In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing and eliminating idols from our lives in order to receive God's blessings. He shares his personal struggle with idolatry and how he preached to thousands of people while indulging in lust and watching inappropriate movies. The speaker argues that the code word "balance" is often used to hide our idols. He then discusses the need for truth and knowledge of God in the land, highlighting the consequences of rejecting the truth and the controversy God has with his people.

I'm going to preach tonight about lust, and passion, adultery, fornication, and I argued and argued about this. I sought the Lord, I tell you, I sought the Lord for 2,000 weeks just on this word that I'm preaching tonight. I said, Lord, people who come to this kind of a meeting would not come if they had this thing in their heart, if there was lust in their heart. I'm not even going to talk about VCRs and those rented movies. I'll talk about a lot of things, I'm going to talk about strange children, in fact my message is called the moment of truth has come. The moment of truth has come. And I argued with the Lord, people who come to a meeting like this, they know how I preach, they wouldn't come and expose themselves to this, and yet God wouldn't let me go. And I just kept coming back to it and coming back and saying, well, Lord, let me preach at Wednesday night after they've learned to trust me, that I'm not just a hard man, see, I'm not a prophet, I'm a watchman, one of His many. Just a watchman. I guess the reason I've never wanted people to call me a prophet, prophets die young, they kill prophets. Everybody thinks this, I've never had so many prophets in my life, everywhere I go people call themselves prophets. I meet more people come to my office with more gibberish than I've ever heard in my life. And some people go to a meeting like this, or they get into some deeper life, and suddenly the pastor's back slid and they go to the pastor and say you're no good, and they start prophesying at him and want to leave the church and everything. Well, sometimes the pastor's like, well, there's a better way to do it, why don't you love him, why don't you pray him in a conviction, why don't you be patient with him? Who suddenly made you a prophet? And yet there are true prophets, and we need to hear them. And you're going to hear some prophecies from this pamphlet, there'll be a lot of prophetic word come forth. There'll be a prophetic word come forth tonight. The Lord made it clear to me that he was going to break forth in his presence among us, that he was also going to bring conviction, and that conviction comes to heal, and to strengthen and change our lives. And I'm not going to put a figure at it, but the Lord gave me a figure. In fact, very clearly, how many needed this message here tonight. And I didn't even want to argue with the Lord about it, and I just passed it on. But not only by those who are here tonight, but those who are going to hear this tape. I'm not preaching to the tape, I'm not preaching to the tape audience. But these messages are taped, and there's been a number of people around the country, around the world, hearing and receiving. There'll be somebody driving down the road in an automobile, even now, while I'm speaking, there'll be people sitting in their home, there'll be people hearing it, and God will be speaking to them about secret sin, and that's something God's been dealing with about to put down. And these are people who can sing and shout and talk in tongues, these are people who can come to meetings just like this, and raise their hands and worship and everything else, but they've not dealt with that besetting sin. That thing is still there, and I want to show you the danger of it. I want to show you tonight, before I'm finished, the avenging power of holiness. There's a saving power of holiness, there's an avenging power of holiness, and we'll talk about that tonight also. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I ask that those who have been delivered from all lust and passion and flesh, that they pray with me that God will deal with those who are still in battle. They're battle is still raging in this building tonight. Lord, there are some that have come to this meeting by having been invited by someone else, or they're here out of curiosity. You've made it clear there are even some critics here of our ministry, but Lord, we love them just the same. We ask you, Lord, in your mercy and your grace, to come with power and unction and anointing and demonstration of the Holy Ghost, that God would be glorified and that the Holy Spirit would come to do His work of convicting of sin and righteousness and judgment. That is your ministry, Holy Spirit, to convict us of sin and righteousness and of becoming judgment. Put judgment on sin tonight in our hearts. Let no one say, I am not guilty. Lord, we don't have to plead, we don't have to invent something. But oh God, turn the searchlight on our hearts. Help us, Lord, to lay down our idols. Lord, bring forth healing before this message is over. Oh God, I pray for the preached word from this pulpit, from this night and every session, that there will come forth an honesty, there'll come forth a sword of the Lord, that let it be in the velvet hand of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. That flesh will not try to accomplish the will of God, for flesh will not accomplish God's will. So we covet only the anointing in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, all the prophets, every one of the prophets in the Old Testament foretold of a day when God would visit the Gentiles and take out of them a people for Himself. And beloved, that's exactly what God is doing right now. He's calling out a people for Himself. Remember when He called them out of Egypt? He said, I took you out of Egypt to Myself. He didn't take them to the promised land alone, He took them to His own bosom. In that day, reading, you don't have to turn up and listen to Amos 9.11, in that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that's fallen, and I'll close up the breeches thereof, and I will raise up His ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old. Now Isaiah told us that David's tabernacle took a fall. It was because Israel refused to walk in truth and righteousness. They turned away from the truth, they began to walk in lies, they had no truth in the inner man, they lived a lie, they walked a lie, they had false prophets preaching lies. The whole society of Israel, including prophets and priests and people, judges and princes, all became blinded by their sins, lost their discernment. In fact, in Isaiah 59, beginning verse 12, let's read and let's see what happened. Isaiah is speaking about Israel. Isaiah 59, I'm reading from New American Standard, verse 12, For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and all sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities. It's not that they didn't know, they knew that they were sinning against God. Transgressing and denying the Lord, and turning away from our God, seeking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and uttering from the heart lying words, justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away. For truth has stumbled in the street. Now read King James, it says, Truth has fallen in the street, truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter, the holiness can't enter, the door of holiness was shut. Yes, truth is lacking, and he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. In other words, he's the victim, the one who's really trying to serve God becomes a victim because there's no preaching of righteousness from the prophet. Truth has fallen to the ground. That's what the prophet is saying. Yes, truth is lacking, and he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in his sight, that there was no justice, and he saw that there was no man, and he was astonished that there was no one to intercede, that his own arm brought salvation to him, and his righteousness upheld him. Listen to what Isaiah said, Truth has fallen in the street, the door of holiness and righteousness is being closed, and now there's a cheating in the house of God, there's a lying frauds have come into the house of God, fraudulent prophets and priests, and those who really want to go on with God are the victims of it all. The prophet's warning that sincere young believers are paying the highest price for the backsliding in our prophets. I was talking to a young sister, that's here at the conference, God's been using in repentance, and she's learned something that we're all learning, that the young people really want to hear the truth, they really want to go on with God, in fact, I've had young men, young preachers, 25 years of age and under, who sit in my office and open up the word of God with revelation like I've never seen or heard, seeking the Lord night and day, they're tired of the fraudulent thing in the house of God, they're tired of the treachery in the hearts of shepherds, they're tired of it, and just as our brother said now, I want to go on with God, I want to see the righteousness of Jesus, and these are the victims. Now I'm not talking about all young people, we're going to talk about the strange children that are being born as a result of this cheating from the pulpit, those who depart from evil become the victims, look at verse 59 and verse 4 again, 59 verse 4, no one, call it for righteousness, in fact it says in the New York state, no one sues righteously, no one pleads honestly, they trust in confusion and speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, the King James says, none nor any of them plead for the truth, they're trusting in vanity, they're beginning to speak lies, they're conceiving mischief and bringing forth iniquity, Ezekiel is even more emphatic, he said there's a conspiracy of the prophets in the midst of the house of God, a conspiracy of the prophets, now you don't have to turn there, but I'm reading to you from Ezekiel 22, verse 25, like a roaring lion, they're tearing the prey, they're making victims, they have devoured lives, they've taken treasure and precious things, they've made widows in the house, in the midst of her, her priests have done violence to the law, and have profaned my holy things, because they make no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they hide their eyes from my sabbath, and I am profaned among them, the princes within them are like wolves tearing about the prey, they shed blood, they're destroying lives, and the prophets have smeared whitewash for them, they see false visions, and they tell them lies, and they say, thus says the Lord when the Lord has not spoken, does that have a familiar ring to it? Look me in the eye, does that have a familiar ring to it? They're telling them lies. It was C.S. Lewis, who said the man who loves us, is not the man who flatters our corporate sins, the man who loves us is the one who shows us our iniquities, he shows us our sins. Ezekiel, God speaking, he said I searched for a man among them who would, should build up the wall and stand in the gap before me, for the whole land, that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. Thank God, under the skin of grace, he's finding some. But Ezekiel said, I couldn't find any, God said, I couldn't find anybody, and Isaiah said, he saw there was no man, he was astonished that there was no one to intercede, so his own arm had to bring forth salvation. You ask what age is, that's God's arm at work? Don't tell me it's not a curse. Not against, you see when it rains, it rains on the just and the unjust. There are some that have to have blood, and they get polluted blood and contact AIDS, but these thousands who die, you go to the hospital in New York and you listen to them ranting and raving and cursing, and you look at what's happened to them as a result of their sin and tell me it's not a curse. It's a curse right out of Deuteronomy. Jeremiah said, my eyes are a fountain of tears. And why was Jeremiah weeping his eyes, fountains of tears? He said, because the men of God are not valiant for the truth. They will not preach the truth. Go with me to Jeremiah and look at it. Jeremiah 9. Just want to show it to you. Jeremiah 9 chapter. I think I'm going to have you start in verse 1. Let's follow Jeremiah. Boy, how he clearly describes what's happening in the land today. Jeremiah 9 verse 1. Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears. That I might weep, I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. Oh that I had in the desert a wayfarer's lodging place that I might leave my people and go from them. For all of them are adulterers and assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongue like the bow. Lies and not truth prevail in the land. In fact, King James says here they're not valiant for the truth. They're not valiant. They don't love the truth. They don't want to walk in the truth. They don't want to preach the truth. For they proceed from evil to evil. And they do not know me, declares the Lord. Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor and do not trust any brother because every brother deals craftily and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. Verse 5 And everyone deceives his neighbor and does not speak the truth. They have tapped their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves committing iniquity. Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know me, declares the Lord. Look at my mouth. Listen to what the prophet Jeremiah is saying. And this is the day we live in. This is the door of prophecy, I believe. He said there's not there's not a they're not valiant for the truth. They're not willing to pay the price of preaching the truth. I want to tell you something, brother, sister. If you're going to preach the truth and live the truth it's going to cost you something. The greatest inmate of those who walk in holiness is the back-slidden carl turks. The hired turks. You look at Paul the apostle stuck in a little jail and he says all of Asia turned against me. What is there about that little Jew that causes all of Asia to turn against him? What is there about that man? I'll tell you what there was about that man. He looked at everything that was precious to them. All of their prosperity. All of their success. And he said I give it up. It's all done. And he committed the unpardonable sin as far as the back-slidden church is concerned. He looked at everything that they held dear. He looked at everything that was precious to them. Everything that ministers of the gospel at that time in Asia were striving after because Alexander the coppersmith whose name means prosperity and deceit was going about saying it can't be as bad as Paul says. It can't be as narrow as Paul says. You don't have to listen to that doomsaying preacher. And the thing the reason all of Asia turned against him three of the very churches he started they turned against him because he decided to go all the way with Jesus and know nothing and none about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And when you step out of the crowd your heart begins to hunger after righteousness and you begin to walk with Him your life becomes a repose to those who walk in looseness and frivolity. Brother Wilkerson wrote to me two weeks ago he said, Brother Wilkerson I'm a young man and I don't understand it all my lifetime I've heard preachers say go all the way with Jesus. I've heard preachers say sacrifice. I've heard preachers say give all, give all. So I did it. And now that I've done it they don't want me in the church anymore. Because when I started doing what they told me to do, I started seeing things I didn't see before. I started hearing things I never heard before. And when I stood up and started to rebuke because I had the love of Jesus and I knew the will of God and I was receiving revelation of the Word of God they said I was a fanatic. And they didn't want anything to do with me. anything to do with me. A man's enemies will be there in his own household. Jesus said I didn't come to bring peace I came to bring a sword. You know we have some people that want unity at any cost they don't want holiness they want unity. Yet there is no unity without holiness. There is no unity without the righteousness of Jesus Christ bringing us together as one. That's not my message I'd get off on that and brother I'm gone I'd be chasing rabbits all night. So they're not valiant for the truth. I want you to go with me to Hosea. Hosea find Daniel and go right. You know Hosea said God has a controversy with his people because of this trampling of the truth to the ground. Look at Hosea 4 verse 1 Start verse 1 Hosea 4 verse 1 Listen to the word of the Lord O sons of Israel For the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land King James says God has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. King James says because there is no truth or knowledge of God in the land there's no truth no mercy no knowledge of God in the land by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and idolatry they employ violence so that bloodshed follows bloodshed Look at verse 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you've rejected knowledge but in the original truth you've rejected the truth I will also reject you from being my priests since you've forgotten the law of your God I will also forget your children but notice God has a controversy with who? Who's the controversy with? With His people I've got a controversy with my own people He says the committing of adultery and I want you to look at verse 7 it says the more God blessed His people the more sinful and corrupt they became sin became so rampant among them that the priest finally settled down just to appease their idols they didn't want to upset anybody and like people like priests like prophets you'll see it here look at Hosea 4 7 beginning verse 7 the more they multiplied and in the original it's the more they were prospered the more they sinned against me I will change their glory into shame they feed on the sin of my people in other words they feed the idolatry of the people do you know that there are some in America today even in Pentecostal and charismatic circles who are willing to feed your idol if you've got idolatry in your heart you can find a preacher who's going to feed it amen they direct their desire toward their iniquity and it will be verse 9 and it will be like people like priests so I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds and they will eat but not have enough they will pray the harlot but not increase because they've stopped giving heed to the Lord look at verse 11 harlotry wine a new wine take away the understanding my people consult their wooden idol I wonder what that could be the new give me a good eye a minute you good ear we're talking about walking with God all the way we're talking about walking before him in truth we won't trample the truth to the ground and we come here together saying I really want the Lord to reveal himself and his fullness in my life I want to know what it is to be crucified resurrected I want to know what it is to have the flesh mortified before the Lord you tell me and I say it in love and I don't want to beat anybody over the head with it because I know how patient the Lord was with me and when God began to reveal this idolatry of television to my heart I just went out too quick and probably bashed people over the head with it I cannot conceive how anyone who wants to walk in righteousness before the Lord can keep this thing in his living room and don't tell me it's not an idol why is all the furniture facing it how do you sit there and say these things don't bother me Dallas Dynasty I mean things that are incubated by demonic minds incubated right in hell written by sodomites homosexuals many of them and how do you come to the house of God and how do you come to the house of God do you to the and how do you to the and how do you to the and how do you to the and how do you to the and how and how and how do you to the and how and how how do you the idols. Look at verse 5, chapter 5, verse 6 and 7. You know, because we have such idolatry, we have trampled the truth to the ground, and as a result, we have created and brought to birth a generation of what the prophet calls strange children, strange children. Hosea 5, verse 6. They that go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, they will go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but will not find Him, because He's withdrawn from them. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have born illegitimate children, and in the Hebrew it's strange, and King James brings it up, they have brought forth strange children, strange children. Now look at me please. This word strange here in the Hebrew means to turn away from, to commit adultery, to become a fornicator, to turn aside, and to become a foreigner. Listen to what the prophet's saying, because the prophet is trampling the truth to the ground, and this softness against sin, it has brought forth a generation of strange children, foreigners to holiness, foreigners to righteousness, those who turned aside to a spirit of wardom, a spirit of idolatry and fornication. Now they're not strange in the way of being odd, they're strange to holiness, they're foreigners to holiness is what the scripture is saying. Never in all of history has there been a generation so set in their own ways. How else can you describe it? I've looked for a word to describe this generation in terms a little more moderate than Hosea, and I can't find anything that fits better than strange children. Strange children, where have they come from? Why suddenly are we looking at a whole generation of strange young people, strangers to the righteousness of Christ, strangers to with truth, wanting more truth, they say, I don't care, they'll wave off angels, they'll wave off the Holy Ghost. They can sit through meetings where God is moving and His Word is set for the two-edged sword, coming forth from broken hearts of men who love them, and I tell you now, I love this generation, I've given my life for them. But I see something now I've never seen in my lifetime, I see a generation of young kids, young youth pastors, even Pentecostal and Charismatic youth pastors. They don't care what I preach, they don't care how many scriptures I quote, they don't care that I have a prophetic word from the Lord. I don't see it that way. I don't care what you say. This is my way and I'm going it. I'm going my way. Beyond reproof. The Bible says they've corrupted themselves. God said, give them a miscarrying womb. I hear about all the convention festivities, render Christ through all of this filth that's coming out of the house and coming forth from all of these things that are happening. They say, oh, but they're getting people saved. Listen to what the prophet says, Hosea 9, look at verse 15. All their evil is at Gilgal. Indeed, I came to hate them there because of the wickedness of their deeds. I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels. Look at verse 14. Give them, O Lord, what will thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb. A miscarrying womb and dry breast. They're miscarriages. Miscarriages. Because you cannot grow in the Holy Ghost unless you're birthed by the Holy Ghost. It's an evil seed. Oh, there are some, thank God, in spite of it, there's a hunger in their heart and they look beyond all that and God sends them out. It's not because they've been rendered Christ through that foolishness. It's because God had already been dealing by a spirit in His mercy. He saw something in their heart and He responded to it supernaturally. An appalling, horrible thing is happening in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule on their own authority and my people love to have it so. My people love to have it so. Look at me a minute. I don't have television, but when I did, I was watching some of the so-called Christian television. I would weep. I would cry. That's so God. Is this what we're showing the world about Jesus? Is this supposed to represent, is this the best we can give the world? Don't you weep over that? Doesn't that break your heart? You know you can love these people. You know what the prayer of my heart is? There's so much of it that is absolutely foolishness. It's such like this. My prayer is, oh God, bring everything down that's not preaching repentance and holiness and save those who are involved in it and bring them back in a purified form. We can love the men involved, but we can hate what is being portrayed as Jesus Christ. Right? But you know, I used to see some of that and I see thousands of people applauding it. Where's the discernment? Because when you're not walking in righteousness before the Lord and you have an idol in your heart, the first thing you lose is your discernment. And the first thing you get back when you turn the world around in your heart is your discernment. Hallelujah. You shall say to them, this is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction and truth is perished and been cut off from their mouth. That's Jeremiah 7.28. They've refused to accept correction. Truth is perished from them and has been cut off from their mouth. Now doesn't that pretty well explain it? You can mark that down, Jeremiah 7.28. Now let me go on with you now. You still with me? Is this too hard? The prophets have all foretold that Christ is going to come, that Christ would come and we build a holy temple founded on truth. Founded on those who live in truth, walk in truth and preach the truth. Go to Zechariah, turn right. Bob said if you want to find where these books are, hold your Bible up and look for the white pages. The ones that are not in the Bible. The ones that are not in the Bible. The ones that are not in the Bible. The ones that are not in the Bible. The ones that are not in the Bible. The ones that are not in the Bible. The ones that are not in the Bible. The ones that are not in the Bible. How many know what the New Jerusalem is? It's a body of people that the Lord is raising up. Remember what the prophet Hosea said? In fact you find it also in the book of Acts. That Christ would return and rebuild the house of David that's fallen down. And this new city, this new Zion that he's going to rebuild is going to be called the city of truth. There will be nothing in this city but those who live in truth and walk in truth and preach the truth. It's going to be a people of truth. Boy, how God's been bearing down with me on this. About the matter of walking in truth before Him and righteousness. Look at Zechariah 8.16. Go on to verse 16. These are the things which you shall do. You shall speak the truth to one another. You will judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. He's speaking about the New Jerusalem. Speak the truth to one another. Judge with truth. Judge with truth. Righteousness to his neighbor. Isaiah said and in mercy shall the throne be established. You shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David. He will judge seeking judgment and he will hasten righteousness. Listen to Zechariah 12. Go to Zechariah 12. Verse 7. The Lord also will save the tents of Judah first in order that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be magnified above Judah. Listen to this. Verse 8. In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them. Now look this way if you will please. Listen to what the prophets are saying. In the last days he will have a people and he's going to call it a holy city. It's going to be a holy city of truth. And he said this holy city of people, the people in this city are going to be like David. That means they're going to have a heart like David. I got this first reading of my heart from hearing Brother Phillips preach. And God began to bear witness to it in my heart with this message. There's going to be a people in the last days that have a heart just like David's was. Now David sinned but he hated his sin and he turned from it. And I want to show you before I finish tonight something about the venting power of holiness. How David was so tender at one time that he was convicted by just cutting off a piece of Saul's gun. Remember how he cut off a piece and he was so convicted by it? How tender his conscience was? And then he gets so hardened by his sin with Bathsheba that when the prophet comes and he talks about someone stealing one man's little lonely lamb he can't even see himself in it, he doesn't even blush. Something's happened to David, this great man of God. And it can happen to us. You can have a tender conscience that gets hardened before the Lord. But the Lord, and I'll tell you something folks, nothing's going to stop this. Let hell or high water come, no matter what the judgments are upon the church or America or the world, no matter how dark the day gets, God has said He's going to have a city of truth. He's going to have ministers who walk in truth, who live the truth, who have no hidden part in the heart dark. They're going to have everything open, they're going to live an open face before the Lord. They're going to stand before the people ministering truth. The people are going to see the truth lived in their pastors. They're going to have a holy people. It's only going to be a remnant. But He said they're going to be like David. And I begin to think about David. They shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God. They're going to be like the Lord. They're going to have the likeness of Jesus Christ, with no part dark, no hidden sin, no secret lust in them. David said, Behold, you desire truth in the inner parts. What was David like? Listen to him. Oh God, I know one thing you want out of me more than anything else, is that inside my heart, I'm not living a lie. I'm not standing before the church, God teaching holiness with lust in my heart. This is a part of what he's doing. He's doing it in churches. He's doing it in your heart. You know that many of you sitting here right now, you say, David, that's who I felt an awakening in my heart. I felt God putting His finger on things that I didn't even know about in my life. He's dealing with me. You see, there's a dreadful wrath of God that's going to be poured out upon those who despise the truth and the conviction of the Holy Ghost against sin in their life. Remember what Paul wrote in Romans? I'll just read it to you. You don't have to tell me, but just listen. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness. And what it really means in Greek, they hold back the message of the truth. They corrupt the truth by the sin that's in their life. They preach a corrupted message. They're suppressing the truth. It doesn't go forth with life. Look me in the eye when I tell you. You cannot produce life. Pastor, evangelist, you cannot produce life in people unless you walk in holiness before God. You'll produce death no matter how good it sounds. It's death. It ministers nothing but death. They suppress the truth in their unrighteousness because that which is known about God is evident unto them for God made it evident to them. You know, people look at Romans 1 and they think Paul's talking about homosexuals. Well, that is only in part. I believe he's talking about the ministry as well. He's talking about Sunday school teachers. He's talking about those in the pew. He said that which could be known of God was clearly manifest to them. It was not hidden. They knew it. They heard the Word of God. The Holy Ghost convicted them time and time again. And I'll tell you, there's not a person who would sin in their life that the Holy Ghost hasn't dealt with over and over again. How many times has God said lay it down? How many times has He said this will destroy you? How many times has He come in mercy? You know what? You know why I finally said yes Lord, I'll preach this tonight at a meeting where there are numbers of ministers? The reason I said yes, and the reason I feel so strong about it, I remember the time when I was one of those, quote, non-evangelists with the worldwide pulpit, preaching around the world. I didn't commit adultery, but there was a spirit of adultery in my heart. There was lust in my heart. Terrible, damnable lust. And you know, looking back, there wasn't a time when I was struggling. I hated it. I despised it. And oh, brother, sister, if you're in a doubt, if you despise your sin, there's hope for a man, there's hope for a woman who hates sin. All of heaven will come to your rescue. But there comes a time, you don't know that time, there wasn't a barrister, there wasn't a book I read, there was nothing for a period of four or five years when I was struggling so hard. There wasn't a man, I went to a lot of meetings, I read a lot of books, and there wasn't one word that came forth that Nathan's finger said, thou art a man. I would to God that there'd been somebody who could have had enough God in him, enough of the Holy Ghost in him, to preach a message against sin so strong, with such fire of the Holy Ghost, that it would expose me before the presence of the Holy God. I still have been robbed of years of revelation because of it. And the Bible said, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature, rather than the creator who's blessed forever. You know what I mean? To serve the creature? That's ego tripping. That is serving me, that's serving the flesh. And that's exactly, and we're talking, we're going to get down to some real plain stuff now. You know when God, by His Holy Ghost, begins to finger a besetting sin in your life? That's the truth of God laying a claim on your life. God is saying, I want to use you. I've got something in mind for you. You've been praying that I use you. You know in your heart you want to be used. You want to stand before the judgment seat, clean and righteous. You don't want your works to be burned in my presence. And I've seen that in you. And because I've seen that in you, because I see that hunger, that's why I deal so severely with you about your sin. That's why I convict you over and over again. Because I'm laying a claim on you. I'm laying a claim that you would be a man or woman who would walk in truth and righteousness and be a man. But you see, there are many who reach a point in their life where God has dealt with them so severely, so strongly, so frequently, they cast it aside and become deadened. They don't tremble at the word anymore. They don't feel it anymore. Just like Samson when he sinned with the harlot. Judgment doesn't fall from the sky. He seems to get away with it and so he becomes hardened to it. He can sit and lay with the prostitute who says, I'm off to kill you and still not be convicted. God is hard hardened now and I'm telling you the hardest hearts in all the world are in the pulpit. Did you hear me? Some of the hardest hearts in the world are in the pulpit. They're in the hearts of Sunday school teachers and Christian workers because they receive not the love of the truth for this cause. What cause? They receive not the correction of the Holy Ghost. They receive not the finger of God. They receive not the love of the truth for this cause. God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. They'll be damned because they believe not the truth, that they had pleasure in their unrighteousness. They wanted their sins. They wanted to hold on. They wouldn't let go. Therefore God gave them over to the lust of their hearts, to their impurity that their bodies may be dishonored among them and there could be no greater judgment on the face of this earth than for God to give a man or woman over to their sins. What is this lie that God gives them over to? It's a depraved, reprobated mind that blinds to judgment, blinds to discernment. It's a heart so hardened by sin it becomes immune to the fear of God, although they know the ordinance of God. They know that those who practice such things are worthy of death. They not only do the same things, but they give hearty approval to those who practice it. You know, in Pilgrim's Progress, there's a character there called Christian, and Christian was about to leave the house of the interpreter. And the interpreter said to him just before he left, stay a moment until I show you a little more and after that you go your way. And what was this sight the interpreter shows to Christian before he could go in his way? It was a man called the Man of Despair who was sitting in an iron cage. And Christian said to him, how did you get in this condition? How did you come about being locked in an iron cage? And the Man of Despair answered, I quit watching. I quit being sober. I gave loose rein to all my lust. I sinned against the light of the Word and the goodness of God. I grieved the Holy Spirit and now He's gone. I tempted the devil and he's come to me. I've so hardened my heart I can't repent now. Who is this Man of Despair in the iron cage? He's the Man of God who can stand in the pulpit even with tears and preached now against sin and still harbored in his own heart. The Sunday school teacher that can stand and tell others how to live before Christ and yet harbor secret sin. He's the one who goes on trying to do the will of God while maintaining secret corruption in the heart. This is an inner hardening that takes place. The iron cage symbolizes that condition that Paul was speaking of. Being past feelings. Being past feelings. We've had ministers, a few, at our repentance conferences, some who preached holiness who were demon possessed. Past feelings. Nothing could move them. Nothing. Now you've heard of the saving power of holiness. I want to talk to you now about the avenging power of holiness because this comes under the heading of the avenging power of holiness. Please, go back to Jeremiah. Go left to Jeremiah. I want to set the stage before I close about the avenging power of holiness. What happens to those who harden their hearts and won't heed the truth? Lay down, they'll be setting sin. Jeremiah 5, verse 8, beginning. I still hear the rustling leaves. I'll wait for just a minute. I want you to follow me. Jeremiah 5, verse 8. Let's start verse 7. Why should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken me and sworn by those who are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery and crooked to the harlot's house. They were well fed lusty horses, each one neighing after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not punish these people, declares the Lord? And on a nation such as this, shall I not avenge myself? Shall I not avenge myself? Look at verse 26. For wicked men are found where? Among whom? Among my people. They watch like fowlers laying wait. They set a trap that catch men like a cage full of birds. So their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they become great and rich. They are fat. They are sleek. Verse 29. Shall I not punish these people, declares the Lord? On a nation such as this, shall I not avenge myself? Now go to the New Testament. I'll tell you what, let's go to the New Testament. I want you to go to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. Are you still with me, beloved? 1 Thessalonians 4. Let's begin with verse 3. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. That is that you abstain from sexual immorality. That each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. Not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. And that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things. Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. But look at verse 6. And that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter. In what matter? He's talking now about sexual sins. He's talking about lust. He's talking about passion. He's talking about defrauding your brother in this matter. For the Lord is the what? The Lord is the avenger in all these things. Now, setting that stage. Remember, look this way. Do you remember when God commanded Moses to go up to Mount Nebo to die? Moses was the most meek man on the face of the earth. And I want to tell you a little story, a Bible story that makes me tremble. Because I'm not a meek man like Moses. I can't, I couldn't even, I wouldn't dare step in his shoes. This meek, holy, righteous man is not allowed to go into the promised land because of the avenging power of God's holiness. You don't have to turn, but just listen to Deuteronomy 32, 49. Just listen to it. God speaking to Moses. Go and die, and be gathered to your people. You shall see the Lord, the land, at a distance, but you shall not go there. Now that's amazing because a lot of people were going in there, committed sins worse than him. I mean, here's a whole group of this new generation that came up, still carrying their idols, and they get in. But this man doesn't get in. This meek man does not get in. You'll see the land, but you shall not go there. Why? Because you broke faith with me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh. Because you did not treat me holy in the midst of the sons of Israel. Isn't that something? He said, there's a scripture that justifies this. Dead flies cause the ointment of the pocketary to send forth a sinking saver, so does a little folly in him that his reputation for wisdom and honor. In other words, a man who's known for meekness or holiness or truth. God can't allow a little folly in him. He sends forth such a stence because of his reputation for piety and holiness. You see, Moses struck the rock, that is Christ. He caused something to happen in Israel that God despised. He made God appear less holy before the people than He was. He made God appear less righteous. He put a blinder over the holiness of God. He veiled Christ in His holiness and in His righteousness. And God says, I won't let my servants show me before the people to be less holy than I am. And that's the danger of being so soft against sin. That's the danger of standing in the pulpit with that sin unresolved and unforsaken, like Moses. You stand there before the people making God appear less holy, awesomely holy than He is. You see another picture of the avenging holiness of God. When you see these two young priests, sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. Remember these are the two young men that went with Aaron and the 70 elders and Moses to the mountain. And the Bible said they saw the God of Israel and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire as clear as the sky itself. And they, including Nadab and Abihu, they beheld God and they ate and drank. Isn't that amazing that these two young priests ate in the presence of God and didn't die? They saw a revelation of the absolute holiness and purity of Almighty God and they come off that mountain and they walk into the holy place, flaunting the righteousness of God. They do something so tragic they offer strange fire before the altar of God, before all the eyes of Israel. And it's not just this one act of the Bible. There's a Hebrew word there, sur, S-U-R, and it means having become. It's something they became. It's something they were doing. It was a lifestyle of compromise and sin. And they took this compromising lifestyle, they took this heart that was corrupted and they tried to go into the presence of a holy God and offer their services to a holy God with sin hidden in their hearts. And you know what happened? Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. They died before the Lord. And Aaron is watching them drag his two sons out to the outer court. And all of Israel stands at the gate of the tabernacle and they see those black and charred bodies of those two young priests taken outside the camp to be buried. God sent Moses to Aaron who's grieving for his sons. I've got two preacher sons. I can sympathize with what must have been going through Aaron's mind. Do you remember what Moses said to Aaron, the father of these two boys that had just been consumed by the wrath of God, this avenging power of God's holiness? Then Moses said to Aaron, it's what the Lord spoke to us saying, by those who come near to me, I will be considered as holy and before all the people, I will be honored. You see, today we hide behind what we call a day of grace. But I want you to know that Ananias and Sapphira were under the canopy of grace. But they were about to spread a leaven through the church of Jesus Christ that would have leavened the whole lump. They were going to attempt to stand before a holy God in the presence of the Holy Ghost and lie. They were living a lie. And having lived a lie, they're going to tell the lie. And so that's what you do when you stand before your audience. You stand in a day of grace just like Ananias and Sapphira and you lie to the Holy Ghost. And they died in a day of grace in the Pentecostal church that was preaching mercy and grace for a lost generation. Am I right? The Spirit would not allow them to speak with tongues and witness and go into the world and handle the gospel of Jesus Christ, bearing a holy standard while clinging to a lie in their heart. Listen to what Paul said. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel. That doesn't mean you're a bride. I've heard all kinds of illustrations or interpretations of that. That has nothing to do with keeping your virgin or anything else. He's talking about this man's own vessel. Not in lustful passion, that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter. Now we'd better take this very solemnly now because Paul said he who rejects this is not rejecting man but God who gives the Holy Spirit to you. He said this is the word I'm giving you. You're not rejecting Paul, you're rejecting God because I got it from God. And he's talking about impurity, he's talking about lust, he's talking about passion. He said don't become a fraud. Now I want you to hold on with me. Paul does not mince words. You think what you hear tonight is hard? He said the servant of God who's a slave to his lust, the man who's driven by a passion, he's involved in any sexual immorality, he's a transgressor, he's a fraud, he's a deceiver, he's pretending to be pious, he's a trickster, he's trying to steal that which his eyes covet, an assembly of God preacher in the southeast part of the United States, left his church of 20 years and his wife of 25 years, married, and he runs off to live with the woman from his church who has two teenage daughters, and he's living with that woman and her two children without even being divorced from his first wife. And his first wife talked to him recently, in fact she called me and she said, husband, and she still had a burden for him, she said how do you do it? How do you go to sleep at night? He said, oh it's easy, I threw myself at the mercy of God. You know the man's a fraud, he said defraud not your brother and any of these men, he's defrauding those two teenagers who don't understand, they heard that man preach holiness for years and now they don't understand, they hate him. He's defrauding that community, defrauding the church, he's defrauding the body of Christ. A man's a fraud who stands on the pulpit preaching grace and mercy while sneaking around to feed his mind on pornography. Sir, I know what I'm talking about, this thankfully was not my problem, but in almost every meeting I have precious men of God, brother Bob and Don get the same thing, they come up and they say brother Wilson it's true, I'm hooked on pornography. Listen to me people, this is becoming a major problem in the ministry, pornographic cassettes, when nobody's watching, when the husband or wife goes to bed, when the children are asleep, one wife heartbroken said my husband demands that I watch this junk with him. Sir, you're a fraud, you're defrauding the church, you're defrauding the young people. A man is a fraud who stands on the pulpit Sunday morning even sometimes with tears in his eyes, letting the church perceive him to be a holy man of God, yet in his heart he has a secret affair raging. That man's a fraud, he's treacherous against his wife, he's defrauding the husband of that woman, he's defrauding her children, he's defrauding his children, the fraud goes on and on, the deception goes on and on, the treachery goes on and on. A woman is a fraud who appears before the people as a sweet, faithful, pure woman of God, yet in her heart there's a fire of lust burning. And believe it or not, many of these filthy films that are being rented, you know it's a 7 billion dollar business now in America, 7 billion dollars, movies. I have to stop, it may not be for anyone here but it may be for someone who's hearing a tape. I've got to stop right now because I have the Spirit of God on me and this is a prophetic word. What I'm telling you now, if you don't lay down that corruption, you're going to be hardened, you're going to be turned over to your sin, you're going to become the biggest fraud that's possible to become. A fraud. And you'll face the avenging power of God's righteous holiness and I say it in love. What about that person who says, well my relationship is just platonic, it's just a harmless relationship. I'm hearing more and more of men who say my best friend is a woman and women who say my best friend is a man. I don't believe you. I don't believe you at all. I believe it's a cop-out. I believe it's a deception of the enemy. Your best friend should be your wife or your husband. We've got Christians, including those in the ministry who flock to movies now and they view the most wicked, vile stuff like peeping toms. You know the danger of that? They're coming home in the sacredness of their own rooms and introducing the filthy perversions of what their peeping eyes have beheld. You should read, my wife is here, you should read the letters that we get by the thousands of Christians. Break your heart. And then some of these same people don't understand why bitterness is setting in, why their children are rebellious. And then some of them have the audacity to come to the house of God to raise their hands and worship and even dance. And it's outright fraud. And you know who the worst fraud of all is? It's a minister soft on sin in the pulpit because he has secret sin in his own heart. And he dares not condemn anyone else because he's condemned by his own sin. And usually what happens in that case, he will cry out against every prophet who preaches against sin. They call him a doomsday preacher. And he'll thunder against him. He'll say, legalism, legalism. Have you ever heard that? You know what he'll do? He'll go into history books and he'll read about all the failures of men of God in past ages and take comfort from it. And say, see God used them but they had sin. That's the greatest, that's the biggest fraud in the world today. Those who take comfort in their sin, because others have gotten away with it, apparently. And the most solemn warning of all is given by the Savior Himself, and I'm going to close in just a moment. He said, you are of your father the devil, in the lust of your father you'll do. He was a murderer from the beginning and he abode not in the truth. How did Lucifer become Satan? He abode not in the truth because there was no truth in him. He despised the truth and he was transformed by that despising of the truth. Now, if Lucifer could be transformed into an angel of light, well let me read to you what Paul says, for such are false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And it's no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an image of light, therefore it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness whose ends should be according to their works. And with this I'm going to close. But Paul, here is the final end of the avenging power of God's holiness. Do you know where the false prophets come from? Do you know where the angels of light come from? Do you know where it's going to come from where the false prophets who come preaching another Jesus, another gospel? They're not going to be homosexuals that pose as preachers. They're not going to be alcoholics who are pretenders or gamblers who suddenly step in the pulpit. No, they're going to be those who once walked with God, those who heard the conviction of the Holy Ghost, those who were dealt with about their sins and wouldn't lay it down. Lucifer once ministered at the throne of God, a trusted created being, and he fell, became Satan, and he's transformed. There's a transforming power in this avenging power of holiness. You will be transformed. And this is what I fear about all the... I don't want to talk about it. The Lord just told me not to deal with that. But I feel a great unction right now upon me because all the false prophets are going to come right out of the church. All of those who begin to appease sin, all of the false things that are coming, all the demonic filth that's coming, all of the children of the devil, they preach another gospel, another Jesus. It sounds so sweet that it's not the Christ we know. It's another Jesus. I'm telling you, I have the Holy Spirit of God in my heart right now. God's telling me to come out of it all, out of the world, out of sin, out of all of it. Lay down your idols. Touch not the world. Touch not the unclean things. Lay it down.