. You see, friends, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. 2nd Timothy, 1st chapter, 7th verse. God has not given us the spirit of fear. You know, today we see another threat. What is it? The gangs and those that are running drugs. Money is involved and so they think nothing of killing off anybody who comes in their way. And so they buy their way with money through officialdom. I say, if our churches cannot produce enforcement officers who are above money, what good are those churches? That's not a church. A church should be able to produce men who can attend to these various fronts. We are fighting a warfare on many fronts. It's finance, brother, it's finance. What? It's economy, stupid, it's economy. Why did Peter cry that way? You see, that cry has gotten into the hearts of people. What do you do with such people? They're useless. They're useless. God is my provider. Jehovah-Jireh is his name. I can't possibly change his name. My God will supply all your need according to his riches in Christ Jesus. Jehovah-Jireh is his name. None of us here is authorized to change his name. Nor can we. But we think it's all to do with money. It's all to do with money. No, not at all. It's to do with faith. You see, my dear friends, where does the devil attack us? He attacks us in prayer. He doesn't want two or three people to get together and pray. You know, he does not mind if they talk their heads off and discuss and discuss and discuss or do whatever. But should they go to prayer, he does not want anybody to do that. So, prayer has died. Even in the pulpit, it has died. You know, people like me are in great danger because this infection is a spreading infection. Deadly infection. You see, we are too busy. We are too busy. What do you mean? You're too busy with what? Digging your own grave. Digging the grave of your neighbor. If you perceive that to be your main business on earth, well, I don't know who can help you. But you see, my dear friends, we see God saying here in Isaiah 47, once again, please, and the 12th verse, And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which thou shalt not know. Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast labored from your youth. If so be thou shalt be able to profit. If so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now your astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save you from these things that shall come upon you. You see, so there is the backwash, there is the resulting darkness. You know, the countries today, in Europe, over here, countries today want qualified technical men. They're not able to find enough technical men. So they just want anybody from anywhere. Now, all right, this is a trend. I don't think it is reversible. In many ways, the world is becoming a small place. Does it mean, therefore, that these technical men can bring in whatever idol they please? You know, one young man said to me, he found a job in Saudi Arabia, but he said, I'm going to keep my Bible right on top. So when the customs examine my cases, they will see the Bible right on top. If they object to it, I will leave the land. So he kept his Bible right on top. The official asked him to open it, open up. He saw the Bible right on top, didn't say a word, and he went on to work and to start a little prayer group also. So there are some secret prayer groups going in those lands. But you see, folks, we don't have the courage these days to say we don't want idolatry. Of course, there is a law which forbids the Senate or House from making any laws the Constitution forbids this, which the state dictates about religion. All right, there is that law. So possibly this invasion of idolatry is something which constitutionally we cannot avoid. It is a spiritual battle. You and I have to pray that people will dump these idols in the sewers or canals or rivers or whatever, wherever. So it's a spiritual battle. The law is not going to aid us in this regard. The misinterpretation of the Constitution by the highest courts have thrown the country wide open to all kinds of perversity. So, my friends, it is a spiritual battle. It's left with you and me. Are we going to win in this battle? Are we going to gear ourselves, first of all, and say, hey, I'm going to do this? You know what I'm saying? I won't pass it by. I won't pass it up. I won't expect somebody else to do the job. This is a matter that concerns my Lord's glory. And I am going to pray and bind these powers of darkness. You see, if Daniel triumphed in Babylon, you cannot imagine what a battle it must have been. It's a battle against the powers of darkness. Now, first of all, let everyone here realize you're in the middle of a battle. You see, a boxer in the middle of a fight cannot take his eye off his opponent for a fraction of a second. He dare not. He can't lower his guard for any reason. See, you and I, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of darkness. The Lord will give us the grace. We must see that all the hindrances that are there should be removed. And unbelief is another big devil. Today, people are dogged by unbelief. You see, they see it, they read it, they don't believe it. They nod their heads, they write their notes, but they don't believe it, they don't practice it. Let us pray. Loving Father, we do not want to be those who are classified as hearers only. We want to enter into this battle. I want to be of some little use. In this battle, don't discharge me, I pray. Oh, Loving Father, we are not able to secure our neighbor or our own families for that matter. These works of darkness are so invasive. They seem to permeate the classroom, the lecture hall, the professor's mind. The whole system seems to be employed by these dark forces. Oh, my Father, we beg you, through the blood of the Lamb and through the word of our testimony, let us see these works of darkness soundly defeated. Teach us, Lord, teach us. Let us not be relegated to a secondary role, unfit for warfare, deserter from the field. No, Lord, we do not want any of these titles to be given to us. We want to be your disciples, walking in your footsteps. Help us, good Lord, help us. In Jesus' name, amen.