In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of being convicted by the Holy Spirit and allowing God to peel away the layers of sin in one's life. He expresses his concern about standing before God on judgment day and having to remind his loved ones of the messages they ignored. The preacher warns against being entertained by the sins of others and taking sin lightly. He uses the story of the 70 elders of Israel visiting Ezekiel to illustrate the danger of not taking sin seriously.

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. Psalm 38. And thank you, musicians, choir, staff, all of you, and elders. God gave us some wonderful, wonderful elders. Great men of God who have great wisdom. And they stand with Pastor Carter and I. And we thank you, gentlemen. God bless you. Psalm 38, if you will, please. My message tonight is entitled The Heaviness of Sin. The Heaviness of Sin. I have a sense in me that the Lord's taking me back to the kind of preaching that this church was established on that has to do with old-time repentance. And I find myself being led more and more to preach against the inroads of sin and repentance. The Heaviness of Sin. Psalm 38, first five verses, please. O Lord, David is speaking, Rebuke me not in thy wrath, Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure, For thine arrows stick fast in me, And thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh Because of thine anger, Neither is there any rest in my bones Because of my sin. For my iniquities are gone over my head As a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. That's my message. The Heaviness of Sin. My sin is too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt Because of my foolishness. Next verse. I am troubled, I am bowed down, Great I go mourning all the day. Heavenly Father, I pray that you give me now your mind and your unction and your anointing because I can't deliver this message in my own strength and in my own power but by faith. Now I take your authority, Jesus, over every prince of poverty and power of darkness, every spirit of iniquity that would try to hinder the flowing of the word of God into the hearts that need it tonight. Lord, I need this message and everyone in this building needs it. And I pray, Lord, you speak supernaturally into our hearts. Lord, we love you with a passion. We're here, Lord, for no other reason than to bring a body into the fullness of Christ and one day present them to you, Lord. I have to answer one day as I stand at the judgment seat. I have to answer first of all to live what I preach. But oh, what a trembling that causes me. And Lord Jesus, I pray now that you send your arrows and break through every wall that we've erected and let the word find its mark, I pray. Bring healing in Jesus' name. Amen. Now after David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband murdered, he wrote in his time of penitence, he wrote four Psalms. If you want to check this later, Psalm 6, Psalm 32, Psalm 51, and Psalm 38, the chapter that I'm focusing on tonight. He wrote these after the fall and after his repentance. And here in Psalm 38, David is smitten by his tender conscience and he cries out to God in verse 2, Your arrows pierce me deeply. Your hand presses me down. You see, this comes right after Nathan, the prophet, has exposed David's sin. Now the whole country is talking about it. David is living out the shame caused by his sin. I think the thing that sends terror in David's soul is what Nathan told him about his sin. You cause the enemies of God to rejoice. Folks, that more than anything else sends the greatest fear into my heart that I could ever fail God and bring shame on His name so that the enemies of God would mock. I would rather die than to have that happen. And what David must have gone through now, his sin is now exposed to the whole world. And he's living out, he's hearing the cry of so many, how the mighty are falling, David's dead, ruined, he's gone, his reputation, his influence, it's all over, and they were gloating in it, even those who supposedly were his friends. Now a number of Bible scholars believe that it was during this time of David's weakness that Absalom saw fit to rise up against him. Now, the rebellion had not yet been full-blown, but evidently David was aware of it. Reports probably came to him that there was a plot by his son Absalom to overthrow his government. And I think that's why he said this in verses 11 and 12, My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, and my relatives stand afar off. I think he's speaking of his own sons. Those who also seek my life lay snares for me. Those who seek my hurt speak of destruction, and they're planning deception all the day long. He knew there was deception, and yet he can't speak out about it because he's laboring under the burden and the shame of his own sin. Now, for an entire year, David lived with a hidden sin. David lived with something, a sin that was not confessed, it was covered. He was covering his sin for a whole year. The Bible clearly says in Proverbs, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy. Now, when it says shall not prosper, it's not talking about physical prosperity. He will not prosper in his health. He'll not prosper in his emotion. He'll not prosper in his knowledge of God or his walk with God or his everyday life. He will not prosper. There's going to be a curse. There's going to be shame. And for a whole year, David lives under this. At first, only he knew it and his military commander, Joab. Only two people knew this. And then God supernaturally reveals it to a prophet, Nathan. Three people know it now. And Nathan has been to David. And I wonder if part of David's terror is that he's not told by Sheba, our husband died. Have you ever thought about that? When did he tell her? Did she know instinctively that David had a part in having her husband murdered? Or did David just live under this tension for a whole year? Did she not know this until later when it was all out? Did she hear it when the rest of Israel heard it? Was this what he carried for a whole year? That caused such emotional, physical, spiritual pain to David that we'll see described here in just a moment. How true the Bible is. Be sure your sin will find you out. Be sure. Be absolutely sure. That is the principle of God. Your sin will find you out. It will come out. It's going to be made public. Here in Psalm 38, it's now out in the open and nothing is hidden. And David's confessing, my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. You see, by the time Nathan got to David, he was already at the end of the rope. He had already been crossed by the burden of this secret sin. Oh, my friend, there is no greater burden for a Christian to bear than that of the heavy load of a hidden, covered sin. No other burden that a Christian could bear than that which is hidden, unforsaken, and unconfessed. David is already saying to himself, what my sin has done to me, what it's done to my physical body, it's done to my family, to my country. It's too much to handle. It's too heavy. Moses once described sin like this, the pleasures of sin for a season. And oh, what a short season that pleasure is. Often it's a night. Often it's a few hours of forbidden pleasure. It could be a week. It could be a month. It could be a fortation. It can be a secret affair. It can be drugs. It can be alcohol. It can be any of these things that he... Moses said, there are pleasures in sin, but for such a short season. And then comes the heaviness. Then comes the effect on the body, the health, and the family. The word heaviness here in Hebrew means burdensome. It also means the potential to dull your senses. It dulls conviction. It dulls the ability to understand and hear the Word. The first thing you lose when you hide your sin is your discernment, your spiritual discernment. You can't see. You can't hear. For he that cut off of his sins shall not prosper. Did God still love David through all of this? Yes, He did. Was God angry with David? Yes, He was. Does God love you even when you are in sin, when there is hidden sin in your life? Yes. Does it anger God? Oh, yes, it does. Does God discipline? Oh, yes, He does. Because you see now, David's a very sick man. His body is plagued. The Hebrew suggests it's a very serious case of ulcers. What a toll it took on his physical body. Now, we know from the life of Job that not all sickness is caused by sin. Some of those who are the holiest, godliest people on earth suffer more than anybody else. Job is a very perfect example. But just as surely as you can get sick and die from drinking at the Lord's table unworthily, he said, for this reason, because of hidden sin, I believe, because of that which is not forsaken, not dealt with, many among you are sick. And the apostles said even have died as a result of it. And just as surely as that can happen, what an awesome, awful toll sin took on David. He's listing here in this chapter the toll physically, emotionally on his body, his family, his nation. And there's not a person here in this service, behind me, before me, anywhere. There's not one person in this building. There's not experience. If you love the Lord, if you really have a heart for Jesus, if you really believe you're His child and you have sinned against God or you have fallen into a sin or you have a covered sin or a hidden sin or a besetting sin that's not been dealt with, I tell you, you have gone through this same thing. I've been there. I know what it's about. Years ago in my young pastoral life, I've known what this is. Not speaking of adultery. Don't try to figure out what my sin is. You've got enough problems with your own. You listen to what David said about the toll of his sin on his life, the emotional, physical, spiritual toll on his life. He begins in verse 3, There's no soundness in my flesh. In other words, I have brought upon myself a continual fear that I can't deal with. In Hebrew, it suggests my mind and body is consumed by a fear of God's wrath and displeasure on me. I wake up every morning knowing that I've sinned against the Lord. I've got something hidden in my heart. I have something attached to itself. I have a cancer in my soul. And I wake up every morning and there's no soundness. There's no sense of wholeness. There's a sense of a dark, foreboding cloud that hangs over my head. I tell you, if you love Jesus, if He's your Savior, if He's the Blessed One in your life, and you have sinned, you know the grief it causes Him. You cannot wake up with peace. You cannot wake up with a quiet, joyful spirit. There's no soundness, He said, in my flesh. In my mind, my mind is constantly aware that I have sinned against God and I have hidden it. He goes on to say, There is no health in my bones because of my sin. Now, bones here should be translated, my body. Have you ever used this expression? I do more and more as I age. I have a hard time getting these bones out of bed in the morning. That's my body. He said, There's no health in my body because of my sin. He said, my sin is literally affecting my health. It's affecting my physical health. David said in those other penitent psalms, for example, in the sixth chapter, sixth psalm, verse two, Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are being troubled. My soul is also greatly troubled. In the other penitent psalm, in 32.3, When I kept silence, in other words, when I hid my sin, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. There's a groaning. It wasn't a voice. There's something groaning and moaning in him. I am living in sin. I am grieving the spirit of the living God. And he said, I groan and it's affecting my body. It's affecting my health. Verse, chapter, you know that penitent psalm, the 51st psalm, verse eight, Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones that you've broken may start rejoicing. He said, I can't carry this anymore, Lord. There's no rejoicing in me anymore. Not real rejoicing. Oh, I can put it on, but it's not a true rejoicing. For your David's body is racked with fear and trouble and foreboding. He goes on. He said, My loins are filled with a loathsome disease. There's no soundness in my flesh. And the loins here in Hebrews represent strength and confidence. And this loathsome disease in Hebrews is shrinking, a drying up. And what he's saying, my, literally, my strength, my physical, mental, spiritual strength is shrinking. Folks, we have millions of shrinking saints who are literally shrinking, who once had a touch of God, who knew how to pray. They don't pray anymore. They're shrinking. They don't see God. They go to church for an hour or two. They can spend hours in sports, hours in their hobbies, hours in everything else, and give God a lousy hour. I told you, and I want to repeat it. The night that Princess Diana was buried, Holy Spirit woke me in the middle of the night and spoke to my inner man and said, David, tonight goes down in the books of heaven, in the book of judgment. It's one of the greatest nights of judgment in the history of mankind. I said, what do you mean, Lord? He said, it's because millions of my people who have never spent 15 minutes a day seeking my face, never been up for an hour with the Word of the Lord, got up at 2, 3, 4 o'clock and sat for four hours watching television, watching a princess die, and not even an hour for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I'm not condemning you for doing that. I'm not saying that's wrong. The wrong, the sin is, is that you had that time and yet you didn't have the time. You have not given the time to the Lord, not an equal time to Him. And when the books are opened, God will remind millions of Christians who have abandoned and neglected Him days on end. The prophet said, you have neglected the Lord days on end. See, you don't have to be a drug addict, alcoholic, prostitute or having a secret affair. All you have to do is ignore Him. All you have to do is have all your time for yourself. Never open this book. Never draw life. And shrink. Shrink. Till you become a spiritual midget talking like a giant. David goes on, my wounds stink and they're corrupt because of my foolishness. He said, this has been nothing but foolishness and because of my foolishness there's a stench to my character. I once stood for something. When people heard my name, they honored God. There was something about my character. Folks, there's something about people that walk close to Jesus that even the worst sinners have to acknowledge. And David said, they acknowledged me. And what he's saying now, this wound among this foolishness has caused a stench to my character, my name. They call me, they sing, now the drunkards sing about me. I'm the song of drunkards. And he's not grieving about his name because he said, my name was identified with his. There was an awesome beauty to holiness and there was a beauty to my name. And now he said, there's a stench because of my foolishness. He said, I'm a troubled man. I'm bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long. He says, I'm getting up every morning troubled, bowed down with fear and guilt. I'm not a free man. I go about my days. I go about my work without peace. And in the Hebrew, it means a dark amber colored heavy sadness. How do you get up in the morning? Is the joy of the Lord there? Is there a song in your heart? This is the day the Lord has made. I will be glad and rejoice in it. Or is that moaning, groaning of the Holy Ghost in you because he loves you, because God loves you. The hound of heaven is there in the morning. The hound of heaven. Talk about groanings that can't be uttered. I'm a feeble and sore broken man. Verse 8, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. He said, I moan because there's something roaring in me. There's a roar in my heart. And what is that roaring? It's the roaring of a lost peace. He lost his rest in God. You see, it's getting heavier and heavier. Every statement he makes, David's looking back and he's trying to describe the heaviness on him. What the cost of my sin. He's already been exposed. He's already through. He seemed the light at the end of the tunnel, but now he's looking back and he's looking back for you and for me, for our sake. Saying, you don't have to go the way I went. I'm feeble and sore broken because I've lost the favor of God. Oh, beloved, when you lose the favor and the blessing of God, what an awful cloud of darkness results. Then he said, as for the light of mine eyes, it's completely gone now. The light of my eyes. Sin cost me my discernment, my reputation. It's affected my family, my friends, my health. But he said, it's one thing to lose your health. It's another thing to lose your reputation. And it's a sad thing to have the enemies rejoice. And he said, oh, the worst thing of all, I've lost his light. I've lost the sense of his presence. I've lost it. Folks, I'm weeping inside because while I'm talking to you, I'm thinking about some evangelist friends of mine who are well known. And I was their speaker so often, and I ate with them, and I talked with them, and I ministered to them, and they ministered to me. And I've been in a car for an hour to a man who had won millions of souls and listened in unbelief and terror to a man who had lost his light. And one of our repentance conferences, a well-known evangelist from years ago, and I told you about it here, all the years he was on television, known all over the United States and around the world. This is years ago. The whole time, he had the hidden sin of homosexuality. And he came to one of our repentance conferences, and his wife had to lead him around. He was about 70 at the time. And I'd heard all about him, never met him. He was very famous when I was a younger man. His wife led him up to me. She had to literally lead him. He put his hand out like this, like a dead fish. I picked it up. He said, Hello, David. The light was gone. There was no light. There was nothing. He was a dead man. Dead. I fear God. I lost my light. Folks, you can lose your reputation, you can lose your health because of this, and you can lose all that, but God help you when you lose the light. When you can sit in the house of God and not be affected by it, when you can sit in God's house, no amount of preaching can touch your heart anymore, and you go off and find some little candy-cotton preacher who will minister to the lust of your heart. Because he lost his spiritual light, he lost his right to rebuke and reproach sin in others. Listen to him. But I, as a deaf man, heard not, thus I was a man that heareth not, in whose mouth there is no reproof. Now remember what Paul said to Timothy, to minister to you, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering. But the one who hides his sin has this thundering message in his soul. You who say, Do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. In other words, are you teaching others how to live, and yet you have the hidden, covered thing in your own life? He said, You have blasphemed my name. Oh, God. You blaspheme my name. What a heavy burden David carried that whole year. How costly. And listen to David's heart cry. I am ready, verse 17, I am ready to halt. In Hebrew it means fall. I'm about to take a fall. My sorrow is continually before me. Now, you can look at this picture of David I've just painted to you, and you say, How can this sweet psalmist, how can a man after God's heart, a man who so knew the Lord, how could the devil wind up doing such a trip on him? Well, let me tell you, it wasn't the devil who put a trip on him, it was God. It wasn't the devil who made sin so heavy, it was God. God is the one who makes your sin so heavy you can't bear it until you be driven back to the cross. You see, only a righteous man, only a righteous person can be affected like this by sin. Let me tell you something. If you sit here now and say, Oh, Brother David, you are coming down something in my heart I have hidden. I hope you never stand in front of me and have to tell me what it is. Let me tell you something. If you're here tonight, you say, Brother David, you're describing what I'm going through. Let me tell you, only a righteous person could feel what David felt. Only a righteous person. If you're going through that, that is the loving mercy of God causing your sin to weigh you down and bring you down to the depths until you see the exceeding sinfulness of sin and then you see sin as He sees it. He is bringing you to the place He brought David. David said, I'm about to fall, but my sorrow is ever before me. And that is the whole secret of this whole story now. He had to grant me sorrow. In Lamentations, the prophet cries out, I'm the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. This is talking about the past sins. He has aged my flesh and my skin. He has broken my bones. He has besieged me. He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out. He has made my chain heavy. He has broke my way with hewn stones. God has made my chain heavy. God Himself allows the chaos, the terrifying results, the ruin to bring an open confession and produce a deep repentance and a willingness to bring it all out to the throne of God in the open so that then we can cast aside every weight. Now here's a man who's committed adultery. Here's a man who has had a soldier murdered so he could bed down his wife. A man who already had five wives. A man who brought shame on Israel, on his heavenly father. A man who hid his horrible sin for a whole year. A man who came to the brink of total ruin and yet God says he's a man after my own heart. You say, how can that be? I'll tell you why. Here it is. For I will declare my iniquity and I will be sorry for my sin. I will freely confess my sin. I am truly repentant. Forsake me, O Lord. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Oh, David had a crying heart, a repentant heart. He's not telling this to man. He's telling it to God. Against thee and thee only, Lord, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. I acknowledge to you, my Lord, that I have transgressed. Create in me a clean heart. Create in me a clean heart. You see, on the brink of a fall, just before he's about to fall, he cries out to God and humbles himself and says, Oh, God, I've had enough. I can't carry this. It's too heavy for me. Are you at that place or are you at the brink? You're about to say, if I go on another day, another week, I'm going to fall. Oh, God humbled him. God, bring a godly sorrow in my heart for my sin. And it's that cry that God's looking for. Oh, how he rushes. God has never in the history of salvation, never in the history of mankind turned down the cry of a sincere heart. Never. Now, my message tonight goes beyond the experiences of David and the focus of my message goes on even beyond the high cost of sin. Because I want to focus for a little while on another kind of Christian. I want to talk about those who call themselves Christians and cannot relate in any way to Psalm 38. They can't relate to anything I've said. They don't know what this is all about. I don't understand sin, grieving you, bringing you down in health and emotionally and spiritually and affecting everything around you. Some people don't understand a word of that. Call themselves Christians. Say they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because, you see, the Christian who doesn't take his sins seriously, who thinks it's a triviality, is in very dangerous condition. Far more dangerous condition than David was at any point in his transgression. Now, here is the point of my whole message. And God, this past week, just shook my soul with it. You see, there's hope for David because this man feels the arrows of the heart. He doesn't have any walls. His conscience has not been crusted by rejections of the truth. The arrows of God easily pierced his soul. And he felt the pain of it. But there are many who can sit in messages like this and feel no pain when the arrows come, like this afternoon, under the preaching of Pastor Carter. And every time the arrows come, the arrows are just shunted off because the conscience is crusted. Can't pierce the armor of the walls that have been set up. And the sin is taken, like, oh, it's just a little thing. I'm doing quite well with the Lord. There's just one little thing and one little problem in my life. It's a little thing. I received a letter this past week from a sister that really got my attention. I read many of the letters with Gwen that come from all over the world. She said, Pastor David, I'm really scared. I've served the Lord for a number of years now, but in recent years, I've been drifting away. I've been cold toward the Lord. I'm going just through the motions. I have no burden for lost souls. I have no burden for the work of the Lord anymore. I have no urgency to pray. I seldom pick up the word. A spiritual dullness has overtaken me. But what scares me more than anything else is what's happening to me. And she said, I am scared that I'm not scared. I'm scared that this doesn't bother me. I thought about that. Taking sin so lightly. How many are there right now that you've made peace with your sin? That bosom sin has become so comfortable now you don't even think about it. It's just something you do. The pornography. How many of you go and rent a video and you are being entertained as our pastor preach. Pastor Carter, you're being entertained by the sins of others. Which makes you far more guilty than those who made the pornographic stuff in the first place, because you're being entertained by their sins. And you take it lightly. Now, let me give you an illustration in that don't turn up in an eighth chapter of Ezekiel. There's an amazing, amazing story of 70 elders of Israel coming to visit the prophet Ezekiel to get a word from the Lord. And they come as God's servants. Now, remember, they are in the service of the temple. These are priests and these seven priest elders come. They're priests and elders and they come to Ezekiel to worship the Lord. It's a worship service and to hear the word of the Lord. It's a preaching worship service. And they come very piously. And Ezekiel said, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, suddenly there came a fiery appearance and a man in brightness, the color of amber. Now, these 70 elders have hidden sin in their life. They are going through all of the temple ministry. They are killing the lambs. They are at the laver washing their hands. They go into the holy place. They have the incense. They're going through all this and nobody knows about it. Outward, everything looks pious and holy. But these men belong to a secret society of sun worshiping. These men have a bevy of prostitutes in the temple, weeping for Tammuz, the god of fertility and a part of the worship was acts of prostitution even with the priest. And these men are full of lust. These men have secret sin and they're coming piously before the man of God. And suddenly God appears. The glory of God comes into the room. In fact, the prophet says, and behold the glory of the Lord. The God of Israel was there. I want you to notice how Ezekiel is impacted by the glory of God. He is lifted by the very locks of a hair. This is not actually happening literally. It's a vision. And right in the room, God's going to pick him up and hang him right over the temple and expose everything that's in their minds because when the spirit of the Lord came, Ezekiel, the man of God, walking in righteousness, gets a vision of the terror of sin. He gets a vision of the power of the abominations in God's house and the hidden things in the heart of man. Folks, when the glory of God comes, it comes to expose sin. It comes to expose every hidden thing in our life. And that's the way we're to respond like Ezekiel did. His eyes are suddenly open. And Lord, I'm going to show you abomination after abomination. I'm going to show you sin as I see it. And he is literally suspended between heaven and earth. And he said, look, these men are putting up walls. They're putting up walls. They're not moved. The glory of God's in the room and they're not moved. They're sitting there comfortable. They're not listening. They're not hearing. They're saying everything's all right. It's just a little thing. We worship Jehovah. We got this little thing on the side. Totally unmoved. They have covered their sin and the glory of God is in the room and it doesn't touch them. Amazing. Honey, sit down. Would you sit down, please? Would you please sit down? We'll minister to you after the service, honey. Listen, God says to the prophet, look, they're putting up walls. I'm going to cut a hole right into their minds now and their imagination. I'm going to show you. He said, dig into their minds, dig into their hearts. I'm going to show you what's in their mind. And he said when he dug through, he saw creeping things in all the walls of their imagination, an abominable beast. Those are demonic strongholds, demonic beast in the house of God in the ministry. Folks, I believe more people going to go to hell by false preachers than any drug pushers or anything else. I think ungodly preaching will send more people to hell than any of any other force on Earth. God, oh, what a wailing and weeping on judgment day when ungodly preachers unmoved by the gospel, hiding secret sin and living, living absolutely in lust and fornication and all kinds of foolishness stand before a holy God given over to their sins. Ezekiel sees right into their hearts and he said, let me show you the great abominations in my house. The imaginations filled with all kinds of creeping things, abominable beast. They were weeping for Tammuz. If Ezekiel lived today and the Holy Ghost suspended him above this church and above all the churches and above our spiritual minds and our imaginations, I wonder what he'd see. I wonder what would be revealed to him of the deeper abominations and the covetousness, the unforgiveness, the neglecting of a holy God and giving him so little of our life and time. And here, listen to this. God said, let me tell you, Ezekiel, why these men can sit in the presence of my holiness and be unmoved. He said, is it a light in the Hebrews trivial? Is it a light trivial thing to the house of Judah? To commit these abominations which they commit here, they have put the branch to their nose. He said, Ezekiel, you know why they're unmoved? They don't see sin like I do to them. It's just the thing. It's a light thing. They're taking it. They're not taking their sin seriously. They're not taking it seriously. He said, is this a light thing to you? To commit abomination? And this is just a joke to you? You're not going to deal with this? And he said, not only that, they put the twig to the nose. Now, a number of Bible scholars have said that this was a sign of contempt. They would pick up a twig, break it off, put it under the nose and twist and just flip it. In other words, here's to you. Well, we threw the twig away and we use the thumb. It's called thumb in the nose. God says, when you take your sin light, you thumb in your nose at me. You are thumbing your nose at me. You not only neglect me, you're thumbing your nose. You're putting the twig to your nose. For they say the Lord does not see. Nobody knows. It's all hidden. Oh, not for long. Not for long. But you see these priests, they're not like David. They're not burdened down with the heaviness of sin. The load of sin was light to them. There's no smiting conviction. There's no loss of strength. There's no physical or emotional pain. They're not troubled. There's no fear, no guilt, no ulcers, no inner roaring, no moaning over sin. They're deceived by what Moses called a false piece. You've heard Pastor Carter and myself talk about it. And here it is that they bless themselves in their hearts saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination or stubbornness of my own heart to add drunkenness to thirst. In other words, there's no difference between a drunkard and me. There's no what it is. There's no distinguishing between good and evil. They've lost all ability to distinguish between. They can't tell the difference between thirst and drunkenness. And he said, they say, I have peace, I have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart. Oh, there is a peace. It's a false peace. It's a judicial judgment of God. It's a peace that comes upon those who God knows will never again ever want to repent and turn to the Lord. Let me ask you in closing. How heavy is your sin? You say, oh, Brother David, I can't carry the load anymore. That's good. That's the cry of a righteous soul. Oh, God, I'm sick of my sin. I am so tired of it. But folks, if it's not making you sick, if it's not making you weary, if it's not making you heavy burden, then God help you. God help you. I want if there's sin in my life, I want God to so put his hand make it so heavy on me. I can't last another day until I go to the throne. For David, now the hiding's all over. The sin is out in the open and he's seeing light not the end of the tunnel. And listen to his triumphant cry. I acknowledge my sin to you, Lord. In my iniquity, I'm not hidden anymore. I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. You now are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Shout for joy all you upright in heart. Oh, you get your shout back. Hallelujah. You get your joy back. How? I said I brought it out to you, Lord. You don't have to get up and announce it publicly. You go to the throne of God. You go to the secret closet. So, God, here I am. I want you to cause me to hate this, to see it as you see it, oh God. And I want you to know that I don't want to carry this anymore. Casting all your care, all your burden, cast aside the weight. He's there waiting. Hallelujah. You know, one last closing thought. Remember when the prodigal son ran away? What a horrible condition. He actually had wanted his dad dead. It's the only way he could have got his inheritance. But since he couldn't wish his dad dead with all, not only if he tried to plot his death, but he had to have his dad dead to everything. And what a spirit of murder, a spirit of hate and rebellion and sin. He goes out and waste everything. And then he comes back. And when you picture that heavenly, you picture that earthly father, the type of Christ, going out running to him and falling upon him and kissing his neck and saying, welcome home. Welcome home. My cry to you right now, my plea to you as a servant of the Lord and as a shepherd here in this church, that you not walk out tonight with anything hidden in your life. For he that covers his sin shall not prosper, but he that confesses and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy. Mercy, the tender, loving mercy of the Lord. He's waiting to kiss your neck, put a new robe on you, clothe you, bring you to a feast of joy and a shout of victory. Hallelujah. I want you to stand. Hallelujah. A thought just hit me because I've been looking out over the crowd and I'm recognizing some of your faces. Faces that I love. Faces of friends. And I'm thinking of how many times I've stood in this pulpit and ministered to you from my gut, my heart. Loud, soft, tears, joy. Every way possible. And yet a deep sadness in my heart because you're still not hearing me. And I walk out that door tonight not really moved, not really convicted. When I was standing here, I was picturing myself on judgment day before the judgment seat of the great white throne judgment when I have to be one of those who indict you. To remind you of every message. What an awful thought to have to stand before some dear friends that I've loved and ministered to and poured my heart out on judgment day. And I'm not trying to be smaltzy because that doesn't save anybody. Because I try to scare you. You just scare the last ten minutes and then you get mad at me. But the truth is the pain I feel already that I'm going to have, Pastor Carter, I know we'll have when we stand before you on judgment day. I said, why didn't you listen? What was it that kept you? Why didn't you move toward God? What did it take? What was wrong? I walk home every night from this church when I preach, I walk home every night shaking my head. And thinking of people, looking at faces of people that should have been down here crying out, Oh God! Get it into my heart! Oh God! Don't let me lose this truth before I go totally spiritually blind and can never be reached. Because you see, if you come to this church and you hear all this truth and you get all this light and you sit against that light, oh, the judgment on Hitler is nothing compared to what you face. Because he didn't have the light. Oh, that's a painful thought, painful feeling I get. I'm not trying to be dramatic. There are visitors here from all over the United States. God sent you here tonight. You're not here by accident. You're not standing here in front of me right now by accident. God had a divine appointment. I didn't know he was going to be here. I didn't know anything about you. But God did. And he spoke directly to your heart. Now, you either shake it off. You don't even have to come down to this altar, but you have to make a decision before the Holy Ghost, right? Now, God, I'm going to change my life. There's going to be a change. I'm not going to be the same man or the same woman I walk out of this building. I'm going to change by your grace. God, I want this word to go in my heart and I want it to change me. Oh, God will come rushing to your side. God will strengthen you. He'll change you. He'll give you back your first love. Heavenly Father, I'm not as concerned about the wages of sin and the cost of sin as much as I am of those who have taken sin so lightly and who just shake off the conviction. God, what a dangerous place. I pray that you awaken hearts tonight. Oh, Holy Ghost, come. Patient Lord, long-suffering Jesus, come and minister now life and hope for those who say, my sin has been carried long enough. I can't carry it anymore. If you're tired of carrying your sin, just get out of your seat and come and bring it to the altar right here now. Just bring it here. Say, Lord, I want you to make me ready tonight to lay down everything hidden secret in my life. Nobody needs to know what it is. You take it to the Lord up in the balcony. Go to the stairs on either side and come down in the aisle. A lot of people are coming. So you don't have to be ashamed. Don't be ashamed. Get it settled. Get it settled. Get it settled right now. You don't need any mood music. You let the Holy Ghost. That's the true repentance. Don't come unless you're ready to repent of it. Until you're ready to say, Oh, God, I want to see my sin as you see it. It's not a trivial thing. It's not a light thing. It can damn my soul. Jesus, help me. Hallelujah. He's always looking for a heart cry. Oh, God, I have to have help. I've had enough of this. I'm ready to come to you. But you're going to have to give me your strength. You've convicted me of my sin. And listen to me. This is powerful. This is good for you. If you listen, the same Holy Ghost convicts you as the same Holy Ghost that has the power for you. You can say if I'm being convicted, that means he's going to give me power. He would have convicted you without being willing to give you the power also to live above the power of sin. Hallelujah. I want you to lift your hands to the Lord. Scriptures I would never lift holy hands. They're made holy only through the righteousness of Jesus. And I want a gut cry, a cry of repentance. Come on. In your own words, repent. You name your own sin quietly before the Lord. Lord, I see this as sin. It's not a light thing. It can damn my soul. I don't want to cover it. I don't want to hide it anymore. Lord, I bring it out to the open. Come on. Confess it before the Lord. An open confession of sin, a total repentance of your heart. Lord, blot out my transgressions. Blot out my sins for I've sinned against you, Lord, and I've done this evil in your sight. Oh God, I will not hide my sin. Holy Ghost, come and expose and heal. Hallelujah. Open up your heart right now to him. Lord, I come to be healed of my sin. Smite it, O Lord, by your Holy Ghost conviction. Smite it, O God. Now I want you to pray this prayer from your heart. Jesus, I've sinned against you, against my Heavenly Father. Forgive me, O Lord. I repent of my sin. It is not a light thing. My load is heavy, and I come to you, Father, to confess my sin. I bring it out to the open. Deal with it, Holy Ghost. Turn the light on. Let me see it as you see it, and let me turn from it. Let me confess it and forsake it through the power of the Holy Ghost. Sanctify me, Lord Jesus, by the Spirit of the living God. I thank you, Lord. Do you promise to forgive me if I truly repent and turn from my wicked ways and trust in your grace and your blood? Thank you, Jesus. Now just give him thanks. I give you thanks, O Lord. I give you thanks. You see, we're not saying to you just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. That's only part of it. He says if we confess our sins and turn from our wicked ways, there has to be confession. There has to be repentance, total repentance. And folks, it has to be a turning to the Lord, turning away, saying, O God, I want to turn away from my wicked ways. I want to turn to you with all my heart, renewing me a right spirit, renewing me my faith, renewing me a first love for you, Jesus. And that's not going to happen until you ask him. And I'll tell you what, sometimes God won't do it until you take the first step. You draw nigh to me and I'll draw nigh to you. You take the first step and say, I'll discipline myself and get into this. Get into the song, read five chapters every day and mark. You see this Bible marked from page to page? Mark it. And I told you, if you have a Bible you're afraid to mark, give it away and get one that you can mark. Get the right one. Mark it and let the Holy Ghost talk to you through his word. Here's where your faith comes. Here's where your strength will come from. Hallelujah. And here's where the Holy Ghost will convict you even more deeply. You say, Oh, I was smitten by conviction. Oh, listen. It's like peeling an onion. You get the first peeling off and say, boy, that's okay. And he keeps peeling and peeling and peeling and a lot of tears go with it sometimes. You say, Lord, peel my onion until you get down to the black stone and take the stone out and heal my soul once and for all. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. This is the conclusion of the tape.