In this sermon, the preacher reflects on his past messages about faith and acknowledges that he has not fully practiced what he preached. However, he realizes that God has put him in a position where he must trust Him completely. The preacher emphasizes that believers are called to go through trials and that their testimonies of faith are important. He also warns against unbelief, stating that it is not only painful to God but also deadly to believers. The sermon concludes with a reminder that God has a strong arm to overcome sin and a warning to not question or doubt God during difficult times.

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. The righteous are on trial. Oh, yes. Do you want me to repeat that? The righteous are on trial. You had better believe it. The righteous are on trial. I want you to go to Psalms, the 11th chapter, if you will, please. Psalm, 11th chapter. I want to read just two verses. Psalms, 11. Verses 4 and 5. Psalms, 11. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids try. The children of men. The Lord tryeth. Who? The righteous. But the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Let's pray. Father, your church, the body of Christ, is in great crisis. There is trouble. There is testing. There is trial as never before in history. Lord, you've taken every church age through great turmoil, testing. The waters and the fires of testing have been with us for many centuries. But, oh God, in the last days, you've made it clear that it's going to be intensified. And there are people here tonight, Christians, who don't understand what they're going through. Great testing. Great trial. Great temptations. Great afflictions. Lord, give us an understanding tonight. Show us what it's all about so that we'll not be tossed by it, we'll not be overwhelmed by it. That we will be in the knowledge of the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit, open it to us. Help us to understand. Lord, we need you. We need you tonight to make this understandable to us. Give us an understanding by the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray. In Jesus' name, anoint me. Amen. You know, we have nearly 800,000 people on our mailing list, and so we get thousands of letters every week. Let me read to you just a little sampling of what we're hearing from all over the United States. A dear sister wrote this week, Two years ago, while tending my business, I fell and broke my leg. One month later, I was hit head-on by a motorist and left me in a wheelchair with another broken leg and a crushed knee. And I've not been able to collect any insurance from the person's insurance company. In other words, the one who hit her in a head-on collision. I had to give up my business, as I could no longer run it. Six months later, I found I had ovarian cancer. I've been in chemotherapy for a year and two months, but the cancer still rages on. I look around at other Christians, and I find so many that are suffering untold illnesses, especially cancer and other hardships. I'm part of an intercessory prayer group. Brother Dave, she asked, what's happening to the body of Christ? She belongs to an intercessory prayer group and prays for others, even though she's in such great need. And this was her question at the end of her letter. Pastor Dave, what's happening to the body of Christ? We get letters from pastors' wives now from all over the world. Pastors' wives who beseech us to pray for their pastor husbands. Their husbands who are ministering the word and ready to give up the ministry, ready to quit, all over the United States. The letters are pitiful. One lady wrote this week. She said, my husband is disillusioned, absolutely disillusioned. People in this area do not want to hear the straight gospel, and so many are going to these churches preaching false doctrines. My husband is totally disillusioned by all the foolishness in the church and can't find a congregation that will accept his preaching. He wonders now, because he's on the shelf, if God is even hearing and answering his prayers anymore. He won't be consoled by me. He's beyond being consoled. In fact, he's been so discouraged in his last pulpit that he stood and started reading the sermons of dead men of God of past years. Just reading his sermons, so dead and so empty and so dry. Here's a letter from a farmer's wife. I think it was in Iowa. And she said, Pastor David, for nearly 25 years now, we have been serving God faithfully. We've raised our children for the Lord, one in the ministry, one preparing for the ministry. We've been baptized with the Holy Ghost for years. But lately, my husband and I feel the Lord is not answering our prayers anymore. My husband feels like a total failure. He won't let me help him. He's so down. We are in a financial crisis. We may lose our farm. We've been farming for 25 years. Our farm business has been subject to stuff beyond our control, like the weather, good crops, yields, production. And all of these things are beyond our human effort. And God has to do it miraculously. But we feel now that God doesn't seem to be answering our prayers. We're falling behind. Without a miracle, we may have to sell our farm to our creditors. And, folks, letters are pouring into our office now from all over the United States. These are godly people who are going through severe, overwhelming trials. They are being tested financially, physically, mentally, and every other way, going through fires and sickness and financial difficulties, family troubles. And, folks, I have been sending out newsletters now for 25 years or more, almost 27 years. And in 27 years, I can tell you it has never been as intense as it is now. These letters are overwhelming. I have to stop reading after a while. My wife reads for hours and hours all day long. But I have to pull back. I can hardly handle it. The problems are absolutely mind-boggling. The intensity. Now, let me ask you, as you sit in this congregation tonight, are you not being tested more now than you've ever been tested in your life? Are you not seeing things that are so intense, so overwhelming, you wonder how, outside of God's miracle power, that you can ever get out of it? Troubles and tests. And, by the way, folks, if you are not, as I say, it won't take long. It will come. You are going to go into the fire. You're going to go into the deep waters. You're going to go into stuff that's over your head that you don't understand. You're going to have troubles on all sides. You're going to be tested in your body, in your spirit, in your mind. You're going to be tested in your family. You're going to be tested on the job. You're going to be tested even in the house of God. You're going to be tested. Your marriage, if you're married, is going to be tested. Your livelihood, everything is going to be tested. We are going into a time of great testing. Now, we know from Revelation 3.10 that the Word predicts that in the last days there's going to be a time of great testing, a great, it's called an hour of tribulation to all mankind. But God has promised to deliver us out of that great tribulation or the last of that great time of affliction upon the earth. In fact, you read Revelation 3.10, and that's what the promise is. Clear as can be. I will keep you from that hour of temptation that will fall upon the whole earth. Now, some believe we'll go through a part of the tribulation. Some believe we'll go through it all. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a time when the wrath of God is falling on the earth. We're going to be delivered from the wrath of God. But in the meantime, you and I, as Christians, as righteous men and women, we are going to be tested more and more as the day of the Lord approaches. The closer we get to the coming of the Lord, the closer we get to the end of time, the more intense the fires will be, the deeper the waters. Folks, don't let it scare you because God has a purpose in it all. God has a reason, and we want you to understand that reason tonight. In Psalms 11.4, I've just read to you that God is right now in His holy temple. He is sitting on His throne, and His eyelids are trying. The sons of men, His eyelids are trying. Now, in the original Hebrew, it really means a sharp, piercing glance. He has a penetrating look into the depths of the heart, such as a ray that pierces an object, gets right into the depth of it. Nothing can hinder this X-ray that goes through right to the heart of things. And really, in the Hebrew, it means God is squinting His eyes for a more concentrated look into the heart. You know, when you look at something, you're looking at it and you squint your eye? This is what it means. God is squinting His eye and looking down deep into your heart. He's going to test you until everything that's unlike Him is going to come to the surface and come out. He's going to put you in the fire so that all that is unlike Him, all that is evil, is going to come to the surface, and He can scrape it off, and He wants nothing left in you in the last days but pure gold. He's going to put you in the fire, He said. He's going to put us. It's the Lord. It's not the devil. It's the Lord. He's the one who's going to do the trying. He's the one who's doing the testing. You don't understand right now that God, and this ought to comfort your heart, that God has His eye on you. His eye is not only on you. He's got His best eye. He's squinting. He is looking deep into your heart like a man who's got one of those little jewel magnifiers and looking deep into your heart. If you love the Lord, that ought to be a wonderful encouragement to you because the Lord knows where you're at. He knows what you're doing. He's not forgotten you. He knows every difficulty, every trouble that you're going through. For thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. Jeremiah 32, 19. Another scripture. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings. In other words, God is looking right at you and He is considering every move you make, every thought that you think. Now folks, God monitors it all. We sometimes sit around and we just talk flippantly, but you know God is monitoring every thought, every word, and every deed. He's keeping a record. How many believe that? He is keeping a record. I think it pays us to watch our tongues. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. And you know this one. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those who love Him. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. And I read to you here, look again in chapter 11, verse 5. The Lord trieth the righteous. The Lord trieth the righteous. But why? Why does the Lord try His own children? Folks, it all has to do with faith. Everything we're talking about now is a trial of your faith. Now, the key to understanding the great trials that you and I are facing, or going to face, you've got to go to 1 Peter to understand it. 1 Peter, the first chapter. Turn there with me, please. I'm going to ask the Holy Ghost to open your eyes and your understanding as to why you're going through what you're going through. Now, folks, beloved, would you look this way for just a minute? Before I go any further, I want to know in the balcony, and here on the main floor, and even behind me here in the choir, and staff, and everything else, how many of you, in all honesty, say, Brother Wilkinson, what you say is true. I have this past year, especially, I am facing the greatest troubles, trials, and testings in my whole Christian experience. Would you raise your hand, please? I just want to make sure I'm on the right track here before I go any further. All right. Amen. If you didn't have your hands up... Yeah, buy the tape. The Lord does not want any of us to be ignorant of what we're going through because he doesn't tease his children. He gets no pleasure out of hurting us. But he has a very clear, good reason why he takes us through these things. The sufferings, and the pain, and the sorrow, and the afflictions, God has a reason. And he showed this to me, and folks, it will so ease your spirit, it will encourage your heart when you know that, first of all, that God is allowing it, God is taking you into the fire, and he's taking you into the deep waters because he has a divine purpose, there's an eternal purpose in what he is doing. Many, many are going to hear this message on tape, just like the farmers in Iowa, and Montana, and all the Midwest that are losing their farms, and people all over the United States who write to us and send prayer requests. Many, many write for our message and they're going to hear this on tape. And my message to them is the same thing, that God wants them to understand why this is happening. It's not just a happenstance. It's not a fluke. God has a purpose, and if you can see that purpose, it'll hold you steady. Let's go to that purpose. 1 Peter, the first chapter, beginning to read, verse 5, Who are kept by the power of God, through what? Through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be you're in heaviness, through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now folks, look at me. It is absolutely vital that you understand what is being said here, because it fully explains why God is allowing you to go through what you're experiencing right now. It is vital for you to get this. And here's what the scripture is saying in 1 Peter 5, 6, 7, and 8. It's a full explanation. God is saying a time of shaking is coming. You know what the scripture says. God said, I'm going to shake everything that can be shaken. So the only thing left standing is that which cannot be shaken. What is it that cannot be shaken? He's looking for an unshakable faith. Faith. This whole thing has to do with faith. Everything you're going through, everything, is a trial of your faith. Now get that and understand that. If you don't get that, you will never comprehend what you're going through. God says wickedness is going to bring on chaos. There will be calamity. Violence is going to rock and shake the nations. Evil men are going to wax worse and worse, become vicious. Morals are going to crumble and vanish. All of mankind is going to fear and tremble. Men's hearts are going to fail them for fear of seeing those things coming on the earth. You know all of these scriptural prophecies. It will seem as though no one has answers. Everything will be hopeless. This is a day and age when no one seems to have an answer for the world situation, the crises that come upon us hour by hour. And this is what the Lord is saying. He said, in this hour, just before I come in the last days, when everything is shaken, when men have no hope, when people are crumbling and being crushed by the pressures all around them, the stress and the anxiety and the depression, God says, I have a people that are in the fire right now being trained and I am going to reveal them in the last hour. And that's what I read to who are being kept right now through the power of faith. God says, I'm testing their faith. Right now, I'm keeping them. I've got them in deep trouble. I've got them in deep waters now. I've got them in fires. I am bringing forth a people out of those fires and out of those waters to be manifested before the whole world as testimonies of the saving, keeping power in the most difficult times. Dark times are coming. Hopeless times are coming. Where are they going to turn to? You think they're going to turn to our leaders? Not when our presidential advisors are advising our presidents and our leaders out of the boudoirs of prostitutes. You think the world is going to trust their leadership anymore? Where are people going to turn to? Where are people going to get their hope? Not from television evangelists who've been muckracking around for money and proclaiming the gospel to be a rich man's gospel. Where are they going to turn to? They'll not be turning to healing evangelists in their healing lines anymore. I'm not putting that down, but that's not where the answer is going to be. It's not going to be in big-time evangelists or big-time preachers. They are going to have to have people like themselves who've been through their kind of troubles and their kind of trials and being desperate, and they've come through it, and they're like a rock of Gibraltar, and they're standing unmoved and unshaken because their faith has been tested. That's what he's saying here, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. God says, I'm going to reveal. I'm going to manifest my children at the last hour. And oh, thank God I believe that with everything in my being. I stand before you totally convinced that right here in New York City, the greatest testimony is going to be people out of this church and other churches that have been absolutely tested as nobody else has been tested. They've had it harder than anybody. They have gone through the fires and the deep waters, and they have not given up their faith. Their faith is unshakeable. And the Lord says, all right, you've been through it, and I'm going to bring you out as a testimony. I'm going to reveal you to your neighbors. I'm going to reveal you on the job. I'm going to reveal you in New York City or wherever you are, in the farms of Iowa. Everywhere, God is going to have a people that come marching out like the Hebrew children out of the fiery furnace as a testimony to the king and all of the heathen of that time. They said, your God is our God now. I've got to quit pounding this. The pulpit is getting weak. To be revealed in the last time, kept by faith. Oh, hallelujah. Tried by fire, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness. I used to wonder, how in the world do you rejoice when you're heavy? In heaviness. He said, though you're in heaviness for a season, you're going to rejoice. How can you rejoice? Well, the Lord began to show me. You can rejoice when you know that God's doing something in me. I'm in this for a purpose. God's working something in me. God's trying to make me a man of faith. He's trying to make you a woman of faith. He's trying to make you a testimony to the whole world. It's not going to be anymore going around quoting a few scriptures and shooting your scriptures at somebody and giving a little testimony. That's not it. It's not going to be that. People are going to look at you and they see what you're going through and it doesn't shake you. You're still praising God. You're still speaking faith. You're not talking doubt and fear and unbelief. They say, that's what I want. Whatever keeps you, I want it to keep me. Because everybody around is going to be caving in. Everybody's going to be crumbling. Everybody's going to be crushed. And there you stand. Much more precious than gold, though tried with fire, may be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The Lord said, at my coming, I have to have a people. I have to have a people be a praise and glory to my saving, keeping power. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Now, believe it or not, or accept it or not, you've been chosen to be tested. I'm going to tell you now, if you're going through, if you're being tested by fire, that's a calling. God's called you. God wouldn't do this. He wouldn't allow it unless he looked down and saw something in you. He's not going to waste time with anybody. God doesn't waste time. God doesn't waste effort. And he saw something in you. And he said, I know that this sister is going to come forth as gold. And I'm going to put her in the fire. And I'm going to let her feel the pain of the folks. Fire hurts. Fire is painful. Try sticking your finger in it and see. It's painful. It hurts. The suffering. There is suffering. Physical suffering. Pain. Some of you, dear sisters, are going through great pain. Like this sister who wrote that she's taking chemotherapy, and she's still having cancer, but she's still going to prayer meetings, still interceding. Her faith is going to come out of it strong. What a testimony she is. She said, the question was asked, what's happening to the body of Christ? I'll tell you what's happening to the body of Christ. The Lord has looked out on the body of Christ, and he's seen some. He's seen a host of people saying, You, sir, you, I'm going to put you in the fire, because I know that you're going to come out as my testimony. And toward the coming of the Lord in the last days, you're going to praise and honor and glory to my name. I'm going to take you in it. I'm going to bring you out of it. You're going to shine forth. You're going to be a man of faith. You're going to be a woman of faith. I can trust you. I've called you. You have been called to suffering. Now, folks, that is absolutely contrary to the prosperity gospel that says you don't have to suffer. Well, that means you don't have a testimony either. You're not going to be used in the last day other than to accumulate your goods, which are all going to burn anyhow. All going to burn. That Mercedes is going to burn. It's going to burn. That big house is going to burn. But my faith is going to be gold. No fire can touch it. Nothing can touch my faith. We marvel at the unbelief of the Israelites in the wilderness, don't we? We see them doubting God. On ten different testings, they doubt God. And, folks, if you read Psalm 78, don't turn there now, but Psalm 78 is one of the saddest chapters in all the Bible. It is frightening to see what God had tended for these people very clearly. In fact, the chapter begins with this. He established the testimony in Jacob that the generation to come might know what he's saying. Here was God's plan. God says, I'm going to take a people who are really the smallest people, the smallest nation on earth, and I'm going to take them to myself. I'm going to take them into a wilderness where they're totally dependent on me. There's no shopping malls. There's no water. There's no food. There's nothing but sand. I'm going to put them out in no place, nowhere where they have to be totally dependent on me. And I'm going to teach them to trust me so that I will have a testimony for every succeeding generation. I can point back and say, no matter what you go through, here's a people who proved me. God said, I'm going to prove them. And that's what he did. He took them to the Red Sea to prove them, and they failed in their faith there. They said, you brought us out here to kill us, O God, accusing Moses of bringing them out to slaughter them. They go to the waters of Marah, and again they murmured, they complained. God was testing these. I'm going to let them suffer a little pain. I'm going to let them suffer hunger. Let them suffer thirst. And there was some suffering involved to it. But God was trying to build faith. He was trying to build a people that would come through all of these troubles and all these trials, and there would be not only this written word here, but there would be living testimonies, living epistles of His power to save and keep in any generation so that we wouldn't be reading Psalm 78, they failed, they failed, they failed, they failed. In fact, let me read it. It says, their spirit was not steadfast with God. They forgot His miracles. They tempted God. They murmured. They complained. They believed not in God. They trusted not in His salvation. They believed not His wondrous works. They grieved Him in the wilderness. They limited the Holy One of Israel. They provoked Him. They kept not His testimony. They kept not His testimony. They refused to be that testimony for all other generations. And by the way, all of their children go into the Promised Land with no testimony behind them. All they had was the testimony of unbelief and what their fathers' lives, their mothers' and fathers' lives really said by the way they lived was that God can't keep you, God can't see you through, that God fails His children. That was the testimony they got from their parents. And God had intended that they be a testimony to their children, their grandchildren, and their great-great-grandchildren, and a testimony to us today. This is the end of side one. You may continue. We're standing in this year, 1996, and talking from Psalm 78 about their failures. We should be reading about they came to the waters and they trusted God and the waters opened. They went to the bitter waters of Meril and they said, Our God who opened the Red Sea can heal these waters. And we would have been reading one story after another and our faith would have been encouraged. What will happen with us when Jesus says, Will I find faith when I return on the earth? So God, once again, is taking a people through the deep waters and into the wilderness where the only thing that's going to see us through is total dependence on Him, where we don't try to figure it out ourselves, is total dependence on Him. I'd better move on. I thought I only had a 30-minute message here. I think I've got a little longer one here. I'll tell you what I want to do. Let me ask you, do you, you take this to your own heart, do you want to be that testimony in these last days? Do you want to be a testimony? Would you like to be one who comes out of the fires and you didn't cave in, you didn't murmur, you didn't complain, you didn't gripe, but you were able to say, Live or die, I'm the Lord's. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. I'm not going to give up. How about you fellows, you former drug addicts, alcoholics, here in the front from Timothy House. You want to be a testimony to your family and to all those junkies that you used to run with, that God's able to keep you no matter what, no matter how discouraged you get, no matter how many lies the devil comes throwing at you, you're going to stand? How many? Raise your hand, wave it at me right now. Say, brother, that's what I want. Same over here, Sarah House. How about it? Amen. Well, let me give you something to encourage your faith. Boy, I saw this and it just really blessed me. Go to Psalms 89. Psalms 89. I'm going to read two scriptures. And boy, when I saw this, it just blew me away spiritually to the joy of the Lord. Now, you won't understand it when you first read it perhaps, but when we explain it to you, you'll understand how this is one of the greatest encouragements to faith in all the Bible. What a great encouragement to your faith so that it will hold you during your storm and during your trial. Verse 9 and 10. Thou rulest the raging of the sea, when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces. Now, folks, that is one of the most powerful incentives of faith in all the Word of God. It's one of the most powerful. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain. Thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm. All right? Look at me, please. The Bible makes it very, very clear. God rules the raging of the sea when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. According to the psalmist, He commands, that's God commands, and He raises the stormy wind which lifteth the waves thereof. Now, look at me, please. When you read of these waves, you're talking about a storm. God raises a storm. Are you in a storm? God raises the storm, the Bible says. And He speaks the Word, and He stills the waters. He lifts them, and He lowers them. God sits king of the flood. He sits the king of the flood. Even when the devil brings his floods, the flood of iniquity, the flood of passion, or of lust, or desires of the flesh. When these things come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord raises up a standard, the Bible says. But He rules the floods. He rules the seas. The Bible talks about those at the wit's end, because, let me read it to you. They are at the wit's end. Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He's talking about sailors at sea, and the waves, and the storm that suddenly is upon them. The Scripture says, Thou rulest the raging of the sea, when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them. A few weeks ago, or a week ago when Hurricane Edward came and hit the East Coast, we were looking out of our window. We faced the East River, where the boats are in there, and this huge cruise ship. I think there are over 2,000 people that can go on that particular cruise boat. Huge, it's like a city. And it was pulling out, and on radio they were warning that the hurricane was coming, and this big ship's heading for the Caribbean, right into the hurricane. And they're pulling out last week, and I turned to Gwen and I said, This is stupid. This is crazy. That's going to be a trip through hell. They're going to be right in the middle of the hurricane. And sure enough, the next day, 24 hours later, the headlines on the daily news, Cruise to Hell. There were 70 foot waves hitting that boat. The boat was listing, people were sleeping in the halls and screaming. In fact, some of the rich people were offering their fortune to have somebody come in a helicopter and get them off. They were offering everything they had. If you'll just get us to land. And they came back and they said it was a living hell. Who would go into a hurricane? You and me. Yes. And the boat begins to list, and we're shaking. Oh God, that's enough. Anything, get me out. Come on. The worst thing is that none of the captains or anybody running the boat knew I speak English, so they couldn't say anything to the people to comfort them. You wouldn't get me on one of those cruise ships where I don't like to fly, but I don't like to cruise worse than I don't like to fly. But see, your faith is put into that hurricane, into that storm. And God's seeking a people who are going to rejoice and not complain and rest in his love and just rest. God, you're king of this flood. You brought me in here. I'm not going down. It may look like I'm going down, but I'm going to hold steady. I am going to believe you to bring me out of this hurricane. Folks, I'm not even talking about a storm. This is a big storm. And some of you are in that right now. Oh, hallelujah. Do you understand that he rules the waters and the tossing and the turning? He's ruler of it all. Shouldn't that bring faith? Shouldn't that encourage our faith? Whatever I'm going through, God knows all about it. He rules. He rules the tossings and turnings in my life. He rules it all. And he knows when to still it. He knows when to calm the storm. He speaks to the storm and he brings the calm. But he won't do it until he accomplishes his purpose. Until he sees that you're willing to trust him. You just lay back in his arms, say, Lord, I am his. And when you come to that place, then he's going to calm the storm. When he's accomplished that faith in you that he's looking for, it's going to cease. Now, here's the good part. He says, next, he says, Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces. Now, here's the wonderful. Rahab here is an epitaph for Egypt. But more than that, the Hebrew word that is used here, listen closely, it means monster, wild beast, Leviathan, and the dragon. Well, who in the world is that? Who's the dragon? Who's the monster? Who's Leviathan in the scripture? The devil himself. And what this is, it also infers the monster problems, the monster lust, the monster sins. Now, folks, what is actually being said here in Hebrew, Jehovah has smashed to pieces the power of the monster dragon and is fatally smitten every one of his enemies. Now, folks, let me tell you something. For a number of weeks now, I've been preaching that there are besetting sins, there are bosom sins that are ingrained. It can be drug addiction, it can be alcoholism, it can be sexual sins and gambling, and all of these things. It can be covetousness. We talked even about eating habits that people just absolutely absorb by food or are possessed by food. And we have been telling you that you cannot humanly, on your own power, through your own will, conquer those sins. Now, God doesn't bypass your will. No, we have a free will. God doesn't bypass your will. But our will, if we leave it to itself, without the infusion of the Holy Ghost and the empowerment of the Holy Ghost, the flesh will choose for it. The will will follow the flesh. It will choose what is comfortable, what it's attached to. That's why our sins are called members of the body. They become like members. And that's why He said, if I offend you, pluck it out. If your hand offends you, cut it off. Because our sins, our bosom sins, become like a member of our body. That's why He said we have to deal with these members of the body. But your will, you do not have the will. You do not have the strength and the human power. And I would go home sometimes, and I even ran this by Pastor Carter once, and said, am I a little too easy when I say this has to be supernatural power that breaks down the dragon, breaks those monster sins? Lord, am I taking away people's personal responsibility? Maybe people relax and say, well, I've got a problem, and if God has to do it, I'll just sit here and wait for Him to do it. Now, I'm going to tell you now, God will not do it without you. He will do it, but He won't do it without you. He won't do it without the cooperation of your will. You have to want to be delivered. You have to hate your sin. You have to say, I don't want this in my life. I want freedom in my life, and I want to be pleasing unto the Lord. And my part is to hate my sin, and my part is to cry out to God. My part is to never make peace with my sin. If I make peace with it, it means I'm ready to live with it, and I want this, and I want Jesus too. Now, I'm not preaching to you guys. I'm preaching to the whole congregation. Now, hear me please. When I read this, it's incontrovertible. Here is the absolute proof that it has to be a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit working upon our human will. I will to be free. I want to be free, and I cry out to God, Oh God, send the Holy Ghost. Send your power. God, your power has to break Rahab to pieces. Lord, you're the one who has to scatter all my enemies. Every demon power coming against me, I can't chase them. I'm no match for the devil. You chase all of these enemies out of my life. Chase them out. Lord, you smash that monster sin. You smash that dragon in my life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Who broke Rahab to pieces? Rahab? Thou has broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain. Thou has scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm. Oh, hallelujah. Remember what I tell you, don't be afraid of sin. Don't be afraid of it. Hate it, but don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid it's going to kill you or overwhelm you. Know God has a strong arm. You belong to him and God's going to smash, going to bring his hammer down on that sin. Hallelujah. Now, two more minutes. I have to give you a warning before I close. Unbelief, when you're in a trial and things are hard, and you begin to complain, you begin to murmur, you begin to doubt, there's unbelief. I want to tell you, that's not only painful to God, but it's deadly to you and me. It's a deadly thing to keep questioning God, to keep doubting, and every time we get down and the testing gets a little stiff, we begin to question God. In our mind, Lord, are you even hearing my prayer anymore? God, where are you? God, that's enough. We go on and on and on. We don't stop. Now, folks, the children of Israel did that. And God, in Psalms, look at Psalm 78. You should go there before closing. Psalm 78. And take this warning from the Holy Spirit, lovingly. A loving warning from the Holy Spirit, that we've got to stop our murmuring and our complaining, before it becomes a deadly thing in our lives, can destroy us. Psalm 78, beginning to read verse 54, 78, verse 54 beginning to read, He brought them to the border of a sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. He cast out the heathen also before them. By the way, who's doing this? God's doing it. They're not doing it. God's doing it. They are literally on the front lines, but God is empowering them to do it. He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them in inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God. They kept not his testimonies, but they turned back. They dealt unfaithfully like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. They provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, now see, it didn't when he saw it, when he heard it, something they were saying. It's unbelief. It's talking fear, and doubt, and questioning God. When God heard this, he was wroth, or angry, and greatly abhorred Israel, means he rejected Israel, so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hands. He gave his people over also to the sword, and was wroth with an inheritance. Look at me please. Folks, God has told me in no uncertain terms. He tells me lovingly, he's my father, and I'm his son, and he loves me. But God is saying, David, if you don't want to destroy your life, if you don't want to be turned over to the hands of the enemy, I'm asking you now to stop your complaining, stop your murmuring. If you're going to trust me, it's going to affect your language. You can't say, I trust the Lord, and talk unbelief. You're going to stand still now, and see the salvation of the Lord. Don't anger your heavenly father. Don't anger him, time and time again. Folks, I've been looking over some of the messages I've preached in the last eight years in this church. This afternoon, I looked over some I've been preaching. I preached faith, faith. I've been preaching, don't doubt God, and yet, I've not fully practiced what I preached. But God has put my back to the wall and said, David, you're going to trust me. I want you to be a testimony these last days. I've got to have your testimony. It's not just in the pulpit. Your testimony is your walk of faith. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Will you stand, please? Will you stand? Do you understand, before we leave this service tonight, even before we give an invitation, that you've been called to what you're going through? How many will accept that and raise your hand? Say, I have been called to my suffering. I've been called to the furnace. I accept my calling. Hallelujah. Now, I'm going to ask you for another show of how many in this church will say, God, by your grace, by your grace, stop my everlasting bellyaching and complaining and my murmuring. God, take it out right now. Lord, we come to you to be delivered from this. Deliver us, oh God. Deliver your people from murmuring and complaining and questioning you. Oh, God. Hallelujah. Do you believe God's going to answer your prayer? Oh, yes, he is. Hallelujah. You say, oh, brother, I've been in so long, I want out. He knows when to bring you out. When you start shutting up and begin to talk faith, and I'm not talking about silly faith, I'm talking about, God, I know you have the power. I know you love me. You're not going to hurt me. You're going to see me through. Hallelujah. God, you're going to see me through. I trust you. Speak it. Let everybody see it around you. Let there be a joy of the Lord in your heart. Let's say, God, no matter what it is, you are going to see me through. Hasn't he brought you this far? Haven't you come this far by faith? Trusting in the Lord? You would be dead. You'd be on the streets. God brought you through. God brought you through. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, there are those hearing me now who have really been overwhelmed and crushed and fear has laid hold of their heart. There's such a fear in them. Oh, God, I'm asking you to deliver them from this fear. I'm asking you, Lord, to stir up faith. God, let them turn to your word. Let them cry out to you. Oh, God, forgive my unbelief. Forgive my unbelief. Take it away. Hallelujah. Now, there's some in the balcony here on the main floor that really need to walk down this aisle tonight because you've come to the place recently. You've been through so much. You've come to the place recently where you've questioned whether God is even hearing you anymore. You've almost been convinced that God's not answering your prayer because it's been a long time. You haven't seen evidence of it yet. But it's made you just a little angry at God perhaps. Some of you, I think, may have a grudge against the Lord. Bring that grudge to this altar and leave it here. Leave it. Bring your unbelief and leave it here. Follow these that are coming now. From the balcony, just go to the stairs on either side and come down any aisle. That's it. The Lord's here tonight to set you free. He wants to inflame your faith. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Whatever you're going through, you've got to learn this, please. God is at work in me. God's doing this. When you stop and say that, it changes everything. God's doing something in me. God's looking for something. He's taking me through something. Oh, God, don't let me fail. Strengthen my faith. Let me come through it trusting, speaking confidence in the Lord. Let me read to you just what the Lord gave me for you right now, you that came forward. In the day when I cried, thou answered me and strengthened me with strength in my soul. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You'll stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endures forever. Forsake not the work of thy hands, thine own hands. Let me read this to you. I will lift up my eyes unto the hills and whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not sleep. Behold, he that keepeth Israel will not slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade. The sun shall not smite thee by day, the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and coming in from this time forth even forever. He says, I'm going to preserve your faith. Hallelujah. Didn't he tell Peter, the devil's trying to sift you, he's asked for you, but I prayed for you that your faith fail not. Jesus is praying for you right now. God, don't let my faith fail. Lift up your hands to the Lord right now. Pray that, Lord, don't let my faith fail. Forgive my unbelief. Ask God to forgive your unbelief right now. God, forgive my unbelief. Forgive my words of doubt and fear and murmuring and complaining. Forgive me, Lord. I've done this before your face. A faithful God, I have murmured, I've questioned, I've doubted. God, forgive me. Folks, ask God's forgiveness right now. We've got to be forgiven of this. Lord, produce faith in our hearts now. Hallelujah. Just tell him you believe, Lord, you're faithful, you're going to see me through. God's going to see me through. God, see me through. Hallelujah. If there's sin in your heart, confess it right now, Lord. I confess my sins. If you're coming back to Jesus, just yield your spirit and heart to Him right now by faith. He's faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. I want everybody in this house to raise your hands and thank God for His faithfulness. Even in our unbelief, He deals with us in love. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Deliver us, Lord. Deliver us from all unbelief that we be a trusting people. A trusting people. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. Hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the tape.