In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of being a Bible preacher and encourages others to do the same. He highlights the power of using both the eye and ear to convey the word of God, as it provides a new dimension for understanding and connecting with the message. The preacher shares personal experiences of how visually presenting the word of God has had a profound impact on the congregation, leading to a deeper understanding and appreciation for the scriptures. He also discusses the need for pastors to take their role as shepherds seriously, referencing Jeremiah 23 and urging them to attend to their flock and not scatter them.

Hallelujah. You know, I used to think, I was listening to the pastor, I used to think that I was such a tender-hearted boss, most staff, until I overheard one of them say, you know, this was years ago, thank God, said, don't cross the chief or you'll pick yourself off the ceiling. And I went home and I said, honey, am I like that? She said, yes. And I changed, thank God, he changed me. You know, I've got to preach this this morning so I can get in for sleep tonight. I didn't have sleep last two nights over this thing, and I feel this quickening spirit, but he's really been talking to me. A lot of things that we preach, isn't it God's dealing with our own hearts? It sure creeps into what we're preaching to others. Sins of shepherds. Sins of shepherds. Pastor, you asked me to preach Sunday morning. He slipped another service in on me. I didn't see it on my calendar, but I'm just, I'll have to do it. But I think I'm going to preach this Sunday morning too, to your body, here to the body. But I feel it's so important, probably the most important message I'll bring to you this whole time. And I hope and pray that God will do in your heart this morning what he's trying to do in my heart. Boy, I thought God was over, finished. I thought, man, I was through the hard part. Until I got up here, and while I'm preaching to you, he's preaching to me. Boy, is he preaching to me. Showing me things that I've never heard or seen, and I want him to minister. Oh God, help me this morning. I've got to have help. I can't preach this thing this morning, Lord, without a special anointing. Lord, both to the pastors and their wives, the dear sisters that are here need this as much as we, your servants. We, the shepherds, Lord, we have got to hear from you. Lord, we don't want to just, it's not a matter of just being spanked and spanked and spanked, Lord. You're going to continue operating until you get it all out. You're going to keep at us, Lord, because you love us. You're trying to raise up an effective tool to be used to your glory. My Lord, finish, do the work in me this morning, even while I minister it. Speak to our hearts. Lord, I know if you've ever given me a word from heaven, you gave this to me. To minister to my heart, I want to accept it this morning, even while I'm preaching it. I bear witness this morning, Father, that I need you, we need you. Lord, I believe you're going to speak to us. Though you reprove us, you're going to do it in the most tender, loving way you can. I feel your love this morning as we minister this. I feel your tenderness. And speak tenderly to our hearts. Amen. Go to Isaiah with me, please. Isaiah 3. Isaiah 3. I'm a shepherd. Many of you here are shepherds. The sins of shepherds. And I thank God. I say it again, I thank God for his reproof. I'm not afraid of it anymore. I'm not afraid to come to the light. Because I've seen the glory, the results, his glory that's manifested as we come to the light and are reproved by the Spirit and the Word. Verse 12. O my people, their oppressors are children, and women rule over them. O my people, those who guide you. This is Isaiah 3, verse 12. O my people, those who guide you lead you astray and confuse the directions of your paths. I'm reading from the New American Standard. The Lord arises to contend and stands to judge the people. The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and the princes of his people. It is you who have devoured the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the face of the poor, declares the Lord God of hosts. I want you to turn with me, if you will please, over to the right to Jeremiah 23. I want a companion verse with that, a companion episode. Jeremiah 23. When you read about shepherds in the Bible, do you take it personal? Boy, I do. When I see shepherds, that's me. I don't slush it off anymore. I say, God, dig it into me. Okay, Jeremiah 23. Let's try the first four verses. Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending my people. You have scattered my flock. You have driven them away. You have not attended to them. Behold, I am about to tend to you. Boy, I didn't see that. My goodness. Behold, I am about to tend to you. Dear Lord, behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the Lord. That I myself shall gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and shall bring them back to their pastor and they will be fruitful multiply. I shall also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them and they will not be afraid any longer nor be terrified nor any missing, declares the Lord. Go to verse 12. As for the prophets, my heart's broken within me. All my bones tremble. I've become like a drunken man, even like a man overcome with wine because of the Lord and because of His holy words. For the land is full of adulterers. For the land mourns because of the curse. The pastors of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also is evil and their might is not right. For both prophet and priest are polluted. Even in my house I've found their wickedness, declares the Lord. Even in my house I've found their wickedness. The wickedness of who? My shepherds. I've found their wickedness. I've found them out. And friends, I stopped here for a moment because I hadn't seen it. Behold, I'm about to attend to you. And I believe that's what he's going to do this morning. He's going to attend to us. He's attending to me. And I share this. Every sin that I mention, I'm as guilty as everybody else in this place. There's not a person in this building that isn't guilty of all three of the sins I want to mention. And I want to get right into them right now. Jeremiah 23, I just read to you. No, let's go over to 23. Let's go over to 23. Did we go to verse 14? Yeah, let's look at 14 down here. Also, among the prophets of Jerusalem, I've seen a horrible thing. The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood. And they strengthened the hands of evildoers so that no one is turned back from his wickedness. All of them become to me like Sodom and inhabitants like Gomorrah. Can you imagine him saying that about shepherds? They are as wicked in my sight as Sodom and Gomorrah, the Sodomites of Sodom. When I saw that, that frightens me. And I know God is saying something very heavy. But you see what he's saying here, that a man of God has sent his life's danger to the church. A very dangerous man. Because the Bible says, they are walking in falsehood. And they strengthened the hands of evildoers. The sin in their own lives hinders them from exposing the sin in others. They would rather say, I will not be a phony. Now, they won't do their sin, but they don't want to be a phony. I'll not preach to others because I'm not in a position, and I don't want to judge others because I'm not in a position because of something that's in my own life. And I say it again, that a man who has sinned in his life, in the ministry, is a dangerous man. The most dangerous man on the face of the earth. Dangerous. Far more dangerous than a drug addict. Far more dangerous than any murderer that's let loose or a hatchet killer. He's a dangerous man. Those he loves, he smites and he reproves. And this is one of the sins I want to deal with. In shepherds. An inability to accept an appropriate reproof. An inability to accept an appropriate reproof. Jeremiah 5. Just skip back. We're in Jeremiah. Let's go back to chapter 5 here. And I want to show you something, please. This inability of shepherds to... You see, we give it, but we can't take it. I mentioned it last night. The thinking is, I'm a man of God. I'm a man of prayer. If God has anything to say to me, He'll talk to me. He doesn't have to send somebody else. I had a man from Korea. God sent him. He came halfway around the world, a man of prayer. And I'm walking the streets of New York and he stops me. And I'm a very, very busy preacher at that time. Didn't have time to talk to anybody. I was rushing around doing God's kingdom work. Didn't have time to pray. So busy for God. And he said, Brother Wilkinson, you're too busy for God. And I've got a message. And I said, go in that chapel and you look at all those drug addicts on their face. How many of you wonder the Lord? I said, I bet you get kicks out of just going around telling everybody what the problems are. And I tore into him. But I'll tell you, nobody can tear up somebody like a preacher who's been bruised because of reproof. I mean, he's a lion. He'll pounce on you. Jeremiah 5. You have it? Verse 1. Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now and take note, and seek in her open squares. See if you can find a man. If there's one who does justice, who seeks truth. Show me a man who wants to be reopened and seek in the truth. Then I will pardon her. And although they say, as the Lord lives, surely they swear falsely. O Lord, do not thine eyes look for truth? Thou hast smitten them, but they did not weaken. Thou hast consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock. They have refused to repent. If you go down to verse 10, you read, Go up through her vine rows and destroy, but do not execute a complete destruction. Strip away her branches, for they are not the Lord's. That's why he does the stripping. Strip them off every branch that isn't the Lord's. Then he does that through reproof. He does that through reproof. Oh, I'll tell you what. I'm looking for just a moment. There's no preacher on the face of the earth that was more immune to reproof than I was. Because I thought I was a praying man. I was a man of God. Nobody was going to tell me but my Father. No other living being on the face of the earth. But I realize now that God has his prophets. God has his watchmen. God has praying men. Thank God for them. I don't believe in, you know, everybody going around saying, I've got a word for you. Most of it's garbage. It's just foolishness. It's just somebody setting himself up as a judge. But God does bring a word to us. And we do not, as ministers of the gospel, like to receive it, nor do we often appropriate it. You see, here it is. Thou hast smitten them, but they did not weaken. They refused to take correction. And they made their faces harder than rock. Romans 2, please. Romans 2. I just want to run through some scriptures with you. You say, well, Brother Wilkins is preaching. All he does is take you through and quote scripture. Well, that's a compliment. Okay, Romans 2, 21. How often have you read this and just skipped over it kind of quickly? We're not going to skip over it quickly. We're going to look at it face to face. Verse 21, Romans 2. You therefore who teach others another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal? You say that one should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You say if you just look on a woman, you've committed adultery. Do you look on women? Come on, sir, when you're at a restaurant, does your wife cringe every time a woman goes by because she watches your eyes follow? There's nothing more, listen to me now, there's nothing more demeaning to your wife than to sit there in her presence and let your eyes rove. I think that cuts a woman more than anything else in the face of the earth. That you tell her you love her and you're a man of God and she watches your eyes roving. I was with an evangelist recently and I couldn't believe it. Every woman that went by, he undressed her with his eyes. That's why his wife's about to leave him. You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God? For the name of God is blaspheming among the Gentiles because of you. Because of who? Because of those who preach one thing and live another. Those who preach reproof but won't accept it and appropriate it in their own lives. Brother, sister, nothing should be preached from the Pope until it's worked its way and its character through our own lives. We should not preach anything that we refuse to appropriate to our own lives. Hallelujah. The Bible says, Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me. It is oil upon my head. Do not let my head refuse it. You can just mark in your Bible Psalms 140, 1-5. Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reproof. It is oil on my head. Don't ever let my head refuse it. You see, ministers of the gospel have an exclusivity about themselves. This idea that I have an exclusive track with God. Boy, I've lived with that for years. Very exclusively His, yes. Very exclusively able to hear whatever God is going to say. Do you know I had a young prophet in my office, 23 years old. And do you know what we older watchmen do? As soon as they come in, we start preaching down at them. And boy, I thought he came from my wisdom. And as soon as a young man sits down, I go into my spiel. All the great lessons I've learned. And suddenly he stood up and started prophesying against me. And I thought, you little wimp. He said, you're just like all the others. He said, I can't find a single man of God who listens to young people anymore. You old men don't listen to young preachers anymore. All you've got to do is preach down at us. You don't believe God speaks to us. I've got a word for you, Brother Dave. You don't hear anymore. All you do is talk. You don't have a hearing ear. Oh, I melted. Because I knew he was telling the truth. I knew he was telling the truth. I listen to young men now. Ever since that, boy, he hit it. I just came from James Robinson, and he did the same thing to me. Are you going to do what he did? And I'm going to tell you what he did. And I guess he had it right because this boy was rough. And I felt like throwing him out. You see, here I was after three years of being set in with God, and here I am not hearing a word he says. And boy, did it sting. I guess the truth always hurts, doesn't it? See, there's an arrogance about us. We develop this arrogance. Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he'll love you. Do you believe that's in your Bible? Check it out. You can turn there any time you want. Romans or the Proverbs 9-8. Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Boy, do we have a lot of preachers who are scoffers. A scoffer does not love one who reproves him. He will not go to the wise. A scoffer does not love one who reproves him. Now, that would suggest a man of God will love someone who reproves him in the Spirit. Glory to God. Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. It's like fine gold, a reprover to a listening ear. I'm praying, O God, give me a listening ear. Let me accept it. Let me love to be reproved. Because whom the Lord loves, He reproves. Hallelujah. It's a sign of His love. It's imperative to develop a listening ear, a humble ear. Boy, I'm so glad our brother's preaching from Zechariah. I want you to turn there with me, if you will. I'm learning to really love Zechariah. Turn to Zechariah, if you will, please, the 8th chapter. Zechariah 8. If you can't find it, go to Malachi, the last chapter, and go left. Alright. Zechariah 8. I want to read verse 7 and 9. I like this. Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, I'm going to save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the west, and I'm going to bring them back. That's the remnant. They will live in the midst of Jerusalem. That's the holy city, the Zion of faith. They will be my people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness. Thus says the Lord of hosts, let your hands be strong, you who are listening in these days. You see that? Let your hands be strong, you who are listening in these days, to these words from the mouth of the prophets, those who spoke in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid to the end that the temple might be built. See, God has a purpose in mind. He's building something. He said, be strong. There's a strength in listening, you who are listening in these days, when God is speaking. When Brother J.P. talked about being a part of the flow of what God is doing, he only does that to men who are listening. You've got to have a listening ear. You've got to be loving reproof. You've got to hear it, and you've got to appropriate it. Would you mind turning to Proverbs with me? Just skip over to Proverbs 15 for a moment. Proverbs 15. Please don't mind following me here. You know something? I find pastors' wives love to go through the Word with me more than some pastors. I have so many pastors. Oh, Brother Dave, I so enjoyed that. I love the Word. I see some ladies here nodding. Oh, I love to go through the Word with some pastors. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Proverbs 15, 31. Let's go to 31 here. 31. You have it? He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. He who neglects discipline despises himself, but he who listens to reproof acquires understanding. And the Hebrew, it says, discernment. He understands discernment. That's how you get your discernment, by accepting and appropriating reproof. The fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility. He who listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. He who neglects discipline despises himself, but he who listens to reproof acquires understanding. Would you go with me, please, to Psalms? Just skip over to the left. Psalms 13. And I want to show you what I see when I travel. I see in ministers' meetings, I've sensed just a little of it here. Thank God, not too much of it. But Psalms 13 describes what I see. And this has been my prayer, and I want this to be your prayer. Psalms 13, 3 and 4. 3 and 4. Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Enlighten my eyes, and lest I fall asleep. And that's the sleep of death. Now look at me, please. Let me tell you something. In my travels, I've met ministers and their wives who are sleeping a sleep of death. There is no man of God on the face of the earth that ever touched them. They're beyond reproof. They're beyond reproof. They have so hardened themselves to it, they don't listen anymore. There's a hardness, and they're sleeping the sleep of death. O God, enlighten my eyes. Keep the reproof coming on. Expose me. Let me hear it. Give me a listening ear, lest I sleep the sleep of death. I came near to that, preaching to the largest crowds. I came close to a sleep of death, because I was not listening to God. Because I wasn't listening to His servants. Lest my enemies say I've overcome Him. Lest my adversaries rejoice when I am shaken. Isaiah 29. Just go to the right now. Isaiah 29. Oh, do you love this word? Do you love the word? Oh, I love it. It blesses and thrills and frightens me. Tremble at it. Do you know that you can get bound to the assemblies of God, of Canada, or to the Baptist movement? You can get bound by your doctrines and go to sleep. And sleep a sleep of death. And put to sleep, tranquilized by your doctrines. False doctrines of security. Doctrines of demons. You'd be surprised how many doctrines of demons we have even in the assemblies of God. Oh, you bet. Now, they're not Bible doctrines. They're traditions of men that are taught as doctrines. Traditions. Let's go to verse 10. Isaiah 29, verse 10. Let's start at verse 10. For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep. He shut your eyes, the prophets. And He's covered your heads, the seers. And the entire vision shall be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, Please read this, he'll say, I can't read it, for it's sealed. Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, Please read this, and he will say, I can't read it. Then the Lord said, because this people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote. It's tradition that's blinded our eyes. Therefore, behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous, and the wisdom of the wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be concealed. Shall be concealed. God said, you chase after, are you going to stand on your own traditions and not keep your ear open to what God is saying? Through His Word, dig into this Word. Don't be bound by the traditions of the way you were raised. Hey, I want to tell you something. All my options are open. I'm not locked into anything but this book. My options are open. God has blown away every tradition I've known. He's upset my doctrines. I mean, He's having me get into this Word. He's given me a new love for the Old Testament. Oh, I see Jesus everywhere in this Old Testament. The Old Testament has come alive. There's got to be throwing away of all these traditions. Not those that are good, not those that have strengthened you, but those that keep you in bondage so that a spirit of deep sleep is upon us. You know, I watch a brother in Texas. His name is Milton Green. He's been a carpet cleaner. He really had no education. He's an illiterate man by his own admission. And the Lord touched that man. And he's shaken up the Baptist movement in Texas. I mean, he's just shaken it up. You know why he's shaken it up? He's coming against doctrines of false security. He preaches it to security like I do. I believe in the security of the believer, but not the unbeliever. I believe if you're living in faith, in victory under the blood, you're secure. How secure can you get? But not the unbeliever, not those living in carnality. And he's coming against that. And I mean, you talk about a man being crucified. I've never seen a man so crucified. You know who's crucifying him? The preachers. They hate this reproof. They hate it. I wrote a commendation for him for some of his publicity. He didn't ask for it. I offered it. Because the pastor of one of the biggest Baptist churches in Houston wrote a book exposing him called Grand Delusions or something like that. That's the most undiluted man on the face of the earth. He has touched God. He's preaching the Word. And they're calling him a false prophet. Preachers are calling him a false prophet. Because they hate reproof. He's touched a nerve. And if they believe what this man's saying, they've all got to repent. And you're not going to repent when you've got 10,000 members. Because that's an omission that you've built on flesh. Hmm. Well, let's get to the next sin. Uncircumcised lips. Oh boy. Go to Matthew. We're going to talk about gospel and preachers. And I'm the biggest fool of them all. Boy, has God been dealing with me. Hmm. I tell you, I was blessed, John. Last night, going home, John was so burdened for a friend of his had been abused. He just... And I'll tell you frankly, it was not John Hall. It was another voice. It just unloaded. And I kind of edged away. But I knew God was dealing with him because he came up this morning and it confirmed my message. I said, boy, did God deal with me last night. And I thought that was the greatest sign of growth that I've ever seen. And God's doing something deep in a man of God. And I thank you for that, John. But it just... It confirms something God's been saying to me. Because I used to get to preach... You know, nobody gossips more than preachers. Nobody. I'm going to say it again. Nobody gossips more than preachers than their wives. Their wives, too. Get together after a meeting. We know every dirty thing about every preacher that's ever failed. You go to conferences and it's a wag session. I used to hate and despise what I saw on Christian television. It became such... It so ate me up every time I got to hear the preachers. I'd unload it. How I felt. And I thought it was righteousness. God told me that I had to start praying for those men. I couldn't prophesy against what I saw as wrong. I had to leave their names out of it and preach on principles. But to go to... Let's start on that. Let's get to it. Matthew 15, 18. Matthew 15. Let's start at verse 17. Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and it's eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the... Where? I don't think you and I have dealt with this yet. We're going to deal with it today. But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. Slanders? These are the things which defile the man. But he with unwashed hands does not defile the man. All right. Look at me. Let's admit right now. Let's admit it. That we are guilty. You can't start with that premise. Nothing I say here on this particular sin is going to help you. This is truly the sin of shepherds. I consider it to be one of the most important areas in my life to be dealt with. I want to be delivered from corrupt lips like Isaiah. Isaiah said, when King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. In other words, he'd been involved in politics up to that time. He said, when he got away from politics and started seeking God, I saw the Lord. That's what it means. When King Uzziah died, he'd been addicted to that throne and its dominion. When I got that out of my system, I saw the Lord. And I saw how unclean my lips were. God began to show me something about my lips. There can be no circumcision of the lips without a circumcision of the heart. For it's out of the abundance of the heart that mouth speaks. You know it's not enough to stop talking about our brothers? We've got to stop thinking about it. Because he said, it's out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And I got to thinking, you know, the Holy Spirit, I'm so focused in on this sin in my life, because I know I'll never come into the fullness and usefulness that I believe God wants to bring into my life until he has given me total victory in this area. And I prayed that the Lord would start convicting me and speak to my conscience. And every time I began to open my mouth and speak something that was not of God about any brother, I'd hear a voice saying, shut up. Don't say it. And quickened in my spirit. And if you'll ask God for that, he'll do it. And usually we race right over it. And we'll hear that and we'll just quiet that voice, that conscience that says, don't go any further, stop, back off. Say you're sorry. Say I've said the wrong thing. Back off. Whatever you have to do, back away. Don't touch it. And God's been doing that more and more. I hear that Him saying, don't do it. But you see, I thought my victory was in not saying it anymore, but then I found that I was just as excited about listening to it. I was not saying it, but I was hearing it. It was feeding something in my heart. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. There's a root in the heart. The reason I talk about people, there's something in me yet undealt with in the spirit. And the reason I want to hear it is because it's still there. And simply because I don't let it come out of my lips does not prove I have a victory. Well, let's see, where do I want to go? I want to talk about circumcision. See, there's got to be a circumcision. It has to be cut out, in other words. Circumcision is a cutting out from the heart. Circumcision is never, God never intended circumcision to be just an outward work. It wasn't even, it was not even just symbolic in the Old Testament of an inward work. In other words, the Jew was so dumb or so dull, God had to give him all these, you know, little outward expressions to show to them what he was trying to say inwardly because I can take you in the Old Testament and show you, well, let's go to Deuteronomy 30 and I'll show you that circumcision from the very beginning was to be a heart work. It wasn't just a cutting away of the flesh. It's supposed to be something very, very deep in the heart. And this whole conference is about giving him all your heart and having a pure heart, isn't it? Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30, verse 5. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it, and he will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Verse 6. Moreover, the Lord your God will what? Circumcise your heart. Folks, that is in the Old Testament. That is to the Jew, and he missed it. The Jew missed it. He thought as long as the foreskin was taken away, and he was circumcised in his flesh, that he was holy. He was given to God. And all along, Moses was preaching this. And the heart will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants. And we are those descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul in order that you might live. That's circumcision, brother. Go to Joshua 5. Just turn to the right and go to Joshua 5. I want to show you something else here before we go any further. Why don't we show you something just a minute ought to bless your heart and make you rejoice in the Lord. Joshua 5. Jesus, thank you for your tender way of dealing with us this morning. Hallelujah. Joshua 5. 7 and 9. 7 to 9. Joshua 5, begin verse 7. And their children whom he raised up in their place, Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them along the way. Now it came about, when they had finished circumcising all the nation, that they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. Now listen to me. Gilgal is a spiritual place where the heart work is finally finished. There is a cutting away of that which defiles the heart. It's a total giving of the heart. It's digging down deep. Going to Gilgal and looking at that hill of foreskins. And brother, sister, the greatest thing needed in the ministry today now is a hill of foreskins. In the heart of men who will look and say, Why am I doing this? Why am I hearing that there's something in me that's being fed? There's something wrong, basically wrong I'm not seeing. And that's what's frightened me about this thing in my life. After all that He's been doing me, and I was so excited about being so free of lust and so free of these big things. I wasn't really seeing what God saw of this heart purity. And that He was digging down deeper, looking at something that I didn't even see. That even though I had an anointing, and though I hungered and thirsted for the Word, I was not seeing something in my heart. And it's a form of evil. It's a profanity that He has to circumcise out. He has to cut it out. You cannot subdue it. It has to be cut out. You can't play with it. You can't just suppress it. It has to be circumcised. Ephesians 4. These are some of the scriptures the Lord's been showing me the last few days. It's such a deep work in my heart. Ephesians 4. Alright, listen. Ephesians 4, 24 and 25. And put on the new self, which is the likeness of God, which has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Now look at me, if you will, please. Before you look at me, go to Jeremiah. Look at Jeremiah. Jeremiah 4. It ties right in with this. Boy, this was like a knife last night in my heart. Jeremiah 4. Well, let's start verse 3. Jeremiah 4, verse 3. For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground and do not sow among thorns. What? What's verse 4 say? Who's to do this? Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart. What's it say in King James? Anything near that? Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it because of the evil of your deeds. Oh, brother, sister, we've got to circumcise ourselves on the matter of this. I want to show you something. It just blew me away. I want you to go to Luke 2. Oh, brother, if this doesn't touch your heart. I saw this and my heart leaped. Luke 2. Oh, listen. We're going to prove whether you're a man of God now. Luke 2. I want to show you that Jesus didn't even get His name. He didn't even get His name until after circumcision. Look at verse 21. And when eight days were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus. He didn't even get His name until He was circumcised. Do you see it? They didn't even name Him. Do you know what those eight days were spent in? He was conceived and when the days for their purification, according to the law of Moses, were completed. He's speaking of purification. Think of that. Look at me now. Do you know that there's... I'm going to say something that you're going to have to bear with me and let it sink in before you pass judgment on it. Not everyone says, Lord, Lord, you know, enters the kingdom. You know that. We've got this idea. Just believe the Lord Jesus Christ and also be saved. Well, you can't take that random verse without taking the rest of it. You can't build a house on one wall. One foundation wall. You've got to have at least four. You see, I don't... The Scripture says that there's a white stone for overcomers and there's a name written on it. I don't believe your name is written in heaven until you're circumcised. In heart. Until it has all your heart. I don't believe you get the name on the white stone. I'd like you to turn to that, if you will. Revelation 2. Just skip over to Revelation 2. Revelation 2, verse 17. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on that stone, which no one knows when he, but he who receives it. I say you get that white stone and the name the moment you're circumcised. The moment God has all of our hearts. Oh, there are a lot of servants of God whose hearts have not been given to Him completely yet. There has not been a circumcision. I believe that new name is written in heaven when we give Him everything we believe with all of our... He said, you'll find Me when you seek Me with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. And we have not been committing our people to that kind of faithfulness to the Lord. We have not been binding to this kind of a covenant. We have not been talking about a circumcision of the heart because we have not been circumcising ourselves. My prayers, oh Gods, I want you to dig in, I want to see it, and whatever it takes, I want it cut out. I want this circumcision of the heart. I don't circumcise just my lips, I circumcise the heart. When my heart is circumcised, my lips will have the fruit of that righteousness. It will bear that fruit. Hallelujah! I really feel that God renamed Paul when he was circumcised of heart. He had not been circumcised in the flesh. He got his new name. I believe that's when Abraham got it, when his heart was circumcised, not his flesh, his heart. And I believe that there comes a time when a man says, I'm going through. I don't want my heart totally given to him. I don't want any hidden area in my heart. I want to be circumcised. And I believe that's when something happens at the throne on my behalf. Now, if you want to argue that theologically, I've got a whole lot of scriptures beyond that and I don't want to get into it right now, but I'm getting to believe that more and more that we've not been fair with our people. We've allowed such shallowness. We don't lay it before the people as clear as it should be laid that the heart has to be pure. We get the idea that they can live in carnality and just make it through. And we have an escapist theology now. Live as you please and then thank God for the rapture to come and take us all away so nobody has to suffer. I believe in the coming of the Lord Jesus more than anybody in this house, as much as anybody. But I don't believe in this escapism. I believe God wants to clean up His people now. I believe He wants to circumcise our hearts. He's coming for a pure bride who's preparing herself. Hallelujah! Gentlemen, you and I are not prepared if we're still sitting around gossiping about another preacher, about somebody else talking. Women get together and they say, I do this so that you can pray. I do this out of a burdened heart. No, we ought to be a little more honest and say, I bring you the following gossip out of the profanity of my own heart. Hmm... Boy, has He been dealing with me. He's made it so strong to me. He's made it clear that I don't maintain my anointing unless it's dealt with. He said, I have no right to stand and talk to you like this and then go back and get alone and talk to another man of God or anyone. Just drag it out. And then put a tag of righteous wrath on it. Hmm... Well, now I'm going to really get to the sin. Number three. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. This is going to be heavy. Go to Ezekiel. By the way, let me name the sin first, okay? An unquenched fire in the flesh. A smoldering ember. An unquenched ember. Go now to Ezekiel 19, please. Ezekiel 19. You notice I'm not shouting at you? Because I'm trembling. You hear me say that and I mean it, brother. Would you just lay that over on your lap and look this way for just a minute. You're going to have to have a hearing ear now. From here on out, please ask God to give you hearing ear. When the Lord spoke this to my heart, I didn't see it. I had to read it three times. And boy, finally I said, oh God. I cried, oh God, I missed it. This is only for those who want to go on with Him. This is only for those who say whatever the cost, I want His fullness. Whatever it takes, Lord. This is only for men who have a cry for righteousness. If you want to be like the crowd and go your way, you won't hear a word of this. But if God's been stirring you, you've been walking in brokenness before the Lord, you're going to hear it. You'll hear it. Let's start. This is Ezekiel 19, verse 11. We'll begin with verse 11. It had strong branches fit for scepters of rulers. It means this man had authority. And its height was raised above the clouds. Here's the servant of the Lord, mightily blessed. He's been raised above the clouds. His ministry's been raised up so that it was seen in its height from the mass of its branches. Every other branch could see what God was doing in this man. But it was plucked up in fury. It was cast down to the ground. This shepherd, this man, he's been plucked up in fury, he's been cast down to the ground, and the east wind has dried up his fruit now. Its strong branch was torn off so that it withered. This man's ministry is withering now. And the fire consumed it. And now it's planted in the wilderness in a dry, thirsty land. Have you ever met shepherds like that? Put on the shelf, withering, drying up. They were once used, much touched by God. Look at verse 14, and here it is. And fire has gone out from its branch. Is he not the vine and we are the branch? And the fire has gone out from its branch. It has consumed its shoots and its fruit so that there is not in it a strong branch, a scepter of rule. The man's lost his authority. He's lost the scepter. It's gone. Why? Why? A fire has gone out from its branch. It's consumed its shoots and its fruit. It's gone down to the very roots. It's poisoned the roots. And it's destroyed his fruit. And why? You see, there's a smoldering ember here. There's a charring of this branch. There's something burning inside. Now I want you to just consider this a minute. It was plucked up in fury and it's cast to the ground. The fruit's dried up. It's withered. A fire has consumed it. Now, what's causing it? A fire broke out. A fire flashed. And this flashing fire was there all the time. And I want to prove that to you. Let's see. Ezekiel 15. Go back to Ezekiel 15. I'll start the first verse. Boy, the Spirit's got to show this to you. I can't. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any wood of a branch which is among the trees of the forest? In other words, we're bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh. Can wood be taken from it to make anything or can men take a peg from it on which to hang any vessel? Look at verse 4. If it has been put into the fire for fuel and the fire has consumed both of its ends and its middle part has been charred, is it then useful for anything? If the middle part has been charred, is it useful for anything? Now, I've looked at the Hebrew in most of these and this is very clear that what the prophet is saying here that there's been a charring, there's been a slow burn. A slow burn. Verse 5, behold, while it is intact, is it not made into anything? How much less when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it still be made into anything? How can God use this man when this charring process is going on? There's something burning down deep inside. Verse 7, I've set my face against them, though they have come out of the fire, yet the fire will consume them. Though they've come out of the fire, the fire will consume them. In other words, there's been a sort of deliverance. They've come out of this flashing fire. Let's suppose it was lust. The lust of the flesh. It could be adultery. Here's a man who's been delivered from an affair. But all along, the lust itself has not been removed. There is still a laboring ember of lust. He's been delivered from the fire and yet at the end the fire consumes him because the embers are still burning. Now, go back to Ezekiel 19, if you will, please. At the end of verse 12, its strong branch was torn off so that it withered and the fire consumed it. And now it is planted in the wilderness in a dry and thirsty land. Verse 14, and fire has gone out from its branch. It has consumed its shoots and fruit so that it is not in it a strong branch except to rule. In other words, the strength is gone. There's no more spiritual authority. Why? Oh, I... I don't know if I'm going to be able to get this out to where I want. I got a call yesterday in my hotel room from a dear friend of mine just weeping. He's a pastor in one of the largest Baptist churches in Texas. And this is not gossip because it's public news. It's going to be in the press. It'll be in the wire soon. One of the very largest Baptist churches in Texas. The pastor stood Sunday morning and confessed that he was a homosexual. He has over 15,000 members. And he had to confess a sordid story that there were a whole young group of ministers around him. He gathered that he was counseling and they all got involved. It had become a den of iniquity. And he said it started 20 years ago back when he was in seminary. He went out of curiosity and got involved in this. But he thought he had the victory, but that thing had been laying there for 20 years and it flashed out. It just flashed out. Alright? I'm dealing with a case now of an Episcopal priest. Charismatic Episcopal priest. God bless his heart. First time he came to see me 15 years ago he was crying and God just spoke to me. And I said, oh brother, I fear for you. You are a homosexual. And he said, now I know God's dealing with me. I asked God to reveal it to you. And he said it started in seminary. And he was pastoring a huge Episcopal church. God had poured out His Spirit in that church. He said, David, it started way back in my early ministry. This weakness. It wasn't that way. But you know, I just suppressed it. I got control of it and put it down deep inside of me. But the roots are still there. And he said, now I've got three children and I've been free of it for about 15 years. He said, last week while I was preaching in the pulpit, the Spirit of Lust came over me doing the preaching. I cut my message short and went to a bus station to connect with a homosexual. To a bus station. Walked out of the pulpit of one of the great churches in America. And I prayed with him. But his ear was not hearing. You see, unless you and I realize that God's glory is tied to the holiness of our character. God's glory is connected with the holiness of our character. When David sinned, he caused the enemies of God to rejoice. And when we sin, I saw something in this preacher. You know what he was afraid of? He was concerned about the load of guilt that he's going to have to carry now. He was concerned about what his wife is going to think and he might lose his marriage. He was concerned about the reproach if the people found out at the church. Not one time did he hear that man say, I've grieved God. What about His glory? What about the name of Jesus that I would reproach? That the world would laugh at the cross? Until you and I see it that way, we'll never probe the depths of our hearts. And the trouble is, we're going around flashing our x-rays and not getting the operation. God begins to show us things and we come running out of the x-ray room. Look what God showed me! We get to the microphone and we say, God, He showed me such terrible things in me! And we lay it all out! X-rays don't heal. And God's been telling me more and more that I need to wait. Because when I tell you about my battle where I'm at now, a year when I'm through the other side, I'm telling another story. And some of you are still left there. And I'm concerned about that in my life. God's been dealing with me. Brother James Robinson has felt the same thing. He's saying, I know what you're saying, Brother Deb, I feel it too. I've got to wait until I work my way through this now. And come out the other side. So I can tell the whole story. Not half the story. And boy, it's beginning to dawn on me that there's a step that God has to take me. There's a line that I have to cross. And God, in His mercy, will not show it to me until I have a listening ear. There's some things God won't show you in your life until He knows that you have finally come to a place that you'll listen. Because if He tells you before you're ready, you will not hear it and you'll profane His name. Go with me. Let's see, where do I want to go on this? I've got to get... Let's go to Isaiah 33. Isaiah 33. Please bear with me. This is burning so heavy on me. Let's go to verse 13. You who are... Isaiah 33, verse 13. You who are far away, hear what I have done. You who are near, acknowledge my might. Sinners in Zion are terrified. Trembling has seized the godless. Now listen to this. Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning? Where's a man who, in his early ministry, has this thing break out in him, this failure, this breaking down of righteousness in the life? And it's not dealt with. It's continued year after year. It's covered and it's covered. There's layer after layer after layer of subjection. There's layer after layer. And I enjoyed what our pastor said. I'm so glad to hear that this morning, how God was getting through all those layers. He's doing that through all of us, getting through those layers that we've built up. Layer after layer of having pushed it down and not gotten to the very smoldering embers, that charring process that outwardly your branch can look so good, but there's a charring inside. It's burning inside and it's coming out until suddenly that black spot, and there'll be a flashpoint. The Lord began to show me this past week, even in this search, because I'm just now coming to the greatest hunger He's ever given to me to go on with Him. And He's been showing me some things that He was not ready to show me before. I said, well, Lord, I've prayed all these months and I've been opening and coming to the light. Why didn't You show it to me? He said, you weren't listening yet. You weren't prepared to hear this. And if you'll hear this, you'll cross the line and then I can use you. And He's showing me some things that have been there for years in my early ministry, some mistakes I made, some weaknesses I allowed. Why is it every time a man talks about weakness, they say adultery? Brother, if you're going to totem pole sins, put pride up there where it belongs. We always totem pole sins, don't we? Put homosexuality and adultery on the top. It goes much, much more beyond all that. Go to Isaiah 48. Here it is. This is what kept me up last night. That's why I've got to get it out. Let's start at verse 6. I'm going to stop for a minute. Lord, please help Your servants to see this this morning. I've only seen it by a glimpse, but open it to us. My God, open to us. How are we going to have a pure heart until we cross this line? Lord, I believe this is the final dealing with men and women of God. When we get to this point, Lord, then we're really getting to the bottom of it all. God, open it to us. You have heard, look at all this, and you, will you not declare it? I proclaim to you new things from this time. God said, I'm going to say something new to you. Every hidden, even hidden things which you have not known, they are created now and not long ago, and before today you have not heard them. Lest you should say, behold, I knew them. But you have not heard, you have not known. Even from long ago, your ear has not been opened. Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously. In other words, you wouldn't listen. It would destroy you. And you have been called a rebel from birth. Back when God birthed your ministry. Back when God first called you. Back in the early times. There was a spirit of rebellion. There was something happened. For my sake, for the sake of my name, I delayed my wrath. He said, I really didn't deal too hard with you on this issue. For my praise, I restrain it for you in order not to cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. That's important. I'll tell you what that means in a minute. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I will act. For how can my name be profaned in my glory? I will not give to another. Alright? You see what he is saying? It is going to come to you now, because you have determined to go all the way with me. And God has now given you a spirit of discernment. You've got an ear attuned. Now you're ready to hear. If I'd spoken it to you any sooner, you would have profaned me. You would have dealt treacherously with me. And he said, there's no good thing in you. I'm not stirring you because suddenly you've become righteous. Well, this stirring that's happening in some of our hearts right now is no good thing in us, other than a desperation in our hearts. You can't say, oh God, it's because I've come to a place in you. No, he said, it's for my namesake. He said, really, I should have killed you. I should have dealt with this rebellion way back there, but I saw something in you I love. And you weren't ready. And he said, now I'm going to show you something you've never seen before about yourself. I saw this last night. God says, you didn't have an ear open until now. Now you're ready. I'm going to show you. He said, it goes only back to the beginning of your ministry. It goes way back. Now, I'm not much for those... I don't believe in this going back in the quarters of your mind and digging up all that. That that's under the blood, I'll leave it under the blood. And I've never been much for the Agnes Sanford School of Healing of Inner Hurts, because a lot of that comes basically from shamanism. And that's right out of the gurus of India. And I despise that kind of theology. But I want to tell you something. Saul was destroyed because of that smoldering ember. Solomon was destroyed because of it. And there's a whole catalog of men in this book that have been destroyed because of it. And I used to bunch justification and sanctification all in one bundle. Not anymore. I can be justified by God, but His purpose is to cleanse me. And where there's no law, there's no sin. But God says, if you're going to go on... And this has to do with usefulness. Do you see what He says? You're the kind of man, I don't have to take through the refining fires anymore, but I'm going to put you in the furnace of affliction. He said, you've got a heart toward Me now. You've made up your mind. You're going all the way with Me. I don't have to burn out lust anymore. I don't have to deal with that. But I'm going to let you be afflicted. I'm going to allow things in your life that confuse you. Because I'm trying to get at something. It's not that refining fire of Malachi. You've been through that. Read it, verse 10. Behold, I've refined you, but not as silver. See, he's already got that dross out. But there's just one thing yet. He said, I've tested you in the furnace of affliction. Look at me now. That's where men of God go. See, I read to you the other night that the refining could go on in vain in many lives. But this is for those who have gone through the refining, and now it's the furnace of affliction. You look at me now and you tell me that you understand some of the things that you've had to go through in the past two or three years. Try to tell me. If you'd have told me what it would cost when I set my heart to seek God, I'd have never done it. No way. When I set my heart about three years ago, and I shut down my crusade ministry, and I shut down everything, I couldn't understand what happened in my life. I couldn't understand my wife going down with lupus. I couldn't understand every one of my children sick, all my grandchildren sick. Fly my son home. My beloved son is a minister from Detroit. His blood count was going down. I thought, oh boy, my daughter Debbie with cancer, now my son will get it from Mom and his mother. And his white count was going down dangerously. Little grandson bleeding in the bowel. And then on top of that, our ministry had a house for sale. And I don't know what happened, but somebody, one of the most ungodly devils in America, claiming to be an FBI agent, gave us a false check for $100,000. Check bounced and he'd already moved in. We had to get sheriffs and guns and everything else to get him out. And my ministry went into a tailspin. Everything went wrong. I said, God, that doesn't make sense. I couldn't even point to anything. Lord, I'm living in righteousness before You. It's that furnace of affliction. But then he says, when you're in that affliction and perhaps even coming out, then if you've developed a listening ear, I'm going to show you that you've got to pluck out those roots now. There's got to be a circumcision of your heart. And the Lord showed me last night that there was something that keeps cropping up in me. Every five or six years it will just crop up. And I guess I've been rejoicing because I thought because there was no evidence, I wasn't doing it outwardly. You see, you can rejoice in not going to bed with another woman. You say, I'm faithful to my wife. But you can still have those roving eyes. You can still have that smoldering ember. God wants to circumcise that. He wants to get at that root and have that plucked out. Absolutely plucked out so that God says, brother, sister, you've crossed that line. I know your heart's for me now. I know your heart's for me now. I proclaim to you new things from this time from even hidden things which you've not known. Listen, I told you the glory of His name is linked to the holiness of our character and that lingering evil in us can profane His name. How do I get that smoldering ember? Oh, by the way, you know what Jesus describes hell as? Well, the fire is never quenched. Really, all those hidden things are just going to break out and burn for eternity. That charring is going to flash. But I'll tell you, hallelujah. In fact, I came in a little late here to the service because I didn't have the rest. I just gave it to you before I came out here. Ephesians 5. I'm going to talk about getting that fire out, okay? Ephesians 5, 8. I'm almost finished. Still love the word? Hallelujah. I don't know if you're getting what I'm getting. Would you just let that Ephesians lay open in your lap a minute? Look this way for just a moment before I close. I know. I know now. He showed me. I knew it all along. But because there was no outward expression of it, I thought I could live with it. The Lord says no. Now, I want the root. I want the root of it. I want you to have total freedom. I don't want you ever feared again in your life. Ever. I want you to walk anywhere. Look any man in the eye. I want you to walk in that freedom. Alright, Ephesians 2. How do we get the coals out? How do we get that smoldering ember out? Verse 7. Let's start at verse 8. For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Ephesians 5. Do you have Ephesians 5? Alright. You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Total righteousness. Look at it there. For the fruit of the light. The fruit of the light is righteousness. Oh, let's come unto the Lord and say, Oh God, expose my heart. Get to the root of it. And come unto the light. That's all I've been saying this whole conference. Come to the light. Come to the light. That's the Word of God. Water puts out fire. This is the cleansing water. Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead, even expose them. Expose them not in others, but in me. Expose them in yourself. For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light. Hallelujah. For everything that becomes visible is light. It doesn't say everything that becomes visible is exposed to the light. It says everything... Look at it now. Everything that becomes visible is light. Glory to God. The darkness is expelled. For this reason it says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead. Christ will shine on you. Therefore be careful how you walk. Not as unwise men, but as wise. And here, making the most of your time. Verse 16. Brother Rutledge, you know what? When I read that... I don't know how old you are. I don't know how John... I don't know what the age of these men are working with me. That I'm associated with here in this conference. I don't know what your age is. I'm going to be 55. I'm 54 and heading toward 55. And the cry of my heart is, Oh God, I want to make the most of my time. What time I've got left. I've wasted so much. I should have been so much up the room. Making the most of your time. How do I make the most of my time? Coming to the light. Having it exposed before God. Digging it out. Not pouring on the water of the Word for cleansing. Hallelujah. I know what it is. If you'll come to the light, He'll show it to you. He dug it out of me and said, David, I'm going to get the roots out of you. Usually, most of the time, it has to do with lust. That's right. Lust. Which comes from the root of pride. All these sins come from pride. Do you have a hearing ear this morning? Will you let Him deal with you for a while as we wait on Him in just a moment? Will you let Him probe just a little bit deeper? You know, I carry in my heart now a glorious promise. You can close your Bible now and just look at me for a minute. Or look past me at least. I don't believe there's such a... You know, I despise and I fear through this holier-than-thou attitude. A truly pious man is really a happy man. He doesn't go around with a long face trying to look holy. He's not afraid to laugh. And he enjoys life more than anybody else because he's a free man. A free woman. He can look the whole world in the eye and he looks God in the eye and he looks the Holy Ghost in the eye. And he has this sense that God's doing something so profound in him, so deep, and he says, I'll not stop until it's all gone. Hallelujah. You know, it's a wonderful place and he's speaking so lovingly to us this morning. He's giving you the listening ear so that he can tell you what that last root is that hinders you from being totally used. And I'll tell you what, he's not about to pour on you a spirit of usefulness with that thing still smoldering because if he does and he raises your branch and you can be seen among the masses of the branches high and lifted up even though it's to the glory of his name, it's going to break out there at that height and you'll bring reproach to his name beyond anybody else. And he'll not use you. He'll let you go so far. He'll cause you just to level off and then there'll be a slow decline. You'll wind up in the wilderness and you'll start withering because you're not hearing. And I know some of you are feeling what I do, what I am lately. I just come to the light and say, Jesus, I want to hear. I want it all out. I want to stand with clean hands and a pure heart so that I know that I have a clear mandate. This Word has worked its sweet wonders in my heart. There's been a purifying, a sanctifying. And listen, only the holy are as bold as a lion, only the righteous. Your boldness comes from your righteousness of Christ. Your walk with God is what gives you your boldness. Otherwise you are a coward. You'll run around saying there's a lion in the street. I'll tell you what, you need to do, we all need to do just like Moses did. Reach in there and pull out the leprosy. That's what he did. He reached into his heart and God was showing him. He said, Moses, that's your heart. And I'll tell you what, I'm going to give you a new heart. Put it back in. Bring it out, it's clean. The leprosy's gone. Hallelujah. Come on, brothers and sisters, put your hand, take out that leprosy, circumcise yourself. The heart, for it's out of the abundance of the heart. The pure heart, pure water spring. Hallelujah. I'm beginning to love to be around men of God. You know what the man of God does as soon as you get together? He says, hey brother Dave, turn to Jeremiah 3. There's a young man who met me. He's here this morning. He said, someone wants to talk to you. He said, brother Dave, look at Amos. We went right to Amos. And I said, thank you Jesus. For young men now that are coming through to that. You're not talking about your cars, you're not talking about your houses. This is your life now. Hallelujah. There'll never be a time in which we get together not into this. This man in Texas, brother, what's his name? I was telling him about the carpet cleaner. Milt Green, yeah. He and another preacher friend, we go into a motel and just get a conference room and stay all day with our Bibles. Weep and cry. Brother Bob Phillips is an associate of mine who travels and teaches with me now. I've called him three times this week. An hour time. And I said, hey Bob, I want to show you what I see. I've been running over Ezekiel 37 and Ezekiel 6 with him and boy, last night he was blessing me. We don't even have time to ask about our families or anything else hardly. Just so excited. Isn't that wonderful? Have you ever seen anything like that? Doesn't that thrill you? I said, yeah, and look here. We're not trying to say who can top who. It's just feeding something now. That becomes the life. The life. I'll tell you something, Pastor. Have you seen what's happening here? As you, look what's happened to you. Stop and think. I was in a meeting and I heard, see, I was one of those rapid fire preachers and I just didn't have enough patience to think that people would want to turn to the Bibles with me. Pastor, I'll tell you, your people love the Word if you give them a chance. And there's something about seeing it, not just hearing it, but when it comes through the eye, it establishes it in the heart. I showed you some things while I've been here that if I'd have just spoken, you wouldn't have seen or caught. But when you saw it there, I could hear the groaning, I could hear the sighing, ah, there it is, in black and white. Prove it. Take your people through it. Make them go with you. Get into the Word. They'll follow you, they'll love it. Become a Bible preacher. Now, I've always been a Bible preacher, and I'm not suggesting if you do it the other way, you're not a Bible preacher. But what I'm talking about, let the people see it with their eyes and you've got a whole new medium. You've got the eye gate now, not just the ear. It enters through the eye and through the ear, and it gives you a whole new dimension. Take your people into the Word. Make them, wait for them. You don't have to just pour it out. Just wait. The Word's a hammer. Glory to God. Well, is He showing you something new about yourself today? Tomorrow morning, Brother Oaks is going to help me, and we're going to have double barrel tomorrow morning. Did you know that? Well, He's showing you right now the voice from heaven. You're going to be speaking tomorrow morning. Amen. Give me a chance to hear, Brother Oaks. I've spent so much time, I didn't realize they had me speaking so much. I just didn't have anything in the barrel that fit. Nothing. In fact, I threw my barrel away because there was too much candy cotton in it. Lord, circumcise us. Saints, I feel God doing something profound in our hearts. I'm glad I came just for what He's been doing in me. He's really been doing something in me. I know He's doing something in your heart right now. Hallelujah. Lord, go deep this morning. Forgive us for our gossiping lips, our unclean lips, unclean hearts. Lord, if our lips are unclean, our hearts are not being dealt with. Help us to deal with it this morning. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I'll tell you what, I want you to look at me here for just a moment. I feel such relief. I feel God has accomplished something without us having to... I believe the Word itself is accomplishing its work. I don't feel like there's a need to go any further with it. I don't want to call you to your knees or anything else. I would like to thank God for being so loving this morning and speaking to my heart so kindly. I know what Brother Rutledge was saying when Gwen had lupus after five operations for cancer and everything was going wrong and I was hungry for God. You know, usually when you're down like that and you say, Lord, give me something, it will always open up to Jeremiah and gloom and doom. And boy, I opened my book to Isaiah and here comes that man with blood on his skirts and a sword in his hand and judgment against sin. I slammed it shut and said, No, Lord! I can't take anymore. Just love me. And boy, I laid in that bed in that hotel room and he just loved out for two hours. Just loved me. Put his arms around me and loved me. I went in the hospital and my wife was dressed. She said, David, I've been healed. And we went out and God healed her. She's been healed ever since. And God, the war was completed. He said, I'll make every war to cease. I'll make every war to cease. Hallelujah. He's bringing our wars to an end, saints. There is a spiritual warfare, but there comes a time God wants us to walk in covenant where He says, your enemies are my enemies and I'm going to bring you into a promised land. As it comes a time... I don't believe my promised land is in heaven. My promised land is right here. I'm going to Zion, but I'm going to heaven with a victory in my soul over the devil and all the piles of hell. He has no right, he has no authority. And I believe what Brother J.B. is preaching. He doesn't want you to have to put up with any more of that junk and garbage from hell. Glory be to God. He wants all the sin out, purged, so we walk in freedom and we get the scepter in our hand again. The authority of God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. You want to just stand up and tell me you love Him? Amen. Let's just say, Lord, we love You. Thank You for Your mercy this morning. Lord, we've got unclean lips, yet You love us and You've been talking to us in love. Thank You, Jesus. We magnify Your holy name this morning. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Magnify the Lord with me. Hallelujah. Blessed Lamb of Calvary. Hallelujah. Folks, let's just have a time. Rejoice, you're here for a few moments. I'm sorry. Magnify the Lord with me. Let's sing it. Magnify the Lord with me. Blessed Lamb of Calvary. I am raised up and free. Magnify the Lord with me. Magnify the Lord with me. Blessed Lamb of Calvary. I am raised up and free. Magnify the Lord with me. Praise the Lord. Brother Dave, you didn't bring us up to date on your kids, who were also as well as Gwen. Everybody's healed. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We knew that, but I wanted these folks to, amen. Brother Dave said, best of all, I'm healed. I command you, Satan, in the name of the Lord, take up your weapons and flee, for the Lord has given me authority to walk all over thee. I command you, Satan, in the name of the Lord, take up your weapons and flee, for the Lord has given me authority to walk all over thee. I command you, Satan, in the name of the Lord, take up your weapons and flee, for the Lord has given me authority to walk all over thee. I command you, Satan, in the name of the Lord, take up your weapons and flee, for the Lord has given me authority to walk all over thee. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Amen. Amen. Oh, hallelujah. What a precious release of His truth in our hearts. There is cleansing power in truth. I just felt a good scrubbing going on inside. Amen. The truth of His Word. We have a very special announcement that we will make now for everyone who is a registrant. You are permitted, allowed, to view a very special film, a documentary drama film called Gates of Brass, produced by J. and Maridel Rawlings. Now, they are in Jerusalem, situated there, and it was during the Esther Fast that we had, which went worldwide. The Lord brought forth that prophecy here that there would be an Esther Fast, and just thousands of people, what we know of close to 100,000, around the world, and that all came together in just a matter of a couple months. That came out of our 40-day fast. Even rabbis and Jewish people were so awed by this Esther Fast, and perhaps many of you have heard of it. We had Glenn Cole and many others did likewise in the United States, and they just got back to me even months later that we found out many others that we didn't know that were included in this Esther Fast. They were at the Kremlin and prophesied to the Kremlin a word of the Lord to let the people go, and as a result of this, this film is produced, and I have not yet seen it myself. I'm looking forward to it, but only those who have registered and workers will be allowed.