This sermon emphasizes the importance of standing firm in faith and trusting in God's victory, even when facing overwhelming challenges and societal decay. It highlights the consequences of turning away from God's authority and the need for intercession and righteousness in the face of spiritual battles. The message encourages believers to hold on to the truth, seek justice, and trust in God's deliverance amidst a world in moral decline.

We worship you, O Lord. We worship your praise. We worship you, O Lord. We worship your praise. We give you the highest praise. We praise you. We worship you, O Lord. We praise your name, O Lord. We praise your name, O Lord. We praise your name, O Lord. We praise your name, O Lord. He is our Lord, forever his truth shall reign. Heaven and earth rejoice in his holy name. He is exalted, the King is exalted on high. He is exalted, the King is exalted on high. And I will praise him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise him. He is exalted, the King is exalted on high. And I will praise him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise him. He is exalted, the King is exalted on high. And I will praise him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise him. Lord, you've already triumphed over it. You're already on the other side. You're living in the victory side. And we are there seated in heavenly places with you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord, by faith we lay hold of your accomplished work today. By faith, Lord, we reach out and we lay hold of the God of our salvation. You said the joy of our salvation is our strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength. God, thank you, Lord. Thank you for the knowledge that we are living in victory, not just for now, but for all of eternity because of what Jesus did on Calvary. Hallelujah. We bless you today. Brethren, you can remain standing. You can be seated at any time here at Times Square Church. All we ask is that you keep your focus on Jesus Christ and love him with all of your heart. And if you're under the circumstances today, may I encourage you by faith to get out. Just by faith, get out from under those circumstances and begin to love him with all your heart. His report says, I am healed. His report says, I am filled. His report says, I am free. His report says, victory. Whose report will you believe? You shall believe the report of the Lord. Whose report will you believe? You shall believe the report of the Lord. Whose report will you believe? You shall believe the report of the Lord. His report says, I am healed. His report says, I am filled. His report says, I am free. His report says, victory. Whose report will you believe? You shall believe the report of the Lord. Whose report will you believe? You shall believe the report of the Lord. Whose report will you believe? You shall believe the report of the Lord. His report says, I am healed. His report says, I am filled. His report says, I am free. His report says, victory. His report says, I am healed. His report says, I am free. Whose report will you believe? You shall believe the report of the Lord. Whose report will you believe? You shall believe the report of the Lord. Whose report will you believe? You shall believe the report of the Lord. His report says, I am healed. His report says, I am filled. His report says, I am free. His report says, victory. His report says, I am healed. His report says, I am free. His report says, victory. He is Jehovah, God of creation. He is Jehovah, Lord God Almighty. The power of Gilead, the rock of ages. He is Jehovah, the God that heals. He is Jehovah, God of creation. He is Jehovah, Lord God Almighty. The power of Gilead, the rock of ages. He is Jehovah, the God that heals. He is the great I Am, the God of Abraham, Jehovah Shalom. The God of peace I Am, the God of peace I Am. The everlasting One, He is Jehovah, the God that heals. Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! He is Jehovah, the God that heals. Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! He is Jehovah, the God that heals. He is Jehovah, the God that heals. He is the great I Am, the God of Abraham, Jehovah Shalom. The God of peace I Am, the God of peace I Am. The everlasting One, He is Jehovah, the God that heals. He is the great I Am, the God of Abraham, Jehovah Shalom. The God of peace I Am, the God of peace I Am. The everlasting One, He is Jehovah, the God that heals. Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! He is Jehovah, the God that heals. Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! He is Jehovah, the God Almighty. He is Jehovah. Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! Sing hallelujah! He is Jehovah, the God Almighty. He is Jehovah, the God that heals. We praise you, O God. We glorify your name. Hallelujah! Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Would you turn in your Bibles please to Isaiah chapter 59. When the enemy comes in like a flood. Isaiah chapter 59. Let's pray together. Jesus, I thank you for your enduring truth. I thank you for your life, your strength. God, the provision that you give to me every time that I would stand and have the privilege of representing your word before your people. I thank you for the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, I ask you now to overshadow me. I ask you to quicken my heart, my mind, physical body. Grant to me great grace that I may disappear and stand behind the cross. Jesus, I ask that you would be the one who would be seen, you'd be heard, you'd be loved and longed for in this house and especially in the hearts of your people. Lord God, come and speak to us and open our hearts to the truth. Convict me and convince me, Lord, and enable me to be able to bring your heart to the people in the manner that you want it to be conveyed today. I ask, Lord, for great grace to be removed out of the way that you may speak. Jesus, be honored now. Be honored in our hearts. Be honored in our lives. Be honored in the response that you will enable us to give to your word today and in your house. Lord God, I thank you for this. I praise you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Isaiah chapter 59, when the enemy comes in like a flood. Begin to read at verse 16. And he saw, this is God, that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness, it sustained him. In other words, God was looking down on the deplorable situation that had come in to his people in the society of that particular day. There was nobody standing in the gap and so he took it upon himself to bring about the victory and deliverance that he alone has determined for his people. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head. And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay. Fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies, to the islands, that means the distant lands, he will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever. Now in verse 19, the scripture speaks of the enemy coming in like a flood, a suddenness, a bursting forth, a casting away perhaps of all that is good, as if somehow a barrier which once restrained that which could destroy us is breached. The only illustration I can really think of giving you is perhaps a dam that has stood for years and years and years and held back a torrent of water that had the capability of destroying a small little village at its base. Yet over time a crack appeared in that dam. Nobody did anything to stop it. Everybody was preoccupied perhaps with their own building, their own houses, their own careers, their own social gatherings and many, many things that can preoccupy the human heart. And people failed to notice that over time the crack in that particular dam was widening and widening until eventually because of the weight of the water that was behind it, it just burst forth and a sudden flood came upon the people unaware. And we have seen certainly throughout history, secularly speaking, I mean, we have seen that happen from time to time as dams have burst and we see the swath of incredible destruction that has brought upon the people that are in its path. Now the prophet Isaiah is talking about a time when the enemy is going to come on just like that upon a people. Coming in suddenly, coming in as a flood. Many, many people unaware, unprepared for what's happening all around them. In chapter again 59 and verse 13 he explains why and how this begins to happen. Verse 13 he says, In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God. Now the word transgressing in the original text is pascha. It means to break away, to apostatize, to be offended from a righteous authority. Isaiah is saying there's something that got into the hearts of the people. They began to break away. They didn't like the constraints that God in His mercy and love was placing upon His people. He had built around about His people a wall of protection, a wall of provision. A wall that if people were desirous to walk within those parameters, it was a place where God's arms would draw them right very close to His heart. And He would reveal the very character and nature of Himself to them and in them and through them. But they began to break away. They began to push away from the love of God. And verse 13 goes on to say, In departing, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. The word revolt is sarai, which means it carries the notion of defection or rebellion in man's relationship to God. It's incredible. It's an irony, but it's in the human heart. It happens continuously, generation after generation. We see it in the Old Testament. God would bring out His people. They would cry to Him. He would bless them. And He would establish parameters around about them where they could be rejoicing. The glory of God was in their midst. And the purpose of that was to provoke perhaps other people around, other nations, when they began to see the glory of God that was upon His people, that they too would begin to turn to the Lord and begin to understand there's only one God in heaven and earth that can keep and carry and sustain and bless people like that. But time and again throughout history, time and again throughout Christian history, even in the last 2,000 years, we see generations that have known or at least have a history or legacy of the faithfulness of God beginning to break away, to be offended at the authority of God, to defect or rebel in their relationship with Him. In verse 15 says, the end result of this in a society, yea, truth faileth, and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the Lord saw it and it displeased Him that there was no judgment. A time comes, and it's a tragic thing to see that thing beginning to happen in the United States of America and in Canada right now. A time comes when the defection from God's authority had reached such proportions that a person who sought to walk in God's truth became open to all forms of attack from that society. It is a tragedy when looking back at the history, I'm a little bit of a history buff, and I have spent some time searching out the roots of American spiritual history. And it's a tragedy, although it was not all as squeaky clean as some would like to think it was. Nevertheless, there was a Christian foundation that built the very fabric of this nation that caused the blessing of God to be upon people. There was a wall established where one of the early founding fathers prophesied one day and said, this nation will be at the forefront in the future technology that's going to develop throughout the world. And he believed that it was going to be through the United States of America that technology was going to spread throughout the entire known world. As a matter of fact, he said that the prophecy that is in the book of Daniel will be fulfilled through the United States of America, that prophecy that says that knowledge will increase. And surely we've seen the hand of God's blessing on a country in only a couple of hundred short years and unparalleled perhaps throughout history the blessing that God has put upon this nation. But then we see this tragic form of defection against the authority of God, pushing the word of God out of our schools and then throwing up our hands in confusion when our children begin to murder and massacre one another, wondering why it's happening, pushing them out of the court system, pushing them out of the fabrics of society. The buzzword in Canada now today is tolerance and I shared last week it means tolerance of everything but the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now those who stand for truth are open to mock and ridicule and I do believe I have a trepidation in my heart if the Lord tarries and does not bring some form of horrific kind of change upon the western world. The day is coming in the not too distant future that it could conceivably be illegal to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Truth fails and he that departs makes himself a prey. Verse 14, Isaiah cries out from a broken heart. He says, judgment is turned away backwards and justice stands afar off. Truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter. Truth was daily being trampled by those who were indifferent to even their own peril that was right at their own doorstep. A nation trampling upon truth. It is an absolute tragedy. I want to read something to you that I was looking at earlier this week. It's an article from the Focus on the Family newsletter. It's the Canadian edition of Focus on the Family published in August 1999. You're going to find this hard to believe when I'm about to read to you. The writer says, I know that many of you reacted with the same concern as I did last January the 30th when a British Columbia court ruled that possession of child pornography was a right protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, therefore legal in British Columbia. So great was the outcry across the country that the federal justice minister, I won't be naming any names in this article, and British Columbia's attorney general launched an immediate appeal. In order to protect Canada's children from those who would prey upon them, Focus Canada became involved in the appeal. Imagine then the public dismay when on June 30th, that was this past June 30th, the British Columbia Supreme Court upheld the earlier ruling. I cannot fathom, the writer says, what contorted logic led the British Columbia Supreme Court justice to conclude that there was no connection between the possession of child pornography and the abuse of children used to make it. In fact, listen to this now, during the case she suggested that perhaps we should support the abuse of third world children used for child pornography because it was one of the few ways that they could make any money. In her ruling she called laws in place to protect the interests of children tyrannical. And in response to Focus Canada's argument that Canada's Charter of Rights recognized the supremacy of God and therefore that religious values should be considered, she noted that the supremacy of God was a dead letter. We're living in perilous times folks, perilous times, when we have a justice in the Supreme Court saying that we should support child pornography and the exploitation of children to help them make money. Isaiah says in chapter 24 and verse 10, the city of confusion is broken down. Every house is shut up that no man may come in. Now here's what it really means, as we go more and more into the distance from the loving arms of a wonderful Savior that wants to do nothing more than bless and to change his children, society begins to barricade itself. Everyone is barricaded and fear begins to grip the whole society. Now I'm not that old, I'm only 46 or 45, I'll be 46 years old, but I remember the day when we didn't have to lock the doors in our home at night. And I believe that some of you are old enough here in New York City to remember that day too as well. But now today everyone is barricaded. Fear is beginning to grip the whole of society. Horrendous crimes that were never even thought of are now an everyday occurrence. People moving into homes and finding body parts in barrels and buckets and freezers and buried in their basement. Murder upon murder happening in our society. People disappearing, nobody even knows that they've disappeared sometimes for 10 or 15 years into the future. Isaiah says in verse 11, chapter 24, there's a crying for wine in the streets. In other words, he's saying a search for happiness. There's a constant search now for happiness and peace. All joy has darkened. Nothing lasts anymore. And the mirth of the land is gone. Isaiah's saying joy and gladness which comes as a result of an awareness of the favor of God, that which once brought us stability has now eluded us. It is gone. A continual search for happiness. Y'all don't have to walk far out the door of this church to see that in these streets of Manhattan. People walking to and fro, going from theater to theater and show.