In this sermon, the speaker discusses the loss of trust and confidence in various institutions, including the judicial system, school system, and even marriage. He highlights the prevalence of scams and deceptions targeting the elderly, leading to their financial ruin and homelessness. The speaker also laments the decline in moral values and the watering down of the gospel in churches, with pastors avoiding the mention of sin and focusing on shallow messages. However, amidst this despair, the speaker finds hope in God's promise to show marvelous things to those who seek Him, comparing it to the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt through the Red Sea.

I want you to turn, please, to Micah, the 7th chapter, the 7th chapter of Micah, and I'm going to stay in that throughout the message today, if you will, please. 7th chapter of Micah. My message this morning, the worms shall crawl out of their holes. You heard it? The worms shall crawl out of their holes. My God, bless this word. Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit that makes the word come to life. Now come upon me, Holy Spirit, and deliver your mind and your heart. Let us hear what the Spirit has to say. Let us receive it, may it change our lives. We know that the covenant of, the new covenant of God through his son Jesus Christ is life-changing, and we come to this life-changing word now when we ask you to speak directly to all of us. In Jesus' name, give us an ear, hearing ear and an open heart. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now this 7th chapter of Micah, I take to be one of the most powerful new covenant messages ever preached. It's one of the most powerful new covenant messages in the Word of God. In this profound message, the prophet Micah is speaking to Israel, but primarily he's speaking to the church of Jesus Christ in the last days, and that can be proven in the context of this chapter as we go along. Now Paul makes it very, very clear that all these things happened, all that the prophets write about, all the experiences of Israel were written for our teaching, they were meant for our admonition. 1st Corinthians 10 11 says, now all these things happen unto them for examples, they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world have come. Now Micah in the first chapter, in the first verse, begins with a heartbroken cry, a cry that's still being heard from the body of Christ all over the world. Read with me, or follow me please. Woe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits as the great gleanings of the vintage. There's no custard to eat, my soul desired the first ripe fruit. Woe is me, there is nothing to eat. He's describing the effect of a famine of the Word of God that has been prophesied by the prophets. I read it to you from Amos 8 chapter verse 11-12. Behold the days come, saith the Lord God. I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor thirst for water. But if hearing the words of the Lord, and they shall wander from sea to sea and from north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. And what the prophet Micah is seeing prophetically now, looking down over time to this very age. It's time for harvest. The vineyard should be full, the clusters should be hanging from vine. And this hungry people, he's voicing the corporate cry of the Church of Jesus Christ in the last days. And they come into the harvest, they come into the vineyard, and they look and there are no clusters. There's nothing to eat. There's a famine. Made very, very clear here, my soul desires food or spiritual food, but there is none. He's looking at time when people are going to run all over from church to church, from revival to revival, from one movement to another, looking for some bread, looking for some clusters, something to eat, something to satisfy this need for spiritual nourishment. A lady wrote to me this past week and she said, Pastor David, my church is growing in numbers, but it's dying spiritually. Our pastor once preached with an anointed message with Holy Ghost power and authority, but somehow he got caught up in this new contemporary gospel called sinner-friendly or outsider-friendly. He came back from their conference a changed man. The goal in our church now is not to offend sinners and outsiders who come in the doors. There's no more mention of sin from the pulpit. The pastor now reads a 15-minute message, very light, shallow gospel provided by the conference. The power is gone, now it's a one-hour service, it's lifeless, it's dead. I'm going to have to leave because I'm starving, but where do I go? Most places I've attended are just as dead, or they're into entertainment. I received a call from the pastor today, this is true, the grief of the one who told the story was overwhelming. One of the large sinner-friendly churches, one of the largest, and their music team sang one of Carol Simbla's medleys on the blood of Christ from Brooklyn Tabernacle here in New York. The pastor almost lost it. After the service, he gathered his music team in his office and in a rage, said, if I ever again hear a song of the blood, I'll fire you on the spot. We're not going to offend them, they don't understand what the blood means. A famine in the land. In the same chapter, Micah states that with hungry souls and with a desire, there's only going to be a remnant. You'll find it in verse 18, it speaks of only a remnant that is really hungering and thirsting. The majority in the secular church today is so full of Sodom's apples, sitting in the devil's kitchen eating straw. In fact, the Septuagint reads in this first verse, the gleaning is nothing but straw. The harvest is nothing but straw. And folks, I grieve over the multitudes throughout the United States and around the world. They're going to stand on the judgment day. They've been given nothing to build their spiritual character in the life with but haywood and stubble. And when they stand before Jesus at the judgment, they are not prepared and it's all going to go up in smoke and they're going to stand on ashes. Because they have not received life, they've not received the Word of God that produces Christian character. There's no mention of sin and so they've allowed sin to possess them. And oh, what a day that's going to be. What an awful day that's going to be. And listen to God's indictment against the ministers who have been afraid to deal with sin in their pulpits. Afraid to feed the people with the life that sets them free. Jeremiah 23, they say unto them that despise me, the Lord has said you shall have peace. And they say unto everyone that walks after the imagination of their own heart, no evil shall come upon you. They caused my people to err. From them, from the pastors, the shepherds, profaneness has been spread throughout the whole land. I've not sent these men. They have not heard from me. I've not really spoken to them. But if they had really stood in my counsel, and if they had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have been turning them away from their evil ways and from the evil of their doings. Isn't my word like a hammer and my word like a fire? There is no hammer, there is no fire in many churches left today. Nothing but straw, it says in the original Hebrew. Now according to Micah, this spiritual famine could not come at a worse time, a time of absolute moral decay in society. He said he can't look at verse 2. The good man is perished out of the earth. There is none upright among men. They all lie and wait for blood. They hunt every man, his brother with the net. He's speaking of our time, not only Israel's time, the time in Israel, but our time. He said the good man is perished. What he's saying, this spiritual declension, this ruin and decay in the house of God comes at the worst possible time, a time when a testimony is needed, a time when men need to be judged lovingly for their sins. Their hearts need to be exposed by the Holy Spirit so they can be putted away and come into the fullness of Christ. And he says this couldn't come at a worse time because the good man is dissolved. The time, folks, I'm 68 years old, but I remember the time even when I was a young man that a man's word was his bond. Deals were made with a handshake. That handshake was just as good as a signed document, but not anymore. That kind of man is gone, Micah said. Now it's every man for himself. Every man's out for blood. In other words, tramp on anybody. It's no more what can I do, how can I help it, what do I get out of it. Folks, it's alarming. It is absolutely shocking to understand that all over this nation, around the world, scams, deceptions, trying to steal the little bit of money that the elderly have left in the bank accounts. We have scams now on telephones and people knocking on the doors, repairmen, and trying to talk these poor elderly people into spending every dollar. They know how much they have in the bank and they'll scam every dollar. And now here in the United States we've got the elderly and the poor out on the streets because of the scams, because the good man is gone. Verse 3, politicians, judges, and men respected by society have both their hands out now for bribes. They weave complicated schemes to make money to satisfy their overwhelming greed. Verse 3, that they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asked, the judge asked for a reward, and the great man, or the respected man, he uttered his mischief desires, so they wrap it up. In other words, they work up these these complicated schemes to lay hold of money. Folks, the word today is that anyone can be bought. Everybody's got his price, is the word today. Judges, in other words, if there's enough money you can buy anybody. You can buy a judge, you can buy even ministers of the gospel today. Not many, but few. And that's what he's saying now. Everybody's got both hands out now. As anybody, any construction manager, anyone trying to, in the buildings trades, trying to get the building built with bribes here, bribes there, our government, our commerce, the wills are greased by payoffs, payola, and bribes. Verse 5 and 6 says there's going to, in this last time, there's going to be a total breakdown of family structures. Verses 5 and 6, follow me. Are you reading with me? Trust you're not in a friend? Put no confidence in a guide? Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lies in the bosom? For the son dishonored the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are they, men of his own household. A moral breakdown, a complete loss of authority. Children are becoming a law to themselves. Husbands distrusting wives, wives distrusting husbands. Families going to court, suing one another. Just an incredible, incredible thing that's happening that Mike is trying to describe it. I want to read that again. Trust you're not in a friend? Put no confidence in a guide? Keep the doors of mouth from her that lies at that bosom? Total distrust of all institutions. I wonder how many of you here trust your leaders? How many of you trust the government? And we're Christians. How many trust the judges and the judicial system in the United States? How many distrust, can trust the school system all across the nation, around the world? Absolute loss of confidence and trust in any institution, including marriage. Folks, I don't want us to miss verse 4. Let's go back for just a moment. The best of them is as a briar. Yep, the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. Now look at this. The day of the watchman and the visitation cometh. Now shall be their perplexity. And Prophet Mike is saying you can know when all of the warnings of the watchman are about to be fulfilled. When these very things that he's describing are in place. Now folks, what I'm telling you now, what Mike is saying sounds like it's come out of our daily newspaper and our national newscast. Doesn't it sound like it's today? It is today. And he said when you see that, the time of the watchman has come. The visitation cometh. Now shall be their perplexity. And honest, I'm telling you, if God does not in times like these honor the word of his prophets and his watchmen, if the words that they have been instructed to preach and the warnings they've been given, if they are not verified by the almighty judgments of God, then the time comes no one will listen. No prophetic word would have any impact. No watchman would be understood or listened to. And the word and the warnings of God would be totally in vain. But he said in the middle of this, he says the time of the watchman has come. Folks, that's where we are in the United States. I'm not a prophet. I'm one of his many watchmen. But I'm telling you, all these things we've been warning about, this is the time of the watchman and it's going to happen. We're in that very, very time. Total societal breakdown of all trust and confidence in all institutions. But suddenly, in the midst of all of these warnings, the prophet... oh wait, let me tell you something. I don't want to miss this. This is very important. Isaiah was a contemporary of Micah. In fact, he was born in the same city and he preached in the same congregation, the same time span as the prophet Micah. Now here's his take on the same thing that Micah is saying to us. And I'm reading from the first chapter of Isaiah. A sinful nation. Now I ask if this doesn't sound like our generation. A sinful nation of people laid with iniquities, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. It's children that are not only corrupted, they have become the corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They've provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. They've gone away backwards. From the sole of feet, even to the head, there's no soundness, but wounds, bruises, putrefying sores, and except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been a Sodom and of Gomorrah. Now you see, up to this point, the prophet Micah and Isaiah have shown us this part of the picture. And now he's going to show us the rest of the story. And this is where my message is focused now. In fact, the prophet suddenly turns his focus. He has looked at the ruined. He has read the times. He's aware of it. He's a watchman and a prophet, and he's warning the nation. He sees the moral decay. He warns. He pleads. But I want you to know that a true prophet and a true watchman not only warns of the coming sword, coming calamities, he also proclaims the new covenant promises of Almighty God. And he, the real focus of watchmen is not to scare people with what is coming, but to prepare people that in these times so dark and so depraved, that is when the Word of God becomes so precious. And it's when you get a hold of that precious Word of God that you rise up and become strong and powerful when others are weak and their hearts failing them for fear of those things that are coming upon the earth. And so now the prophet gets his turns away from the backslidden church, away from the false prophets that are rising, and away from the greed and covetousness of a society that's gone mad. And what he's saying, sure there's a spiritual famine. Yes there is. There's a famine in this land for the Word of God. And yes, there's ruin, decay. There is such foolishness in many churches today that it's such an abomination to the heart of God. And yes, our society is in a moral landslide beyond any generation in history. But he said that's not the message I bring to you. He said we're aware of that and now having known that, let's talk about what God has in plan for his church, for this holy remnant that's seeking the face of God. Verse 7 begins, therefore, and that ties it into what he's been saying. In other words, in light of all of this, in light of the depravity you see, in light of all the spiritual declensions, in light of that, what I intend to do now, he is voicing the heart cry of the remnant who seek the face of God. Therefore, or in spite of all of this, or in light of all of this, I am going to turn my heart to the Lord. Verse 7, therefore, I will look unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear, my God will hear me. He's talking about turning to prayer, waiting on the Lord, getting your eyes on Jesus. Hallelujah. Folks, our eyes are not on the coming depression. Our eyes are not on the ruin in the church. We're aware of it, we warn of it, but then we move on and we say, behold the word of the Lord. Church of Jesus Christ, turn your eyes toward the Lord. Turn away from all of these things. Wait on the Lord. Begin to seek his face. Begin to pray, and God will begin to answer you. You're going to get answers to your prayers. Glory to God. These trusting believers will be brought into the power of the new covenant truth. We've been preaching the new covenant now for almost two years in this church, and this, before I'm finished, I hope prove to you is one of the most powerful new covenant messages in the Bible, as I've already stated. I want you to go to verse 8 and 10 with me now, please. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy. Now, who's able to say to the devil, that's enough? Who's able to say the devil, wipe that smirk off your face? You don't rejoice over me anymore. Those who turn to the Lord, those who are seeking God, waiting on the Lord and on their knees, praying. They're drawing close to the Lord, and God is going to empower them mightily to take authority over the powers of hell. Look at it. Rejoice not against me, verse 8, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I've sinned against him, until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. Oh, folks, this is powerful. And ask the Holy Ghost to open these verses to you right now. This is the praying man or woman. This is the one that's turned wholly away from the things of this world, the pride of life, and the greed of this generation, and says, I'm going to seek God. And out of that prayer chamber, they come and say, devil, you can't rejoice over me anymore, because even if I fall, the light's going to come in, and I'm going to rise again. You can't behold me anymore without life. And devil, you can't accuse me of past sins, because I've already confessed them to the Lord, and the Lord has already chastened me, and I've admitted I've been chastened by the Lord, and now I have a high priest in glory, pleading my cause. Forgive me for getting overly excited. The Lord shall be a light to me. Yes, I've sinned, devil, but he's pleading my cause. Who's pleading your cause? The high priest, Jesus. And he said, devil, you sound not righteous. I know that, but I have his righteousness now. I shall behold his righteousness. It's all there. Hallelujah. Verse 10, then she, this is my name, and all the church of Jesus Christ is often used as a feminine term, the daughter of Zion, and the bride, and so forth, though we're made up of male and female. This she still represents demonic powers. Then the demonic powers, my enemy, the adversary of the devil, shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, where is thy God? Mine eyes shall behold her. Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. And this is the taunt of the devil. Where is your God? You say that the Holy Ghost empowers you to victory over sin. Where's your victory over sin? Because you're still falling at times. You're still having problems. You still are taunted. You're bothered by temptations. Where is your God? Where is this covenant God that's made you all of these miraculous promises? Where is your God? That's the taunting cry of the devil and the Christian answers. You want to know where my God is? He's building my walls. Next verse, there it is. In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed. The accusation of the devil will be removed, because God said, I'm going to build your walls, and I'm going to be the glory therein. I'm going to build your walls. Those walls are truth. These are the new covenant truths that God wants you to lay hold of, and when you lay hold of it, you are going to have walls around you. The devil can't climb over. He can't dig under. He can't get in, because you're going to be protected by walls of truth. And Micah now begins to open up the new covenant promises that are so credible, they seem unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. Folks, I've been dancing all over my apartment. First of all, I hope to prove to you that what you're going to hear rest on is absolutely positively directed primarily to the church of Jesus Christ, because verse 14 reads, feed thy people with the rod, the flock of thine heritage. Now, look at me, please. I'm reading from the original Hebrew from Sporrel. It reads, shepherd the sheep with thy rod. David says, the shepherd is he that dwells between the cherubims. Who is that? Jesus Christ. Isaiah 40, 11, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom. Hebrews 13, 20, our Lord Jesus is that great shepherd of the sheep. It's none other than Christ. None other than Christ is being mentioned here, so this absolutely positively directs it to the last days, to the time in which you and are living now. You can have absolute confidence in what you hear now, from right on through. If you had any question up to this point, you have no, you cannot question what you read and hear about the covenant promises from this moment on. God promises, first of all, there'll be no famine for those who turn to the Lord and seek his face. There will be no famine. Feed thy people, O shepherd of the flock. Feed your sheep. Now, I told you there's a famine in the land, but there is not a famine among those who are seeking God and desiring truth with all of their hearts, because the shepherd's going to feed them. Now, let me tell you, you cannot just blame dead churches if you're spiritually starved. You can't blame some preachers that you judge as insufficiently feeding you. There are some people that would not be satisfied if their pastor was the Apostle Paul. There are people going around judging every church and every pastor and trying to measure in their sermon-tasting. Now, if you're sitting in front of a TV set and just lounging there, and you're complaining, I can't find a church, you're not on your knees, you're not in the secret closet, you're not into the Word of God, and you're wanting to find a church to solve all your problems and put some kind of a spiritual joy in you and pick you up and make you a saint, and it's not going to work. You're not going to find it. You're going to find it when you get on your knees and get into this book and seek the face of God, and God promises you, God promises you, you seek my face, I'm going to feed you. Miraculously, somehow, someway, you're going to get the Word. Oh, glory be to God. The Bible said even those who are in solitary places, in that verse, you can be up in the heart of Alaska. And you say, I have no church, and somebody sent you this tape. You're being fed. Somehow, someway, God said, I'll feed my sheep. He'll not let you starve. Glory be to God. Boy, now, and here's when it starts getting so glorious, I'm just asking God to give me what I need to get through it. Verse 15 is one of the most amazing promises in the Bible. According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto him marvelous things. Unto him, who's him? This seeker, this man in prayer, this woman in prayer. God says, I'm going to do for you something that is so marvelous. You know what He's going to do? He's going to give you your all Red Sea experience of deliverance. He said, just as those who came out of the wilderness through the Red Sea, I'm going to do it again. Isaiah picked this up because Isaiah and Micah confirmed each other's words all through 43, 15 to 19. I'm the Lord, your Holy One, your King. Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters, which brings forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the power. That means every demonic principality and entity that come against you, to try to get you to fall back into lust and into besetting sin. All of these. He said, they shall all lie down together and they shall not rise. They are extinct. Remember you not the former things, neither consider the things of old. You know what He's saying? You know, all of these years and all this time you've been preaching and teaching, you've been referring to this great miracle in the Red Sea. And it's wonderful as that is. And that's a type, that's a shadow. God's saying that's written for a purpose. But God says, I want you to forget that right now. I don't you remember this old thing here now. I'm going to do a new thing. Well let me read it to you. Behold I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it. That means experience it. I will make a way in your wilderness. He says, you're in a wilderness and you're facing the power of Satan. You're facing a besetting sin. You're facing a dominion over you. A darkness that the devil's trying to put on you. But God says, just as sure. Now He said at the Red Sea, Pharaoh was the enemy. Satan is your enemy. Pharaoh had an army. The devil's got his army of demons. He's got his army of demonic entities. But He said, just as sure as they couldn't deliver themselves and I had to take it out of their hands and do it myself. Just as sure as they were helpless, you were helpless. You've already cried as many tears as you can cry. You've made all the promises you can make. And you have failed every one of them. Just as sure as I opened the Red Sea. Just as sure as they stood on the other side walking on dry ground. And just as sure as I buried every one of their enemies in the sea. Where did He say He's going to bury your sins? He's referring to the sea that you cross. He said, I'm going to open the door supernaturally as you seek my face and believe my word and my promise. I will open your sea. You will walk right through that besetting sin. You'll walk through that lust. You'll walk through all the opposition of the devil. Because I'm giving you your own Red Sea. Experience. Oh, I got to settle down here. Hallelujah. No more fear. No more fear. None. Glory be to God. No fear. Oh, it gets much better. He said, I'm going to do for you in the spirit what I did for them in the natural. Verse 16. The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might. Let me tell you, first of all, what the root Hebrew word for nations used here is. You ready for this? A troop of crawling animals. Those satanic entities. Look what it says is going to happen when you get a hold of this truth and you move by faith. And God opens the Red Sea. Here comes the devil. He's ready to enslave you again, ready to pull you back down and you'll be setting sin and God's taking you right through by faith on his covenant promises. And when the devil sees you act on those promises, those crawling entities shall see and be confounded at this might, all this manifestation of might. What it is? It's God's people moving into the promises of God. I'm becoming strong through the words that they appropriate and the word that they believe and cast their very life into the arms of this covenant. This promise that was made before the foundation of the world between God and his son, Jesus. We told you he didn't cut it with us. He cut it with his son because we had nothing to offer. We are in the covenant to Jesus Christ, our position in him alone. But oh, look what's going to happen to the devil and his powers. They're going to be confounded at all this might. They shall lay their hands upon their mouth and their ears shall be deaf. What it says? The devil is going to have his hand on his mouth and all the powers of hell are going to be confused. So what's going on in your life? Glory to God. Now we're going to talk about strongholds and how the worms are going to crawl out. Hallelujah. For years we have quoted 2nd Corinthians 10 for we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down the strongholds. Folks, have you ever tried to ask the Holy Spirit? Have you ever asked the Holy Spirit to review to you what the strongholds are? We think strongholds have to do with adultery, fornication and all of these sins that we totem pole. There's something far beyond that that the Lord is trying to show us. What are the weapons against the strong? But first, I've got to explain to you what the Holy Spirit's been saying to me about the stronghold. It comes very, very clear through what Mike is trying to show us here. We think of the devil, the stronghold, as somehow the devil entering into the heart and finding a place there. Now folks, I've always had a problem with people preaching or believing that an overcoming Christian who's truly walking in the word of God and walking in covenant, that the devil can go into the heart or into this body and possess it. Folks, the devil doesn't have to possess your body to turn you into a blithering idiot. That's not what he wants. He's looking at the mind. And when you see it, the figurative meaning of stronghold, and you can look it up in your concordance, the figurative meaning is, and you'll find it in the Greek, an accusation planted firmly in the mind. It's an accusation. It's an argument the devil comes at you with and tries to sell you on this argument that you're going to fall. He's going to plant it in your mind that you are unspiritual. You are not worthy of his grace. He's going to come with a thousand lies. He's going to try, for example, to convince you that you have a right to hold on to the bitterness that you've been holding on to because you've been truly wronged. He's going to try to destroy your marriage by saying, I cannot go through this unless my partner changes, and he'll try to get a lie in your heart. He has an argument. Once you buy that argument and it becomes embedded in you, it's a stronghold. It's an argument. It's not the devil just possessing you. In many, many Christians, this explains how so many Christians are under this kind of harassment from hell because he has infused or injected this thought, and the moment you buy it, that worm crawls into that hole, so to speak, and that embedded worm, that thought is a worm. In fact, the Bible talks about in hell the worm never dies. It's the memory. It's all the thoughts of past experiences and everything else, and these worms of bitterness and rebellion and these lies of the devil that come at you saying that you're not as spiritual as the one sitting next to you. You'll never make it. You're still harassed with evil thoughts. You sin way back, and you still have that thing in you, and it's going to get you again. Oh, all kinds of lies. Folks, I've heard them all. I don't think there are a lot the devil told you he didn't tell me. All these lies, these arguments that the devil presents and keeps coming at you, he'll even mimic the voice of God, and he'll even misquote Scripture to convince you to believe it. These are the strongholds of the enemy. These are where those crawling ... it's just the way of the prophet describing demonic principalities and powers and entities that have come into mind where there's no peace. You come to the house of God, you can't worship, you can't praise because that worm is twisting and turning. He's established and embedded a stronghold in an embedded argument from the pits of hell. Now, the Bible calls the devil an accuser of the brethren. I want you to know that. He is set on accusing you, and he's going to try to accuse you until the last days, and the only way to stop it is to have your walls up. And that's the living Word of God. You can't pull down these strongholds by going to some meeting and have somebody lay hands on you and cast them out. The devil's not at all impressed by manifestations. He's not impressed by shouting. He's not impressed even by all your goodness. I'm telling you now, I've learned a long time ago, if I had no lust, if I had no problems, if I had all figured out and obeyed the law through the letter, I still wouldn't be worthy of salvation. I still couldn't get into heaven. It would still be my righteousness in their filthy rags. So we need something else, don't we? If you keep buying his lie, you don't take authority by the Word of the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit. This just digs in, and folks, no counseling can get it out. I mean, this is just so deeply embedded, such a stronghold, but the Bible said it's truth that sets you free. Now let's get to the really incredible promises, verses 18 and 19. Who is like unto thee that pardons iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion on us. He will, what? Subdue our iniquities. You know what that means in Hebrew? He will tramp on them, and thou will cast all their sins, where? Into the depths of the sea. These are covenant promises. The covenant says, I will be God to you. Who is a god like unto thee? In other words, you will be a god to me. Folks, my wife and I have, we don't own it, but we live on a little farm half the time in New Jersey, and there's a drought, and everything was drying up terribly. Trees and everything was just drying up, and I was praying for rain, and I heard that rain was coming. And so I stood out in the front, and my hands up, but I said, you said you'd be God to me. God, I'd love to come here and look at green pastures. You promised me green pastures and still water, and I'm looking at brown pastures. And it started to rain. And I said, not enough. Well, keep it coming, keep it coming. And, folks, we got three inches of rain in about two hours, and not just our place, but all around. And I'm standing there with my hands raised, it's just pouring buckets, and I'm saying, you are being God to me. God is being God to me. Folks, he wants to be God, and that's what he's saying here. I want to be, I want you to have a right concept of who I am. I want to be God to you. I'm your deliverer. I want to take you through your Red Sea. I'm going to subdue your sins. You can't do it. I am going to subdue your sins, and I will cast them into that sea. And just as sure as the children of Israel stood by the sea and saw all those soldiers sinking and floating away, he said, those are your sins. You watch them float away. I'm going to drown them in the sea and wash them away, never to be found again. Hallelujah. It's all there. You see it? I'm going to pass over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage because he delighteth in me. Oh, he's not going to pass over everybody's sins, and he's not winking at sin here. That's not what he's talking about. He says, I'm going to pass over them because they're going to be gone. They're going to be obliterated. They're going to be extinct because he delights in you. He'll turn again. He will have compassion on you. He will subdue your iniquities. You don't subdue your own iniquities. He does it through the power of the Holy Ghost abiding in us. And I will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. All right, now, verse 17. What happens then? Look at me, please. You're laying hold of these covenant promises. You will accept it now and believe and say, God, you said you would be God to me. You have promised by an oath that you can't break. You have promised by an oath that you will deliver me. You're going to give me my own Red Sea experience. You said the devil is going to have to put his hand over his mouth and he can't accuse me anymore because they're not going to work. You promised to put walls around me and be the glory therein. You have promised me by covenant, by oath, before the foundation of the world, you made this promise to your own son. And you said, as sure as I can't break with my son because you're in me, I can't break it with you because you're my seed. And this covenant promises cannot be broken. Get a hold of it. Believe it. Accept it. Read it over and over again. I'm almost finished with my covenant book. I've got about ten, twelve chapters. And it takes about four or five hours to get through it, and I'm reading it for the third time and I'm getting so blessed because it's suddenly, I am truly believing it. And the more I believe it, the more it's working out the joy and the glory and the blessing of the Holy Ghost in my life. It's life-giving. It's life-freeing. When you believe this with all of your heart, and this is the living Word of God for us today, and look what shall happen. They, the demonic entities, they shall lick the dust like a serpent. They shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God and shall fear because of thee. Now, hold on just a minute. They shall crawl out of their holes. Now, remember it said those crawling, creeping, serpentine fears. All of these embedded fears, all these embedded lies. Do you know what the Greek word for hole here is? It's a Hebrew word here. It's cigar, S-A-R-G-A-R. It means stronghold. The very word used here by Micah is stronghold. Would you believe that it also comes from root word means to surrender. Put them together. When you lay hold of these promises of God and you stand and you put your life on the line with it. It said every demonic power is going to surrender his stronghold. He's going to crawl out. And not only is he going to crawl out, he's going to crawl out in fear of almighty God. He shall fear the Lord and fear because of thee. He's going to be afraid of you. You're no longer afraid of the devil. He's afraid of you. He's afraid of you. Is that in your Bible? Worms. Every demonic thought. All the opposition of hell. Every lie. Every besetting sin. Because he can only hold you in a besetting sin through fear and through a lie. He has dominion only through lies and his false arguments. And the Bible said you lay hold of these promises and every worm shall crawl out of their holes. Out of their strongholds. Surrendered them. They're gone. Hallelujah. And it's now all pure ground. Stand. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. I'm going to have the choir sing God Can. But when you're supposed to sing He'll Make a Way, I want you to sing He's Made a Way. It doesn't mean He can. He has made the way. It's already been made. I want you to sing it. Give me a choir director there, please. Amen. Glory be to God. Folks, if you're in the main auditorium, if you're in any of our annexes and annex auditoriums, I'm going to ask you right now. If you've been bound by a lie of the devil, a lie that says you're going to fall, a lie that says that you're unholy, a lie that says that your temptation is going to bring you down, if you have a hunger for Jesus and you say, I don't want that, I want victory over that lie. Now, if you're not even right with God, you're not saved, you don't have any spiritual, you're backslidden from the Lord, I don't want you to get out of your seat. In the annexes, just walk between the screens, just walk forward between the screens, and they'll be taking you into a room for counseling. But those in the main auditorium, up the upstairs, come down the stairs on the sides, come down any aisle here in the main auditorium. And I want everybody in this church that's been bound by a lie, you've been bound by fear, make a way, please, for these coming down, and wherever you're at, all over this building, I want you to come here, and we're going to pray that God smite that, and that every worm crawl out of the holes, that you walk out of here absolutely free of worms. God's going to deworm you, so to speak, absolutely. God bless you, wherever you're at, come on. Let's believe the Lord now. And those that are watching with us in our gatherings around the country, you can just kneel right where you're at. This is for you, it's for all of us now. God wants us to come and confess and believe God. This is a time for faith now. This is a time to believe what you've heard. You that are coming, I want you to come in faith and believe God's going to set me free. I'm going to pray for you. Let's wait for just a moment until they all come. While the choir gets ready, they're going to sing He's Made a Way. Pray, Lord, that you come now with your power and your glory and give us faith in your everlasting promises made to us before the foundation of the world. Lord, you're going to open every Red Sea. You're going to take us right through every blockade. There will be nothing impregnable. There'll be nothing that we can't walk through now by faith in the Word of God. Lord, send the devil fleeing because we believe God's Word. We stand on the Word of God. Hallelujah. Lord, I pray for those backslidden, those who've grown cold in their heart, those who once prayed and now there's just a dullness, a lukewarmness. Oh, God, put fire in their soul right now. Put fire in their heart as we minister to you in song and praise in Jesus' name. Lord, those who are not right, if you're not right with God, just ask the Lord right now. Lord, cleanse me, sanctify me. Oh, Jesus, I give you my sins. You said you'd make a way out. Now, deliver me. I accept your Word. I believe it and I stand on it. The Lord's looking for faith. He's looking for faith in your heart right now. And I want everybody to sing this with the choir. And, folks, listen, if this is truth, if what I preached to you this morning is truth, it must, it's not should, it must produce a Holy Ghost joy in you. It has to produce peace and rest in your heart. So you get up every morning and say, Devil, you can't rejoice over me anymore. Devil, your lies don't work with me anymore. They don't work. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to God. If there are any of you, if there are any of you, say, Pastor Dave, I don't feel anything. You don't come to Him by feelings. You come to Him by faith and what He has promised in His Word. Believe it. Receive it. He'll deliver you. There'll be no enemy can stand against you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I want you now, as we depart from this service, to turn around and remember all the visitors. Exit 89, Anselar Building, and 204 in the annexes for a free book and a tape and also some refreshments and visit with people from all over the world of faith and trust in the Lord. Amen. Amen. Thank God for His presence here today. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. Now, while the orchestra is playing, I just want you to shake hands with 15 people. Count them. Come on. Spread some cheer in Jesus. Bless somebody. Say, good to see you. God bless you in the house. God bless all of you. See you in the next service.