In this sermon, the preacher begins by acknowledging that God is doing something profound in the church and will bring about a deep purification in the coming year. The message is centered around the verse from Jeremiah 8:7, where God laments that His people do not understand His judgment. The preacher emphasizes the importance of studying and obeying the word of God, rather than holding onto idolatry and sinful desires. The sermon warns against the danger of mixing worship of idols with worship of God, as it sickens the heart of God.

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing WORLDCHALLENGE PO BOX 260 LINDALE, TEXAS 75771 or calling 903-963-8626 None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. My people know not the judgment of the Lord. Go to Jeremiah, please, the 8th chapter. 8th chapter of Jeremiah. If your babies begin to cry, it would be nice if you would slip them into the... What do you call it? Nursery. This gray hair of mine. Take them into the nursery. And then come back and enjoy the service. We got good people there. Jeremiah, the 8th chapter. I want you to read with me just one verse and then leave Jeremiah 8th chapter open on your lap because that's where we're going to be the rest of the message. You do have your Bible, don't you? If you have your Bible, I want you to hold it up and wave it at me, please. On this balcony, wherever you're at, every Bible. Look at this. Isn't that a sight? Come on. Okay. Times Square Church, you bring your Bible. We preach the word. We want you to prove us. Hallelujah. The 7th verse, chapter 8, Jeremiah. The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. What an indictment. Let's pray. Lord, you are doing something very deep in this church. You're doing something very profound and wonderful. You're digging deep into our hearts. In 1997, Lord, you're going to purge us as we've never been purged. You're going to search us like we've never been searched. You're going to bring forth revelation and truth that sets us free. And, Lord, out of that is going to come a rejoicing such as never been heard before in this house. Times Square Church is going to be jumping with the praises of God. Oh, Lord, you're going to do something marvelous in our midst because you've begun it in our hearts. You've begun it here. You've begun it in all of our hearts. Those of us who deliver the word of the Lord, you've done a work. Oh, God, this past year and now you're preparing us. I share what Pastor Carter said, a great anticipation of what you're going to do. But, Lord, first you have to cut. The surgeon comes in and he cuts so there can be healing. Lord, you may have to cut even deeper this afternoon as you did this morning. But, Lord, we thank you for the surgeon's knife. We thank you, Lord, that you're willing. What a marvelous act of grace to deal with us as you do firmly, lovingly, but, oh, God, without compromise. Lord Jesus, I want to hear when I come to this church, I want to hear an uncompromising message. I want that which would expose anything hidden in my life. I want the mirror held in front of my face. Oh, Spirit of God, come down now. I take your authority, Father, over every principality and power of darkness. Nothing, nothing, nothing shall hinder the word of the Lord. Lord, sanctify our ears. Sanctify my voice and let every ear hear the word of the living God. We glorify you. And we chase every demon out of this house. Every devil out of hell must go in Jesus' name. That the word of the Lord have free course. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. In the first eight chapters of Jeremiah, the Lord poses some incredible questions, powerful questions to the prophet Ezekiel. And he's listing, God is listing his concerns for his own people. He's not talking about the heathen. He's not talking about the enemies of Israel. He's talking about God's own chosen people. And some of the questions God asked of Jeremiah, like this, he said, Why is there such a tendency to backsliding among my people? He says, Why do they cling so stubbornly to their secret sins? Why do they continue in their deception? And why do they have a tendency to go back to their old sins? And then he goes on in the first eight chapters, Why are my people not really repenting of their sins? Because there was a false repentance. He said, Why do they not blush when they sin so openly? He said, My people don't know how to blush anymore. He said, Why don't they even say, What have we done? He said, They sin and they don't even ask the question, What have we done? There's no regret. They sin without remorse. They sin without guilt. Why are my people not letting go of their sins? Why are they not wanting full deliverance from the bondage of the sin? He said, Why aren't they coming to me for freedom? Why are they not blessing for their sins? Now, folks, he's talking about God. He's talking about his own dear, beloved children. He's not talking about heathen. Now, think about that as we go on in the message today. You'll find these God-spoken questions, especially in the 8th chapter of Jeremiah. Because you see, in Jeremiah's time, the people were coming to the Lord weeping. They came searching the Scriptures. They were probing into the Word of God. But even though they studied the law and claimed they wanted to walk by the law, they refused to forsake their idolatry. They wanted their idols. They wanted the sins of their flesh. And they wanted to serve God at the same time. It was a mixture of worship of idols and a worship of Jehovah. And that sickened the heart of God. God says in, look at verse 5, chapter 8, verse 5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem? You know, Jerusalem is his own beloved city. And these are his own beloved people. When then is this people of Jerusalem, why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to sea. They refuse to return. He says, why are they holding on to their sins? Folks, look at me please. This is the question I believe God is asking this church and every church in these last days. If we really believe Jesus is coming, then we stop playing games. If we believe that Jesus is coming and he's right at the door and we're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, then we go into this world and we tremble at what we read and we do everything within our God-given powers and of the conviction, the anointing of the Holy Spirit to deal with our lives. And again I hear the Holy Spirit saying in our day to me, to you, to all of us, why do you still hold on to the deceit that's in your heart? Why don't you return to me and why don't you let it go? Why aren't you coming for full deliverance? Why this double standard, this mixture in your heart that you would come and serve me and worship me and praise me and love me and go into my word, inquiring of my word and then at the same time holding fast to the deceit that is in your own heart. He said, why are my people holding fast? They won't let go of the deceit that is in their heart. It's amazing because God said, I sent holy prophets. He said, it's not because you haven't heard the word, they rose up early, I sent them early in the morning to late at night, they walked the streets, they wooed you by the Spirit, they warned you by the Spirit and yet in spite of all of that, you hold on to your deceit. Folks, if you have deceit in your heart in this church, it's not because, if you've been sitting in this church hearing the gospel preached from this pulpit, it's not because you haven't been warned. It isn't because you haven't heard the truth. But he says, why do you still hold on to that thing? Why do you still hold on to that one thing that I've been dealing with? Why won't you let it go? In this case, it was blatant idolatry. The people rejected the call of the prophets. They hardened their hearts. They clamored for a message that was soothing. They said, preach us easy words, soothing words. Oh beloved, I can name you churches in this city right now, while I'm standing here, maybe not at this particular hour, but every Sunday morning you can go to some of the famous churches in this city and you will not hear one single word that would upset you. It will not raise a hair on your head. It will not raise a conviction in your soul. It will soothe you. You could live in any kind of sin and go in there and feel good about it and walk out feeling even better. Because the man who stands in the pulpit, I tell you right now, is a false prophet. If he will not preach against sin, if he will not show people their iniquities, if he will not deal with the deceit of the heart, he's a false prophet. He has nothing to say. And the only people who go to those kind of churches are those who don't want their sins dealt with. And if they go to a church where the gospel is truly being preached, they walk out and say, that's legalism. And they get angry. Beloved, I see a spirit that's in the church today. The condition described in Jeremiah 8 is the condition today. God's people saved, baptized with the Holy Ghost, still holding fast to deceit, under great delusion, hoping to serve the Lord and still serve their secret sins. Let me make this very personal. We're not talking now about the children of Israel and Jerusalem in Jeremiah's time. We're not talking about those of the Old Testament, not even the New Testament. We're talking about 1996, the last Sunday of 1996. We're talking Times Square Church, David Wilkerson, and this congregation, and all who hear me. Are you sitting here in the presence of God now? The Holy Spirit was moving here mightily in a beautiful way. He came down now just to honor Christ. The Holy Spirit is always here to honor Jesus, and He's honored Jesus in our midst, and the glory of the Lord was here. Did you sit through all of this? Did you praise the Lord? Did you have your hands up? Did you worship Him today with sin clinging to your heart? Something He dealt with time and time again, and you still will not lay it down? Do you still cling? Do you still hold fast to the deceit that God, by His Spirit, is dealing with? That's what God is asking Jeremiah. How can my people come in my presence, and worship me, and seek my word, and still hold fast to their deceit? How can it be that so many Christians today can worship the Lord, and continue, I mean, month after month, and even year after year, and not deal with their sin? In Jeremiah 8.5, He says, why do my people hold fast to deceit? Why do they not repent and return to holiness? Why do they, in fact, the description is given by God to the prophet Jeremiah, why do they race off after their sins like horses going to battle? Those horses would go against those staves and absolutely puncture themselves. They were rushing into the battle, the sound of battle. There was something in their blood rushing into their sin, rushing into the battle. And folks, He said, that's what my people are doing. They're like wild horses running into the battle, holding fast to the deceit, running to destruction, destroying themselves. In verse 7, God answers His own question. And He said, why do my people hold fast to the deceit? And He answers it, it is because my people know not my judgments. And God is saying, I warned them that I would judge their sins. I would prompt my wrath upon those who refused to forsake their wicked ways. I sent them message after message, I have been patient. We have Christians who believe God can't, there's no end to God's patience. Folks, you would know your Bible if you believe that. You would not know your Bible. There comes a time when God says, you have hardened your heart. Nothing I say, nothing I do, nothing I could do even as God of the universe will change you. And God talks of giving people over to their sin to reprobate minds. Folks, we are going to have to deal with the reality of the Scripture in these last days. The truth alone that can set us free. Somebody can come to you and talk to you about your sin. But until you allow the Holy Ghost to take this word and cause you to tremble at it. You will never be delivered from your sin. Especially now, if you have cozied up to become your bosom sin and you're comfortable with it now. God had warned severe judgment upon those who flaunted His mercy. And He said, I will overturn, overturn, overturn. That was the end of His patience. I will overturn. I will deal with this. This people were, judgment was already coming because the Assyrian army had already approached to the north border in Dan. And they said, we can hear the neighing of their horses. These are the Israelites talking who had idolatry in their heart and the stumbling blocks of iniquity in them. And they were running, fleeing to their cities for the walled cities. And what they were saying, we will run to the cities and we will sit in silence and wait to see what God will do. And what they're saying, we'll go into these walled cities and we will sit and write out the judgment. God had warned them by the prophets. He said, your sin will find you out. He said, there's judgment on sin. I've been patient. I've ruled you. You're my children. I'm your father. I love you. But you will not heed. You will not listen. He said, there comes a time I have to deal. I have to judge. And God was judging. The Assyrian armies were coming. Those prancing horses, they were killing wives and babies and children. Everything in sight was being wiped out. And the word came all through Judah and Israel. And they were fleeing to the cities. And they were saying, let us enter into the defense cities and let us sit silent. God has given us water of gall to drink because we've sinned against the Lord. And folks, they didn't know the judgment of God. They didn't have the slightest idea what was coming. Their concept was, we will run into these walled cities and there will be a time of trouble. There may not be enough food to eat. There may be a time of no drink. We may be a little thirsty. We may have a time of trial, but we will ride out the storm. And there are people now... I mentioned speaking to a pastor who was involved in outright slander and gossip. And I approached him about it. And I said, do you know your Bible? Do you not understand that God can cut you off? That all through the book of Proverbs, he said, I will chew you to pieces? I will deal with you? I said, do you understand that the judgment of God is on slander, whether you're a preacher or anybody else? And he turned and waved it off and he said, all right, then I face the judgment of God. And I walked away thinking, oh, if you only knew the judgment of God, you couldn't say that. You couldn't say that. He didn't know anything about the judgment of God. He had no concept of the judgment of God. You can't sit silent and ride out the judgments of God upon your sin. You can't say, all right, and this is what they were saying. We have sinned against God. We have failed God. We have been disobedient. We've held to our secret sins. And now we're going to face a time of judgment. The will come out of it on the other side. They're going to hold their sins right through the judgment. And how wrong they were, because they didn't survive the judgments of God. And there are people, Christians, who honestly believe, you know, God's merciful. He will, they have no plans to lay down their sin. They have no plan to yield to the Holy Spirit. And you know, folks, all that God is asking of you is that you surrender. That's all it is, just surrender. He's there with open arms. He's there with power. Everything you need. He's there to help you hate your sin. He's there as a loving Father, just hovering over you, waiting for your heart to reach out to Him. Just wanting you to cry, I hate my sin, Father. Come and deliver me from my sin. And He reaches down and pulls you out. But when you become stubborn, you become hardened in your sin, you become blinded to the evil of your sin. You no longer see the deceitfulness of sin. And so you say, all right, so I've, so judgment. What is He going to do? Is He going to, you know, all right, I might lose my job. How bad could it be? Folks, I wouldn't want to wait around for an answer to that. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I was thinking of a Christian man that I counseled about a troubled marriage. And he's another one of those who had left his wife because he said she's like a witch. She's mean, she's arrogant. And I warned him that God hated divorce because I knew that's where he's headed. And I said, you're going to lose the blessing in favor of God. I said, you're going to have God turn against you because he hates it. And you're blatantly walking against His law. You know what he said? I guess I'll just have to face the consequences of my action. I guess I'll just have to face the consequences. Face the consequences of the judgment of God. That man didn't know the judgments of God. My people don't know the judgment of the Lord. Like Israel, God had given His people many warnings about the judgment against sin in believers. Many, many warnings, but they turned those warnings aside. You know, in Romans, the second chapter, we have a very clear warning from God. He said, if you do the same things that you condemn in others, if you sin just like those that you condemn, your judgment is sure. He said, you that preach, you shouldn't steal. Do you steal? He said, you that condemn adultery in others, are you committing adultery? Do you sit here this afternoon in the middle of an affair, a secret affair nobody knows anything about but God and you? But, sir, I'm going to tell you something else. You think your wife doesn't know, she knows and she'll find out. Because God said, be sure. What? Your sin will, what? Who said that? So, count your moments. Take your pleasure now because it's all going to be exposed, the Bible says. Be sure your sin will find you out. Now, that's God's word and that's a word of mercy. God puts these signs up, these warning signs, because you see right down that road, there's a precipice and it goes right over a brink and God has all these signs saying stop, danger, danger. Be sure your sin will find out. It's a danger sign. So, God is trying to stop you from going over the brink. It's all mercy. How many believe that? And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgeth them which do such things, and you do the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God? Would you go to Romans 2? Let's look at it. Romans 2. Still with me? Did I hear somebody say, Brother Wilson, you're getting hard. No, no, no. I'm preaching mercy to you. Romans 2. Would you go to verse 21? Well, let's start at verse 19. You're confident that thou, that thou thyself are guide of the blind, a light to them which are in darkness, instruct of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and the truth of the law. Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself. Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayeth a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhors idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law, dishonest thou God? For the name of God is blaspheme among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. Look at me, please. He's speaking to Christians. He said, you're blaspheming the name of Jesus when you practice something you're preaching against. When you tell others, And folks, some of us, we allow things in our lives that we wouldn't excuse in anybody else's life. We allow things in life that we would condemn in others. And the Lord said, that's blasphemy among the unsaved. That is something God says, I will not endure. He said, you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Paul said, there is no respect of persons with God. For the Lord shall judge the secrets of men's hearts by Jesus Christ. Now, let me tell you something. I'm 65 now, going on 66. And I've been preaching for many, many years since just a boy. And I've looked back over my life, and I thank God for the grace, his keeping power, how he's kept me by his grace. Many times he could have cast me aside and destroyed me. But the grace of God came. But let me tell you, I said, oh God, how is it? How is it that you have kept me these years? And there's one verse, there is absolutely one verse that has been one of my key verses all my life, all my ministry. And it's this, I just want you to listen to it. It's Proverbs 16, 6. By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. By the fear of the Lord. Folks, the church of Jesus Christ has lost the fear of God. We've made God to appear like a man like ourselves, just like us. And we judge our sins as though God were somebody just like us, that would appease us. That if we would cry and say, I'm so sorry, we go sin again, cry and repent, sin again, cry, repent, sin again. You say, after all, he said we're to forgive 70 times 7. Well, I've got this habit, I've got this secret sin in my life, and I may have confessed it maybe 200 times, but I've got 200 sometimes more to go. It's not what that scripture means whatsoever. God said, I am no respecter of persons. And here's the point, and listen closely. There are many people who hold on to their secret sins because they feel that they're special. They feel that somehow because they don't hurt anybody. I've often wondered, I was in a church once where there was a janitor that was not a Christian, and he would sit, he probably sat for 20 years hearing the gospel, hearing all the speakers and everything, and never moved by God. And I thought, how does a man like that hear preaching after preaching and nothing moves him? And he sits back in the back of the church and just sits there unmoved. He's a janitor, he takes care of the church, and he's there watching, he's hearing, and after a while goes in one ear and out the other, doesn't mean anything, it's just words to him anymore. You know, because that man actually was thinking to himself, like so many, really, those drug addicts that come to this church, I'm not like them. These alcoholics, all these people get up and say that they're safe from sin, I'm not that, I'm a pretty good person. And I feel in my heart that when I get before God, I'll be okay. The Lord's not going to judge me. And you see, they know nothing of the judgment of God. They know nothing that they must stand before the judgment. It's appointed on a man once to die and after that to judgment. And that is final, that is sure. That we have people that have absolutely, almost the whole city out here. You can take people that have not murdered anybody, people that faithfully pay their income tax. Oh, they've got their little secret things, yes. But because of no big, blatant sin, I'm okay. And that's why they write books like I'm okay, you're okay. But I believe what Apostle Peter said, For the time has come that judgment must begin in the house of God. And if it first began at us, what shall it be of them that obey not the gospel of God? Now folks, this judgment of God, let me talk to you about it for just a moment. We know so little about the fear of God today, we know so little about the judgment of God. This is the end of side one. The fear of God that we run from evil, that we flee from evil, from our idols. The fear of God, and you can't incubate that, you can't invent it. You can't just make it arise in your heart. That comes through sincere crying and praying out to God. The Holy Ghost has to fire that flame in you. My prayer every day is, Oh God, I want your fear to blaze in me. When I stand in the pulpit, I want the fear of God blazing in me. When I go through, get up in the morning, let the fear of God be ablaze in my heart. That when the enemy comes at me with temptation and all these other things, the fear of God will be burning bright and be consumed in that fire and that blaze. Hallelujah. How many want the fear of God? The holy, righteous fear of God. You could never sin lightly. But you see, the judgments prophesied against God's people in Jerusalem were not eternal judgment. This was not judgments that would come to them when they die. These were judgments that come to us while they're here on earth. And these are the judgments of God. Folks, it's not just judgment on judgment day. Sin that was not confessed and forsaken. Sin that is not laid down, those secret things that cling to us and grow and take root and get harder and deeper into our spirits. That's what God is after. And you know, sometimes people will ask God to pluck up one sin and one idol is knocked down and another is raised upright in its place. And God wants to take out all idolatry. He wants to take away all stumbling blocks. Hallelujah. Not knocking one down and let another coming up in its place. But you see, these judgments of God that God's people don't know anything about, He begins to explain those judgments. I'm going to give you just two evidences of those judgments, two consequences of those judgments listed in this 8th chapter. First of all, verse 10. Would you look at verse 10, please? Therefore will I give... First of all, it says, my people know not the judgment of the Lord. Look at verse 10. Therefore will I give their wives unto others. I will give their wives unto others. Now look at me, please. This is the judgment of sin, especially in the life of a married person. If you're married, listen to me closely. God says, I'll give your wives to others. This is blatant divorce. This is pandemic divorce. This is the breaking up of homes. This is the dysfunctional family and we see it everywhere we go. Folks, the judgment of God is on America and it's happening in the church. Did you get the latest news? I saw this in a Christian magazine, that there are as many evangelical Christians divorcing as those that are not going to church. Just as much divorce in evangelical churches as in the world. Dysfunctional families. This is the judgment of God. He said, if you hold on to your sin, you're married and you have sin, you have lust in your heart and you will not lay it down and you follow your idolatry, it's going to cost you your home. It's going to cost you your family. It's going to cost you your children. I have seen grandparents whose children have been raised and those two never did settle things with God. They never did have it right with God. And then when the children were gone, the children were the only thing holding it together when the children are married. God, grandma, grandpa get divorced. And you know what I've seen? Especially with ministers, grandparent ministers of the gospel. You know what I've seen over and over again? I've seen that divorce spread all through their married kids. One after another following the example of their parents. And he said, I'll give you wives to another. The judgment of God is a dysfunctional family, a loss of children. In Malachi chapter 2, God said, You've covered the altar of the Lord with your tears and with weeping and with crying out, yet you're untrue to your wives. Yet she's your companion, the wife of your covenant. You've wearied the Lord with your words. You think God still delights in them that do evil. You think God still delights in you, even though he sees what is in your heart. I wonder how many wives there are listening to me now. Folks, I'm at the place now. I've told God I have to make every year count. I have to make every message count, every day count. I have been faithful as I know how to be. I've made mistakes. Yes, I know in the past years I've made mistakes. I'm not a perfect man. I want to talk to you plain and simple. It may sound blunt to you. But how many wives are sitting here right now, wanting out of their marriage? How many husbands are wanting out? You're thinking of divorce, you're thinking of splitting, you're thinking of going your own way. God said, you come to my house and you cover the altar with tears, and yet you're unfaithful in your heart. He's talking about what's going on in the heart. You're unfaithful in your heart. You have treachery in your heart. God says, I'll judge that. I will judge that. God, let it not be in this church. Let it be that every wife that's here thinking she's in an impossible situation believes that nothing is impossible with God. Let every husband that's hearing me right now not even anticipate or think about it because God hates divorce. That is not an option for a believer. It's not an option. It can't even enter your thoughts. It will cost you your home. It will cost you your children. It will cost you everything. And that's the second judgment. Verse 10, and I'll give your fields to them that shall inherit them. In the original Hebrew it says, I'll give your fields to others. Your field is the area, that whole substance of what you spent your whole life building. For me, my field is this congregation. It's the church. Pastor Carter, this is his field, New York. It's the ministry here. And God says, if you will not yield, if you will not lay down your sin, if you're going to hold to your deceit, I'll give your field to somebody else. And oh, I've seen that over and over. I've seen missionaries come home from the field. I'm dealing with a couple right now. A man overseas fell in love, he said, with somebody overseas. And his wife came home and she's in despair. And he's going to fly over and get her and bring her back and marry her. And it's a mess. But I've seen what happens now. He doesn't have a dollar to his name. His ministry's been taken from him. Nobody on that field wants him. He wants to go back to that field. Nobody wants to touch him. Nobody wants near him. God said, I'll take your field away from you. And I'll give it to somebody else. I'll take away everything you have. Folks, that's what sin does. Sin will take everything you have. You want a divorce, sir? It's going to cost you everything. It's going to cost you alimony. It's going to cost you heartache. It's going to cost you probably your car. I had a woman recently tell me that her husband had divorced her about ten years ago. She said, Brother Dave, he divorced me and had every right to because I shamed him. I was not faithful. He had every right. I sinned against my husband. And she said, I had a beautiful home. I had beautiful furniture. Very expensive. Everything. I lived in style. I wound up sleeping in my car. Thank God she got a hold of God and the Lord began to bless her and prosper her. She's serving the Lord now faithfully. Being mightily blessed of God. But God took her fields. He'll take your fields. He'll give your best to somebody else. Uh-huh. The wages of sin. Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers shall inherit the kingdom of God. Marriage is honorable. The bed is undefiled. But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. You say, Brother Dave, why are you talking about adultery? Fornication? Because the Holy Ghost told me to deal with it? Because God's trying to save some people from hell? God's coming right to your face. Face to face. Because you sit here and nobody else knows about it but you and God. Supposedly. If you're in the office, everybody knows it anyhow. They're talking behind your back. Uh-huh. And God has come face to face with you. For a pastor who cares about your soul. And the Holy Ghost says, I'm speaking directly to it now. That you be convicted of it by the power of the Holy Ghost. And you lay it down. And get your freedom back. And get the joy of the Lord back. And get the blessing of the Lord flowing. And all your rivers flowing once again that have been held up by your sin. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Don't anybody look around. Look in. Now, I'm not suggesting we have many, many into this. If I'm speaking to one or two, it's worth. It's worth every word. It's worth the time to stop and talk it about. I will give your fields to them that shall inherit it. Another present judgment is an invasion of serpents and snakes. Verse 17, Behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices among you which shall not be charmed. And they shall bite you, saith the Lord. Folks, this is God's Word. This is not a pastor getting up, venting his spirit. This is God's Word. God said, Persist in your sin. I've loved you. I've been patient with you. But He said, At comes a time, I'm warning you. Go on with it. And I'll tell you, you're going to split your home. You're going to split everything. You're going to lose everything. I'll give your fields and your career and your business. I'm going to give everything to somebody else. And then I'm going to send serpents to bite you. And you're going to live out your days with poison in you. Bitterness, rejection, guilt, shame. These serpents will bite you. God says, I will send these serpents. Verse 17, Behold. Read it with me. Verse 17, Chapter 8. For behold, I, I, who is it? I will send serpents, cockatrices. What cockatrices are, are the little snakes that are the most poisonous. Among you which will not be charmed. And they shall bite you, saith the Lord. Now what happens when you're bitten with a serpent? The poison goes all through your system. And folks, I see Christians everywhere I look now, full of poison. Bitter, angry, full of rebellion. Why? Because of sin that is unsurrendered. Unsurrendered, and folks, it produces nothing but the cockatrice bite. Show me a Christian who's living with a hidden secret lust. Or living a double life. He refuses conviction, refuses the warnings of God's word. That Christian is going to become hard in his sin. And his very character is going to change. I see people changing. Folks, probably the saddest thing that can happen in the church of Jesus Christ. Is that those who should be mothers in Zion, fathers in Zion. Those with gray hairs, who should be sweet and mellow. Be a testimony to a dying world. And young people looking for examples of God's grace and mercy. To see them become mean, and angry, and bitter. Nothing is more vile in my eyes. Nothing bothers me more than to see a grandma in her 70s or 80s. Sucking a cigar, drinking a cocktail, and cursing like a drunken sailor. Nothing worse than in the house of God to see grandmothers and women. Above 50 and 60 years of age in the house of God. Growing every day and every week meaner and angrier. Their face creased with bitterness. And they still come to the house of God. But the serpent has bitten them because sin. Unforgiveness. Bitterness. And you look at them and say, Lord. Their last days spent full of poison. Oh Lord, I don't want that in my life. Oh God, I don't want any poison in me. Hallelujah. I don't want any poison in my system. I want to grow sweeter as the days go by. Hallelujah. That's what happened to Saul, didn't it? He had bitterness, jealousy, and hatred in his heart. An evil spirit from the Lord came upon him. That man died face to face with a witch. Full of anger, bitterness, and rebellion. Folks, the thing that robbed these people was that they knew not the judgment of the Lord. I'm going to close with this, but this is so important. Verse 8, please. Verse 8. I'm going to come to the close now. How do you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? Though certainly in vain made he it, the pen of the scribes is in vain. And in the original Hebrew, the pen of the scribes is a lying pen. What the scribes and the priests and the prophets are preaching now, God is telling Jeremiah, they're not preaching the truth. They're saying we are wise. Look, it says we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us. Look at this picture, please. Jerusalem is bound by idolatry. The judgment of God is at the door. People know nothing of the judgment of God. And they're in their midst. They are being charmed by a false gospel. And you know, these scribes said we know the law. They bisected the law. They said we are wise in the law. We know what the law means. But you know what they did? They perverted the law. They took away the power and the sting of the law. Folks, we are not under the law as a way of salvation, but we are under the law as a moral code. God has not done away with the law. He has honored the law by his absolute perfect righteousness. He has exalted the law as a moral standard. That is our standard. Tell me which one of the Ten Commandments you are not to obey anymore. Give me one. Commandment of God of the Ten that you and I are not supposed to obey anymore. We are not saved by the law, but it's still our moral code. But you see, they've taken away the law. They took away the law, and they were saying peace, peace. We have the law on our side, and they were telling people we're evil and corrupted, that you're a righteous person. You are righteous people. Beloved, let me tell you something. There was a time I was probably one of the hardest preachers in America. I've told Pastor Carter sometimes I listened to my tapes from 20 years ago and I have to shut it off. I said, I can't handle that. Because you see, the Lord had to add mercy and grace, and he seasoned it with mercy and grace. And I've preached a lot of mercy. You've heard Pastor Carter preach great mercy and love. We have preached mercy. We've talked to you about a Heavenly Father who loves us, who's a nurse to us. We've talked to you about being justified and sanctified by faith. We've talked to you about how Jesus Christ is the only righteousness. We have no other plea but His righteousness. Because you see, even when you lay your idols down, even when you can say there's nothing between me and the Lord, it's still not your goodness. It's the mercy and the grace of God and nothing else. But folks, that's one side of this coin. There's another side to the coin. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. There are so many scriptures here. They said the law of the Lord is with us. And we hear some people preaching what they believe is the truth. But it's all mercy. It's all love. It's all grace. It's all... Don't worry. You're okay. Listen to what the Word says. Listen closely now. Lay aside the sin that so easily besets you. Lay it aside. Now folks, that's not the law. That's grace. You've got a sin in your life. Lay it aside. Deal with it. Listen to what the scripture says. Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And God means that. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That's not law. That's not legal. That is mercy. That is grace. He says, but fornication, all uncleanness, all covetousness, let it not once be named among you. And then he says, come out from among them, be you separate and clean, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, then I receive you as a father. You'll be my son. You'll be my daughter. Then I receive you. That's the Word too. Now I tell you always, we close with hope. Now I want you to go with me, if you will, please, to Psalm 103. Will you stand as we read it? Psalm 103. Did you hear what I said this morning? The judgments of God are not vindictive, they're redemptive. He judges us to save us. Paul said, I turn him over to the devil, to the destruction of the flesh, that his soul might be saved. Judgment to redeem. Hallelujah. Do you have Psalm 103? All right, let's begin reading verse 10 from King James. I'm reading. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He knoweth our frame, he remembers that we are but dust. As for man, his daisies are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. The wind passeth over it and is gone, and the place thereof shall be no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. Upon whom? Upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children. To whom? To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. Folks, what is his commandment? Confess and forsake your sin. Touch not the unclean thing. I say this the last thing I want to say to you this afternoon. I know some of you are battling a horrible battle. You say, Pastor David, I'm convicted. I'm deeply convicted. I know what it says here. The mercy of God is upon them that fear him and those who keep his commandments and remember to do them. But I don't have the power. I keep falling. Here's the issue. Listen close. Here's the issue. Don't make peace with that sin. Don't say, I'm going to live with it. Say, oh God, put it in my heart to hate it. Help me to keep battling. God has never once ever turned away his heart from somebody, no matter how deep in sin they are. No time in history has God ever turned his back or cast away a Christian or sinner who hates his sin. He has never turned away from those who cry out for deliverance. You may not have it yet, but you're crying out for deliverance. God sees that. He will come. He will bring deliverance. Because that's what your heart yearns and cries for. Don't lose that cry. He's not going to fail you. He's going to deliver you. Folks, I preached along this line this morning, again this afternoon. But God's trying to lead this church into the greatest arena of worship and praise that you and I have ever witnessed. The glory of the Lord wants to come down in this church, as he's doing it in many churches today. But he can't do that until we come to him with clean hands and a pure heart and nothing, absolutely nothing hidden in our lives. That you come to church, and you raise your hands, and you know that you're clean. You know that you have come and laid your sin at the foot of the cross and said, Jesus, here it is. I don't want it. I give it to you. I surrender it to you. Now you give me the grace. You give me the power. You keep me hating this sin. He's going to rush in. And I'll tell you, nobody's going to have to pump up anything. The choir's not going to have to pump you up. The orchestra, no song leader have to pump you up. Folks, you'll come to this church, and you'll be running. I mean, you will come with your hands up, and you'll be running in mercy and grace. And there'll be a conviction. There'll be a conviction upon everybody that comes in just because of the awesome presence of the Lord. And you talk about joy. Nobody has joy like people who've been set free. Nobody. You guys from Timothy House and the girls over here from Sarah House and everybody else been delivered from sin and the power of sin, you may be struggling about it, but I'll tell you right now, so God, I mean it when I tell you I want to hate this. I don't want to go back. Keep me, Lord, from falling. Present me faultless before your throne with exceeding great joy. And when you follow that and pray every day and get into this word, you won't be standing there anymore. You'll be jumping all over the place with joy and victory like you've never known. Hallelujah. I understand some of you have been doing that up there anyhow. Amen. Yes. Holy Spirit. Bring the hammer down on us. We thank you, Lord, that that hammer is held by a velvet glove of love. Hallelujah. Lord, I pray for everyone in this building that's been battling a besetting sin that has been holding them back from the fullness of God. It's been such a burden. It's robbed them of such freedom. God, let there be total final victory in this house today. Nobody needs to know what it is. You just get out of your seat up in the balcony here in the main floor. Hey, there's victory. There's victory today right now. There's victory within the next 10 minutes. Yes, there is. Get out of your seat. Just get out of your seat. Bring it to God. If you're backslidden, if you don't know Jesus, or if you've got this thing that you're battling, bring it to the Lord right now. The Bible says open confession. Open confession. Open confession. Lord, I confess it. I'm not ashamed. I come to you now, Lord. Please move in close, those that are coming. Up in the balcony. Just go to the stairs on either side. This is the conclusion of the tape.