In this sermon, the preacher begins by referencing Isaiah 24 and the prophecy of a watchman. He acknowledges the warning he has given in his book, "America's Last Call," about the state of the United States. However, he quickly transitions to a message of grace and the mercy of God in Isaiah 25. The preacher emphasizes the faithfulness and truth of God and highlights His strength and refuge for the poor and needy. He also mentions the victory over death that God will bring. The preacher then discusses his role as a watchman, explaining that he is mandated by the Holy Spirit to warn others of impending judgments and storms.

Wonderful, wonderful word has come forth already today, and hopefully this will be a capstone message on those very subjects. Now, let me preface what I'm going to preach tonight. I told you, most of you know that the book America's Last Call has sent a warning throughout the United States. It was primarily for the United States, and that thing is, that's bearing down on us very fast. And then, the Lord spoke to my heart one day and said, if you're going to warn, you've got to believe me for hope, a message of hope for the Church. And so, I've been, I have preached ten messages so far along this very line, how God intends to keep, the name of the new book that will go into publication shortly is called, God's Plan to Keep His People in the Coming Depression. God's Plan to Keep His People in the Coming Depression, and we are offering it to, across the switchboard, I think it was in some 50 languages, we're offering it in every language all over the world to all the publishers who've published their books, and this is a message tonight that you're going to hear tonight that will go all over the world, not because I'm preaching it, not because it's that special, but it's a word that's needed today, because the whole, one-third of the world is already in depression. Brazil is about to go down, soon Mexico, Argentina, and all of Latin America, and the times are very, very perilous, but I have a word of caution tonight, something the Lord is dealing with me about sharing with the body of Christ in these perilous times that we face. And if you'll listen closely tonight to what the Holy Spirit is saying, you'll be able to hear any kind of news that's coming, it will never bother you, there will be no fear in your heart, because I believe that God would not deliver this in this church and send a message around the world without first meeting our need here. He would first prove the point, so to speak, right here, that there's a body who have heard it, believed it, and are practicing the presence of the Lord, and are unmoved by these things. In fact, my message is entitled simply, Resting in Jesus. Now you talk about God's plan to keep his people in coming depression and perilous times. He mandates that we come into this rest in Jesus Christ, that he not just be a theology, but we would enter in to a place in him of total, absolute rest and peace. Heavenly Father, I pray that you anoint this message tonight. I pray that you touch me with fire from heaven. Lord, I want it to come from the innermost being. I want it to come from the throne of God. Lord, I believe you're speaking to the nation, you're speaking to the whole world. And Lord, I feel unworthy of this challenge tonight, but I know that you have placed a call in my heart. You have given us an international pulpit. Lord, you've opened doors, you've given us the respect of many, many people who want to hear what God is saying. And Lord, we humble ourself before you right now, and we ask that the word that goes forth in this pulpit tonight will bring life. Let it produce life. Let it shatter the fear that is arising in so many hearts of so many Christians. Lord Jesus, I give my heart to you fully, that I may be able to express your mind tonight that you've placed in me, for the mind of Christ is in us. We give you thanks, we give you praise, in Jesus' name, amen. Resting in Jesus. Now there's a great difference awareness and obsession. Now to be aware means to be informed, to be alert, to gain knowledge, gather as much knowledge as you can. You become informed, you get all the knowledge that you can gather, but to be obsessed is to be dominated by that gathered knowledge. You have to be careful when you gather knowledge. When you really enter into a subject and you get all the information, you become alerted to the subject, whether it's judgment, whether it's Y2K, on any subject in life, you have to be careful that it does not take over your thinking. And that's all that you think about, that's, you're totally obsessed with that one thought. For example, I asked the Lord to show me how I could approach the future, and he said, first of all, go back in the Old Testament and see how I've worked with past generations. He said, why don't you just go back? In my book on America, I talked about the destruction of London, how we could learn from that, and how to go back to Shiloh. The Lord told me to go back to the last depression, the 1930s in the United States, to see why God smoked the country with the Great Depression that lasted for 10 years, that broke out in 1929. And so I gathered as many books as I could to get informed. And one of the books I read was by an author who spent, I think, 12 years writing this book. And most of the book has to do with letters that President Hoover and Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband received. I think he said he waited through 250,000 letters that were on file in the archives, Roosevelt archives. And he absolutely got so involved in this, it just consumed his life. In fact, the book is very powerful. You feel the terror of those days, and especially among the poor and among the blacks in the southern United States. But in the foreword of the book, this man apologized to his wife for having made her eat and drink the Depression. In fact, it so got to him, that's all he can, it literally took his life, literally consumed his life, everything. He was absolutely obsessed with the Depression in the 1930s. Now let's talk about the subject that I've been bringing to this audience for the last 10 weeks or so, and then 12 weeks before that on the previous subject on America's Last Call. I've warned about coming judgments, I've brought to you some very frightful things that the flesh doesn't want to hear. I've talked about an impending storm and the warning of a worldwide Depression. Now as a watchman, I am only one of many, many of God's watchmen. I'm mandated by the Holy Spirit to share what I know from Scripture and what the Holy Spirit is saying to my heart. If I'm on the wall and I see a storm coming, I see a tornado coming, I've got to warn those in the city that I've called to warn. Now the trumpet may sometimes, you can see something is so terrifying and get so emotional and blow the trumpet so loud it could pierce the ear of everybody within the walls. But nevertheless, the watchman's only job, his only calling is to warn, to inform, and to give you the knowledge of what is coming. He's called a seer, he looks into the future, he looks into the Word of God. In fact, you can discount everything I say that you can't prove by the Word of God. We have so many people calling themselves prophets today. First of all, you can't show me any prophet in the Old Testament who called themselves a prophet, and they never tried to qualify that they were. They never tried to prove that they were prophets by what they said. In other words, you know I'm a prophet because this is going to happen, this is going to happen, to validate their fact that they thought that they were a prophet. But you see, a watchman's calling is to sound an alarm. Now all the Old Testament prophets were watchmen, every one of them. They were seers, they were alerting God's people of awesome judgment were coming down on them, the Spirit of God would come on these men, and they would talk about invading armies, and they described their very hoofbeats. You could almost, when you listen to them, you can hear the sound of the war. They talked about pestilences, and famines, and judgments, and wars, and shakings. Yet I find when I study these men to be the most well-balanced men that had an underlying strength of joy, and judgment was not their only message. They were just, they were just as excited about alerting God's people about the love and the mercy of God. And we have totally misjudged all of the old prophets, especially Jeremiah and Ezekiel, because we hear them talking about their bowels boiling, and the fear, and the trembling. And so we picture these prophets just running around their whole lifetime with a long face, and the wind blowing, and thunder, and lightning. That's the wrong concept of every single prophet in the Word of God. They never did allow, not a single prophet that I've studied, allowed the prophets of wrath and coming judgment to dominate their thoughts to the point that it hid the face of God, the mercy and the grace of God. They never allowed that to happen in their lives. Let me give you an example. Go to Isaiah 24. Now I want to prove my point now. Now folks, if you love the Word of God, I'm going to show you some things tonight that will bring great joy to your heart in the days ahead. Chapter 24 of Isaiah. I presume everyone has their Bible with them here tonight. I go to verse 16, beginning to read verse 16 of Isaiah 24. Now listen to this horrible prophecy. This watchman is saying, from the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, my leanness, my leanness, lo unto me. The treacherous deiters have dealt treacherously, yea, the treacherous deiters have dealt very treacherously. He said, all I see, everywhere I look, is treachery, lying. And in another portion he said, truth is fallen to the streets. Fear and the pit and the snare are upon the own habit of the earth. So come to pass that he that fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken to the snare. For the windows from on high are open than the foundations the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down. Boy, if you were frightful of anything I've ever prophesied. Verse 19, earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage, and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again, and it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. Now look at me please, folks, this is an incredible thing that he's saying. God is shaking everything that can be shaken, everything in sight, all joy is darkened in another place, all mirth is gone, the earth here he said is reeling to and fro like a drunken man. He said the Lord is punishing the whole earth. The whole earth is under punishment, this man says. Now Isaiah is describing to the people what he sees coming. It has not yet happened, but he said this is what is about to happen, and he's alerting them. He's doing the work of a watchman. He's grieved at what he says, that my soul is so lean. In other words, he said I'm emaciated when I think about it. It's really gripped me so, what I see and I know is coming, and it pained him. He felt it deeply, but having delivered his soul and no longer blood guilty, absolutely have delivered his soul the message God gave him to him. I want you to see how quickly he moves into the message of grace and the mercy of God. Chapter 25, the very next chapter, verse 1, O Lord thou art my God, I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name, for thou hast done wonderful things, thy counsels of all are faithfulness and truth. Now that's, that's got to be a happy soul. No one can be talking like this unless, he said, I have done my part, I have warned the people, but all I want you to know I serve a wonderful, marvelous God. Look at verse 4, if you will please. For thou has been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is a storm against the wall. Isn't that marvelous? Verse 8, he will swallow up death and victory. Do you think this is a morose man who's allowed the, the watchman's message to discourage him and take away his joy? He will swallow up death and victory. The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord has spoken it. It shall be said in that day, Lord this is our God, we've waited for him and he will save us. This is the Lord we have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Isaiah was a glad prophet. He was a happy man, carried the burden of the Lord, but he was never far away from this message. Oh, there's no more grace, there's no more mercy in all the Bible than you can find right here in these prophets, especially in Isaiah. Jeremiah, you remember, is called the prophet of gloom and doom. His warnings and was terrifying in the Bible. He's the prophet, remember, that was called to pronounce judgment on Jerusalem. He was the one who announced the captivity for 70 years, and that was in a time of prosperity. He said, no, I'll tell you what, I see armies coming in. This city's going to be destroyed. You're going to be eating your babies. You're going to be boiling your babies. If this whole city's coming down, the walls are coming down. You're going to go into captivity 70 years, and they mocked him and they laughed at him. And that's when this man said his bowels would boil in him until he got even tired of preaching the message because nobody wanted to hear. But you see, the judgment of the fiery wrath of God was not his prime message. That's really not the message of Jeremiah. Go to Jeremiah the 30th chapter, if you will, please. Turn to your right, Jeremiah 30. I hope I can change your mind about these prophets. Jeremiah is almost always talking about restoration, health, cure, rebuilding. Look at verse 17, Jeremiah 30, starting verse 17. For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord, because they called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places. And the city shall be built upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving in the voice of them that make merry. And I will multiply them, and they shall not be few. But I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregations shall be established before me. And I will punish all that oppress them, and their nobles shall be of themselves. Their governors shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause him to draw near. He shall approach unto me, for who is this that engages his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord God. He said, I'm going to have a holy remnant, and I'm going to bless them. His eyes were always on that holy remnant, and always on the provision that God would make for a repentant people. This is, this is not a man who goes around moaning and groaning his whole lifetime. This man is a preacher of mercy. In fact, in Jeremiah 32, turn over a little, I'll give you his heart. Jeremiah's heart is found in this one verse. Jeremiah 32, verse 42. Verse 42, For thus saith the Lord, Like as I have brought all this great evil upon the people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. That's his heart. He said, Just as sure as I tell you what is coming of judgment, I'm telling you repentance will bring forth the goodness and the grace and the mercy of God. That was the heart of the Prophet Jeremiah. He was not obsessed with the judgment message. Oh, he would not spare, he cried aloud, because he knew God's hatred for sin. But no man could have spoken about restoration like this man did, unless he had a heart that was at peace and at rest. Now look at me, please. You say, Pastor, what's the point? Now here it is, and listen clearly, please. We're to listen carefully to the warnings of God's watchman. We're to be alerted. We're to be warned. We're to heed the message. We're to repent. We're to prepare our hearts and anticipate the coming storm. But you do not become obsessed with the warnings. You don't allow them to take over your life. You don't allow it to consume your thinking. You don't let it take your heart. The devil, if he can't get you to misbelieve the words of the Prophet, he will take you to the other extreme, and he will try to plant forebodings and fear and anxiety in you, and he will so want you to get so involved in prophecy, he'll make you a prophecy addict, so that you will run around, you'll get tapes, you'll get books, you'll run to every prophecy conference, and you'll be so obsessed with studying the Armageddon, the Mark of the Beast. Am I going to have to take the Mark of the Beast? Where am I going to buy? Where am I going to sell? You'll be so hooked on finding out who the Antichrist is. I told you the one book I told you, I saw some, I got in a bookstore, The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea, that Prince Charles is the Antichrist. A whole book, and people go into the conferences to hear who the Antichrist is. And you, you, you will get so far away from Christ the head. You will get so away from the vision of the grace and the keeping power of Jesus, that you, that the enemy can use that to give you an obsession that absolutely dominates your life. We're to be informed, but we're not to dwell on it. In fact, in Philippians 4.8, Paul tells us what we're to dwell on in our minds. Finally, brother, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest and just, whatsoever things are pure, lovely to, of good report, if they have any virtue, if there be any praises, think on these things. He said you're going to think on the good and the love. You have the warning, you, you take heed to what the word of the Lord says, and what the prophets say, or rather the watchmen say, and then you say, thank you Lord for the warning, but now let me think upon Jesus Christ and his goodness. Hallelujah. Now folks, I have, as far as I know, faithfully warned those things that God's told me to warn. And I've warned that there's going to be a lot of suffering for God's people, but folks, that's not the focus of my ministry. I don't have an obsession on these things, but I do have one obsession, and that's my relationship with Jesus Christ. It's my intimacy, it's my life with him that I keep my heart focused on. Now folks, I know the stock market is going to blow, and I know the American lifestyle is going to change, and the lifestyle of every prosperous nation on earth is going to change, but I don't get up in the morning and say, Lord, what am I going to eat? What am I going to drink? What am I going to wear in the cold? Where am I going to get fuel to stay warm? I don't talk, I don't get up in the morning, or I don't lay in my bed at night and say, Lord, what's going to happen to Times Square Church? What's going to happen to all the people? I sleep like a baby. I don't worry about those. You see, I'm not God, and there's nothing I could do for anybody in any way. I can't do anything, so I do what Isaiah did. He put his mind to rest. He saw all that was coming, and even though in his flesh he trembled, and he said, this has left me lean. There's an inner emaciation in my spirit because of this, but he never dwelt on that. Listen to what he says, Isaiah 26 3, Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. In the original Hebrew, it is peace, peace. He will give him not perfect, but peace, peace. It's a double portion peace. It's peace for the flesh, peace for the spirit, mind, soul, and body. Jesus said a peace that no man can give you. It's this, it is the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In the original Hebrew, he will be kept in peace, peace, whose mind is resting in Christ, whose mind is resting in Christ. Y'all, his mind is resting in his relationship because he fully trusts in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Praise you, Jesus. Now, there's many devices that Satan uses to try to discourage God's people, and I, when I'm reading Isaiah especially, you know, I've never considered myself a prophet, and I wouldn't be worthy to be a servant to Isaiah, this holy man of God, but sometimes I think I know how he felt when he looked at the nation, and especially in light of what God was showing him, and he knew that the people had not responded to former judgments, and he knew that God was going to shake everything, and he watched God take away their prosperity, and he saw the Lord humbling the nation for a season, they stood and responded, and then he watched as God began to prosper the nation again. He said, let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he'll not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. He said, it's an amazing thing. Isaiah's looking over the situation, he said, now how does God get through to this people? They won't accept the famines and the pestilence, they don't see God's hand in it, it's just a happenstance to them. And he says, now when God favors them, they don't learn righteousness that way. When God prospers them, they just turn to their own evil ways and say, look what my hands have accomplished. And this is what is baffling this man. He said, they don't behold the majesty of the Lord in any of this. We see the same thing happening here. We've seen nations battered with storms and floods. I mean, they've been battered with tornadoes and hurricanes and famines and pestilences and all kinds of ways that God's trying to get the attention of the peoples and they don't respond. But you see, Isaiah never gave up. He never gave up hope through all this because in Isaiah 25, 23, he says, in spite of it, he's saying, the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion gloriously. This man had this knowledge, folks, Christians, through it all, no matter what you hear, what you see. Folks, the day is going to come soon that I don't have to say anything to you. The newspaper is going to say it, radio, television, everything, it's all going to be there. And it's going to be here, but there has to be in your heart, in my heart, no matter what happens, we know that God is reigning in Zion gloriously. He's on the throne. He sits king of the flood. He says, for when your judgments now are on the earth, that inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. And what he's saying, there's going to come a time that God says, I will teach you now by my rod. And the judgment that was coming to Israel now was the rod. I was reading an article yesterday, a paper by a Hollywood party goer, one of these Hollywood producers, and he's a party goer, and they're having such wild parties now, drunken orgies, in all over Los Angeles and Hollywood. And he made this statement. He said, things have become so debauched, divine retribution has to come. This is a man who's drunk all the time and using drugs. And he said, it's so wild now. And this man, you see what God says? There is going to be retribution until every man knows it's divine. It's divine. Only God can do what he's about to do, he's saying. I know. What are the righteous supposed to do when all of these things start coming down on men? Isaiah said, for the Christian, there's a wonderful outlook for those who have their minds stayed on Jesus Christ. There's a prophesized judgment from Isaiah 26, 12 chapters preceding. It's all about horrible judgments that are coming. He's prophesying to a number of nations, and especially to Jerusalem and Judah. He warned of the collapse, in those 12 chapters, if you read them, he warned of the collapse of the world's greatest power, Babylon. And this seemed impossible. How could the world's greatest superpower ever come to ruin? Nobody could believe this fantastic prophecy from Isaiah. How could it fall into ruin? It's too rich, it's too powerful to fall. But suddenly Moab begins to fall, just as Isaiah warned. Tyre was judged. And now he sees in his mind Damascus, Egypt, Arabia, Tarsus, along with Israel, Judah, Jerusalem, and finally Babylon. And God's saking, he said, everything that can be saken. All men everywhere were in mourning. There's desolation everywhere. And this is all in his mind. Now you'd think a man that sees destruction coming to the whole world would be so devastated he couldn't, he couldn't maintain his ministry. He'd be overwhelmed by it. But you see, I always told you his secret. He said, my mind is staying on my Lord. None of these things can affect me, because my mind, I'm at rest in my mind. Pastor Carter was so at rest this morning he started just about to dance all over this platform. It's a mind that stayed on the Lord. How do you come into this resting place? It's one thing to say you need your mind stayed on Christ, but how do you come into this? According to Isaiah, first of all, when the judgments are shaking the nation, he was shut in with God. He was waiting on the Lord. In Isaiah 26a, yea, in the way of thy judgments. In other words, when your judgments are upon the nations, oh Lord, we have been waiting for thee. The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee. You see, he was ready for anything that came because he's on his knees. He's waiting on the Lord. He said, my desire, my whole desire, I'm not waiting for these things to come. I've made my statement. I'm not looking for them. I'm not desiring them. They're going to come. But he said in the meantime, I'm waiting on the Lord. Not waiting for judgment. What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for judgment? Are you waiting till you see whether you're going to make it or not? Are you waiting till you get into employment or you fear you're going to lose your job or your house or whatever? What are you fearing? If you're waiting on the Lord, you're getting strength and your mind is being stayed on Christ. He's revealing his power and his strength to you in the secret closet. I read a statement by a Puritan this past week. He said, no matter what a man claims about Christianity, he is not a Christian who does not pray. He's an atheist. He said, I don't care what his claim is. I don't care how much he claims he knows of Christ. If he neglects his prayer closet, he went on to say this man is not a believer. He's not a Christian. He's an atheist. He said, how can you be a believer and neglect him? How can you say you trust him and not pray to him? No, there is no, there's no way on earth that you can work yourself into a place of trust. You can't work up faith. There's no human power. There's no way in the world. In fact, you say, well, doesn't the Bible say, faith come by hearing the word. I'll just read the word and faith will come. Folks, it's not just the word. It's the spirit of the word. And the spirit of the world does not come to you. The spirit of the word does not come and tell your son in with God. He gives you the spirit of the word. The secret of the Lord is of them that seek him. And this is the secret of the Lord and you don't get it just reading it. Isaiah could say, I see the frightful judgments falling on all the nations and I tremble at it. The judgments that are coming are unspeakable, but none of these things dominate my thinking. None of these things can take from me this perfect peace because in the midst of this, I have one obsession. I have my mind totally obsessed with Christ, with my Lord. Don't tell me Christ, Isaiah didn't know Christ. Oh, he knew Christ. Prophesied about his coming, saw him in his spirit. It's not God's will that any Christian, any true believer approach the perilous times of fear and trembling. It's not his will that these prophecies frighten his people. Let me give you the heart of Jesus, folks. Listen closely. Jesus said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. That's the heart of Jesus. In Matthew 24, Jesus himself gives some very powerful, alarming prophecies of the coming events. Folks, what bothers me today, we have pillow prophets, I call them, going all over the land and they're saying it's the year of Jubilee. God's going to pay all your debts this year. You won't have any debt. That's a lie. What are they going to do at the end of the year when their bills are piled up? That's not what Jubilee means at all. If you wouldn't preach from this pulpit, it's all about Christ. It's all about his redeeming power, setting you free from the debt of sin. Not Sears and Robbock. Jesus said, there'll be wars coming, pestilence, earthquakes in various places. You'll be afflicted and some will be killed. Iniquity will abound. False Christ and false prophets are going to rise. Many will be deceived. The sun will be darkened. The stars are going to fall from the heaven. And Jesus said, behold, I've told you before. I've told you these things. And there's a reason not to scare them. He's not trying to motivate holiness through fear. He's not saying in so many words, you better tell the line because look what's coming. No, no, no, no, no. He later explained to them. He said, I told you all these things so you would believe when you saw them coming. That a Christ who had the foreknowledge to warn you has the power to keep you. He said, so that your faith would not be shaken. He said, I've told you all these things so that you would not be shaken when you saw, see them come. Now folks, I want to tell you something. And I want you to listen closely. We don't want to hear this kind. We want to go to the Bible and we want to lay hold of every keeping promise there is. But I want to open your eyes tonight and listen closely, please. In 1949, just before the communists took over China, they were always already moving on, on the, on the Eastern provinces. They were coming and already reports were that they were murdering and, and maiming the people and, and, and confiscating property. But almost all evangelicals were telling the Chinese Christians, the Lord's going to come and rapture you away. You're not, there's not going to be any suffering. And they quoted the scriptures and the people in their churches, raising their hands, praising God on these promises. And they were told they would not suffer because Jesus is going to come and keep you from the hour of temptation. The communists came in, into their churches, burned them, murdered, maimed, and took their children. And this can't be denied. It's a historical fact. And then the Christians, millions of Christians became absolutely self-shocked. They didn't want to hear about Christ. They said, well, we're, we were told that we would not have to endure any of this. They endured it. Faith was shattered for many, many years because there were no prophets, there were no watchmen trying to remind them what Jesus said. Jesus said, some of you will be killed. Some of you are going to be cast in prison. In fact, he said, some that kill you will think they're doing God a favor. Rwanda. There were many, many Christians, and many of those evangelical, especially Pentecostal churches, who sat in Rwanda listening to prosperity gospel, saying that you don't have to suffer if you come to Christ. Their eyes were blinded. And then when the war broke out, their churches were burned. The same thing. There were, it was one murder after another. They had to run free as refugees. And then in the refugee camps, many, many pastors got together in churches, and they released first in one camp 1,200 Bibles. Camps in Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi. But they wouldn't take them. They didn't want to hear about the Word. They said, we were told we would be raptured. And we weren't raptured. We weren't ready for this. We weren't told we would suffer. We weren't warned. They said, we've been failed. Where was our God? Now folks, I want to listen, I want you to listen closely, because God gave me revelation. Some of you are scared already. You say, well how am I going to trust any of their promises? I'm going to show you tonight something I don't think you've seen, and something you and I are going to have to hear, because the Lord told me that I have to warn you tonight that there's going to be suffering like you've never seen. Some of you are going to lose your houses. Some of you are going to lose your jobs. There's going to be suffering. There's going to be pain. Some of you may be killed. I can't stop what the Holy Ghost taught me to tell you and warn you. There is going to be suffering, and all of these prophets who are telling people they're going to prosper, one day they're going to be most hated, despised men on earth. Their lives are going to be in danger, because people are going to take them by the throat and say, why didn't you warn me? You told me my bills would be paid. You made me false promises. Now folks, every promise in the book is yea and amen to all belief. Not one promise will ever fail, but I want to show you something. I want to show you that every Christian that was martyred, every person that's been killed in the name of Jesus, everyone that suffered in this way, first of all, when you get to heaven, you're going to understand what Stephen saw, what Stephen said, and why it's recorded in the Word. Just before he was stoned to death, the stones were already pounding him. You say we're not going to suffer. You say that you're going to be raptured. Do I believe in the rapture? I believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ at any moment. I believe he could come tonight, but I also believe that there's going to be suffering and tribulation. I'm not talking about the great tribulation before then. There may be much tribulation, but I can't soften the blow of what the Word of God says and what I see. I don't care if anybody hears. Well, I do care, but I don't care what they say of it. I want to show you that those who go this path, those of you who will suffer, it may, I may be one of them. The first thing I want to tell you is that when you get to heaven, you're going to find out that every single one who was martyred saw the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father with his arms wide open. Everyone, this was not a special grace only for Stephen. If you read Fox's Book of Martyrs, you'll find that men that were burning the stake just before they went into eternity said, I see him, I see him, I see him. You see, we see death not as God sees it. We're going around mourning and God says, how precious in the eyes of the Lord are the death of his saints. Not the killing of them, but the death, the going of them into his presence. I want to tell you, my friends, that if you were in heaven right now, in paradise, and you were to walk up and down the streets of glory, and you were to ask every, any one of them, would you like to go back and fulfill your years? Would you like to go back and get your 70 some years? Do you want to go back to that blade of grass? Do you want to go back to that veil of tears? They'd say, no, God wiped all my tears. Not one would trade places with you for your measly 70 years when they've got eternity. Not one. Furthermore, and this nails it, so that you never again have to worry about what's coming even to the point of death. Live or die, I am the Lord's. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. That's Bible. Now let me give you even better. You ready? Every single believer who goes this path of martyrdom suddenly receives the goal and the fulfillment of every promise in the book. Every promise. You said, well, he said he'd supply every need. Oh, isn't that the supply of every need? Come on now. Isn't that the supply? In fact, God revealed to me that the 91st Psalm was the martyr's psalm. Go to Psalm 91. That's the martyr's psalm. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he's my refuge, my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. Aren't they delivered? Instant glory. The fowler can't touch him. Hasn't he fulfilled that promise? Right there it is. He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings thou shall trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night, nor the arrow that flyeth by day. When those arrows might hit you, don't be afraid. It's my arrow. Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy right, at thy side. Ten thousand at thy right, it shall not come near thee. Only thy eyes shall see. Thou shalt behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the Most High thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come near thy dwelling. Now folks, what is the dwelling? This is the dwelling, the temple of the Holy Ghost. He said nothing can touch this temple. He's talking about the dwelling of the Lord himself, the dwelling place of the Holy Ghost. Cannot affect your dwelling place of the Holy Ghost. Cannot affect your spirit and your soul. Can't touch it. Not a hair of your head shall perish. Oh now folks, if you're going to talk physical, every hair on the head of Christ perished. Every head and the disciples when they were murdered. Folks, Jesus was murdered. He was murdered. He was killed by the hands of angry wicked men. He's talking about eternal life. Not a head of your hair, not one hair of your head is going to hell. It's going to the fire. You've got eternal life. We're not seeing it right. We're so focused on protecting ourselves from any bit of suffering. You read it. I'm not going to go through it all. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder. Oh folks, what great victory than death in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Ever been in the funeral parlor where a saint of God has departed in the last time we see them? There's such a peace of the Holy Ghost. There's such a rest. I can tell every time I go into a preaching field, I know whether they're right or wrong. Holy Spirit bears witness. There's a peace of God that floods the whole place. Hallelujah. Glory to God. 91st Psalm, I'll say it again, is the martyr's song. Glory to God. The prophet gives a final warning. He said, you're not going to be able to make it, what is coming. Pastor Carter said it ably this morning. You'll not be able to endure what's coming unless your spirit and your mind is fully at rest on the rock of ages. He told the children of Israel the reason you have such grief in your heart and sorrow as these things come. God's people, even the remnant at that time, some of the remnant, because you see what had happened, some of the remnant had repented, and they turned to the Lord. The scripture says, but they didn't fix their mind on the Lord himself. They didn't fix their mind. And here's what he said, thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and you have not been mindful of the rock of your strength. You haven't been mindful of the rock. You didn't remember where your strength comes from. This rest in him, absolute rest. Now folks, this message is meant to encourage your faith and build you up. It has to come to this place where you say, Pastor Dave, I hear what you're saying. I'm going to go to the secret cause. I'm going to be waiting on the Lord. Now, if you're not going to pray, if you're not going to seek the face of God, and I'm going to close this in a few months, if you're not going to set your heart and your face to seek the Lord and wait on him, it's what waiting on the Lord means, just to seek his face. If you're not even going to take that step, you're going to plant yourself in front of a TV set. You sit there a little, a little couch potato, and say, well I got all the promises of God. God's going to protect me and everything's fine. Folks, the goal of every promise, the goal of every promise, is to bring us safely home to Christ. That's the goal of every promise. Why would God give them? No, folks, the wonderful thing is to bypass all of this and reach the goal, so that every purpose of every promise is fulfilled. I don't know if you're seeing that. Any of you pastors seeing it? You know, I would rather have the fruits of the promises, I would rather quickly come right in. That's what Paul's talking about. He said, I want to go home. I want to, I have all these wonderful promises from my flesh and my body, but I miss him. I want to be with the Lord. That's my heart. He didn't care how he got there. He got there through martyrdom, but he said, you have not been mindful of the rock of your strength. I want you to go to Psalm 125, please. Will you stand? I have a feeling, look at me, I have a feeling some of you thought, well pastor, you started really well, but then you scared the daylights out of me. Folks, something went in my notes, the Spirit of the Lord came on me. Jesus said, I'm not told you any of these things to scare you, is what he's saying. I didn't tell you any of that to frighten you, but Jesus said, I have to tell you, some of you, I'm gonna go that way, but he said, told you these things that you'd be not afraid. He's saying, I don't want your face shipwrecked. I don't want your face shipwrecked. Can I believe these promises? I believe them now more than ever. I lay hold of them, but folks, over, over and above all of these promises, there's only one thing that God says you need to see you through any dark day through anything you have. You simply put your trust in me, totally. Just give, he said, are you, folks, are you, you're willing to give your mind, you're willing to give your spirit, you want to give your body? Are you willing to say, Lord, just take what you, just take my life. I'm not going to be afraid. I'm going to live with fear or anything else. I'm not going to live with fear. I know that God dealt with Pastor Carter on this, because when he first came here, he talked about, about this very thing. I wonder if God would ever expect martyrdom. I don't know if somebody remembers that, and I do, but I want you to read this chapter with me, and I want you to listen carefully to it. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever, as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands to iniquity. Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts, for such as turn aside under the crooked ways of the Lord, so lead them forth to the workers of iniquity. Peace shall be upon Israel. Now I want you to go to one last chapter, Psalm 5, the fifth chapter of Psalm, if you will, please, and I want you to read this with me. Hallelujah. Fifth chapter of Psalm, verses 10 to 12, please. I want you to read it out loud with me. I'll read the tenth, and then you read the 11th verse. Destroy thou them, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they rebelled against thee. You see, he's talking about what's going to happen to the wicked, but now he's got a message for the righteous. In verse 11, read it out loud if you have King James. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy, because thou hast defended them. Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. He said, I want to rejoice and be joyful in thee. Folks, I have read of those who went through hard times in past history, and they were even being led. You see, we don't know Jesus like this, and we ought to. We are going to know him more and more as he manifests himself. But all the way to the stake, the burning stake, where the faggots of fire were burning, they were singing praises to the Lord. There was peace, and there was rest. The Holy Ghost gave them to that. Now folks, there may not be anybody in this place ever have to be martyred before the Lord. You may not be persecuted to that point, and in the riots that come, you may never find a straight bullet or anything else, but I want you to know one thing. No matter what happens, God is faithful to his people, and live or die, we are the Lord's, and he is going to keep his promise. He is going to keep his promise to his people, and he said, you keep your mind state on me, and you rejoice. When you see all these things come, look up and rejoice. It's because your redemption's drawing nigh. Do you want to go with the Lord? Would you prefer to be with him? Oh, you're young and 24, about to be married. You say, well, I hope he waits a year. You got a new car, and you want to enjoy it. I think there's something the Bible about that. I married a wife. I bought a piece of land. No, he said, let's go to the feast. Folks, we're going to a feast. Let me, let me show you something. You're singing, I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away. Then a watchman comes and tells you something's coming. Sure, you're going to fly away now. You see how fickle we are? You say, will you believe every word in this book? If you believe every word in this book, there should not be one moment of fear in your heart right now. There shouldn't be an ounce of fear, not one iota of fear in you, because if you have fear in your heart, you've not been hearing what the Holy Ghost has been saying. It doesn't matter what happens. It doesn't matter what comes. You're in the palm of His hand, and nobody can take you from Him. Nobody. Hallelujah. But there's one thing I have to say before I close. This is an altar call. If you're here tonight, now maybe you, sorry you came, but if you become this church, and you're from Times Square Church, you're glad you came. I argued with the Lord all along. He told me to do this a week ago, and I said, I can't do it. I can't warn that kind of strong warning. And the Lord said, if you do, I'll bless you. I'll honor you if you'll do what I tell you to do. Because see what I told you, I'm telling millions now around the world. You talk about being called doomsday preacher. I hope you'll pray that I can handle that. But there's some of you came here tonight, and the fear is not martyrdom or anything else, and it's not the fear of losing your job or anything else. Because you that lose your job, God won't provide other ways for you. There's no question He's going to provide. You lose your house and your apartment, God's going to give you something in His place. He's not going to leave you out in the streets. You're not going to beg for food. That's not what it is at all. No. But some of you came here, and the fear that you have in your heart is because you're not ready to face Him face to face. Because you've got a great big sin right in front of your eye. You have a great big thing standing there. God's dating with you. You know it. I don't have to dig into your heart and tell you what it is. You know it, and the Holy Ghost knows it. We're long past playing games in this church. That's not what this church is all about. This church is about life and death. And when you truly repent and turn to the Lord, He comes running to you. He comes with all the mercy and grace and strength. The Holy Ghost will come to you and comfort you beyond anything you can receive. He's got abundant comfort for you and strength. He'll help you fight that sin. He'll help you overcome it. But you've got to acknowledge that it's sin. You've got to acknowledge it's wrong. You've got to acknowledge it's going to damn your soul and send you to hell. It's that street. And God sent you here tonight, and some of you have been backslidden. You're not right with God. You're playing games with Him. Some of you are still watching porno. Some of you are still watching filthy videos. Or you're watching television that you ought to be ashamed of. Some of that stuff that you're watching is out of the pits of hell. And you're sitting and come to the house of God and praise Him. The Lord says, no, that's not enough now. I want you to lay it down. I want you to come on us and for it. There's some things that God expects us to do. And how can we expect to do the miraculous when we won't do the normal? When we can't do the natural? That which we have the power to do. You've got power to shut it off. You've got power to walk away from it. At the end of it comes in the Holy Ghost to give you power to keep your no. He'll give you strength. But you've got to make a move. I'm going to open these altars right now for those who've been dealt with by the Holy Spirit. He's putting His finger on sin right now. He's putting a finger. He said, I love you. I don't want you to walk out here tonight the way you came in. The Lord says, I want you to leave here tonight with the greatest peace you've ever had. I'm going to give you that peace, peace, that double portion of peace, the peace that passes all understanding. I want to give it to you tonight. If you've got sin hanging over you, there's no peace. There's no way you can have peace. You know, you can have a false peace if you don't have the peace of Christ. Up in the balcony, go to the stairs on either side and come down any aisle and you'll hear the main floor. Just come here and let me pray with you and we'll believe God right now to break the chains and give you freedom right now. Wherever you're at, if you're bound by fear, come and we're going to take authority over that in Jesus' name right now and believe God for total victory in your life. Up in the balcony, go the stairs on either side. Come only as the Spirit draws you.