In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not drawing back from God's calling. He highlights that God is not pleased with those who draw back and lose faith. The preacher uses the analogy of someone reaching out to help, only to have their fingers bitten off, to illustrate the consequences of drawing back from God. He also contrasts the church of Acts, which grew stronger in the face of persecution, with the church of Isaiah, which lacked faith. The sermon encourages believers to persevere and not be tempted by the world.

Amen. I want to say that I appreciate the pastor and his wife and when y'all get tired of him, I know about 15 places crying for a man just like him. That's the truth. Everywhere we go, I know places he's go tonight start with more than he's got in Stone Mountain. Because there's a cry across this country, give us a man that will preach something to us. I appreciate him being here and inviting us to be back. Now if you've ever opened your heart, if you've got any obstructions in your ears, any veil over your heart, I pray God you'll take them off tonight. Because we're going to deal with something that you need to hear and you need to hear it real good. I've got a tape, the latest tape David Wilkerson's come out with. I'd like to have everybody in this church get a copy of it. If the pastor will run it off. It's the destiny of man. And while we're here, I'd like to include it in the tapes that you can get a copy of it and listen to it. Something he's just preached. And like I say, a lot of duplicators in the shop, but the church has got one just like it here. They just run you off a copy. And I understand your tapes is on a freewill offering, a love offering basis. And I want you to have a copy. Okay. First of all, I want you to turn with me tonight to the book of Jude. We're not going to preach from Jude. I just want to use the word there that we're going to be talking about, uh, quite a bit. And like I say, I pray God that you'll open your heart tonight and hear what the Lord is saying to the church in this hour. Jude one and one, Jude the third of Jesus Christ and brother James to them that are sanctified by God, the father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called the word. I want to bring your attention is that word preserved. Now I want you to go back to the scripture. The pastor read last night, Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10. I don't know where he started, but I'm going to start at 10 and 19. Excuse me. I ain't going to start there. That's too much reading. Let's start at verse 35. That might be breaking into where we don't need to break in, but we're going to really deal with the last two verses. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience. But after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise for yet a little while. And he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back it, but if any draw back, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Who's in control of this mic. Please help me tonight because I'm having problems. If I start getting weak, you pick me up. Okay. Now, now where we go, some of the hard and some folks cause harsh statements we make. People always ask the question, what's going to happen to them that don't get in? I'm going to answer that question tonight. And then what's going to happen to them that do get in? And right here in this verse of scripture, they're answered. Now we're living in an hour that God is ready to move again. I personally believe for the last time on this earth. I believe it's harvest time. I believe it's the last round up. I believe it's the last thing that God will do on this earth. And then Jesus will return. Now I'm going to talk about some things that the mistake that some of you right here in this church of God is about to make is a mistake that every movement from the Pentecostal church in the book of Acts all the way through has made. I don't know why we don't learn from past generations. I don't know why we spend so much time reading history as a, as a nation and do not learn from generations past. And I don't understand why God's people that can look back and especially anybody that's read and done any studying on church history. I don't understand why they can't look at the things that has happened to movements in the past. I don't understand why the leaders of churches can't learn from the past mistakes of leaders of other churches. Why do they always fall into the same trap? I don't know why, but they do it every time. Now in this word right here, now the judge shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back into perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. That word saving, that word saving has got a great, great meaning on it. Now there's three subjects that Paul spent a lot of time talking about, justification, sanctification, and preservation. How many believes you can be preserved in Christ Jesus? And that's what this word right here in verse 39 is dealing with. He's not talking about justification by faith. He's not talking about sanctification by faith. He's talking about preservation, how that the soul can be preserved in Christ Jesus. Amen. How many believe that the soul has to be justified by faith? I believe you're sanctified by faith, but you can be both of them and still miss this thing unless you're preserved by faith. Now I believe if God's ever sent me to a church with a message, he sent me to Stone Mountain Church of God. I don't have visions and dreams of ever where I go, but this is one church before I knew I was coming that I had a dream about, and I didn't know it until recently. That the dream that I saw is found right here in this scripture. It's going to shock you when I tell you what some of these words mean. Amen. Now the Bible says we're not of those that draw back unto perdition. Now that word is the same word that's used of the title that Jesus gave to Judas Iscariot. He's called the son of perdition. The Bible tells us that Judas received part of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He walked with him. Is that true? He received. I believe that Judas cast out devils just like the other eleven disciples did. I believe that Judas was sent into the cities as a forerunner just like the other disciples were. He received, the Bible says, part of that ministry. He received Christ, but yet along the way something began to happen in the heart of Judas that caused him to draw back and not go all the way. And he become known, the Bible says, as the son of perdition. And that word perdition means the son of ruin, the son of loss, or the son of destruction. Now we're going to either get in this thing and go on with it, or we're going to hold back and be destroyed. Why? Because God has no pleasure in them that draw back. How many believe the Lord has called the church? And the sole purpose of the call of the church is the church can become a channel of the flow of the Spirit of God. We're not the Dead Sea. We're the River of Life. Hallelujah. You read in the account of Zechariah of the two olive trees and the seven candlesticks and the two pipes from the seven candlesticks down through to those two olive trees, which is the golden oil. It's the pipe which the golden oil flows through. It's a type or a picture of what the Lord will do to the church. And that is flowed down through those pipes, that golden oil, hallelujah, through those olive trees. And that oil will flow like a river to wherever God would have it to flow. You know what he wants to do with this church? You know what he wants to do with this church? He wants to open this end of it and blow that in back out through yonder with a river of life flowing through it. Hallelujah. He don't want you to keep meeting here three times a week, going through the mechanicals and the motions of religion. Amen? He don't want you going through what you've been going through for the last how many years this church has been here. He wants this church to become a channel of the flow of his Spirit, hallelujah, that he can flow down through this generation and touch lives that need to be touched by his power. Well, how can it be? Well, let's go back to the first man that God ever spoke to. This scripture says the just shall live by faith. It's the Old Testament prophet, the prophet, the prophet Habakkuk. He said these words, and the just shall live by faith. He was given a vision. He said, write the vision, make it plain, though it don't come, you know, just, just then. Tire it, wait for it, for it's going to come. But the just is going to have to live by faith. Now, Paul quoted this very passage of scripture to the Roman church, to the Galatian church, and then here to the book of Hebrews. Now, here's what always happens. God has never had a problem getting folks to get started in this thing. He's always had the problem getting folks to continue into what he's got going. How many knows what I'm talking about? And brother and sister, it's not the starters that's counting. It's the one that's going to finish. It's going to count. It's like I talked about the other night. It's not them that left Egypt. It was them that crossed the Jordan river is the one that really counted. And it's, it's hard to believe. It's hard to believe that the Pentecostal church that went into the 120 that came out of the upper room. It's hard to believe then just in just 60 short years that the great fire that fell in that upper room began to be drawn back from. Amen. And that church began to go into perdition. Amen. And you follow her from Pentecost all the way down. Hey, we Pentecostal people. Ain't the first people that's ever had a move of God. Amen. But when that church began to draw back into perdition, it led to, it took years to do it, but it led to what we know in history as the dark ages, 1000 years of darkness. And one day God spoke to a man by the name of Mark Luther. He was a mock. He had done everything that a man could do. Mark Luther fasted 140 days trying to find the God that he didn't know where it was at. He done everything that a man could do here, trying to pay homage, trying to find God, trying to feel saved to one day down on his hands and knees, climbing up stairs or broke on broken glass. The Holy spirit said to him, Mark Luther, the just shall live by faith. He got up from there and set Europe aflame after hiding from for a year from the Roman Catholic church. He lived like a fugitive, like a prisoner. He set Europe aflame with the message of just to live by faith. But Hey brother, that wasn't the end of it. That was only the beginning of the church's climb out of darkness, back to the apostolic order, back to the apostolic pattern. Amen. Back to that church that Jesus said, I'm going to build in hell, ain't going to do nothing with back to the church that could walk the streets and the shadow of that church to heal the sick, that church that had more victory in jail houses than we got in our robe choirs. It was the beginning of the climb out of a thousand years of darkness. He raised up a group of people, but the spirit don't ever stop. It keeps rolling like a river when God got ready to keep rolling that crowd that came out of that very thing that Martin Luther brought forth when God began to show more light and God began to try to move again. You know what happened to them? The same thing that's happening to some of these folks right here at the stone mountain church of God, they begin to draw back from it and they became known as the Lutherans. Amen. You know what they done? They drove up a stake and hollered, hot dog, we got it. See, living by faith, you got to be like Abraham. You never live in nothing but a tent. Hello? You never drive down, you drive down stakes, but you don't drive them so deep you can't snatch them back up real quick when God says, let's move on. Okay. The Bible said that Abraham dwelt in tabernacles, hallelujah, looking for a city. And when they said, Abraham, go, he snatched up those stakes to roll that 10 up in a backpack and went down the road further until he could find that city. You said, did he ever find it? Jesus said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. When God got ready to move on, the very ones that believe the message of Luther, God began to move a little further, move a little deeper, show more light. Instead of going on, they done like some of you folks are doing. Oh, I don't want none of that. I ain't never heard nothing like that before. That can't be God. We know we, you know, that, where'd all that come from? That ain't God. God opened the pastor's eyes and he begins to see a little clearer and see a pastor that's greener. Amen. Try to take the church a little deeper. Amen. And something that's greater and bigger and better. Hallelujah. Oh God, that can't be the Lord. But every group from Luther to this present hour, every one of them, when God began to try to move that always, they've always made the same mistake. They always draw back when God tries to take the church all the way to where he wants the church. Well, we headed brother low. We headed back to the old landmark. We headed back to the original foundation. We are going back to where this thing started. Hallelujah. Somebody say, man, I preached in 1978, not this, but along this line and I used for my tax use. I mean, that was the story of use. I am 16 years old. He ascended the throne and the Bible said he saw the Lord. And as long as he saw the Lord, God made him to prosper. But when he began to prosper in the Lord and God began to lead him on, you know what happened? He grew strong within himself, began to draw back from the leadership of the Holy spirit, began to stray off a man and didn't realize that he needed God to continue on with the Lord. You never arrived at a self-sufficiency within yourself. You got to stay with the Lord. If you're going to make it, but he didn't do it. You know how he died? He died like he died in a leprosy colony in a separate house. The Bible says, you know why? Because he drew back. Hey man, God had touched him as a, as a child. I painted the picture under this, one night of this man as a picture to church and where we headed in the Pentecostal church that night, the local church of God preacher was in the audience. I didn't know how he responded, but I said in that service that night, I said, if something don't stop the trend of the Pentecostal church, we're headed in the same direction that all movements is headed early that next morning. He left that, that tent that night early that next morning, his wife called me said, what did you preach last night? I said, I just talked about you. She said, my husband come in the door, shaking his head and said, my God, if I ever heard a word from heaven, I heard it tonight. She said, he walked the floor all night. He couldn't sleep because he had to say a man that we are headed as church of God and a similar God and full gospel people in the same direction that every movement has always headed. And that's interpretation. You know why? Because of drawing back. We are drawing back. You know why I'm having a battle preaching and my voice is working out on me in this church. There's a drawback here. There's a spirit you're having to preach over here. Man, I just come out of North Carolina. Every night heaven came down. What's the difference? Well, nobody there drawing back. They were driving for 110 miles one way to get to the meeting. See, there's a difference. There's a drawback here. Now I had, I've got to do this tonight. I got to do this tonight because I'm going to tell you something. Something's to happen here. Amen. Something's to happen in this church. It ain't going to be the same after this meeting's over. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Something's to happen here. You fix to see the divine hand of God in Stone Mountain Church of God. Now somebody write that down in a book tonight. Write it down. But see, there's a drawback. If you would turn loose, I might be here seven weeks instead of seven nights because this thing had bust wide open. But there's a spirit here that's saying we don't want a greener pasture. We want what we've always had. You're just like the parable where Jesus gave the parable of the old skins. Now, I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but he said in the parable of the old skins, he said if a man drinks the old wine and then drinks the new wine, he's going to say, I don't want the new. I prefer the old because the old is better. And in the natural, that's right. But in God, it's reversed. The new is always the best. But God's always had a problem to get the people to accept new wine. They want to hold on to the old. But see, that's why you can't never put new wine in old bottles. Hallelujah. So God is doing a work in this church to take the bottles through a process to put some new wine in you. How many would like to have a drink of new wine? But now let's deal with this word drawback. Let's deal with this word drawback. My soul shall have no pleasure in them that draw back. It means to set fast or to stall. Now, here is what blowed me up in studying this word, this word drawback. It's to place in a passive or horizontal posture. Now, I had a dream about this church. I told it when I was here before. But here's what I saw. I'm going to tell it again. I saw this preacher trying to take this church from one pastor to another one. And there's a spirit of stubbornness in here. And there were several people here who didn't want to go. And I entered into the picture to help him take this church to the pastor that God wants this church to go to. And when I entered the picture, I entered it with a whip. I came to this church with a whip in my hand. Have I had it this week? And where he was trying to lead you in, I got my whip out, brother, because I used to work at the cattle barn, and they somehow for you have to whip. And I took my whip, and I was doing the same thing he was doing. God had a greener pastor for Stone Mountain Church of God. How many believe there's something great for the Stone Mountain Church of God? But there's a stubbornness on some. And I took my whip and whipped them a time or two. And you know what I seen them do? I seen them fall out on the floor. I saw them laying down on the floor, just laying down horizontally. Now that word drawback, look it up when you get home in the Hebrew. It means to position yourself horizontally and won't be moved. Well, that's something. That is something. I saw some people in this church position themselves horizontally, which means in a position of stubbornness and drawback and says, I will not go. Hmm. To place in a passive or a horizontal posture, it's the same Hebrew word, excuse me, that verse is in Greek. It's the same Hebrew word where Hosea used and said, Israel is like a back sliding heifer. It's a heifer that lays down when you take her by the halter and say, I got a fresh drink of water I'd like for you to enjoy. Same identical word. She puts herself in a horizontal posture and said, bless God, you'll drag me if I go. But see, let's go ahead with the scripture. My soul has no pleasure in them that position themselves in a horizontal position. Now, the two that I saw, basically, I saw three, but two I saw was two women. Now, where they represent females, I don't know. They could be some bulls, but I got to tell you something tonight. I got to tell you something. There's a man in this church that said, unless he gets right soon, God is going to destroy him because God has no pleasure in them that draw back into perdition. And that means destruction. Y'all hear me? Why? Because the church has got to move on. It's got to go on. Amen. Oh, that scares me. Brother, that scares me. If you ain't the one, if the shoe don't fit, don't put the dude on. I never put on a shoe that won't fit. If it's too big, I say it's too big. If it's too little, it don't fit me. The only one I put on and walk away from the church with is the one that fits my foot. Amen. If it don't fit you, don't you put it on. Don't you worry about whether it's you or not. Don't you worry about who it is. But I tell you what you better do. You better quit drawing back. You better throw up your hands and say, Lord, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to move. I'm ready for you to do something. I want to drink a new wine. I want a greener pasture. I want something greater. I want to move on to the preservation of my soul. What happens to them that draws back? They draw back into perdition. Now what happens to the corporate church, to a movement that draws back into perdition? They go in to perdition. You find it in 1st, 2nd Thessalonians called the son of perdition. It's the word. It's also a word used for apostasy. They enter into apostasy and you know, we've always taught that to go into apostasy or to backslide, here's what you got to do. You got to go to church for a while. Then you got to go back to smoking and drinking and committing adultery. But brother and sister, backsliding has got nothing to do with these things I just mentioned. Backsliding is a failure to move on when the Spirit of God says it's time to move. So to those that will not enter in, to those that refuse to go on, I'm telling you, I have no good words for you. I got words of judgment. I got words of destruction. I got words to tell you you're in serious trouble. I didn't say it, God said it. Hallelujah. But how many tonight wants to go all the way? See, it ain't them that starts, brother. You say, I've been saved 30 years and that don't, what you were yesterday, don't count. What's going to count is what you are from here forward. Say, man, you said the Bible don't teach that. What do you think I'm talking about tonight? Paul said, we don't draw back. We believe to the saving of the soul. That's the preservation of the soul. It's the same word that if I was talking naturally, it's called self-preservation. One of the strongest characteristics of a man is self-preservation. He'll do anything to preserve himself. The devil told God that in dealing with Job, a man will do anything to save his own hide. But this is not self-preservation. It's not the fact that you can preserve yourself. It's the fact that by being led and going on with the Lord, you go, you are preserved. You're careful. God keeps you. You know what this pastor is trying to do is bring you into a pasture, into a sheepfold of protection, because the one you in now ain't going to hold up. Ain't going to hold up. We produced a generation of folks, of churchgoing folks, that will curl up under a hot sun. We produced a generation of folks, put them on the same ship that disciples were on and let them have a contrary wind. They'll put that boat in reverse and go back a different direction. Because we are people that don't even like for preachers to talk about contrary winds. We don't like to tell, amen, that there's trouble down the road. You know what's the strange to be? They come to Paul, amen, when Paul called them together. I quoted this last night. Paul said, I don't know what's in Jerusalem, but every city I go in, the Holy Ghost speaks and says, bonds and afflictions, wait a minute. Every city that Paul went into, he said the Holy Ghost is speaking and said, Paul, there's trouble in Jerusalem. There's bonds in Jerusalem. Hey, brother and sister, it didn't change his mind. It didn't change his direction. He said, I don't care what's in Jerusalem. I'm headed there, not only to suffer for the name of Jesus, I'm ready to die for the name of Jesus. He had a faith, hallelujah, that tribulation could not do nothing with. Amen. How many walks one, that when the bad news comes, there's trouble down the road, you'll say, praise God, I don't care. I've got my eyes on the one that can take me through. It don't matter what comes, it don't matter what comes, I'm going through, hallelujah. No, we run through the country. Like some of you are in this church of God here in Stone Mountain. You'd like to throw the preach out that tells you there's trouble down the road and get one in here to pass you on the back and tell you things are going to get better, but that's a lie from hell. They're going to get worse, but there's a church that goes on for God, that's going to stand in spite of what comes. Hallelujah. The church that draws back will be a church. There's a church in our time that the doors are going to start closing on them. The doors will soon close on the TV evangelist. Well, I don't believe that makes me no difference. I won't lose a bit of sleep overnight. Would you believe that or not? But the doors are going to close. Amen. The church, you said, why is it going to close? I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. God's going to do a work by the sister. Praise God. He's going to do a work. That's going to be like Elijah. It's going to be a sustained ministry. It's going to be a brook chariot ministry. It's going to be a ministry. Praise God. That's going to be sustained. It's going to be a ministry where when God said Elijah down to the country, a certain city, amen, there was a widow woman with just a little bit of meal in her meal barrel. And, but God had said to her, you take care of my man and I'll take care of you. And he walked down into that country while the famine was older. And the Bible says she was in that city. Get ready to cook that last meal. The man of God said, cook me a cake, a whole cake first. And when she cooked him one, her, her boy, and the man of God's divine through the famine, cause it was a supernaturally sustained ministry. Can you say that? The doors are going to close on the ministry that's sustained by the system of America. Then you're going to know who the real men of God are. How many wants to go all the way and preserve your soul? Why do movements all make this same mistake? Why is it when God gets ready to move with something else? Why is it the church always bumps it? Always. It's never done nothing but that brother Mark. Every time God gets ready to move and go on, that's all we're doing. See, it's going on. See, this is a going on thing. You didn't get it all at one shot. When God gets ready to go on, why is it the church? The very people that God at one time pulled out his spirit on gave them enlightenment, gave them a touch of God. Why is it? They always bucket. They always draw back. They always back slide like a heifer. Always helpless. Always the remnant. You can follow a remnant all the way through. There's always a remnant gets a hold of what God's doing. And that remnant, amen, is the trimmings. They take that thing and go on until God can build a body around that remnant. Why is it? Why is it? I really don't know. I do not know why there's some folks right here don't want for God to do. Hey, I heard the pastor say this, that he could count the folks that's been saved in this church on one hand in the last six years. Well, what in God's world are y'all doing here? Huh? I'll tell you what you've been doing. You've been playing church. You've been doing your thing. You've been business bees, but you ain't been doing the kingdom of God. Boy, you brother, you sure are bold to say that. We'll get, run you out of here. You ain't running me nowhere. Hallelujah. I'm here. I'm coming here to help this preacher, to corral some of you folks, take you into a greener pasture, take you on down to the preservation. Amen. And the completion of this thing where God can run a river through your family. God can run a river through this body of Christ and do something in this place. Amen. How many wants to go on to the preserving of your soul? How many wants to be preserved in Christ Jesus? Now that word preserved is kept. Them that draws back won't be kept. They won't be kept. Them that won't go on, them that won't get in, them that bucks, them that lays themselves down horizontally, that refuses and bucks and fights and comes against and just, you know, just, just stubborn as the devil himself, they will not be kept. Who's going to be kept? Them that go on. Them that move on in. Brother and sister, I'm going to tell you something. God is selling his people. God is putting a mark on his people. God is building a fence and a hedge around his people. They just passed the night from here on out. Young couples get married, will have to be tested for AIDS. You know why? I just heard it before I got here tonight. They don't know how bad and how widespread AIDS is in the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta, Georgia. You said, does that bother you? No, I've found a secret place. I'm headed for a secret place of the most high God, a place of keeping. Can you say amen? AIDS is not going to come, not my dwelling. No plaques is going to touch me or my family. I found a keeping place, a hiding place. Can you say amen? And that's all Jim Hite's trying to do. Somebody said, somebody told him to fish and go independent. That ain't the answer. The independents are screwed up too. They just as messed up as the church of God folks are. Namely God, Baptist, Luther. Ain't no difference. This thing has no denominational barriers. There's no fence that keeps this thing out. Amen. Jumping out of here into something else ain't the answer. The answer is hearing the word of God, submitting to the move of the Holy Spirit, throwing up your hands and say, I'm going to follow the Holy Ghost. I'm going to go with the Lord. Wherever He says go, I'm going to go. Hallelujah. Can you say amen? But now what if you don't? You're going to be destroyed. You say, AIDS ain't going to get me because I ain't going to... You don't know what's going to get you, but something will get you. See, because one of the prophets prophesied that the day of the Lord would be as if a man ran from a bear and a lion got him. And he took off running from the lion and a serpent got him. He couldn't run from the bear. He couldn't run from a lion and he couldn't run from a serpent. What's he saying? He's saying there'll be an hour. There'll be an hour that you can't run from nothing. When you run from one thing, there's something else to grab you. The only thing you can run in the day of the Lord is run to the Lord. He's a strong and a hot tower. You can run to watch him. There ain't but one place to hide. Can you say amen? That's all the preachers trying to do. Now there's a door closing. There's a door closing. The door is going to close on every ministry except the spirit led ministry. Now what's going to happen to us that believe? What's going to happen to us that will go on? I'm going to give you the word of the Lord. This ain't my interpretation. This ain't, you know, I didn't figure this thing out. I'm going to tell you exactly what the Lord told me to tell you. Amen. If you'll turn with me to the book of Revelation, I want you to read it. I'll follow it with me. Revelations chapter three and verse number seven. Revelations chapter three and verse number seven. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right? These things says he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key to David, he that opened it, no man shut it, shut it, and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door. No man can shut it and no man can shut it. For thou has had a little strength and has kept my word and has not denied my name. What's he saying there, brother? Those two words, you've kept my word, have not denied my name. Here's what he's saying. You have to look, you'll have to study this to get it, but it's in there. Here's what he's saying. That word kept there. It means you have guarded. You've guarded my word. You've not denied my word. You've kept my word, have denied my name. But here's what he's actually saying. He said, you have yielded and made yourself a vessel for the overflowing of my spirit. You've allowed yourself for my spirit to flow through you. And because of this, I'll open a door for you. And no man will shut that door. But don't keep, don't stop there. Don't stop there. That's not the only promise he made. I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they're Jews and are not. But do lie, behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee because I has kept the word of my patience. I will also keep thee from the hour of tribulation or temptation, for it shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. How much plainer can you get? I'm going to keep you. I'm going to preserve you. The opposite of preserving is to ruin like spalling. How many has ever seen preserved figs? Hello. Well, if they're not preserved, they ruin, they destroy, you destroy them. Amen. But he said, you ain't going to be spoiled. You ain't going to get ruined. You ain't going to be destroyed. There's the temptation coming on the face of the whole world to try them that dwell on the earth. My God, why haven't we seen that? You know why? We're a generation of people that's heard so much soft noodle, wet noodle preaching till we'll coil up under dry, under hot sun. We'll put the boat in reverse when contrary winds begin to blow. But the church of Jesus Christ in the book of Acts, the more you persecuted them, the more they grew, the stronger they got. Can you say amen? Jail houses just give them more zeal to get back out on the streets and talk about Jesus. There's a whole lot of difference in the church of Acts and the church of our day. But he said, because you believe, because you've went on, because you hadn't put positions yourself horizontally, because you've not drawn back, I'll open a door for you. Hallelujah. I'm going to open a door. Brother and sister, all God wants at this church, all God wants at this church is this church to up their hands and surrender. Lay your ability on the altar and say, God, without you, I can do nothing. Lay all your intellect and all your training and all your everything on the altar and say, Holy Spirit, from here on out, you're going to be the leader. You're going to be the guide. You're going to be the teacher. You're going to be everything. Hallelujah. In this church. That's all he's asking. That ain't too much. What will he do? He'll run a river through this thing that you never dreamed. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And when the doors are closed, nobody can close yours. Hallelujah. When they're falling on the right and on the left, read Psalms 91. Read Psalms 91. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will stand on the Lord. He's my refuge and my fortress, and in God will I put my trust. He went ahead and said, I'll not be afraid. I'll not be afraid. We got a fleet of ships right now headed, a new fleet headed to the Mediterranean, tanks on board, several, what is it, 10 or 12,000 marines. We don't know what's fixed to happen. Amen. We don't know what's fixed to happen, but you know, it don't bother me. You know why? Because my faith and my trust is something higher than the United States government. It's on a government that's upon his shoulder. It's the kingdom that has no end. Can you say amen? I said, can you say amen? I'll not be afraid of the air that flies by day. I'll not be afraid of the pestilence that moves at night. No plague is going to come at my dwelling. Nothing's going to touch me. Nothing will harm me. Nothing's going to stop me because the Lord, I found him. I've kept his word. I'm going to open my heart for the Lord to flow through. Oh God, this church is getting a call. And all God wants to do is take you in a place of safety. Hallelujah. See the just, they live. And that word live is not just saying we're justified by faith. No, that's not what it's saying. That's one thing that faith does. You are justified by faith. But that ain't what he's talking about. Brother, that word saving and salvation is more than what we've ever seen. It's total redemption. It's total salvation. It's from the womb, praise God, all the way down till you go to heaven. It's God's total plan. It's the just live. They're sustained by faith. They move by faith. They're kept by faith. They walk by faith. They live by faith. And they're preserved by faith. Kept, kept, kept. You want to be kept? You want to get in a pasture where there's some safety? Oh, we're saved. We're saved. We got saved 20 years ago. The word saving is used here that we believe to the saving of the soul means it's not one act. It means a habitual continuation of following the Lord. We're those that believe to the saving of the soul. How do you save the soul? You do it by following the Lord. Keep following him. Keep following him. Keep following him. What happened to Luther's followers? Were they saved? Were they saved, justified by faith? They was only saved until the Lord began to lead them into more light. And when they refused light, when you refuse light, you become backslidden or backsliding. God's married to backsliding, not backslidden. The Bible does not say that God's married to the backslidden. The backslidden has got a bill of divorcement. God's married to backsliding Israel. He's still married to the person. Even these that's laying horizontally, God's still married to them. But if he can't get them to go on, they're not backsliding anymore. They become backslidden and God separates himself from them. And it's like a man with his wife. He's no longer obligated as their protector. No longer obligated to be their protector. The Lord told me one year ago, a year and a half ago, he said to me, if you want to walk in divine protection, that there's not a bullet on this earth could kill you. There's not a drunk on the road that you could meet in a car that could cross in your lane and kill you. There's not anything that can move you till I get ready to move you. If you'll just walk in my will and follow my spirit, I am obligated and married to you as your protector. Hallelujah. I'm married to you as your husband, and I am your protector and nothing can touch you unless I give it the permission to touch you. Hey, I got to walk with it, brother. I got to go on with this thing. I done told folks everywhere. I don't know who's going. I don't know what you're going to do. I don't know what nobody's going to do. All I know is what I'm going to do. I've headed for a city who's built and make it God. There's revival just around the corner. There's a secret place in God. There's a pastor where the Lord becomes your shepherd. He leads you besides the waters. Can you say man? He restores your soul. He leads you to the path of righteousness. Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you don't fear no evil, but the Lord is your shepherd. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. How many wants to go where the Lord is your shepherd tonight? Okay. You got to get out of this horizontal position because you can't go nowhere laying down. You got to get up. And the opposite of this word, praise God, is standing in a vertical position. Hallelujah. With your clutch in saying, Lord, when you get ready, tell me to let it out. I got in a forward gear and I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. Wherever. So wherever you go, I'm going with you. I'm like, I'm like Ruth. Your God's going to be my God. Everything's going to be, I'm going to follow you, Lord, wherever you go. Hallelujah. Tonight is the Pentecostal group, and this is collectively, corporately, everywhere. We're at the brink of missing something from the Lord. We fix to make the same mistake that the Methodists used. The very church at the Wesley boys established, birthed and born out of more light than Luther had. Brother, the pastor here could tell you more about that than anybody because he studied that stuff. I've studied a little of it to get the highlights of it. The Methodist church at one time had the greatest move of God that ever hit this land. Amen. I've read Methodist revivals where the spirit of God had come under them tents and folks would go to fall out under spirit and would only fall halfway and lay like this under the power of the spirit. They didn't stand back up and they didn't fall on down. And for hours they would stay in that position. Nobody embracing them, nobody to hold them. They would hold themselves swaying in the spirit, not out, just halfway out. The old Methodist revival, they haul them home in the back of buggies like cordwood. The fires of God fall. Are you listening to me? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. But that same Methodist church today, the countryside has died with Methodist churches that's dead and dry and cold. Hey man, there's almost any Christ they're supporting right now. Revolutions in some countries. Why, brother? Because they drew back into perdition. They drew back when the spirit said, it's the turn of the century. That's what birthed the Pentecostal church at the turn of the century. God said, I'm ready to do something else. I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to restore. I'm ready to put back some more. That's a cake of worm, the caterpillar and the pile of worm is took. I'm ready to give some more. And that bunch laid down in a horizontal position and said, we the God, we the God. But a remnant came forth and birthed the very church that you're a part of tonight. The reason the others didn't go is the same spirit that's in this church. You're stubborn. You think you got it all. You think you know it all, but you don't know near as much as you think, you know, there's some men God's raised up in this hour with some insight. There's some men God's raised up again. It's watched them on the wall with a telescope in their eye. They can see farther down the road than you can say, say man, they can see things that the natural eye cannot see. Hallelujah. You're not as safe as you think you are. You're not as saved as you might think you are. You don't know what's ahead unless God's revealed it to you. I'm here to tell you, there's a place in God. The church has got to get, I said, there's a place in God. I said, there's a place in God that you got to get. There's a pastor that the wolves can't get you. There's a pastor where the beach can't get you. There's a pastor where the AIDS can't get you. And all this P A S T O R here is trying to do is P A S T U R U P A S T U R U U and take you into a pastor, into a place of safety, into an enclosure. Praise God. And God will run a river through that pastor and you can have an open door and be safe in these last days. And your soul will be preserved in Christ Jesus. It don't matter how long you've walked with him, Mark. It's what you do from here on out that's going to count. I've walked with God 23 years. August the 12th, 1963, I got saved. But I can draw back in February of 1987. I can draw back from what I see and draw back from what I'm hearing and draw back from what I've, what the Lord's trying to do. And all those 23 years, all those years and all those places I've been through and all that I've seen and all that I've heard and all that God's touched me will be no good to me because I drew back in the day when God says, move on, go on. I'm on the move. I'm on the move. I got to take you somewhere. There's high heights in me. There's a secret place in me. Praise God. There's heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Can you say man, I want you to soar like an eagle. There's a place in these last days. And all I got to do is draw back from it and I'll be destroyed by the destroyer. There's a drawback spirit still in this church that if it's not broke this time, the folks that's giving off that spirit is going to be destroyed. The folks that's birthed in that spirit. You say, I don't believe you preacher. I'll tell you what you do. You don't believe me. But see, God has no pleasure in them that draws back. Amen. He's not happy with folks that draws back. How would you be if somebody lifted out, stretched out a hand towards you and say, boy, I want to help you. I want to do something great for you. I want to take you into greater things, things that you've never seen or never dreamed you could have. How would you be if you reached out your hand to do that and they grabbed you and bit about three or four of your fingers off? Would you have pleasure in them? Would you? I doubt it. That's what he's doing. He's stretching out his hand to this church and saying, come on, I got great things for you down the road. I got a place for you. Praise God. There'll be a door open. Amen. I said, when the doors are closing, somebody say, man, somebody say, praise the Lord. When the doors are closing for some, it's going to be opening for those that has the fruit, has the spirit of God leading them. Say, man, when some's going out of business, there's going to be some just going into business. When some's are failing, there's going to be some arising. Amen. When some are being destroyed by the destroyer, there's some going to be hid in God and nobody can touch them. Praise God. See, if the devil can't find you, he can't touch you. And this Bible talks about being hid. God's fixed to hide his church. You ain't going to be raptured out. You ain't going out of here. God's going to hide the church through the tribulation. Bible don't teach you going out. Teach you going to be hid. He hides his people. Amen. How many wants to be hid? Where are you going to be hid? There's a secret place. Who was it? Job said, there's a, there's a, there's a place that the vultures eyes never beheld. Amen. There's a place. Somebody said the devil knows everything. I beg your pardon. There's a place he's never seen. God won't let him even get close to it. It's a place for the saints in the last hour. It's the place for the church when the trial comes on the whole world to try every man. It's the place for the stone mountain church of God that he's trying to get you to go right now. Get up out of that horizontal position, stand up on your feet, throw up your hands and surrender. Quit worrying about hard preaching. You need some more of it. Need about six months of it. Amen. Quit trying to folks talk about the preacher being too hard. You ain't heard nothing yet. Ain't nobody calls you snakes and vipers yet. Like John the Baptist called his congregation. You just been called stubborn heifers. What if you get called snakes and vipers? Say man, ain't nobody come in here with a whip beats you over the head. Jesus went to that temple with a whip. He didn't go in there with a wet noodle. He went in there with a whip and that wasn't no spiritual whip brother and sister. That was a literal whip. It'll tear your heart off of you. Quit using that for an excuse. Preachers too hard. He don't love us. That's the problem. You got somebody here that does love you and you don't even recognize it. That fellow's patting you on the back, tell you you might leave full mornings. The fellow don't love you, but he don't know where we at. The government screaming loud, saying scream, age is a disease out of control. Nobody has an answer. And we don't even know how many cases they are. We don't even know that has been spread. We thought he's just in the homosexual community, but now we're finding cases. Oh my God, folks. What, where are we at? I'll tell you where we at. We are time to go on with the Lord. We're time to get in this thing with our whole hearts and say, Lord, take me wherever you want me because I want my soul preserved in Christ Jesus. My Lord, I want to be preserved. Can you say man? Not today in prayer. I felt I had to deal with this tonight. I had to deal with it. It was eating me alive. When I come across these words, drawback means to position yourself horizontally and refuse to move because that's exactly what I saw in this church. Exactly right down to the precision of what I saw in this church is a spirit here in some of the people that has positioned themselves saying we will not be moved, but you're fixing to be moved. But it's sad that you're going to have to be moved towards destruction and you can't go into the pastor that God has provided for you. Stand on your feet when they please.