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The Gospel of Accommodation
David Wilkerson

David Wilkerson (1931 - 2011). American Pentecostal pastor, evangelist, and author born in Hammond, Indiana. Raised in a family of preachers, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at eight and began preaching at 14. Ordained in 1952 after studying at Central Bible College, he pastored small churches in Pennsylvania. In 1958, moved by a Life Magazine article about New York gang violence, he started a street ministry, founding Teen Challenge to help addicts and troubled youth. His book "The Cross and the Switchblade," co-authored in 1962, became a bestseller, chronicling his work with gang members like Nicky Cruz. In 1987, he founded Times Square Church in New York City, serving a diverse congregation until his death. Wilkerson wrote over 30 books, including "The Vision," and was known for bold prophecies and a focus on holiness. Married to Gwen since 1953, they had four children. He died in a car accident in Texas. His ministry emphasized compassion for the lost and reliance on God. Wilkerson’s work transformed countless lives globally. His legacy endures through Teen Challenge and Times Square Church.
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In this sermon, the preacher begins by expressing gratitude and praising God. He emphasizes the importance of not sparing the rod and how many churches and preachers are failing their congregations by not delivering the truth. The preacher criticizes the idea of using a formula to build churches and argues that it goes against the biblical approach of seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit through worship and fasting. He also discusses a new gospel being propagated by young ministers that focuses on accommodating the preferences of sinners rather than adhering to biblical principles.
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This message is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing WORLDCHALLENGE PO BOX 260 LINDALE, TEXAS 75771 or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. Never forget what he's done. Hallelujah. This is one another of those quiet nights at Times Square Church. Hallelujah. I told you that next Monday and Tuesday I'll be in Springfield, Missouri to minister to a few thousand ministers. And I'm going to practice on you. That's to say, this message is probably not as needed here as it is to the ministers that I'll be speaking. But God put on my heart to share it with you because you need to know what's happening in the land. The book I just finished has to do with the last call to America, and I feel it breathing down our necks faster than ever. And I see things that make me weep and break because of the blindness and the sloth and stupor that America is in. But whether they want to hear it or not, the Lord always sends forth watchmen to warn. He always does. He never does anything until he warns. I want to speak to you tonight about the gospel of accommodation. The gospel of accommodation. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you tonight for the word that sets us free. Holy Spirit, I ask you to come upon me, that I would be just an oracle of God, that I would speak your mind, I would speak your heart, there would be none of self. Lord, I pray that your Spirit make this known to us. Lord, I believe I speak your mind tonight. I believe I speak from your heart. I feel your anger against something that's happening in this nation. I feel your wrath against it. But Lord Jesus, you have a people, Lord, who are able and willing and wanting to hear the truth. Oh God, open our ears and our understanding tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. The gospel of accommodation. Now, to accommodate means to adapt. It means to make suitable or acceptable. It also means to adjust, to make something very convenient. It means to yield to the desires of others to placate them. Now, you put that together, and I'm talking about a gospel that's been invented in hell and is now being propagated all over the United States. It's a suitable, acceptable, convenient gospel that has yielded to the desires and the weakness of sinful men. I call it the gospel of accommodation because it's adapting and adjusting the gospel to appease and attract sinners. This gospel of accommodation is primarily an American cultural invention to ease our lifestyle. It appeals primarily to white America, rich and prosperous. It was invented out of hell itself. This new gospel is sweeping America, and the nation is influencing ministers of every denomination. It's giving birth to mega-churches. Some of the largest churches in the United States are involved in this gospel. It's a non-confronting, convenient gospel adapted. It is spoon-fed to the congregation by skits, humorous skits and drama, short, non-abrasive, 20-minute messages, and it's all called seeker-friendly, the seeker-friendly churches. And one of these days, there may be somebody move into the city and try to bring one of these churches right into New York City. They are springing up now overnight, and suddenly thousands attend. This new gospel is being propagated by bright, young, intelligent, talented ministers. It came upon a formula by which you can go into any city, in any town, and almost overnight build a mega-church. And as I understand this formula, you begin by going into the community with your workers, and you poll the community to find out what the sinner found offensive about attending church. Well, why don't you attend church, and what was offensive about it? And what would we have to do to bring you back into the church? What would make you comfortable? What would you like to see? You don't like choirs? We'll do away with choirs. You don't like suits in church? You come the way you choose. Just tell us what you want. And they survey the community and then sit with their computers and in their conference rooms, and they design a program that will make it comfortable for the sinner and make it friendly. They'd rather call it sinner-friendly. They would call it seeker-friendly and try to attract them to come into the house of God. It's becoming the most prosperous, most flourishing of all religious movements in the history of America. The churches are run like corporations. The pastor's a CEO, chief executive officer, and it's big business. And this formula has now been cleverly packaged, and it is now being pushed in seminars all over the United States. It sounds good. What they say sounds very good. It sounds spiritual in its goals. It sounds like Jesus is the central theme. And, folks, I'm not going to name any names because I'm not talking about the character of these men. I'm talking about the gospel that they preach. I am here to remind you that Paul, the apostle, warned of the coming of another gospel which we have not preached. He said, there is coming another gospel that's going to preach another Jesus. You'll hear his name. It'll sound sweet, but it's not the Jesus that I preach, Paul said. It's not the true Jesus. Paul goes on. Paul was amazed. He said that you were so removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel. Folks, listen to me. There is in the land right now with thousands of people sitting under another gospel, another Jesus, being preached by ministers who have lost the touch of God, and been transformed into angels of light to calm and to deceive, if possible, even the elect of God. Paul goes to warn the church. It's really not another gospel, but it's a perversion of the gospel of Christ, which is really not another, Paul said, but there be some that trouble you and pervert or change the gospel of Christ. He said they're going to change it. They're going to accommodate the sinner. They're going to accommodate their pleasures. They're going to accommodate all of their needs. And they're going to design a gospel with their own Christ, with their own doctrine. Then this awful warning from Paul. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you but that which we preached unto you, let him be accursed. Let him be accursed. Folks, I didn't say that. The apostle Paul said it. If anybody preached another gospel, what you've heard, if anyone preached anything but the crucified Christ, if anyone preached anything that appeased this man in his sin, that's not the gospel you heard from me, Paul said, and if anyone preaches another, let him be accursed. And he said it's going to be dangerous because it's going to come from seemingly pious, sincere ministers. That's what made the doctrine called antinomianism so dangerous, because it was in the hands of some very fine, good-living men like Dr. Crisp, who was one of the founders of that anti-law movement back during the Puritan age. Anti-law, they cast aside the burden of the law, and the reason it was so accepted, because the men who preached it seemed to be so pious. And I tremble when I hear Paul warn us that Satan's going to come right into the church, disguised as an angel of light. He's going to infiltrate into the church with his own ministers. They'll come angel-like, he said, preaching a false gospel of righteousness. For such are false prophets, false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose ends will be according to their works. Paul said they're going to come and they're going to glory in the flesh. They're going to glory in their might, their money. They're going to glory in their bigness, their numbers, and they're going to glory in the fact that they are so contemporary. They're going to glory in their acceptance by the world. Jesus warned, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing. They're to come like gentle sheep, sincere, intelligent, bright, but said in word, they're ravening wolves. And folks, Jesus gave that in the context of his message. He said, because straight is the gate, narrow is the way, which leadeth to life, and few there be that find it. And the very next verse he says, beware of false prophets. They're going to come in sheep's clothing, but they're ravening wolves. It's Christ himself warning us. False prophets, false pastors, false evangelists, posing as submissive sheep, going to come saying the way is not that narrow, the way is not that straight, and they're going to accommodate. They're going to change the gospel to suit the needs of the people. Jesus puts his finger on the motives behind them, ambition. The word ravening here, ravening wolves in the Greek means men are going to starve for recognition and gratification. Men are going to rise, starve to make it. You see it in the business world, you see it on your job. People trying to climb the ladder and get recognition quickly. And folks, it's now in the ministry, full blown. Young man so ambitious to be one of the big boys, to have the biggest church, the biggest numbers, the biggest crowds. He said, they're ravening wolves. And Jesus left no doubt about what he meant. And this is simply what he meant. They're going to be struggling pastors in the land, and they're going to look out and see all of the striving and competition for numbers and recognition. And there's going to be a growing pressure to expand and be successful. They see the measuring of success now by how big the buildings are, and how many people attend the church on Sunday morning. And this struggling pastor who's been faithful up to now, he sees bright young men come down the street nearby, and suddenly overnight he's pastoring thousands of people in a seeker-friendly church. A young man less experienced, a young man who's not paid his dues as far as this man is concerned, he's still preaching an old-fashioned faithful gospel of the cross and its claims, and he's struggling because not many people want to hear the cross. Jesus said, few there are going to be that find it. Wide is the road leading to destruction. Narrow is the way, Jesus said, straight and narrow. And Jesus is warning. He's saying to the pastor's brother, man of God, watch out. The moment you look out on the competition, the moment that seat gets in your heart, the devil's going to put one of these wolves in sheep's clothing right at your path. He's going to seduce you into an ungodly ambition to compete and to be one of these big boys, and he's going to tempt you for church growth at any cost. And it'll cost the soul of the pastor. I read Paul's warning in 2 Corinthians 11th chapter about ministers being transformed into angels of light who believe they're preaching righteousness, but they've been changed somehow into a tool of Satan, and I say, God, can that be possible? Lord, is that really reasonable that a man who starts right can change and become a tool of the devil in a pulpit? Am I to conclude that a man of God can start right, be a true shepherd for a season, preach a true gospel, but something of hell lays hold of his heart and his spirit, something demonic, and he changes and he becomes a minister of Satan? Folks, it's happening every day. It's happening right here in New York City. It happened in Bakersfield, where a ministerial association two weeks ago took into the ministerial fellowship a witch. It's in the headlines. It was sent to me today. A witch, a leader of a coven. And the satanic hook is ambition. When men become dissatisfied with preaching a simple gospel, they get bored and not praying, and they're not seeking God, and they get their eyes on people and numbers, and they want to be judged like everybody else. I want to be a success. And so it comes out, and I hear it everywhere I go. I hear a pastor say, I saw it on television, watching in the apartment we were renting on a vacation, and it was Sunday morning, and you listen to these pastors. We have 2,500 this year. My goal next year is 4,500, and any cost, any way to reach that goal. It's not wrong to pray for growth, but if it's only to feed human ambition, it'll change the man into a devil. Listen, if you find the right formula, it said you can be a success in any field of endeavor possible. This past week, I was amused. The March 1st edition of the New York Times featured an article entitled, How to Manufacture a Bestseller. And a man by the name of John Baldwin, 53-year-old carpenter and a writer, an unsuccessful writer, determined to write a bestselling novel just to make money. He wanted to get rich and famous. He set out to make millions of dollars by writing a medical thriller. And he used a cynical, methodical approach. He studied all the other bestsellers that he could find for a form of success. He got a hold of a bestseller called Coma by Robin Cook. Then he cross-referenced it with other novels by Tom Clancy. He got all the bestselling novels and cross-referenced them. It took him about seven years to figure out the formula. Then he refined it and took it to writers and agents and Hollywood script writers, and they refined it. And he came up with this 10-step formula for a bestseller. Now, remember, there's no passion for writing. There's no other goal but a cynical goal to get rich and famous. And so here are the 10 steps he came up with. The hero has to be an expert. Number two, the villain has to be an expert. Number three, you must watch all the villain's action over the shoulder of the villain. Next, the hero has a team of experts in various fields behind him. Two or more on the team has to fall in love. Two or more on the team have to die. The villain must turn his attention away from his original goal to the team. Number eight, the villain and the hero must live to do battle again in the sequel. In other words, you can't kill off your main characters. They have to go number two. Number nine, the death, all death has to proceed from the individual then to the group. In other words, you don't say the bomb exploded, 15,000 people and they were all killed. You start out with Jamie and Susan were walking in the park with grandma and the earth opened up and swallowed them. And number 10, if you get bogged down, just kill somebody. Now, John Baldwin joined John Muir, a research scientist who was studying the epidemiological and climatic cause of the 10 plagues. In other words, he was trying to explain the plagues were just caused by some climatic thing. And this man had studied. So, you know, here's John Baldwin. He's got the formula but doesn't have anything to write about. So he finds out about this medical doctor. He said, that's great. Let's write a book called The Eleventh Plague. They wrote a 640-page novel using this formula. And just a few weeks ago, Harper Collins paid $2 million for it. Highest price ever paid for a book by an unknown author. Film rights are going to bring another $2 or $3 million. And all by a man with a formula. He's not a writer. He's got a formula for success. He's already pocketed $2 million and he's laughing all the way to the bank. And now he's working on a formula for the sequel to make another $4 or $5 million. And his philosophy, you know, his philosophy is you can be a success at anything if you have the right formula. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Some young men have come up with a formula how to build a church. A formula. This formula-based accommodating gospel is contrary to everything in the Scripture. I read in Acts 13 of a gathering of godly men in Antioch. They were going to send out some young ministers to establish churches and preach the gospel to a darkened world. How does God go about building churches? How does the Holy Ghost work? Scripture said they gathered and they ministered to the Lord and fasted. This was their planning session. Worship, fasting, waiting on the Lord for direction until the Holy Ghost comes and tells them exactly what to do. Number two, they prayed. No strategizing, no networking. No one made a step until the Holy Ghost said, this is the way, walk in it. And then when the Holy Ghost spoke, they laid hands on it and sent them out, the Bible says, under the power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost. You see, Paul had lived his whole religious life under religious formulas. He saw, he'd lived with these man-made schemes. He had seen teachings that accommodated the weaknesses and the sinfulness of backslidden Jews. He'd had his stomach full of it. He said, I have nothing to do with that. It attracts the multitudes, yes. But he said, one day Jesus came and revealed himself in me. Paul put all of the formulas aside as dung, as garbage. Paul, by his own confession, said, I'm determined to go forth to fully preach the gospel of Christ in power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. And unless the gospel is preached in power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost, it's not the gospel. It's not the gospel. And sadly, multitudes in America don't even know what the gospel is because they haven't heard it. Paul boasted unashamedly, we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. Paul said, now, brethren, the Jews and the Greeks are trying to make us accommodate our message now. The Jews want us to give them signs and the Greeks want wisdom. They want miracles over here and over here. They just want 10 steps on how to cope. They want wisdom. But Paul said there will be no accommodating. Let them call our preaching foolishness. Let them say it's out of date, that it's not contemporary. He said, I've determined to preach nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. This other gospel accommodates the sinner in many ways. But there are three areas of accommodation that the Holy Ghost grieves over. And this, I felt the grief of God on these three areas of accommodation where ministers are changing the gospel to suit the crowd. Number one, the accommodation of man's love for pleasure. Know this also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. And the Greek word for pleasure is sensuality, lust, voluptuousness. In other words, exciting, gratifying, sensual pleasures. And all folks, here's the danger. Those who are established, these seeker-friendly churches, they're prepared to accommodate the crowd. The Bible says they're going to have to not preach. It's very, very clear they cannot preach against sensuality because the apostle says they're going to be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. They're going to love their sports. They're going to love their X-rated movies. They're going to love their videos. They're going to love their computer sex. They're going to love these sensuous things. The Bible says they're going to love these things. They're going to come into the house of God. And if you're going to accommodate them, you're not going to touch one of their lusts. You're not going to say one word about it. They're going to have to be prepared to stand in their pulpit and we could sin. Folks, there's a new thing in the world that I call neo-gnosticism, which is simply this, that you can have two parts in your life. You've got your physical life and you've got your spiritual life. And this neo-gnosticism that's in America today says that you can live here in your flesh the way you please as long as you keep your spirit right. In other words, you can commit adultery, and I call it adultery, as long as you have proper motives in other areas. Now, let me read to you these new ethics. And this is, in a nutshell, it's by Reverend Roggeman, who was President Clinton's pastor at Foundry Methodist Church. And in New York Times this week, listen to what Pastor Roggeman preaches. And this is being preached around the country today. Listen closely and compare it to the headlines you're hearing right now. The President's pastor said this week, sexual misconduct does not automatically render a leader immoral. Morality should be judged by indicators like courage, concern for the poor, fostering world peace, running the economy responsibly, and furthering racial equality. Heterosexuality, homosexuality are merely cultural expressions. Now you wonder about your headlines? In other words, you can sin as you please as long as you have enough good indicators to overrule your bad stuff. Do what you please, just make sure you have enough good indicators. Folks, that's being preached in our pulpits. Dr. Roggeman is the number one, his books are the best read books on ethics in our seminars. Paul said of these men, these resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, counterfeit regarding the faith. Counterfeits. You know, I watched in disbelief at a televised main service of one of these secret-funded churches, one of the large secret-funded churches, and the pastor starts the service saying, we're here to have fun tonight, because tonight is David Letterman night. The youth pastor comes out, dressed like David Letterman, and he does his monologue, a funny monologue. And then on the screen, they had the ten, let's see, what did they say? The ten most boring things young people do during preaching. And of the ten, among them was yawning, throwing spitz balls, and picking boogers from your nose. And the crowd went crazy. And the pastor said, brazenly after service, we're here, not to offend, but to make it comfortable. How long do you think that crowd would stay in that church? And the pastor was shaken by the Holy Ghost, convicted of entertaining people into hell. And he stood up one Sunday night, and he said, be sure your sins will find you out. And some Tuesday, I'm preaching on the judgment seat of Christ. Let me tell you what happened in that church. Those thousands who sit there, those who are hungry for God and didn't know any better, they would weep and break before God in a moment. And everyone else would head for the doors and never come back. Oh, there are going to be pastors on judgment day here, these awful words, son of man, I made thee a watchman. You were to hear the word at my mouth and give them warnings from me. You were to tell the wicked, thou shalt surely die. And you gave them no warning, nor spake to warn the wicked from the wicked ways to save their lives. These same wicked men will die, these same wicked men did die in their sins, but now their blood I require from your hands. Accommodation number two, the accommodation of modern man's aversion to self-denial. The gospel of Jesus Christ is one of self-denial. Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now self-denial is not something you give up, it's someone you give up. It's someone you give up. It's you and it's me. It's the giving up of your physical body as a living sacrifice to Jesus. That's the true gospel, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. And when he's talking about reasonable service, God is as if he's saying to us, now you have determined to give me your incorruptible, eternal body. In other words, when you get to heaven, you say, Lord, you can have my glorified body all through eternity. The Lord says, it's only reasonable then that I ask for your physical body now. I want your eyes, because if you don't give me your eyes, they're going to turn to lust. Having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin unless you give me your eyes as a living sacrifice and you're willing to let me cleanse your eyes, I'll never be able to help you because you won't be able to cease from sin. So I have to have your eyes. I want your ears so they won't start itching after false doctrine. I want everything. I want your body, your mind, your soul. No neo-gnosticism. You can't be two places. You can't be two people. You are one. The secret friend of the gospel accommodates and pampers the body. There's no sacrifice that provides the body to the congregation with every conceivable comfort. Jazzercise lessons, aerobics, sports, proper grooming, unending social activities. You never hear a prophetic word. You'll not hear the man standing in the pulpit with tears and Holy Ghost pathos crying out against the sins of the nation or in the congregation. No one there to tell them the difference between the holy and the profane. And folks, only Satan could invent a gospel that would allow a man to stand before a dying sinful crowd and let him go to hell. This is the end of side one. Number three. Now remember, I'm preaching this to pastors. Number three, the accommodating of men's offense of the cross. Behold, I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone, a rock of offense. Paul spoke of the offense of the cross. And we're coming now to the heart of why God hates this new doctrine, this new movement in America. This is why God hates it, rejects it outright, why he's cursed it, why God will put anathema on any preacher who embraces it. God demands more than coming to the cross. He demands going through the cross. And that's the offense that it takes everything a man has and owns and trusts in. You see, the sinner is most willing to come to the cross and kneel before it. He's willing to take the claims by a single confession of faith and just say, Yes, Lord, I believe. He wants all of the benefits of the cross. He wants to believe that Christ has sacrificed, yes, and covered all his sins. Now, folks, that's being preached. The cross, though all the phraseology is there, it's sweetly talked about the cross, come to the cross of Jesus and be forgiven. There's not one word about saying, going on with Christ into the tomb and to die. There's not a word about going down into the grave and coming out resurrected in newness of life. It's coming to the cross, kneel, say a prayer, and go back to your sins. Go back and no one say a word. You take it by faith. You are now the righteousness of Christ. No dying to sin, no being resurrected in newness of life. Now, that's the offense of the cross, that you go all the way when you come. He demands full obedience. He demands everything we have. And I'm afraid a majority of people who claim to be Christians and saved in these last days have been to the cross, but they've never been through the cross. They've never been buried with Christ. Paul said, I died with Christ. I was raised with Christ. I was crucified with Christ. I not only came to his cross, I picked up my cross. I went through with him. We have another gospel now that tells men what the cross did for him, but not what it wants to take him to. The gospel, folks, is not just forgiveness. It's not simply believe and get heaven someday. It's not only the saving of the soul. It's the saving of the body, this flesh. God says, I want your flesh. I want your body as a living sacrifice, and that's the preaching of the cross. Folks, I don't care if somebody could gather a crowd of 100,000 people in a stadium, and they could turn to me and say, Pastor Dave, you're wrong. Look, 100,000 people that have come through my secret friendly church, and here they are. They're all believers now. Folks, I want you to know something. If those 100,000 people have not been given the full gospel of Jesus Christ, have not been preached fully, if the claims of the cross have not been laid there, and if they've been coddled and comforted, then their sins, that 100,000 have been made twice a child of hell than ever before, and were shaped because the Bible says they can come now and hear the words of the curse even, and bless himself and his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart and add drunkenness to thirst, because a false peace has been given to them that they can live in their sins, never be rebuked, never be reproved, never see the claims of the cross, that in only he died to deliver man from the thought of sin and the idea of sin, but the dominion of sin in his own life. If the preaching of grace doesn't have as its goal righteousness, it's another gospel. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we shall live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. I saw a televised interview of people that had joined one of America's most renowned, seeker-friendly churches, and this man testified words, I'm as close, I believe, as the way I heard it. He said, I come here because I'm never made to feel uncomfortable about my life. I can bring my Jewish friends, my business associates, they'd never be embarrassed. I don't have to be a fanatic, and the preaching and the skits are really enjoyable and uplifting, and best of all, the church only lasts one hour. Contrast that with Paul's preaching. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. Behold, this selfsame thing that you sorrowed after godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourself, indignation, fear, yea, what vehement desire, and zeal, what revenge, in all things you have proved yourself to be clear in this matter. And Paul warns, if there's not that kind of preaching, many will walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping. They are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. Folks, when God told me to come to New York City some twelve years ago, I went home after my first call, after weeping on these streets, and I went home to my study, and for months I did what they did in Acts 13. I prayed, I fasted, I wept before God for the city, I wasn't looking for a mega church, I was looking for a holy remnant, I was looking for anybody that wanted Jesus. And when I came to these streets, I knew these streets, I knew what we faced. You come to New York City, and you go down Fifth Avenue one day, and you see 350,000 in your face, gays, with signs that scream, Jesus was gay. And you look up and you see the Empire State Building, bathed in purple and pink in honor of Gay Pride Week. And at the time I was here, and walked these streets down on, before Walt Disney came in, every other store was a sex shop. And in those sex shops, little cages, glass cages, little 12, 13-year-old girls performing lewd acts for dirty old men. And pushers saying, I've got the good stuff, it'll kill you. Death was the sale. Men, businessmen, walking out of Stock Exchange, snorting coke. Men on the streets, business suits, their minds satiated with pornography. And you can see they're just an empty cell. Teenagers over here where they store the salt on West Side, 13, 14-year-old girls and boys, and chauffeured limousines pulling up, and those little girls going in, and boys going down the street to park a while to have a sex act with that man for a dollar. I came to New York City when AIDS was plaguing Broadway. People were dying left and right. Black Muslims in Times Square spewing out hate. Young blacks and young Puerto Ricans feeling the world has left them behind and angry. Intellectuals cursing Christ. Liberal minds who say there's no hope. And you tell me I'm going to come in with a 15-minute skit, and I'm going to have a cute little worship team giving little diddy-bop songs to a dying world? God help our blindness. Folks, we started down on Crack Alley on 41st Street in that ragtag theater, and from the first time I stood in the pulpit, I preached repentance. I preached the cross. I said, we are not here to comfort you in your sins. We're here to confront you in your sins, and to believe that there's a Savior who will deliver you. And the experts tell us that won't work. People don't want that. I talked to a man the other day who was visiting one of these churches, and they decided they're going to break their church up in little groups with prayer meetings, and he went to one of the prayer meetings. And this is a seeker-friendly type church, and you know what the prayer meeting consisted of? Hot chocolate and donuts, and then they brought all the games out, the board games and played games the rest of the evening. And they're those people that are dying in their sins, and they're playing Ouija boards and all of this garbage. And they tell me, first of all, they tell you that you have to have a homogeneous congregation. You have to have all white or all black or all Hispanic. Let them come to Times Square! Those very same people said you can't do that in New York City. Those are hardened New Yorkers. Folks, the Holy Ghost came down because we lifted up the cross, and he said, if I'm lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me. And God went down into Broadway, and he picked up an actor and sent him to Israel and made a missionary out of him. He took drug addicts and alcoholics, he took rich and poor, and he built himself a church. And he built it on his blood! They say people won't come to that kind of a church! I'd love to see them come Sunday morning and try to find a seat anywhere. Do you think for one moment that we would ever stand, whether Carter, myself, or any of our men, any of our teachers would stand in this pulpit where drug-crazed people come to visit, people half dead, people crying and yearning for just one word of hope? Do you think for one minute I'm going to give a 20-minute sermonette to ease their mind? No. I am so glad he laid hold of my heart one day. I'm so glad he revealed his heart to me. And I can say with Paul the Apostle, Christ revealed himself in me, not to me, but in me. Hallelujah. And I know as long as this man is in this church, as long as I'm in this pulpit, there will never, ever be from this pulpit an accommodating gospel. Ever an accommodating gospel. I'm going to ask you, if this is your church at home, I preach this next Tuesday night, a week from tonight. In your time between 7 and 9, I need hundreds of people to pray for me. You know why? Because there are hundreds and hundreds that are being hooked by what I preach to you tonight. Will you stand? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Aren't you glad God has delivered the truth to you? Now, if you don't want reproof, if you don't want truth, you can go somewhere. God says, I'll give you a shepherd after your own heart. You can find somebody that will... You can go and you sit comfortably. You can commit adultery, you can commit a fornication, you can do anything you want and sit there and be comfortable. But one day you stand before the judgment. I will never, God helping me, have any man's blood on my hands. Hallelujah. And folks, we preach it in love, we preach it in grace. But that's where it is. I want us to sing... I'm waiting on the Lord. He's trying to speak to me about something right now. I want you to sing a chorus while I just wait on the Lord for a moment. Will you please? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Wait a minute. I have it. Listen. No clapping, please. I don't know who this is for. But you're here tonight where you stand right now in God's divine will and order and time. God knew just what you needed. Now here's what I feel in the Spirit right now. There's some of you right now that have broken faith with Jesus. You have an outward expression that you're a Christian, but inward it's full of dead man's bones. You're a whited supplicant. Everybody around you thinks everything's all right, but you know better because the Holy Ghost has dealt with you tonight while I'm preaching. Because the Holy Ghost made me a promise. He's going to confirm what I preach tonight. He's going to confirm it by giving you in just a moment, even while I'm talking, a quickening spirit. That's a life-giving spirit that convicts you and says, Tonight, now, get it right. Lay it down. Jesus says, I want everything. You've been to the cross and I'm going to take you through the cross. You're going to die to your sin tonight. You're going to die to the dominion of sin. You're going to die to that love for it. You're going to desire for that clinging you have to someone or something that can send you to hell. I want you to just get out of your seat. We sing not to create a mood, just because we glorify the Lord in our singing too. As they sing, I want you up in the balcony. You go to the stairs on either side. Now, this is life and death. You can take time. I want you to get out of your seat and come down, and let me pray for you now. I want you to say, Jesus, tonight I lay everything. I want nothing hidden in my life, nothing hidden. Folks, you better get it out before you hear me Sunday morning. I'm going to be preaching on God exposing every hidden thing in our lives, because we're about to go in the furnace. Get it right now. Get it right now so you can enjoy Sunday morning. Place of praise, it's my body. Lord, I want clean hands. I want a pure heart. I don't want my eyes to be looking at filth. I don't want my ears to hear anything unlike you, Jesus. I don't want my hands to touch anything that's abominable. Oh, God, take my body, my mind, my soul, take everything. Lord, I'm going all the way with you. How many of you came forward like you'd honestly say, Pastor David, I don't want anything that's hidden or secret in my life. Raise your hand, please. Raise your hand high. Come forward. Amen. Pray this prayer with me then right now. Jesus, you see and know all things. You're not angry at me, but you've convicted me by your Holy Spirit. I bring every hidden thing out into the open. Holy Spirit, search me. Dig everything out. With your help, oh Lord, I want power through the Holy Spirit to live for you. A pure and righteous life. Not in my strength, but in yours. Forgive me, Lord. Every hidden thing, every secret thing, I come to you, Jesus, to be cleansed. Just lift up your hands and say, Lord, cleanse me, Jesus. Just clean my heart. Clean my heart. Tell him right now in your own language, Lord, I give you my sin. Cleanse me. Purge everything out of me unlike you, Jesus. Let your Word cleanse me now. You've heard the Word, now let it cleanse you, Lord. Your Word cleanses me. I want to be clean. I want to be clean, oh Lord, by your grace, by your mercy. I give you my sins. I give you my heart. Everything, Lord. Take it. Take it, Lord. I give it to you. I surrender everything, every hidden thing in my life. No part dark. No part dark. No darkness, Lord. Everything in the light. Everything in the light. Hallelujah. Now thank him for his grace. Just thank him for his goodness, dear Lord. I give you thanks. I give you thanks. I give you praise. Wonderful, Jesus. Wonderful, Lord. Lord, I thank you. You've loved us so much that you'll not spare us the truth. God, you won't spare us the rod. He said if you spare the rod, you damn the child. And Lord, that's why so many preachers and churches are damning their people because there's no rod. God, the rod has come in your great love and mercy and kindness. Thank you, Lord, for the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord, for the love of the Holy Ghost that is in our heart. Let's just love him. Come on, folks. Congregation, just love on Jesus right now. Just love him. Just love him. We love you. Lord, we worship you. We worship you, Lord. Break in on us, Holy Spirit. Break in upon us, Holy Spirit. Break in on us, Holy Ghost. This is the conclusion of the tape.
The Gospel of Accommodation
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David Wilkerson (1931 - 2011). American Pentecostal pastor, evangelist, and author born in Hammond, Indiana. Raised in a family of preachers, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at eight and began preaching at 14. Ordained in 1952 after studying at Central Bible College, he pastored small churches in Pennsylvania. In 1958, moved by a Life Magazine article about New York gang violence, he started a street ministry, founding Teen Challenge to help addicts and troubled youth. His book "The Cross and the Switchblade," co-authored in 1962, became a bestseller, chronicling his work with gang members like Nicky Cruz. In 1987, he founded Times Square Church in New York City, serving a diverse congregation until his death. Wilkerson wrote over 30 books, including "The Vision," and was known for bold prophecies and a focus on holiness. Married to Gwen since 1953, they had four children. He died in a car accident in Texas. His ministry emphasized compassion for the lost and reliance on God. Wilkerson’s work transformed countless lives globally. His legacy endures through Teen Challenge and Times Square Church.