In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of trusting in God and having faith in Him. He encourages the congregation to look back on their lives and see the many times God has delivered them and made a way for them. The preacher also highlights the value of a single believer who has absolute faith in God. He mentions the challenges and temptations faced in the world, such as the presence of evil music videos and the chaos on the streets. Despite these challenges, the preacher assures the congregation that God will fight for them and be faithful to see them through.

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 World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771, or calling 903-963-8626. You are welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends. However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply. My message this morning, the Lord will fight for you. The Lord will fight for you. It sounds like somebody needs some help. Please go to Deuteronomy, the first chapter. Deuteronomy, first chapter. Let's start at verse 21. I'm going to read right through to verse 35. Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee. Go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has said unto you. Fear not, neither be discouraged. You came near unto me, every one of you, and said, We will send men before us. They shall search out the land and bring us word again by what way we must go up and into what cities we shall come. Now, that was an act of unbelief. God told them to go up, and they said, Well, just wait a minute. We've got to go check it out. And even though Moses approved it, there's no evidence that God ever asked Moses for that permission. And the saying pleased me. That's Moses speaking. Please me well. I took 12 men of you, one of a tribe. They turned and went up into the mountain and came to the Valley of Eskol and searched it out. They took the fruit of the land in their hands, brought it down to us, brought us word again and said, It's a good land which the Lord our God has given us. Nevertheless, or notwithstanding, we would not go up. You would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, Because the Lord hated us. He brought us out, the land of Egypt to deliver us in the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, The people is greater and taller than we. The cities are great and walled up to heaven. Moreover, we have seen the sons of Anakims there. Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God which go before you, he shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt, because before your eyes. And in the wilderness were thou seen how the Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bear his son. In all the way that you went, you came to this place. Yet in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, and fire by night to show you by what way you should go in a cloud by day. And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth and swore, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land which your fathers swore to give unto your fathers. Now, Father, this is the third or fourth message you put in my heart regarding unbelief. And I'm asking you, Lord, to speak so clearly. Awaken our hearts to the horribleness of this sin of unbelief, and help us to see this mighty God who's promised to fight for us. And let us rise in faith this morning, believing God for the impossible. God, for those who need a miracle, for those facing a crisis, for those of God going through the hardest time of their life, let faith arise. Oh, God, we ask you to forgive our unbelief. Lord, you won't let me get away from this subject. You're dealing with me, dealing with all of us, likewise in your marvelous love. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now, the book of Deuteronomy is Moses rehearsing with the children of Israel in Qadesh, Baniyah, about why God turned them back into the wilderness. Now, the children of Israel, after 11 months, came to Qadesh, Baniyah, and they could look over the hills and they could see Canaan land. They'd see the promised land. They were that close. And the Lord commanded them to go in. And, of course, they disobeyed, and this is what we just read. And so they were cast back into the wilderness, and they wandered for an additional 38 1⁄2 years. And Moses now is speaking to the children. He's speaking to the children of the fathers who died in the wilderness. And he's reminding them of why their parents were wasted in the wilderness, how they lost the vision of people who were called and anointed, of people who God so loved, who so miraculously cared for and bore them up in his arms, and how time after time, unbelief and doubt and murmuring and complaining entered their hearts, and how they grieved God. And God's patience came to an end with it. And he said, no. He saw the committed unbelief. They were committed to unbelief. There was nothing God could do. There was no miracle he could perform that would change their minds. They were set in unbelief like concrete. And God said, that's enough. And he said, go back into the wilderness, not one of you. Not one of you are going to enter the promised land. And hundreds of thousands of men that came out of Egypt died, wasted empty lives in the wilderness. And he's trying to say to the children now, you're going to go in. But he said, I want you to remember what happened to your parents. I want you to remember what happened to your fathers. They're all dead. They're all gone. You don't have any of them now, living to be 100. Moses lived to be 120. Aaron, 123. And Miriam, much older than that. And they were not living. They're gone. Every one of their fathers, the elders, were all gone and dead, except Joshua and Caleb. And he's also speaking not only to the children of that generation, but he's speaking to us today, upon whom the ends of the world have come. And the message is, beware lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Beware lest you, in the last days, fall, he calls it a fall, into this unbelief. The same kind of unbelief that caused them to be driven back into the wilderness and live such empty, wasted, devastated lives. He said, take heed what manner of impossibilities you face. He said, be careful of the impossibilities that come against you. Beware that you understand that God will lead you. He led them into these crisis situations to enable them to trust him, to see his power and to build. He wanted a people who would be unshakable in their faith, tested and tried, that a golden faith would come forth as a testimony to the whole world at that time and for history. And God uses a very strong language when referring to the unbelief in these children of Israel. Words like wrath, this is God's attitude toward their unbelief. God was wrath, wrath, anger, abhorrence. He said, you've tempted me, you've tempted me with your unbelief. Moses reminded Israel, you saw how the Lord your God bare thee as a man that bare his son. And all the way that you went, he went before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents. He gave you a fire by night to show you the way. He gave you a cloud by day, yet you still did not believe the Lord your God. The Lord heard the voice of your words and he was wrath, saying, I tell you, not one of these evil men or doubters shall see the good of the land except Caleb. He said, God led us to Qadesh, Baniyah. And he said, there he tried us. He said, you saw the land. And God said, go in. They should have moved instantly on the word of God, the promise of God. God said, I'm going to fight for you. I'm going to go before you. I'm going to send hornets before you and chase them. I'm going to chase them like bees. I'm just going to chase them. And you're going to, many of these values are just going to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Go! Moses and the elders decided to send spies into the land. Now, folks, here's the lesson. And learn it well. You see, when we don't act immediately on God's word, if we don't stand and act on God's word and allow that to chase the doubts and fears from our life and move on that word, this word is given. God means what he said. He doesn't want to have to repeat it over and over again. He gives it and says, I expect you to believe it and stand on that word. They should have gone on. They would have marched into the promised land. They would have had victory after victory. And God would have undertaken for every one of their crisis. He would have seen them through. He was determined to bless them. He said, go. But you see, when you don't act on God's promises and when you toy with it and say, did God really speak? Did God really say that? Can I really trust my life to that promise? So they send the spies. And remember, while they're there, the enemy, Satan himself, possessed, inhabited ten of those men. And he brought them back as liars, as instruments of lies from the devil himself. They came back the report. They're giants. The cities are walled up to heaven. Now, that's the biggest lie you ever heard. Walled up to heaven. And now, they have opened themselves to the lies of the enemy because they did not take God at his word. They didn't move when God said move. They didn't act on his promises. And now, here they are, weeping about their children. Weeping about, we're going to be in poverty. Our children are going to starve in this wilderness. God, you brought us here because you hate us. You hate us. How do you get from this point where they're ready to go? The armies are prepared. They have honed their skills. They're ready to go into the promised land. God's about to open everything he's ever promised to them after showing them so many miracles. And now, because they won't act on God's promise, they truly don't believe what God said. And now, they've opened themselves to lies. And now, they're weeping in their tents. They're murmuring. They're complaining. And they're looking up to the sky, shaking a fist. God, you hate me. You've left us to our own. They're doubting their call. They're doubting they're the anointed people. They doubt that they're special in the eyes of God. And somehow, they say to one another, is God with us anymore? In other words, God, at what point did you forsake us? We've done our best. They hadn't done their best. They didn't believe God's word. They didn't stand on the word of God. And here they are now. The camp is in total confusion. When did the devil start lying to you? How many of these lies out of hell have come against you that you're not going to make it, that you're not good enough, that God is mad at you for your past sins and really hasn't forgiven you? How is it that you can stand by and you know that God has called you to a life of peace and rest in the Holy Ghost? He's made you promises. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. He's made you promises. He's merciful, more willing to forgive than you are to confess. He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. What happened? When did you start believing the lies that God's going to fail you in your crisis? When did that come to you? Because somewhere along the line you did not take God at his word. Somewhere you did not act. He said to them, fear not, neither be discouraged. But you see, they staggered at God's promises. God had said, no enemy will be able to stand before you. But the Bible said they would not go up but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord. Now, Kadesh Barnea is a place God brings all his children. This is the place of ultimate testing of faith. The root word means fugitive, vagabond, or wanderer. Because you see, if you make the wrong choice at Kadesh Barnea, you're going to be a fugitive. You're going to be running and wandering through a wilderness the rest of your life. And how you react, your Kadesh Barnea is a test, an ultimate test. You've come up to many tests. You can look back over your life. You can see so many deliverances that God brought you through. Look back now and try to count the times that you thought that you were going down. And here you sit in this auditorium today. And you look back with mercy and grace of God that has been poured upon you. And you can say, God has never failed me. It was hard at times. I thought I'd never make it. But God somehow, someway, he made a way. There were times my finances looked so bad. There were times I thought I was going to go bankrupt. There were times I thought our family would be broken up. I thought my children would never hear the voice of God. And looking back, oh, I look back at all the hell that I experienced at times. Look back at so many times God in his mercy reached down and picked me up. And I stand here now in the grace of God. And you are here by the grace of God. But there comes an ultimate testing time in our lives when we face the face with a battle so intense, so beyond anything we've known in history. And the Lord is trying to break us through to a place where we'll never doubt him again. He's trying to produce in us a kind of faith that is pure gold. For you see, without it, you can't please him. You can't please him just by doing work. You can't please him by Bible reading. You can't please him just by intense prayer. You can do all of that and still not please him because you've done it in unbelief. You can pray and still not believe and God answers them. But he says, without faith, you cannot please him. And the Lord brings them Kedosh B'nei. And they have to make a decision. They move on and live by faith. They have to absolutely put their hands in the hands of God because, yes, there are enemies. Yes, there are walls. Yes, there are giants. Yes, there are things ahead of them that look impossible. And yet God says, folks, I cannot understand why God has objected his miracle-working power to human faith. I will never be able to understand that God has limited his miracle-working power in the hands of our faith. Because, you see, Jesus said in his own country, his own place, he could do no miracles there because of their unbelief. He said, I can't work. Unbelief paralyzes God. And if you're facing a battle now, you're facing a crisis in your life. I don't care if it's financial, marital, on the job. I don't care if it's about your children. I don't care what it is. Whatever the issue is out of your heart or in life, if there's unbelief, God is paralyzed in working it out for you. Absolutely paralyzed. He said, I cannot do any work because of your unbelief. Is God still with us, they said. And what they're really saying to God, if you're with us, we still wouldn't be in this crisis. This one's impossible. This is a hopeless situation that I'm in. But, folks, if it's impossible, my Bible said he's the God of the impossible. He said nothing is impossible with him. You can't name me anything that is impossible with God. I don't care what you're up against. I have to stand on God's word. Nothing that you and I are going through is impossible for God to work out. And don't tell him how to do it. Let me put my finger on the root cause of Israel's unbelief. It's the same root cause today. God's spoken word, his already revealed word, was not enough for them. They heard it and they immediately forgot it because it was not mixed with faith. And you see, the word that we receive from this pulpit or any pulpit where the true word of God has gone forth, if you don't immediately mix it with faith and have the Holy Ghost imprinted on your mind and say, I will not forget this. I'm going to make this a part of the fiber of my life. And God will speak. But, you see, every word that God has spoken, they're in a crisis now at Qadosh Baronyim, and they're about to go over, but they have forgot every promise God made. They have removed from their mind all the miracles and all the remembrances of that which God had done in the past. And here they stand in their crisis, and they had not laid hold of a single promise. I'm asking you, when you hear preaching from this pulpit, do you lay hold of it? Do you let it take as a seed, take root in your heart? And say, oh God, water this with your spirit. Let it take roots so that when I'm in a crisis, I have the word that I need. But, you see, it was useless. It was not mixed with faith. See, they wanted a new word. They wanted a fresh revelation. God, are you with us or not? In other words, Lord, I really have to hear from you now. I have to have a word. And, folks, the word that came through the lips of Moses, God said, tell them, I'm the Lord your God and I will fight for you. But that was not a new revelation. It was not a new word. God says, I'm going to remind you, I already gave you everything you need to see you through. I told you, it was in Exodus 14, 14. They were told long before, the Lord shall fight for you. You shall hold your peace. In Egypt, he told them, I will go before you, I will fight for you, I will dwell among you. Deuteronomy 3.22, you shall not fear, for the Lord your God, he shall fight for you. Over and again, he said, I'm with you, I'll fight for you. I want you, though, to lay hold of this promise. But here they are, trembling before their enemies and saying, is God with us or not? Is that what you're saying now? Are you saying, Lord, I know that you said that you'd not let us bear any more, you'll not allow any difficulty in our lives more than we're able to bear. But Lord, I've reached the point where I cannot bear. I've passed that point and you're not there yet. I don't see any evidence of you undertaking from my crises. Lord, you said you wouldn't allow me to bear more than I'm able. But this is more than I'm able to bear. I've passed the crisis point. Right now, I'm in a place where I wonder, if you hear my prayers, I wonder if you're with me. Are you among us or not? If you're among us, why aren't you working? If you're fighting for me, where is the evidence? And I'll tell you, it happened at Revedim when they took God, God led them right into the driest portion of the whole wilderness, the driest spot, no water in sight. And at Revedim, that's where the children were crying. And God brought them to the point of agony, absolute agony. Yes, they were thirsty. They were at the point of total thirst. Children crying and they're murmuring and they're complaining. And everybody said, well, we're just human. No, but you see, God had made them a promise. And God was waiting for them to stand on the Word and say, well, back here, God met me. And remember, at this point, He met us. And over here, let's fall on our knees, raise our hands to God and let's cry out to Him. He'll answer. God will send water if it's rain from heaven. And now they're trembled before their enemies. And God had told them the dread of you is going to fall upon all the nations wherever you trod. You're going to be a feared people. And here they are instead trembling before their enemies. Do you dread and tremble before your enemy? Wouldn't that be setting sin? God has made you so many promises that He will deliver you. I like what David said, I will fear no evil. I will fear no evil for thy rod, thy staff that comfort me. You see, the devil wants you to tremble before him. And this is what God despised, that He sees His people trembling before His enemy, His archenemy. And God had made them every promise to sustain them, that no enemy could touch them. And folks, exactly what God has said to you, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. I'm more willing to forgive than you are to confess. If you cannot lay hold of those promises, you just tremble before the enemy. And the only way out is not by trying to promise God to do better. It's not gritting your teeth saying somehow. Yes, God does sanctify our will. The Holy Ghost comes and gives us the mind of Christ. He does empower us. But He wants more than anything else that you walk in the faith of His promise. The covenant of God, all the covenants work only through faith. No other way to bring the covenant into full fruition in our hearts. Do you want to go a little further? I believe that unbelief in the New Testament is a greater sin than unbelief in the Old Testament. It's a greater sin. And He did not many miracles there because of their unbelief, Matthew 13, 57. Now you think about that for a minute. This is the New Testament. And this is how dangerous it is, He said, because of unbelief. I could not, I would not, I could not do anything in their midst. The Scripture says under the New Testament that His own disciples couldn't cast the demons out of a little child. And the Lord said, because of your unbelief. In fact, in the New Testament, Jesus was absolutely shocked at the unbelief of His own disciples. The Bible said He upbraided. In other words, in plain English, He disgraced them for their unbelief. In fact, the Jews, because of their unbelief, Scripture says in the New Testament, were broken off of the vine. Folks, we have something that the Old Testament saints could only dream about. They could only dream about the communion that is possible that we now experience. You see, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit occasionally moved upon them. You'll read, and the Spirit of God moved here. The Spirit of God moved here. But you see, the Holy Spirit had not been outpoured yet. And we live now in the time of the outpoured Holy Spirit. And you see, when they worshipped, they had to go to the temple. But you see, today God has made us the temple. This body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. They had to go to the temple. Now God comes here to His temple. The Holy Ghost abides. He has given us His own Son to bear our burdens, to carry us like a father does his child. He has endued us with the Holy Ghost. And we have all of these privileges and promises that the people could only look about in the Old Testament, only dream about. And we live in this glory. And still we doubt Him. They could only dream of what you and I enjoy now. You see, we have a Christ that's available any hour of the day or the night, 24 hours a day, a whole lifetime. You can call on the name of the Lord and you can hear His voice. My sheep know my voice and they hear when I call. We have this privilege and we walk stone deaf. In spite of it all, in time of extreme testing, we doubt. Jesus said, Shall God not avenge His own elect which cry day and night to Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? I'm going to come back to that at the close of my message. And that has to do with the experience I had last night on 42nd Street. When I went back after 16 years where God called me to raise up this church. I went back last night to have some time with God. Reminisce with God and have Him speak a new word to my heart. And I'll tell you, it has to do with this when He returns. He says, Am I going to find any faith? Let me tell you the consequences of unbelief. All that generation, Deuteronomy 2, 14 to 16. All that generation wasted away. The hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them. Now folks, these are strong words. These are strong words. The hand of God was against them. His own people. His hand was against them. He said, Not one of you. Not one of you are going to enter in to the promise that I made. To the rest. See, a promised land is a life of rest and peace and trust in God. A life without fear. You see, under grace in the New Testament, the Bible says, There remains a rest and some must enter in. When I read that this week, Some must enter in. I said, Oh God, if some are going to enter in, By grace, I'm going to be one of those that enter in to that rest. Some have to. That's a command. God says, Some are going to enter in to that rest. They're going to get the word that they're going to enter in. You see, unbelief defiles every area of our life. Now, we have faith in many areas of our life. We have faith that God is truly God. We believe that the Holy Spirit is on earth and he's at work. He's a comforter. We believe that we're saved by grace. We believe it's possibly sanctified by the Holy Ghost. We believe so many things. We believe there's a heaven. We believe there's a hell. We believe in so many areas. But I want to tell you, If we have in one area of our life, We're doubting him seriously in one area of our life. That spills over. It's like a cancer that defiles every issue that pours out of our heart. All the issues of life are out of our heart. And if there is one area in our life, You say, for example, Your children are not serving God. And you believe for every other area. But in this one, your heart is sunken. You've almost given up on that. That area can defile every other source of faith in every issue in our lives. God's really been dealing with me that. God says, you're going to trust me in everything in your life. Your finances, your job, your career, your marriage, your relationships, everything. If you're going to have rest, You're going to have to have it in every area of your life. You can't rest in one area and be agitated in another area. You can't be mad at somebody. You can't hold a grudge against somebody. Expect peace here. Though you trust him in every other area of your life. You don't trust him for forgiveness and reconciliation. And he says to them, as for you, turn you and take your journey back into the wilderness. I'm not among you. And you see, the sin of unbelief leads to the sin of presumption. Presumption is to act on your own as if you know everything is OK. In other words, it's just arrogance. It says, I know. And so they come to Moses and they said, OK, we've sinned. They really didn't repent. If they repented, they would have received God's word to go back and learn their lesson in the wilderness. But they said, no, no, we have, we've got this figured out now. And we should have gone, but we missed it. Now we're going to go. And so they, in their own skill, own power, their own abilities, they organize captains and they organize a small army and they head up the hill to Moabites. And Moses said, you can go, but you're not taking the ark. The ark stays right here in the camp. God's not going with you. You go, you go it alone. You see, we'll give God time. We'll say, well, Lord, it's past the deadline now. You didn't answer. So I'm going to have to do something about this. And so we take it in our own hands. It's presumption, it's arrogance. And say, well, I have to get a hold of this or I'm going to go bankrupt. I have to, I have to do something. No, all you have to do is pray and believe that God hears you. And open your heart and your ears for his direction. And say, trust, live or die, I'm the Lord's. If I go into the furnace, I go into the furnace. He can deliver me, but if not, I'm going to die in the furnace. I'm going into lion's den. God can shut their mouth, but if I'm meat for the lions, I'm going to be resurrected and I'm going to be with God in glory. We have to come to the place. We don't even fear death. We don't even fear the spoiling of our goods. We say God is in control of our lives. They go up and the Bible said the mobites chased them like bees. Chased them like bees. And you see Christians being chased like bees all over the world today. Because they're doing it their way. They're no longer trusting God. You see, God didn't meet them on their schedule. And they said, well, this is getting too serious. I'm going to make something happen. Oh, man, have I gotten in trouble over the years for making things happen. God, where are you? I can't wait any longer. I love you, God, but I have to do something. Yeah, and you're going to end up in the wilderness. Have you ever seen these people that have a measure of religion? A lot of believers who even come to church and sing the songs and so forth. But you see, they have no faith. And what happens then, they go back into this wilderness, and all they do is murmur and complain all their life. I mean, they murmur about their kids. And all they talk about are their problems and troubles. And they're real problems and real troubles because there's no faith. And if you want to walk that way, folks, it's going to be your lifetime, the rest of your life. And what happens then, you lose your history. What happens to these children when they go into the promised land, and the grandchildren of these who died in the wilderness, the parents, children say, what about granddad? What about grandma? Where are they? What happened? You see, the Bible says we live as a tale that is told. And you see, there's a book being written here in the wilderness. And you know what the book's title would be? They all died in unbelief. And there's no history now. They die. And what are you going to say? What are the children going to say? Well, for 38 years all I heard was my granddad murmur and complain and think that God wasn't with him and he didn't accomplish anything. There's no testimony. There's nothing I can show. There's no history. There's nothing. It's all gone. That's the dread of unbelief. Cut your history off immediately. And then all you have is that wasted life where the rest of your life you murmur, you complain, and you doubt. There is no joy. It's all gone. And you wait to die. I have a lot more, but I want to just get it out of my heart. God's been dealing with me for a month on this issue because I'm finding if I go to preach to preachers, and I can talk to them about brokenness and I can talk to pastors about sin and all of these things, but, folks, if there's unbelief, nothing else works. This issue has to be dealt with first. Am I going to trust God with my life? I went down to 42nd Street last night. Gwen's down in Dallas visiting her grandchildren for a week and will be home tomorrow, but I was alone. So I went down last night to 42nd Street. Between 7 and 8, that's when it's most crowded, the shows. All the show people are coming in, racing to their shows. I went to the spot where 16 years ago I stood weeping where they were selling crack cocaine, and they were advertising death. I've got the good stuff that will kill you. I remember weeping there, and God said, raise up a church right here in Times Square. I went back to that spot. Ford Theater is there now, and there's steps. And so I went up the steps and just sat there, and I watched the multitude. Now, it's been estimated probably on 42nd Street in a rush time, during show time, could be probably a quarter million people go past there. And I just sat there, looking at these people running by, and I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, they have no God. There are no believers but a few. In fact, the few believers there saw me and came up and said, Hi, Pastor, what are you doing here? I said, I'm praying. And I was praying and weeping. And you see, they have no God except sports. They have the God of pleasure, success, and money, but they have no God. They have those false gods, and all this mass going by. And I'm thinking, they say there could be a quarter million, and they're not all here. Some of them are all the way up Broadway. I'm probably seeing 150,000 people here in an hour going by with no God except in name only. So few submitted. Racing, and there's no joy. They look like they're going to the guillotine. I mean, they look like they're going to a prison. They're just racing. And I thought, there are at least 600,000 men that came out of Israel. And I said, I'd have to stay here half the night to see them pass by by the thousands. Here's maybe 150,000 passing by. And it was such a mass. You have to walk out on the road. The whole place is filled. In fact, I had to fight my way through to get to the Ford Theater from 42nd Street just to get to the theater. And I'm thinking, I'd have to wait here for hours before 600,000 men would pass me. All going into the desert. All full of unbelief. It has struck me. And the Holy Spirit was teaching me. He said, you would have to see. And the Bible says only two. Now, can you imagine that multitude going by and only two men get into the promised land? Joshua and Caleb. And over 600,000 fighting men all died before the time. Died in despair because of what? Unbelief. Unbelief. And I think of Jesus. I said, oh God. How do you reach them? Is there anything we have not done yet? Is there some way that Times Square Church, there's some way I've been here 16 years as part of the church. And been here 40 years actually with Teen Challenge. And going back to the beginning of Teen Challenge. And look at the masses. Jesus, did you remember when I wept over Jerusalem and said, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. They'd come from all over the world. The masses were on the streets. And he went out and he, at a vantage point, just like I'm sitting there at a vantage point. And he's looking, he's weeping. He said, oh if you only knew. I wanted to gather you as a mother hen under my wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks. But you would not. You would not. You see, these people that are marching by, they have the gospel on internet. They hear it on television. They hear it on all these different places. They have a testimony right here. They walk right by it here on Broadway. I see some people passing out tracts and nobody wants them. I saw the Jews down there, Hasidic Jews, passing out their literature. Nobody wanted it. And they're all going here. And I began to see the value in God's eyes of a single believer. One who has faith. One man, one woman who has absolute faith in him. I looked across the street and there's a great big billboard. And it's a new music video network that's being, it's called Fuse, F-U-S-E. It's an evil music video outlet. Here's a picture of Tammy Baker. All dressed up in drag. And it says, I saw the light, and it was a TV with music videos. And under it says, Tammy is number one for Fuse. Tammy's number three for drag queens. And I'm like, that's way, go down and you'll see it sitting up there, way on top of Broadway. Just see what unbelief does. To see how far low and thin a man can go, or woman, when there's unbelief. When there's no trust in God. And I pictured sitting there, the Lord saying it's near time. He's about to come. And so the searcher of all men's hearts starts searching for those that are trusting him. And he goes to the football stadiums all over this country. Football stadiums have hundreds of thousands every Sunday. And he can't find any faith. And then I see him going into Washington, D.C., into the Congress, and into all of the legislative bodies, all of the United States, and he can't see any faith. And all he sees are those trying to push him out of this society. Not even want to mention his name. They want to absolutely take God out. I see him searching in every college campus. And he can't find any faith. Here one, and here another. And I see him searching football stadiums. I see him in hockey arenas. I see him at basketball courts and all the venues all over the United States. And he's looking, he's searching, where are those who are going to believe me? I came to die for you. I came and gave my life. Where is anybody that believes me, that trusts in me, give their life to me? And he can't find them. And I hear an angel say, go to your church. And so he goes to the modern church, and he looks everywhere, and they don't even believe in his birth as God. They don't believe in a virgin birth. There is no faith. There's nothing but death. And he searches these cathedrals, and he searches the city, and he especially searches New York. And he goes in search of men's hearts. Do you have faith? Do you have faith? Do you believe? He knows the hearts, but he's looking, searching. And then he comes to his own people. And remember the scripture said, he came to his own, and his own accepted him not. He came to his own people, and they didn't believe in him. And I began to feel the grief of God's heart. Because he comes into his church. He comes into his own body, to his own family, to his own children. And he sees despair. He sees fear. He sees so few that believe and trust everything in their life to him. And the Lord spoke to my heart. He said, I'm not grieved by this. They've made their choice. They're children of the devil. But I am grieved because I have so few, so few to trust me. So few. And the search of men's heart is here today. And I hear that ringing in my heart. And I'm sitting there and said, oh God, surely. Up a few blocks on 50th Street and Broadway. Right next to the most wicked show in Broadway. Right here. And down here, Taboo. That's boy George. It's all drag. It's all homosexual. And you see him lined up trying to get in there. You see families lined up. And you see people lined up to see these shows. And you say, oh, that must be the heart of God. Not nearly as much as what he feels in his heart when he comes to his own house. He comes to his shepherds. He comes to me. He comes to all of us. And he says, do you trust me? When I come, am I going to have, am I going to find any faith? And faith will not take matters in its own hands. Faith will wait on God. Faith will stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Will you stand? Lord, forgive my unbelief. Forgive my unbelief, oh God. How you hate this sin. Oh, Jesus, you're merciful. You're so loving. When it comes to time, you're going to have to turn this over to some wilderness experience. You still love us. You will still provide. But, Lord, there will not be intimacy. There will not be that nearness of God. And we will murmur and we will complain. Oh, God, forgive us. Lord, let this be a church that believes fully and completely in your faithfulness in a time of need. Even in a time of death. Oh, God. These last days when men's hearts are going to be failing them for fear, and even now it's happening. Folks, can I tell you something? Look this way just a minute. I stood over the street balcony of Ford Theater last night, and I said, oh, God. A number of years ago, I stood here, and you showed me a vision of a thousand fires burning in this city. You showed me 42nd Street all ablaze. Horses, police horses and gunshots and young people running over the cars and upsetting cars and setting things on fire. I said, oh, God, have I been misled? There's something in me that just, was that personal or was that flesh? And, oh, the Spirit of God came on me so strong. No, no, David. Every word. He said, I've been patient and long-suffering. I've even tried to bring a government that would have some semblance of righteousness because of my mercy. But the time is coming. And I believe I'm going to live to see. I don't want to live to see that day, but I believe I am. When all of this comes to pass, these things are going to happen. Folks, you're going to need to have faith. You're going to have to trust God. You trust God. He'll see us through. He will not fail us. God is faithful. Do you believe that? How is it that the apostle ministered to, an apostle could say, you took joyfully the spoiling of your goods. You were chased and you were harassed. But God has never failed. He will not fail you. He's going to keep his children in the hollow of his hand. You're not going to starve. Your children are not going to be given over to the enemy. God's going to see you through. I know that I stopped this prayer for one reason, because I believe that there are a number hearing me now. And I base this partly on the response I got when I announced my subject. The Lord will fight for you. That many of you are facing that ultimate test. God brought you to this place. You're at Kadashvaniya right now. The Lord's brought you to this place. Everything that's happening in your life, God has had a hand in it. He's allowed it. He's going to see how you react now. How do you react? Will there be, from this moment on, after what you heard, still some murmuring and complaining and saying, God, why did you let it happen or why are you letting this happen? And, oh, God, what do I do now? Folks, you just rest in him. You come into his rest and die to self, die to your own will and say, Lord, everything I give and I put it in your hands, live or die, I'm yours. Oh, God, answer the cry of your heart. I'm not asking you to answer the cry of my heart. I'm asking you to answer the cry of your heart. Lord, there's grief in your heart when you see your children so downcast. When you hear, God said, I heard your words. You were in your tent or you were in your house and I heard what you were saying. I hear how you talk to your husband, how you talk to your wife. You talk as though I forsake you. You talk as though there's no God. You talk as though I'm beating you down when I'm simply trying to get you to love me and trust me. God, help us to see how much we're loved. You love your children. You're not mad at us. You're trying to bring us to a place where we are able to withstand the storms and the trials that come our way because we have a history with you that you have answered prayer because we have believed you and we've trusted you. God, can we have parents that put their children in your hands now? Can we have people, Lord, at this house hearing me, that can put their career, their job, their business, everything in your hands, their family, their marriage, and their own health, their own health, and not be afraid? Would you raise your hands, everyone in the Annex overflow room and in this room. Raise your hands and will you pray, God, forgive my unbelief. Pray it out loud in your own words. Lord, forgive my unbelief. God, forgive my unbelief. Folks, pray it. Pray it from your heart. Lord, I have doubted you. There's area in my life that I've not yet believed you in. And I'm asking you, Lord, to forgive me and pluck it out. Pluck out the unbelief, oh God. I don't want a desert. I want to go into the promised land of rest. Lord, you brought us out to take us in. You brought us out of sin to take us into this rest. Some must enter in, Lord. Let us be that some. God. Oh, God, do it. In the Annex. Right now, ask Him. Ask Him to forgive you and say, God, help me to trust you. Whatever it is, put it in God's hand right now. Put it in God's hand. Lord, I give it to you. I put it in your hands, and I trust you, Jesus. Now, you can put your hands down. I'm going to give an invitation for just one segment here. You may be visiting us for the first time here and in the Annex. But I'm going to give you an invitation. I'm not going to give an invitation for those who acknowledge unbelief. Everybody would come. But some of you have walked in here now. You have to get to a starting point. You're not even at the starting gate because you have slipped away from the Lord. Maybe you walked in here, you have never really known Christ as Lord and Savior in your life. And He's here. The Holy Spirit's here now to change your life. It would be a shame for you to walk out of here without the capacity to believe. And you can't have the capacity to believe without the Holy Spirit. And you have to open your heart to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is hovering over everyone hearing the sound of my voice. And He's here right now to bring a miracle into your life. If the Holy Spirit's been talking to you now, you may be bound, absolutely bound up. You say, Pastor Dave, I am absolutely bound by fear. I'm just bound. It could be a sin. Nobody needs to know. Get out of your seat up in the balcony. Go to the stairs and step to the other side. And you may just step out of your seat and stand here in the front. We'll pray with you and believe for a miracle. The marvelous thing about living in the New Testament is that the Lord tore the veil. He's given us access. And we can come at any time with our unbelief and lay it at His feet. We can come at any time. He'll never turn us back. You don't have to go into the wilderness. You don't have to go the way Israel went. We're the true Israel. We're the Israel of the Spirit, Israel of the New Jerusalem. And we are His children. Boy, how anxious He is the moment He sees you take a move toward Him. That move is not just walking down the aisle. It's a move you take in your heart. It's an attitude. Say, Lord Jesus, I have to have help. I'm asking the Holy Ghost to come and instill faith in my heart. I'm not capable of it on my own. I have to have the Holy Spirit to come and provide the very faith of Jesus Christ Himself. And He does just that. That's a wonderful prayer to pray. It's music to His ears that you want to believe, that you want His heart. And you don't want to grieve Him with the unbelief. And you don't want to tie His hands. God's so faithful. How many of you came forward and believed God truly loves you? He's not mad at you. Keep your hand raised and say it. Lord Jesus, I know You love me. You're not mad at me. You're not trying to chase me into wilderness. You're trying to bring me to Your heart. Lord, I don't want to grieve You with unbelief. You said I can please You through my faith. I trust You to forgive me and cleanse me of all my sins, of all my unbelief. I come to You as a child. Say, Jesus, I need You. I need You today. I need the Holy Spirit to comfort my heart and to lead me and guide me. I want to be a person of faith that You'll be pleased with, that You will smile when You see my heart, because You know like a child trusting a father, I trust You because You are my Father. Now let me pray for you. Father, I thank You for Your gracious love that's being poured out upon us right now. We thank You for this congregation, Lord. We've come this far by faith, but we've trusted You up to this day. Sometimes we faltered. Sometimes we failed. But You saw something in our heart, Lord, that just held on tenaciously. And we say now, O God, take us through this crisis. Take us through, Lord, all the saints that are here, both men and women, young people as well, that are going through a great ultimate time of testing. Lord, let them rest in the fact that You're going to bring them through to victory. They're not going down. They're going to survive. But more than survive, they're going to be overcomers. Overcomers to give glory and honor to Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. This is the conclusion of the message.