In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not being afraid and trusting in God's supernatural deliverance. He uses the example of the Israelites in Exodus, who were in a state of panic when Pharaoh and his army were approaching. However, God intervened and fought the battle for them, teaching us that all New Testament victories are based on the patterns of the Old Testament. The preacher then goes on to provide three keys to overcoming any habit or besetting sin, which are found in Deuteronomy 7. These keys involve standing still, trusting in God's power, and recognizing that we are not alone in the battle.

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. Go to Psalm 23. Anybody know what the 23rd Psalm is? I want you to look just at verse 4, please. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, and I ride on thy step to comfort me. My message, I will fear no evil. I will fear no evil. I'm asking God tonight to set a whole lot of people free from fear, bondage, and that you'll have hope tonight and you'll never again fear. God, take all fear out of your life about your old sins and your old problems and your old failures and the devil will never be able to lie to you again. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your manifest presence here tonight. Jesus, you have been so close to us. Now, Lord, we come to the table of the Lord. We come to the food. We come to your word. And I pray, Lord, that you sanctify me, purge me from all iniquity, give me clean hands and a pure heart, that I may minister the word in righteousness. God, speak your truth to our hearts. God, help us tonight to shake off all bondage and all fear through the power of your word. Lord, it's truth that sets us free. Truth. And we come to your truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Recently, a young man came to me and said, Pastor Dave, God has really helped me. He's delivered me some drugs and alcohol. But he said, I still fight one other battle. There's another sin in my life having to do with lust. He said, I enjoy a few weeks of victory, maybe even a month at a time. Then suddenly the old temptation hits me and I collapse again. And I fall back into my old sin. And he said, I get so upset and I feel so guilty about it. And I can't understand why God won't take it away. It's always there. It keeps coming back. And because, he said, I really want to please the Lord and I want to be free. But Pastor Dave, he said, I'm afraid my old sin is going to win. It's going to control me and ruin me. He said, what am I going to do? I'm afraid that this one thing that's still left in my life is going to take me back to my old ways. And he said, I live in fear. He said, I tremble about it. There are multitudes of Christians in the Church of Jesus Christ today, all over the world, who dearly love Jesus. They love Him passionately. And they yearn to live a life free from bondage to a controlling passion or sin. And they've known seasons of victory. They have periods of deliverance. There's still that lingering hold. There's that something there that doesn't let go. And it's deep inside. It's in the mind. It's so impressed. It lingers. And they live in fear, constantly afraid they're going to be seduced back into their old lifestyle. One young Christian boy became habituated to a very strong narcotic. He was in the hospital. He'd been operated on for cancer. And in his rehabilitation, they give him this very, very strong, in fact, this narcotic went into a drip needle, and he could turn it on any time. And he was just hooked when he came out, terribly hooked. His father, a Christian doctor, and he started stealing the drugs from his father's medical case. And his father recognized. He knew the drugs were missing. He couldn't figure it out. And the Lord dealt with this young man. He's a Christian, and God dealt with him. And he went to his father and confessed. He said, Dad, I've been so hooked. And he told me later, he said, Pastor Dave, I was so hooked, I could smell it. Even when it was in the medical bag, right through the leather, I could smell it. I could taste it. I would salivate. And he said I would tremble. I had to have that. Even though I knew it was sin, I knew it was wrong, it was destroying, I just had to have it. Well, when he confessed it, the Lord healed him. He marvelously healed him, and he's serving the Lord today. But I'll never forget, he said, Bro. Dave, it was frightening. I went for so many, and I couldn't break it. It was just a nightmare. I cried, I prayed, I wept, and I couldn't shake it. I was literally hooked. I've had a man confess about gambling habit. And, folks, if you think drugs something, gambling habit. This addiction is one of the worst addictions on the face of the earth. When he tells about selling furniture, selling radio, television, iron, every piece of furniture, one by one, selling it, selling the clothes off his back. Losing family, losing everybody. And afraid any time he needed money, he would go to his relatives. He'd go to other friends until finally he had no friends. Relatives didn't want him around. They knew he was a gambler. And every time he got a dollar, he would sweat because he knew what he was going to do with it. And so there's just no way. And there are many, many that have never been able to get deliverance from the problem of gambling. There are so many Christians that have given up because they said the battle is too intense. It'll always be there. There is absolutely no victory. It's impossible to get free. I'm addicted. I can't help it. I have met on the streets of New York many drug addicts over the years, and especially in the last three years. And I would be walking the street and these drug addicts would come up to me and they'd say, for the day, they knew me by name, said, don't you recognize me? It would be John. It would be Frank. It would be Jose. And they said, well, I'm Frank. Don't you recognize me? I was at Teen Challenge. This was a number of years ago where I was at Timothy House. I spent a whole year at the farm down in Raresburg, Pennsylvania. I served the Lord for a whole year. And I can tell as he's talking to me, he's stoned. He's either stoned or crashing. And I'll say, son, what happened to you? And almost inevitably, the answer goes, well, David didn't work for me. I guess I was too hooked. And he said, to tell you the truth, I was never really free. I was always bound. It was always in my mind. I guess it's too much for me. Maybe I'm just too bad of a sinner. He said, I guess there's no hope for me. So many, many times, I said, look, you know the way. Look, you know where the Timothy House, you know where Teen Challenge is. Just go. Tell them I sent you back. You know the way. And most of them say, well, I can't make it. I've tried. And after a year, if I can't make it, what hope is there? What can be done? Listen to me, please. I've got something for you tonight. If you sit in this building and you are still carrying the burden of sin, a past sin, a habit, an addiction, a besetting sin, you have not been able to get the victory over. You cry over it. You love the Lord passionately. But you say, there's this one thing. I can't shake it. It's there, and it brings fear on me. And the devil keeps telling me that one day it's going to get me and take me back to drugs or alcohol, promiscuous sex, gambling, whatever it may be. Now, folks, if you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty, you can include overeating. You can add all of these things that control our life, life-controlling problems. They control it. I know people that are as addicted to food as anybody is to drugs. Every time they get down or depressed, they eat, they eat, they eat. Now, forgive me for what the young pastor said this afternoon, that he loves food, but I can say this, he's not addicted to food, and that's the difference. There are addictions to all of these things, covetousness, gossiping, all of these things. But let me talk to those who are under the burden, still under the burden of a life-controlling bosom problem or habit. I've got news for you, wonderful news, good news about how to get free and stay free. Hallelujah. No guilt trips. I'm not going to pound you, because that's not what the new covenant is all about. In the old covenant, it was do this, obey, or else. And God wanted us to know that we couldn't do it in our own strength and our own power, so Jesus came. Jesus came and shed his blood, and he made a new covenant, and now God says, I'll give you the Holy Ghost to do everything that I command you to do. I'll enable you to do it through the power of the Holy Ghost. So everything the Old Testament demands through the blood of Jesus Christ can be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit who abides in us. Hallelujah. Under the new covenant, we're able to obey God in every commandment. We're able to fulfill the law of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, the key to understanding how to win over every sinful habit and every demonic stronghold, the key is in the Old Testament. The Bible makes it very clear that everything that Israel went through was a pattern, an illustration for those of us. We're to go into the Old Testament, and we're to look at how they won their battles and how they lost their battles, and that's a pattern, an illustration for us. And let me read it to you to prove it. The Scripture says, they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now, those things means their battles and their defeats. These things were our examples to the intent or for the purpose that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Now, all these things happened unto them for example, and they are written for our admonition or for our teaching upon whom the ends of the world are come. Now, nothing could be clearer than that. If you want to know the secrets of God in the New Testament, all New Testament victories are based on the illustrations or the patterns of the Old Testament. You go back in the Old Testament, and God allowed them to go all through this, all through these things to teach us upon whom the ends of the world are come. So, I'm going to take you and do exactly what the Scripture instructs us to do. I'm going to take you into the Old Testament. I'm going to take you to Deuteronomy 7 in particular. Go to Deuteronomy 7. In this chapter, you're going to see all the secrets to overcoming every enemy that's in your life. Hallelujah. Are you ready? Get into Deuteronomy 7. Now, I'm going to give you the three keys, the three keys to overcoming any habit, any besetting sin, anything that's ingrained in you. And these things that fear, that we fear so much, all right, how many have it? Do you have Deuteronomy 7? Now, just leave it open on your lap there. Now, look at me for just a moment, please. Now, when you get into the Old Testament, Egypt is a type of the old world. That's the sin world. Pharaoh is a type of Satan. When you read Pharaoh, you're reading Satan in the New Testament. When you read of the taskmasters, you're reading those stronghold habits that drive you, that beat you, that won't let you go, that are always driving you. Those are the taskmasters of Egypt. And all of those Egyptians who took their straw and everything else, those are demonic strongholds. The Red Sea is a type of passing out of the world into salvation. That's a type of being saved. The wilderness is the kind of experience that we go through, where God's testing us to see if we really believe in his salvation, where we are taught to grow by faith so that we can prepare for another crossing, and that's the Jordan River, and that's moving into the realm of the Holy Spirit and the fullness of Christ. So all of these things are teaching things. There are lessons. Now, you have to believe that. You have to understand that, or nothing that we read here now is going to mean anything to you. Now, folks, this has helped me in my life more than I can describe to you. This has been a powerful tool. It's been how God has taught me to live an overcoming life. I go into these, and I read these, and I apply it, and I appropriate it, and I say, Lord, you said it, that I'm to go in the Old Testament. But all these things are written for my sake for the last days. So I accept it. I believe it. I'm going to give you the three keys now. If you will look at this and believe it, not only believe this word right here, before I'm finished tonight, in the next 30 minutes or so, God's going to free you, and you're going to walk out of here singing and leaping, and never again in your lifetime will the devil be able to lie to you or seduce you or get you down telling you're going to fall because you can put these three keys, lock them in your heart, and say, devil, you can't take them from me. All right, are you ready for key number one? First of all, victory over sin begins with this. Don't be afraid of your enemy, no matter how strong they seem to be. Don't be afraid of your sin. David said, I will fear no evil. I'll not be afraid. Now, folks, the devil works on the premise of fear. The only way he can hold you is through fear. Sin loses all its power when fear is gone. The devil wants you to fear your past, fear your problems. Now, look with me at verse 17, please. It's also saying in thine heart, these nations are more than I. How can I dispossess them? Now, you know what those nations represent? Those represent all the giant sins. All of these enemies of Israel represent sin, habits. They were in the land. They were established in the land. They were rooted. These are rooted, deep-seated sins. If you shall say in your heart, these nations or these sins are more than I, how can I dispossess them or how can I put them out of my life? Thou shalt not be afraid of them, but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and unto all of Egypt. He said, you remember what I did at the cross with the devil? I have proclaimed victory, and I put him to an open shame. You're to remember that, that you are not to be afraid. Hallelujah. It's Moses saying to the children of Israel, he's saying, children of God, listen to me. You are not to go about thinking that the enemy is too powerful or too entrenched, too strong to fight against. You're not to live in fear thinking that your enemy is going to overpower you and destroy you. You're not to go around depressed thinking, how am I going to get rid of this? How am I going to get victory? God says in the word here, he said, I'm teaching you, you've got to learn from this. Don't be afraid of your enemy. Some of you sit here now, you came to this meeting, and I'm praising the Lord, but down deep inside, you have never gotten rid of the fear of your enemy or the fear of something in your path. Or maybe this has such a hold on me, it's going to destroy me, it's going to ruin me. Moses said, you can't think that way. Your first step to victory over all your powerful enemies is to say, I will not fear my enemy. My enemy is not too strong for me because it's not my battle anyhow. See, the devil works by fear. Remember the ten spies that came back with an evil report? The Bible says they discouraged their brothers. And what happens? The devil moved in with the spirit of fear into the camp, and they went around everywhere saying, giants, walled cities, impossible. We cannot defeat this enemy. Let's quit. Let's give up. And that's exactly what God is trying to tell us here now. You can't go the way of the report of the spies, those evil spies that brought that terrible report back. He says, don't report that to your spirit. Don't let the devil whisper in your ear, this is too big for you. This is going to destroy you. This is the end. You've tried and tried. This enemy is bigger than you. Your drug habit is bigger than you. Your alcohol habit is bigger than you. The sin habit is bigger than you. God said, I don't care how big your enemy looks. I don't care how strong he appears to be. Don't be afraid of him. Don't be afraid. Now, if you listen to the lies of the devil, he's going to tell you your sin habit is going to overwhelm you, that you'd better give up because you're never going to be able to fight it. Moses cried out, dread not, neither be afraid of your enemy, because the Lord your God is going to go before you, and he shall fight for you. Now, go to Deuteronomy 20, and let me show you something, please. Deuteronomy 20. What's the Bible say? You know the truth, and the truth will set you free. I'm not giving you something out of a psychology book. This is the living word of God. Let the devil know that. Verse 20. I mean, chapter 20, verse 8. When thou goest out to battle against thine enemy, you see horses and chariots and a people more than thou. So if you look in your habit, you look in your sin right in the face, and it looks so big, looks so overpowering, be not afraid of them, for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. It shall be when you are come nigh unto the battle that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, and say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto the battle against your enemies. Let not your hearts faint, fear not, do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them, for the Lord your God is he that goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. The officer shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there that buildeth a new house, is not dedicated? Let him go home, return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. You know what he's saying here in the following verses? If you're going to walk by fear, you might as well go home. Quit the fight. Quit the fight. You can't fight with fear. You can't resist the devil of fear. And what man is he that hath planted the vineyard, and hath not yet eaten it? Let him go also and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. What man is there that betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? Let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. The officer shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go, return to his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. You know what God's saying? Look at me. Doesn't matter what anybody else says or thinks. God says, I say, Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Don't listen to these voices that come to you from all around you. We can't do it. It can't be done. It's hopeless. It's helpless. Those are demon spirits. Those are spirits of wickedness coming to try to destroy you. Don't listen to them. My God said, I don't care how big my enemy looks. I'm not to be afraid of him. Hallelujah. Glory be to Jesus. God said, if you'll not be afraid, and if you'll take a step of faith now, if you will not be afraid, and you stand still and see my salvation, I'll make the enemy afraid of you. Folks, God never intended that His children go around running from the devil. They're supposed to be able to wait. God said, I'll put the dread of you in their hearts. Well, let me read it to you. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee. Deuteronomy 2, 4. They shall be afraid of you all through Deuteronomy. And I will put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, and they shall hear report of thee, and they shall tremble, and they shall be in anguish because of thee. And folks, those demonic strongholds, when they know that you're no longer afraid, they begin to tremble. And that's the way the Bible says, they will flee in anguish because the devil's just waiting around. He'll whisper and lie to you until you begin to tremble. Then his presence will know, I'm going down, he's going to destroy me. No, no more talk of going down. No more talk of backsliding. No more fear. I curse it in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Take it away, oh God, take it away. God's not waiting around, you know, just to... Well, let me put it this way. Thou shalt not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. That word terrible is wonder worker. God said, the reason you don't have to be afraid is very simple. It's because I'm with you. What did David say? I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. God's saying, now come on, common sense. Who's got the power? Who has the might? I'm a wonder worker. I'm mighty among you, he says. I'm the wonder worker. You don't have to explain it to the devil. You don't have to explain it to yourself. God says, don't be afraid, because I'm going to go through it with you. I'm with you. I didn't leave you. When did I leave you? When did I forsake you? When did I stop and say, you go your way, I'll wait right here for you. God's not waiting around until you get better. He's not waiting around until you try harder. Some people think, oh, if God could just see me working at this harder. If God could just see me trying harder, maybe he'll help me. No, you try all you want. That doesn't count with God. God doesn't look at that at all. You say, well, we're supposed to resist the devil only in the power of the Holy Ghost. Not until he comes. You can't resist the devil in your own power. No way. And he brought, I'm reading to you now, Deuteronomy 6.23, and he brought us out from Egypt that he might bring us in to give us the land which he swore unto our fathers. Look at me, please. Moses said, look, God brought us out to take us in. A lot of people come out, but they've never gone in. They're still in the wilderness of fear and unbelief. And God says, I brought you out of sin, not so you could spend the rest of your life fearing the devil and fearing your own problems. I brought you out to bring you into peace and rest in me. I brought you out to bring you in. Folks, walk in tonight. Come on in to the promised land of absolute faith and confidence. God's with me. Folks, young people, especially young people, listen to me, please. The devil wants you to believe that every time you fail or every time you don't get it right, so to speak, that God just, the Holy Ghost just flitters away and God just drops you for a time and he hides from you until you've got it all worked out. That's blasphemy. That is absolute blasphemy from the devil. God said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. What kind of father would I be if my children, when they're in trouble, I'd leave them, I'd forsake them if I'm not there. Folks, I'm always at the other end of that telephone. Every time I get a call, I'm there for my children or grandchildren. I'll always be there and I delight in helping them. And I want you to know that my God stays with you no matter what you're going through, no matter how you fail, God is not going to forsake you. God said, I'm still with you. You may not see it, you may not feel it, but I'm with you. And don't believe the lie of the devil that God's forsaken you, that God's waiting for you to work things out a little better. Hallelujah. You say, how can I get rid of my fears, Brother Dave? Because I really want to be free of this fear of going back or falling. You deal with your fear by constantly reminding yourself that God loves you, that he's promised to never leave you or forsake you, and you ask the Holy Spirit to help you jettison, shake off all your fears. What's key number one? Be not afraid. Be not afraid. Say it. Be not afraid. Be not afraid. Key number one again? Be not afraid. All right, key number two. God must supernaturally deliver you from all your enemies, supernaturally. The battle can't be won in human strength. And boy, this is illustrated powerfully in Exodus, the 14th chapter. Don't go there, but this is Israel in panic because here comes Pharaoh with his army, and he's bearing down mountains on two sides and the Red Sea in front. And they can hear the hoofbeats. They hear the wagon wheels of these chariots out of Egypt, Pharaoh and his army. This is the devil coming with everything out of hell, coming with temptation and lies and every conceivable thing. And Israel is in absolute panic at this time. And then suddenly fear overwhelms the camp, and they begin to say to Moses, why did you bring us out here to kill us? Why did you bring us out here to expose us? Better to have died in Egypt. At least we would have had a decent burial. And now we're going to be overwhelmed. We're going to be overpowered, and we are helpless. There's nothing we can do. And, folks, that's where the devil would like to get you. He likes to get you in panic. He will come with every lie. He'll come with temptation. Pharaoh's army, the devil's army of imps will come against you. He'll throw everything out of hell at you so that you will come to this place of fear. It's too great. I can't help it. There's no use. And they begin to murmur and complain. And Moses rose up. He said, fear you not. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Tomorrow you will see the Egyptians no more because the Lord is going to fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. Can you picture them taking it on their own human strength and everybody jumping in the river and trying to swim across? And they're walking with babies held up, and the water gets too high and too swift. And you see the babies being destroyed. You see people screaming. It could have been absolute chaos. They would have been tripping over each other and their wagons, and there would have been sheep and donkeys and all their animals running all over the hills. It could have been absolute chaos. And that's exactly what the devil tried to create, chaos. That's why it's so important to stand still and say, my God told me I don't have to be afraid. This looks bad. The enemy looks like it's more powerful than we are. But he said stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And God said, if you'll stand still now, not be afraid, and if you'll just trust me now, that I am stronger than your enemy, that I am with you. You're not out here all by yourself fighting this battle. Come on, get this, you fellas from Timothy House now and the girls also from Sarah House and everybody else in this congregation has been delivered from an addiction or habituating sin. Let me tell you, you don't have to go around in panic. You don't have to go around in fear. You may have temptations coming at you from all sides. By the way, you know it's not a sin to be tempted. And even when you fall into temptation, he said, if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. He still doesn't leave you. He's still there. He's still loving you through it all. There's no need for panic. And this could have been an absolute scene of panic, but God came on the scene and he said, look, this has to be done supernaturally, absolute power of God, a supernatural deliverance. Deuteronomy 130, the Lord your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you. Deuteronomy 322, you shall not fear them, for the Lord your God shall fight for you. Over and over, all through Deuteronomy, Exodus, all through the Old Testament, God said, Stanfield, I'm going to fight this battle. I'm going to defeat your enemy. Now, folks, listen to me, please. If you're going to gain victory over an old sinner habit, there's one thing you've got to learn above all else. And some ministers never learn it. Some Christians never learn it. They go all through their lifetime struggling. And it was brought up this morning and this afternoon very well. Some people are bound by legalistic habits and the teachings of people that bring them into all kinds of bondage because they're trying in their own strength to please God, trying to do it in their own strength. When I grew up as a young Pentecostal lad in a preacher's home, I was never allowed to go to a high school football game. That was sin. That would bring great reproach on the name of the Lord. My sister was not allowed to belong to an honor society. She was an honor student. And Mom explained it to the church. We pastors, we have people in this church that believe any connection with the world is sin. So my sister was, I remember how she wept over that. She couldn't be a part of the honor. She couldn't join the honor club. All it was was students who had high honors. She had high honors. She couldn't. And she had to wear certain clothes. In those days, the girls had to wear stockings to date that are very popular, but then it was awful. My sister cried. She had to go, but she had to look like a Christian. When I first came to New York City and up on 101st Street in Spanish Harlem, there was a little Pentecostal church there, and I went up there. There were 15, 20 drug addicts I was working with, and there was a little church there. And I asked the pastor if I could bring those kids into his church and have a service there. And he looked at the girls who they had pants on, Levi's. And he said, I will never let a girl in my church who has pants on. Never will one go in there, because I've got three teenage girls in our congregation. I don't want them to be intimidated. I don't want them to be, what do you think, I don't want them to backslide like these girls. And here are these girls weeping, crying, wanting Jesus, and I'm not even allowed in, because they have Levi's on. And you see, we try in our own human strength, we're always under the commandments of men, and the commandments and the prohibitions of men bring all kinds of guilt and fear that God never intended. God did something for me one day. I was reading in 1 Timothy. Let me just read. I was reading this. Now, the Spirit speaks with expression that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meat, which God created to be received with thanksgiving. And here are a whole group of people. God spoke to me. He said, David, you've spent so much of your lifetime forbidding things that I didn't forbid and commanding things I never commanded. And many of you do that. We do that. We forbid things that God never. They're going around forbidding people to marry. God said it's not good for a man to be alone. God said marriage is honorable. And there were people living under this bondage. They wouldn't dare. There were so many in those congregations that would have liked to get married, but that's a sin. God never forbid it. But man forbid it. And they're commanded, you can't eat meat. And there's some people that go past the meat market or smell roast beef. Oh, I'd love to have a slice of roast beef. But their pastor said it's a sin. And so all their lifetime they labor under this. If they lust after meat, they're condemned the rest of their time. How many things have you brought on yourself with guilt and condemnation that wasn't from God at all? Some man or some past teaching got a hold of you. There's no power in your flesh. God doesn't honor flesh. Flesh can't be changed. Flesh will always be flesh. God gives you a new heart. There's a new man. God doesn't deal with the flesh. He does away with the flesh. God doesn't accept flesh. No flesh will be honored in his presence. There's only a new man, hallelujah. King Hezekiah saw a huge army of Assyrians coming, much greater army than his. His was just a little motley group. And here comes this multi, multi thousands of soldiers. In 2 Chronicles 32 it tells about it. How does he get to victory? He says, be strong and courageous and be not afraid nor dismayed for there be many with us. There are more with us than with him. But with him is the arm of flesh. But with us is the Lord our God to help us. And he will fight this battle. And the people rested on the words of Hezekiah. Remember David going up against the lion? That's you going up against your sins. And the devil would like to say, You know Max, you're going to be chewed to pieces. Look at David, little David. This day I'm going to smite you. I'm going to take off your head. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saves not with sword or spear. For the battle is the Lord and he's going to give you into my hands. Hallelujah. God puts the Holy Ghost right in us. That God is with us. He is bigger than any sin. He's bigger than any habit. He said, I'm in you mighty. I'm a wonder worker in you. Forgive me for screaming but I'm getting a little excited about his word here. God by his own omnipotent power drove all of Israel's enemies out of their lives. They shall no more be able to stand before thee. For the Lord will drive out all your enemies before you. The Lord will drive out all of your enemies before you. God said, you've heard it said, Who is able to stand before the children of Adam? Those are the children of the giant. Who is able to stand against these giants? And that's what God said, you hear this from the devil. Who are you to stand up against such a powerful enemy? And then God came back and answered. He said, understand now this day that the Lord thy God is he which goes over before you as a consuming fire. He shall destroy your enemies. He shall bring them down before your face so that you will drive them out and destroy them quickly just as the Lord has promised you. Glory to God. That's good. That's powerful. Why don't you say a bigger amen than that? My goodness, he's saying. God further warned. He said, don't think I'm going to deliver you because you're righteous. Not because you're good. He said, you're a stiff necked people, but I love you anyhow. And I'm going to deliver you because I'll tell you why he's going to deliver you. I'll show you in just a minute. He said, not for thy righteousness sake or the uprightness of thine heart. For thou art a stiff necked people. Let me go on. There's something else here I've got to show you. There's a powerful message here in Deuteronomy 9.5. Turn to Deuteronomy 9.5. It says, not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thine heart, that thou go to possess their land. But for the wickedness of these nations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, that he may perform the word. Listen to me, please. That he might or may perform the word which the Lord sware unto their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All right, now look at me, please. Now this, if you get this, it's a revelation from the word, not because I'm giving it to you, but it's right there just in plain view. If you will take this and absorb it into your very spirit, it can change your life. Now listen to me, please. The Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, that he may perform the word which he swore to your fathers. God said, I'm going to drive out all your enemies because I gave my word to your father, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And my Bible tells me in Galatians 3.7 that I'm a child of Abraham. I'm his seed. Every believer is a seed of Abraham. And he said, to you, Abraham, and to your whole seed, I make you a covenant promise. I will be your shield as long as you live, and as long as this earth stands all as your seed, I will be a shield. I will defeat all your enemies. I made a covenant promise. And folks, I claimed that in my life, and that's why God keeps me. I claimed that. I'm a seed of Abraham. And God made a covenant that's unbreakable. He can't break that covenant. It's impossible. God says, I'm your shield. Is the devil coming against you? I'm your shield. Temptations, I'm your shield. I'm going to deliver you until the end. Hallelujah. And then he said, because I love you. I love you. Hallelujah. Folks, when the enemy comes against me, Isaac goes, Jesus loves me. God loves me. God loves me. I don't care what anybody thinks about me anymore. God loves me. God loves me. All right. Key number two, you can't deliver yourself. It has to be supernatural. Say it. You can't deliver yourself. It has to be supernatural. And God's promised to do it supernaturally, hasn't he? All right. Key number three. You've got to get this, because here's the whole premise. Deliverance comes little by little. And oh, here's how the devil has destroyed so many Christians. Because they wanted it all at once. And if it didn't happen all at once, then it's not scriptural. Listen to what the scripture says. Look at verse 22 in chapter 7. Verse 22. And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee, or those sins before thee, by little and little thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. And in Exodus 23, 29, 30, it says, I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, but little by little will I drive them out from before thee until thou be increased. Now listen to me, please. The moment you come to Christ, you're guaranteed a final total victory. That's been settled at the cross. Legally, all the power of the devil has been destroyed. He has no legal hold on you whatsoever. Now, that is not in question. By faith in Jesus' blood, I am justified before the Father. Not by any works that I have done. Jesus, only God only recognizes one man. Now, folks, are we not bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh? Is there not just one body? He's the head, and we are all a part of that body. Do you understand that when the devil attacks me, he attacks the body of Jesus himself? When he attacks you, he's attacking the body. Do you think the head's going to let the devil get by with it? No way. But he said, I'm going to deliver you little by little. Now, folks, I'm not suggesting that you cannot get a sudden, complete deliverance from any inference sin. There have been many, many in teen challenge over the years, drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, name it. I have seen instant deliverances. I've seen God do it in just a moment of time, as far as the physical habit, but then the mental habit has still been there. Sometimes two years, three years. There are some that have lingered a long, long time. I have watched those who don't want to go through any kind of experience of struggle or test of faith. They don't want to go through any spiritual warfare whatsoever. They say, God, I came to you. I want instant deliverance. And I've seen many who've had that instant, no battle deliverance, no testing, no weeping, no crying before the Lord, getting to know him in intimacy. And usually the Bible, the Lord said, I'm not going to do it all of a sudden, lest the beast overwhelm you. And I have seen the beast of pride come in, and I've seen people absolutely eaten, swallowed up by a beast of pride, because they were able, there are others all around us still struggling to pray for me. I'm still going through a test. I'm still not in my mind. I'm not delivered. Now, I'm not talking about those who go out and take a shot. No, no, no, you don't do that. But you see, you still have this mind battle. It's still there. And I've seen many who've been delivered, and then the beast of judgmental spirit comes. Listen, let me tell you something. Some of the most impatient, uncaring people I've met have been those who have never been through the test. They have been suddenly delivered of a sin, a deep-rooted sin, been delivered, and look down on the rest and begin to judge. Well, God just took it from me instantly, and you're still struggling. What's the problem? The compassion's gone. There's no compassion. You sit here tonight, and you say, Brother Wilson, I'm still struggling. Listen, let me tell you something. Some of you fellows that are here, a year ago, you couldn't go six hours without a fix. How long has it been now? How long has it been? A little, a little. This mind habit, he's changing the mind. We go from grace to grace and glory to glory. The Lord is doing a work. Why didn't he deliver you the night you got saved? Why was it all over then? Because of the beast. It would have devoured you. Now, you're on your knees, you're crying, Oh, God, deliver me. God, and you know what God said? Yeah, call, cry. You're learning. You're learning to trust me. You're learning to lean on me. You say, Brother Wilson, I'm fully delivered. Oh, don't despair, folks. He loves you. Your battle is his battle. He says, you stand still now, and you trust me. You keep crying. Folks, he bobbles every tear. And some of these people never learn to cry. Some of these people have learned to do nothing but boast. I was a drug addict, and I came, and bless God, I never had another thought of drugs, and I'm not making fun of that. But folks, I looked at that man a year later, and there's not that depth. There's not been that battle cry. They've not walked through it with the Lord, and the Holy Ghost learned his ways. Hallelujah. You're learning his ways, little by little. You're not what you were even last week. You're just a little closer to Jesus. Faith is growing. You know him a little better, little by little. So what are you afraid of? You say, well, I might fall, Brother Dave. Let me tell you something. First of all, you don't fear that. And even when you get down, you don't fear that. Now, if you have it in your thought, well, Brother Wilkerson's making it possible for me to just go out and get another fix, and Jesus loves me, I'll come back tomorrow. No, that's not the way it works, because you see, you have a love for Jesus in your heart, and he's already bent your nature toward him. Your nature's not completely changed, yet that he's changing your very nature, and that nature is being changed. Hallelujah. You're putting on the new man. The old man's getting weaker and weaker, and the new man's getting stronger and stronger. Hallelujah. But until you're able to stand complete in the new man, he has all the power, all the patience, and all the love that you'll ever need. Now, before closing, let me... Oh, my goodness. I'm sorry. I don't preach that long, usually. Let me quit with this. There was a... I read the story of a man by the name of Lutinus. Lusitanus, a very godly man who was deeply involved in the work of God, worked long hours, fasted, prayed, just giving himself to the work of God, knew the Lord intimately, a great man of prayer. And the devil came to him in his prayer room one night to harass him. And he said, Lusitanus, he said, why do you work so hard for the Lord? You fast, you watch, and you wait, but you're not doing any more than I do. He said, so you're not a drunkard. He said, devil said, neither am I. You're no adulterer, are you? He said, devil said, neither am I. Devil said, I don't drink. I don't curse the way people curse. And he said, you say you watch and pray. He said, I never sleep. He said, what are you doing that I'm not doing? And for a moment, it shook Lusitanus, and then he stood up, and he said, oh, devil, I deny myself. I trust God, and I walk humbly with him. And he said, that's something you can't do because if I brought you down, you've never trusted God. And he said, that's something you can't do when the devil left. He said, it's not when I don't smoke, I don't drink, but I walk humbly with my God in full trust. I trust my God. Hallelujah. Will you stand, please? I said, you ought to be shouting before this is all over. Just raise your hands and thank God that he loves you. Say, Lord, I thank you for loving me. Lift your hands and love him. Right now, Lord, I love you. I thank you that you're going to see me through. I'm not going down. I'm going over. I'm going in. I'm going in. Hallelujah. I'm going in. Holy Spirit, I thank you for your precious words. Holy Spirit, you anointed every word that's in this book. You moved upon holy men. These were your words from the Father, and I thank you for them. They set us free. No one who calls themselves by your name Jesus needs fear. We will say with David, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. The only ones I want to come down here tonight to this altar are those who are about to give up, and God sent your word tonight, but you were about to give up. I was at the end of my rope. The devil tried to literally destroy me and take away my hope and my joy, and I've just about been overwhelmed, but tonight I don't want to walk out of here the way I came in. I want total victory. And if you're not right with God or you're backslidden, you come with these that are coming now. Balcony on the main floor. Get out of your seat and come here now. This is deliverance night. God wants to deliver from the spirit of fear, but I'm not giving you the spirit of fear. Love and power of the sound mind. Up in the balcony. Go to the stairs. Either side. Come down any aisle. Amen. Are you totally convinced as you stand here now that God's not mad at you? Amen. Can you say that? Say it. God's not mad at me. Are you convinced he loves you passionately? Do you believe he loves you? Absolutely. How many believe God's with you tonight? Raise your hand. Can you say God's with me? You wouldn't have come down here. God walked right down the aisle with you. He stands with you right now. He's here. Hallelujah. You know he wants to deliver you from your fear so that you can walk out of here tonight saying I don't know how he's going to do it, but that's his work. That's his job. He said you give that over to me. I'm going to fight your battle. He said I'm going to weaken your enemy so much that if I put the sword in your hand, all you have to do is chase him. Amen. Yes, they had swords. They had to fight, but the enemy had been so weakened by hornets. God said I'll send hornets ahead of you, and I'll sting them, and I'll make them so weak, and that's what the devil's doing. He's weakening. The enemy in you is getting weaker and weaker, and the Christ in you is getting brighter and brighter. Hallelujah. I'm going to stand here and say I've seen little by little God changing me. Raise your hand, please. Little by little, little by little, God's changing me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Well, then I would presume you understand that God's just trying to say if you quit trying to figure this out, and you just cry to me and call on me and love me, spend time with me in my presence, leave all your problems with me and leave all the battles with me, you just spend time with me, and I'll take care of all this other stuff. I'll take care of the enemy. I'll tell you what to do. If God wants you to have a part in it, He'll tell you what to do. He'll explain it. The Holy Ghost will talk to you. You don't have to fret about it. He's faithful. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. Lord, I'm praying now for victory over fear for all of these that have come forward, that they'll be able to walk out of this building tonight and be absolutely free in you. Lord, we come against all spirits of fear, anxiety, depression. God, remove that. I want all of you who came forward, raise both hands, lift them up, and pray this with me right now. Jesus, I give you my fears, I give you my doubts, and I give you all my battles. I turn them over to you. Remove my fear. I trust you, Jesus, to do everything that you promised in your word. I accept your love. I accept your promises. And I will not be afraid. I will trust you for supernatural deliverance, little by little. Thank you, Jesus. Just thank Him right now. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This concludes side two. This tape was obtained from World Challenge, and our mailing address is P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, L-I-N-D-A-L-E, Texas. Zip is 75721. The phone number is area code 903-963-8626. God bless you now. Goodbye.