This sermon emphasizes the theme of deliverance, drawing from the story of Hezekiah and the assurance that God hears the cries of His people and delivers them from all troubles. It highlights the importance of faith, prayer, and trusting in God's promises for deliverance in the midst of trials and battles.

I want to speak to you this morning on a subject the Lord has promised to deliver you. The Lord has promised to deliver you. Would you please go to Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Of all the 150 psalms in the book of Psalms, chapter 34 is my absolute favorite. I've been in a habit of carrying it around in my pocket on a card typed out, and in every nation pulling that out and reading it. Psalm 34. I want to read just a few verses there. Let's go to verse 4. Psalm 34. Verse 4. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Verse 7. The angel of the Lord encamped around about them to fear him and deliver them. Verse 17. The righteous cry the Lord heareth and out of all trouble. You didn't finish it. Verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers out of them all. I would say this chapter is about deliverance, wouldn't you? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your presence in this house this morning. We thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the goodness of God to this church and to those who have been faithful to you. Now, Lord, we need an anointing. We need to hear clearly from you. We come under the anointing and unction of the Holy Spirit because we have no strength of our own. We come totally dependent on you to speak to our hearts, minister to us, and strengthen us for the battles ahead. And we honor you. We honor your word and give you glory. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen. David had been anointed king of Israel in a secret confrontation or anointing by Samuel. Samuel poured oil over his head and said, you're now appointed by God as king of Israel. But there was a long trip. There were many battles before we'd ever come to the throne. In the second, the 21st chapter, Samuel find David running from Saul. Saul had declared and vowed he was going to kill him. And now you see David running hastily, or at least walking hastily over the hills and dusty roads and through the valleys. He said, I have to get away from the jurisdiction of this man. He's going to kill me. And you see an anointed man, a godly man, a man after God's own heart, and he's running for his life. He said, I have to get out of here. He's moving, of course, in the flesh. And the clearest, he said, I've got to get out of jurisdiction. So the clearest border is in Philistia, and the nearest city is Gath under King Achish. He crosses the border or is in the border, and evidently the guards lay hold of him. Border guards lay hold of David. David is hoping he can get by not being recognized, and maybe just as a tourist on his way to Gath for a shopping spree or whatever it may be, or to get a sword sharpened. And he listens to these men, and they're conversing now, and they're looking at David, and David overhears the conversation. Isn't this that famous David that they sing about on the streets in Jerusalem? David is slain of ten thousands, and weren't those our people? Are they not Philistines that he killed? That looks like Goliath's sword, and David knew he was in trouble. He knew that he heard something about him being taken to Gath, the king, to Achish, king of Gath, and David panics. David knows that he's going to be accused of being a terrorist. He knows that he's going to be beaten then. He knows he'll be dragged all through the Philistine cities, and made a spectacle, and he fears for his life. Suddenly David pretends to be a madman. Suddenly he goes into contortions. His face is contorted. A spittle comes down his beard, and he's spouting nonsense and senseless phrases, and wiggling and striking at them, and in that particular climate and time, they would not go near a mad person or someone of insanity, because they believed demons would jump upon them, and these men said, we better take him to the king, and they take him into the palace of king Achish, and Achish watches David. What a scene it must be. Here's a man of God, been anointed king, and he's in panic, and he's putting on a scene. He's scratching on the doors, making the scratching sound, screaming, probably wallowing on the floor, and just babbling senselessly, and Achish pulled back. He said, why would you bring a madman in my presence? I don't know if he's afraid of the demons too, but he said, get him out of here. David is escorted to the border, and he's told, never again come back. Get out of here. David escapes to the cave of Dulum, and it's in probably in the cave, or not long after his freedom out of that terrible situation, that he pens this chapter, the 34th chapter of Psalms. He's talking about how God had delivered him. He's recalling the whole episode, how God had set him free. Now, I don't believe the Holy Spirit, I don't believe the Lord told him to act the fool, because Bible says, God's not given a spirit of fear, but love and power and a sound mind. That's not a sound mind, and so David is actually moving in fear, and he's moving in the flesh, but he pens this incredible chapter. These words, I sought the Lord, he heard me, he delivered me, the angel of the Lord, and camps around about them for a bit. He said, I cried to the Lord. Well, when did he cry the Lord? Because this is, he's praying the fool. You know that he's not praying audibly. He has to be screaming inside. There has to be a silent prayer going on. David said, I cried to the Lord. I made my petition known, and you read this, you hear. He said, this poor man cried. The Lord heard him and saved him out of this trouble. Folks, sometimes the loudest cry is inaudible. I've known what it's like, and many of you know what it's like to be so overwhelmed in situations and circumstances. You're so overwhelmed, you can't pray. You can't speak out. I've known what it is to be in circumstances that I didn't understand, so far beyond me, such pain. I would just sit in my study and sit in a chair and say, God, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. I don't even feel like praying, but oh God, help. Just help. Have you ever been there? Have you been there where you say, God, I don't know how to answer you. I don't know what this is all about. I can't explain it. I'm in pain. I'm overwhelmed. And here is David having to acknowledge, Lord, what's going on with me? I'm praying a fool. He knows. He's conscious of what he's doing. Why am I doing this? What's happening to me? And he's crying out inaudibly, his loud voice. I honestly believe that some of the loudest prayers I've prayed, the most important prayers I've prayed, the most heart-reaching to God's heart have been in total silence, where it's just been a word, help. And I'm telling you now, whatever you're in, no matter what you're going through, and you don't feel like praying, you see the problem is often we just clam up. We just close in on ourselves and say, God doesn't care. God would not have allowed this in my life if I were right. There's something going wrong and I don't understand. So we clam up or we go eat or we watch television and try to just try to ease our conscience and try to break through human efforts. But God sometimes comes in so, and I know he comes in, he hears the most quiet, the most, you see, we think it's not feeling. We think if we're not crying out, if we're not screaming at God, he doesn't hear. God hears every whimper. God hears every inaudible voice that cries out. And that's why David said, my heart cried out to him. There is a heart cry. I sought the Lord and I cried, this poor man cried in 1958. As a skinny, I was 117 pounds when I first came to New York. Somebody said, when he turns around, you think he's raptured. One man said if he drinks Kool-Aid, he looks like a thermometer. I was mocked and ridiculed. I was naive. And I came to New York City because I felt the Holy Spirit spoke to me to come. I'd seen a picture of seven boys indicted for murder and I came here weeping and broken-hearted and just a country preacher. And I went to the trial and this story's been told many, many times, but there's a point I'm trying to make. And I went to a Friday session and I knew at the end of the session, they would be dismissed. Those boys would go into a side cell and wait to be taken back to prison. And then once that happened, I would never be the same. The Lord spoke my heart. I tried to talk to them about Christ to see if they need help. They need Christ. I went to the sitting in the court and suddenly something came on me. I took my Bible and I heard there was an impulse, a spirit of the Lord. At least that's what I believed and I still believe. And I get up and I approached the judge's bench. His name was Davidson. I said, Judge Davidson, would you give me a moment with these boys, please? The police jumped up and I was unceremoniously escorted and dragged out of that courtroom. And I'm thinking, oh God, what happened? God, everything's spinning out of control. And I'm taken out in front of the lobby of that courtroom and flash bulbs flashing. My dad's going to see that. My dad's assistant superintendent of the Assembly of God in the state and my people are going to think I'm crazy. And I'm crying inside. God, what's happening to me? What's going wrong? I thought you told me. Someone sent me a picture from the Daily News. And I don't know why, I had a bow tie on and the silliest looking country coat, salt and pepper, almost white. And I'm looking at that and I said, I was the most stupid, naive person. I look at that bow tie. I never wore a bow tie. But at that courtroom, I wore a bow tie as if I were going to some function. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him. I remember that cry. I remember that. I couldn't pray out loud in front of the people. They thought I was crazy anyhow. Can you imagine what they thought if I'm suddenly on my knees praying or crying out, oh God, help me deliver. I don't know what happened. There was something inside and God heard that cry and he honored it to this very day. David said, he comes out of it and he's writing this story and he said, I will boast of my Lord. First verse, I will bless the Lord at all times and praise Him continually in my mouth. Second verse, my soul shall make a boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. And he's saying to you and he's saying to me, I'm going to boast on how God delivered me even though I was in foolishness, even though I made a foolish move. This was not truly how, see God could have delivered him in any way. God could have blinded those guides and David could have escaped. He could have stricken Achish. There are any ways that he could have done it. David said, I took it in my own hands. I walked in the flesh and still I'm going to boast on the Lord because I cried out, I prayed, I took it to the Lord. God heard me and God delivered me. The lesson is God hears and responds to the faintest cry of his people. Let me give you another scene that has to do with deliverance of God's people. You don't need to turn that, but in second Peter, we read of the flood and we read of the fire falling on Sodom and Gomorrah and picture the scene. What do you see when you think of the flood? Have you ever tried to vividly picture that scene? The water rising in 40 days and 40 nights of rain and it's rising and it rises in the people's homes and those who know how to swim or people getting a piece of furniture or a piece of woods, anything to hold on to, climbing trees until it's over their heads and finally a scene of bodies floating everywhere. When you think of Sodom and Gomorrah, what is the picture you see? Is it just vengeance? You see this sulfuric fumes suffocating people by the thousands and they're screaming and suffocating and falling and fire and brimstone. Yes, you see the Bible does say that these things happen. The scripture said he spared not the old world. He brought down the flood on the world. He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes making them examples unto them that afterwards should live ungodly. But you see this scene has nothing to do with God's people. It has nothing to do with me at all. It has nothing to do with overcoming Christians. That's the sign. That is an example. God says, I want you to know that I deal with violence. I deal with rampant sin. There is a wrath of God upon the wicked who refuse 120 years of preaching. Upon those who have turned themselves over to sin, there will be a judgment day. But folks, what do you see? What are you supposed to see? Because that whole episode begins with the greatest if in the Bible. Let me just, do you want to go there if you will please? Second Peter and let me show it to you because it has everything to do with God's people. If you get to Hebrews, you're getting close. Second Peter, verse 4. For if God, now I want you to focus on if please. We're talking about deliverance. If God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved and spared not the old world but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world and a godliness. And in other words, if and if he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overflow, making them an example unto those who afterwards did not preach and live ungodly and delivered just lot with the filthy of the conversation of the world. For that goodness man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul. All right, listen to me before we read the next verse. Here's what God is saying to his people. If I, in the midst of a flood, when the whole world is being, known earth at the time, is being destroyed and I'm taking vengeance on violence, yet I focus on one man and his family. It's right there. It says, and he spared not the old world but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness. Then he goes on, he said, if in the wrath of God everything around you is coming down in fire and brimstone, come back to if, if that happens, then you go down to verse nine, then the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust of the day of judgment to be punished. The Lord knoweth how to deliver. God says, I'm just giving you two of the greatest examples mankind could ever know. If I have compassion on one righteous man and his family and I save Noah, if I can save Noah when the world is falling apart, if I can save Lot and his daughters and send an angel and drag them out, do I not know how to deliver you? Do I not know how to come and save you? What are you saying if the whole city around you begins to crumble, if everything goes wrong, if you will trust me, I will, and the lesson is this, God will go to any extreme, God will do whatever he takes to do to deliver his people from their battles and from their temptations. God will do what it takes. Do you see it? How about an amen then? What a wonderful thought that he would care for me. You see, it took the opening of the Red Sea to deliver God's people. It took water out of a rock. These are miracles. When you look at how God all through the Bible, it took a miracle to save them from hunger, water or bread falls from the skies, and it took an ark for the saving of Noah. So don't doubt that God doesn't know a way. God knows, he knoweth how, and you see, God, what that really means, God knows how to deliver. He, that, it simply means he already has plans. God never sits on his plans. God never has a plan and says, well, one day at one time I'll set this in order, because God has a plan. He knows, I don't care what you're going through, and I don't care what I'm going through, before I ever go into it, he had a plan. He had a plan, he has a way, and he's not going to do it the way you figured it out last night in bed. He's not going to figure it out in all the options that you've offered him. He did not accept one of your offers with any flesh in it. He said, no, no, no, no, that's not my way. That's your way. My ways are above your ways. My thoughts are above your thoughts. You can't conceive it. God knoweth how to deliver. And let me take you to Jeremiah 29. You don't have to turn that, but Jeremiah, the 29th verse, this is confirmed by Jeremiah. He said, before you cry, before you call, I will answer. Do you believe that God has the foreknowledge that he can anticipate every foolish move you and I make? He can foresee all of our doubts and our fears. But you see, he said, David said, I cried out to the Lord. I went to the Lord. I prayed. I sought the Lord. What are you doing in your crisis? Are you pouting? Are you just saying, well, I'm not questioning God, but I sure do question myself. Because in questioning yourself, you're still questioning God. What do you do? In Jeremiah, Israel's in captivity in Babylon. And it's the greatest trial they've ever been through. And God had told him, he said, after 70 years, I'm going to visit you and I'm going to deliver you for my thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, are thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. And in Hebrew, the expected end, I'm going to give you that which you long for. God said, my thoughts are not evil towards you, but I am thinking good thoughts toward you. I'm going to tell you something, and I believe this all in my heart. You can never be delivered from your temptation. You cannot be delivered from any crisis that you're in. You cannot be delivered until you fully are convinced that God means what he says. I am thinking good thoughts about you. I'm not mad at you. I'm thinking good thoughts and not evil thoughts. And if he's thinking good thoughts, his thoughts actually are creating something. His thoughts are creative, and if he's thinking it, he's in the process of doing it. And as I've told you a hundred times, the hardest part of faith is the last half hour, and then you're saying, oh, I wish I had believed. I wish. And then you doubt because you doubted. He says, then you shall call upon me. This is still in Jeremiah 29 chapter. Then you shall call upon me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will hearken to you. I'll listen to you. He said, I'm making you the promise. I'm telling you that I'm not mad at you. I'm thinking good thoughts about you, and I want you to believe that, and I want that to promote you. I want that to provoke you to go into the prayer room and pray in faith. Then you'll call upon me. Then you'll pray. Then I'll hearken to you. I've got good thoughts about you. I have a plan. Now go and pray about it. And the reason he wants you to pray is to get ready, to get ready to receive the glory of those thoughts that he's been thinking. You know, when I was studying this matter of deliverance, the Holy Spirit spoke clearly to me, go to Hezekiah and study his life. And so this past week, I've been studying the life of Hezekiah. Let me tell you what God says, what the Bible says about him. He's a godly, godly king of Judah. The Bible says he did that was right in the sight of God. He pulled down idols. He outlawed idol worship. The Bible said he claimed to the Lord. He never departed from the Lord. The Lord was with him wherever he went and in all that he did. The Bible says he called a backslidden nation to God. He was a man of prayer, a man of worship. He preached holiness and separation from the world. He greatly feared the Lord. He was blessed and favored by God. He was prospered in all of his ways. And to cap it all off, the scripture says Hezekiah walked or worked that which was good and right and truthful before the Lord his God. And every work that he began in the service of the Lord and in the law and his commandments to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and he prospered. Do you understand what God is saying? Here's a man, the Bible, in fact, the Bible calls him the greatest king, said there was no one like him before, no one like him, and one who had so set his heart on God. Do the righteous suffer? Does the devil aim his greatest weapons, the most powerful, intense weapons against those such as I've described to you now? Those who pray, those who worship, those who are called. The scripture says the very next chapter after, I just read you these words, no one sought him more with all his heart and soul and mind. He sought God with everything he is. And the next verse, it says, then after all these things, it says, after all these things and the establishment thereof. In other words, everything that he's done is now established. He's established ministry after ministry after ministry. He's done these great things for God. And after all these things, the scriptures, then came Sennacherib, who represents the devil himself and his Assyrian army, which represents all the principalities and powers of darkness. After these things and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came, entered into Judah and camped against the fence cities and thought to take it all for himself. That's the devil's whole plan. He comes to the righteous. He comes, and many of you don't know that that's why the enemies come against you, because the devil is trying to do just as he did to Hezekiah, throw these terrible lies into your head, throw them over the wall at you, that protective wall, throwing them over the wall. Your God is not with you. God has failed you. You're going down. I've taken down greater men than you, Hezekiah was told by Sennacherib. He said, and you're going down next. God sent me. The devil said, God sent me. God told me to tell you this. And then all these little voices begin to pop in your head. You're a failure. There's something wrong. Or you wouldn't be suffering. You wouldn't be sick. You wouldn't be going through what you are. There's something wrong with you. There's something wrong. You're under discipline. This man was not under discipline. This man was righteous. This man was holy. This man sought God with all of his heart. Then came Sennacherib. Then came Sennacherib to take it to himself. And Sennacherib has to sit and listen to reports as 46 of his cities are destroyed and taken down. And Sennacherib begins to lay siege on Jerusalem. Word comes to him that 209,000 of the Judaites had been captured. He finds out that many of his troops are deserting to Sennacherib. He finds that those he trusted most who thought they were righteous and that he had built such a revival. And now he discovers that they're turning, running out of the city gates, turning themselves over and beginning even to fight in Sennacherib's army. And those reports are all still available in the annals of Sennacherib still in possession of historians today. His whole story, how he came with battering rams, how he set up all kinds of tricks and dug under walls and stopped the water flows and all the attacks coming against Israel. And can you imagine Hezekiah going through this? And for a while he wavered in his faith. He wavered. Sennacherib demanded huge amounts of gold and silver, asked for his daughters to go into his harem, according to Sennacherib's report, and demanded all of these things. And at first, a letter was sent to Lachish where the king had set up a temporary ivory throne. And he sends him a letter and says, all that you ask I will do. Because he felt helpless, there was nothing to do. He said, I'm going to take the easy way. Isaiah, the prophet came to him and said, no. There were two attacks by Sennacherib. He backed away for a while, but then he comes back. And that's the trick of the enemy. He'll attack you. And if there is not a stand of faith, if you do not stand up against him in faith and prayer and go into the house of God, if you don't hear the prophets, if you don't hear the word that comes, the prophetic word to strengthen you, and you begin to just ease off, you just back up and say, I don't want to fight this anymore. And you get nervous, you get afraid, and you're scared. And the enemy is winning the battle. And when he sees that weakness, when he, you see, the whole battle's against our faith. That's what it's all about. He's going after, he doesn't want the gold. He doesn't want the silver. He doesn't really want those women in his harem. He's got more women that he can handle in his harem. He wants to be able to bring this man's faith because this is the only man, the only king that stood against him. And it was this faith in God. And what the devil is after, the test you're going through is a test of faith. Will you believe God in the hardest of times? Will you believe God no matter what's happening to your body? Know what has happened to your family? Know what has happened around you? And you're going to take a stand. And now, through the advice and prayers of Isaiah, he goes into the temple of God. He goes into the house of God. And this time, he gets another letter from Sennacherib, and he lays it before the Lord. And the Lord says to Isaiah, tell Hezekiah to send him back another letter. And tell him, O King Sennacherib, not this time. I'm not the one going down. You're the one that's going down. My God said he's going to deliver me. Did you ever get a letter from the devil? You see, he goes to the Lord and he prays. And this is the prayer he prayed. This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy. For the children are come to the birth and there's no strength to bring forth. Oh, how many times God's people, how we come to that place. We say this is a day of trouble and shame and rebuke. I don't have the strength. And Hezekiah goes to the house of God. And he said, Lord, this is beyond, I have no strength left. I don't know what to do. And he turns it all into the hands of the Lord. And Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, the Lord has heard you. He said, God's going to move and deliver you. You see, folks, we have better promises than Hezekiah had. We have a cross where Jesus took all of our pain and He made a way. And the Bible said the deliverer shall come out of Zion. And that's what He has called all through the Old Testament. He's called the deliverer. And at the cross of Jesus Christ, He made a way. We have these better promises, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and the Father. And it's through the blood of Jesus Christ. Hezekiah could not stand on the blood of Jesus Christ. He stood simply on a promise. We stand not only on a promise, but we stand on the blood of Jesus Christ, that we have the victory over sin, over temptation, and that God in every battle, He said, many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them out of them all. And it came to pass that night, and with this I'm going to close, it came to pass that night, the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 soldiers. And they arose in the morning, and behold, they were all dead. Now, I read a theologian's account of this, and he said, well, really, there was no angel of the Lord that night. There was a festation of 185,000 mice who had bubonic plague and bit them. Well, that's a bigger miracle than I'm talking about. All I know that the enemy was dead, the enemy was gone, and of course, Sennacherib goes home and he's killed by his son. He's killed in his own temple. Oh, folks, one day soon, if you will seek his face and trust him, you're going to wake up to a miracle. You're going to wake up. That night, that night, I honestly believe the Lord said to tell you this, many of you that are in the hardest place you've ever been, you're on the brink of a miracle. You are not going down. You're going to wake up one morning, and you're going to get one report after another. God has done this, God has done this, God has done this, and he's lifted the load. Will you stand and give him an offering of praise? Stand and give him an offering of praise. Lord, thank you. You're going to deliver me from the temptation that's hounding me. You're going to deliver me, Lord, from my financial fears. You're going to deliver me, O Lord, from my marital problems. You're going to deliver me, Lord, because you're a faithful God and you have delivered all through the Bible, and you're no respecter of persons, so I'm going to lay it out to you, Jesus. Deliver me. Please raise your hands and give him thanks. Lord, we give you thanks for your faithfulness, your goodness, and your mercy. You're a loving Heavenly Father. You're thinking good thoughts for your people today. You're thinking good thoughts, not thoughts of evil, not thoughts of judgment. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Do you have the hope? I said, do you have the hope? Amen. Glory be to Jesus.