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The Towers Have Fallen
Times Square Church, New York City - Pastor David Wilkerson, author of "The Cross and the Switchblade"
http://www.tscpulpitseries.org/tsc.html
"You will hear of wars, and rumors of wars - see that you are not alarmed, for this is something that must happen, but the end will not be yet. For nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines (shortages) and earthquakes in various places. All this is only the beginning of the birthpangs. Then you will be handed over to be tortured and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My Name. And then many will fall away [from their faith]. People will betray one another, and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise - they will deceive many. And with the increase in lawlessness (Torahlessness), love in most people will grow cold. But, anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved. This good news of the [promised] Kingdom will be proclaimed to the whole world, as evidence to the nations. And then, the end will come." - Yashua HaMashiach, Messiah ben Joseph (Jesus Christ in his first advent.)
The Towers have Fallen and We Missed the Message
Pastor David Wilkerson
The cry is rising now We have the strength and the power, the ability, the resolve to endure any disaster because were a proud and great nation.
Now thank God for patriotism. Thank God for the American flag. I thank God for the temporary national unity and folks, that's what it is. Its temporary.
I thank God for the incredible heroic efforts and sacrifices we've witnessed. The world wonders at the fortitude and love of the New Yorkers in this time, and the Americans in general, in Washington, D.C. and everywhere.
But folks, we face now the same danger of missing Gods message as did Israel. Were at the same crossroads now that Isaiah spoke of .
If you and I lived in Jerusalm and Judah at the time of this prophet, I have a sense that many of us would have walked out on him. We wouldn't have listened. We wouldn't have heeded it because the nation refused to believe that Jerusalem, their favorite city, or the nation of Judah could be brought low. And here comes Isaiah preaching while all the false prophets were preaching peace.
He said, Shall not God as he has done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
He said, What makes you think you're exempt Jerusalem? Don't you know that I have just destroyed nations all around you for their idolatry? This same idolatry that you are practicing?
And he comes now with this message, Shall not God as he has done to Samaria and her idols, so do also to Jerusalem and her idols? What makes you think your nation is exempt?
All across America now we hear of prayer and remembrance meetings. Prayer and remembrance.
Now folks, we've got to remember those who died. That's scriptural, that's honorable. Thank God for what's happening. But why do we find it so impossible to call for prayer and repentance meetings? Why?
Is it remembrance and revenge? Yes, God will take care of this has to be dealt with.
I'm for that 100%.
But where is the call for turning back to God in America? Where is the call? Where is anyone hearing the message?
Let me give you the message God is trumpeting. Time is running out.
I've sent you prophets and watchmen. You've been warned over and again. I prospered you above all nations. I endured your worship of gold and silver. I endured your shameless sensuality. I endured your mockery, your continuous shedding of innocent blood and murdering of babies. I've endured your timeless efforts to eradicate my name, even from your history books.
Now I've stricken in hopes of saving you, that you would repent and turn from your wicked ways so that I could heal your land and I will destroy your enemies.
Now folks, show me where that's not scriptural. Prove to me from Gods word that He will not judge America as He's judged Sodom, Rome, Greece and now Russia.
Here's the message from the prophet Ezekial.
Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed. Make you a new heart, a new spirit, for why would you die, oh house of Israel? I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God. Wherefore turn yourselves and live.
Folks, God knows the pain and sorrow of the death of the innocent. Who could be more innocent than his own son? Who is more innocent?
God laid the sins of the whole world on the back of his own sin and let wicked men kill him! So don't tell me that He's not a feeling God. That He doesn't feel pain.
He said, I take no pleasure in this
And Ill tell you why God bottles tears because they are his own tears He's retrieving. He weeps through those who are His beloved children. Every tear you shed as a believer in Jesus, and lover of Christ, those are the tears of God. Jesus is still a man and he weeps and He weeps through His children. Its the only evidence He can give.
I tell you now, Jesus has been weeping. God pities and He weeps but his justice and his righteousness force Him to restrain his pity and carry out righteous judgments as a last resort. His justice demands that He lay these sins on His son and that an innocent son of God would die.
Oh yes, so many innocent people have died. Not that there was personal judgment on them. Many righteous died. But Gods trying to save a nation.
Now what's going to happen if this nation misses the message and we don't turn back to the Lord? The window of opportunity is very short now. What's going to happen if abortion continues and we end up killing born babies for research purposes?
If we continue rubbing the precious name of Jesus out of our American history? That's what they're trying to do now. All of the school books are being re-written, the majority of school books are being re-written to remove Gods name from American history. Right now.
What happens if we re-build bigger and better only to enrich ourselves even more? And all the talk I hear now is that somebody is going to build the towers bigger and better than ever.
What's going to happen if we don't trust God now instead of trusting our armed might? Let me answer that question, not out of my own heart, not out of speculation, but the word of Isaiah clearly tells us what follows the rejection of His call to repentance and turning to pride and boasting of greatness.
The Bible says there will be devouring fire mounting to the heavens, darkness over the land, national disunity, a stricken economy, every man out for himself to survive.
Now listen to the scripture. For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother. (Isaiah 9:18, 19)
It will be every man for himself. He shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry
God's going to touch the economy.
and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm. (verse 20)
That means he's going to protect his little world and God help you if you try to get near he flesh of his own arm.
Let me read to you a message I delivered from this pulpit. It was September 7, 1992. It's entitled, A Prophetic Warning to New York City. Some of you where here, perhaps, in 1992. Let me read this. This is from this very pulpit.
Right now, I believe God is speaking a warning to New York City and I wrestled with His severe word as I prepared this message and I prayed, Lord, is this really going to happen?
Again and again I heard this still small voice, Preach it and warn the people. Those who want the truth will receive it.
Dear Saint:
This warning is not meant to scare you. It's meant only for you to take to the Lord and pray. This is what I believe the Lord has shown me.
Thirty days of chastisement will fall on New York City such as the world has never seen. Gods going to let down the walls. Unimaginable violence, looting, a thousand fires will be burning at the same time throughout the city and its burroughs.
Times Square will be ablaze and the flames that ascend into the heaven will be seen for miles. Fire trucks will not be able to handle it all. Trains and buses will be shut down. Billions of dollars will be lost. Broadway shows will stop completely. It will cause businesses to flee the city in an unstoppable hemorrhage.
The violence will be ferocious. It will shock the whole world. Our streets will be lined not just with National Guard but the militia.
The Los Angeles fires were confined to a few sections of their city but New York will be ablaze and its burroughs.
Such things are expected in Third World countries but not in a civilized nation like the United States. Yet in not too long a time afterward New York City will go bankrupt. The city's Queen city will be cast into the dirt. A city of poverty.
You ask, when will all this happen? All I can say is I believe I will be here when it happens. When it happens, no matter where we are, in your apartment or on the job, Gods people are not to panic or fear.
I've been asked so many calls in our Texas office.
Brother Dave, the web sites are covering this all over the United States. Is this what you saw?
My answer is, No, its not. Not at all.
What I see is far more, far more severe. The heartland wont be spared. Because you see, if we turn away from God now, if we don't have voices rising, then this is what happened to Israel. The whole nation came under economic collapse.
You see, I don't like to hear this. Folks, we didn't want to hear it then [in 1992] and its happened and now we weep.
You say, Well cant any of this be avoided?
Absolutely yes. Yes!
If this President proves to be a Josiah, a man who sought the Lord with all his heart according to Gods pattern or the tracks of the Holy Spirit we may be given a reprieve for as long as we have a godly man who does not turn to the right or to the left but completely trembles at the word of God.
Turn to II Kings and Ill give you that hope if you will. If you want to know what to pray about, folks, this is it. Pray that God will cause President Bush to tremble at the word of God, that he will stay on his knees and not be turned aside by advisors.
Chapter 22 of II Kings.
Now Josiah has just read the word of the Lord, they read it to him and there are prophecies of judgment upon the nation because of sin. He sends representatives to Huldah the prophetess and she gives this message and sends it to Josiah. This is the message I believe God wants to send to a Christian president. Listen to it.
And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me [tell President Bush, for example], Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon tis place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the books which the king of Judah hath read: Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched. But to the king [or to the President] which sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, As touching the words which you hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake aginst this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent they clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold, therefore, [and heres our hope] I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into they grave in peace: and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again. (II Kings 22:15-20)
God said, as long as you are in power, as long as you weep before me, as long as you don't turn to the right or to the left, as long as you tremble at my word, you will not see what is coming. It will not come under your rule. It will not come in your time.
My prayer is that we would pray that desperately and event his morning before we close this service, to call this church to pray that God give the spirit of Josiah in the White House.
Our Attorney General Ashcroft is a Pentecostal believer full of the Holy Spirit. There are prayer meetings every day in the White House. We need to plead with God that the spirit f Josiah, the same spirit that rested on him
Folks, not that we should be afraid of what is coming but to give us some time to
evangelize. There seems to be a visitation of the Holy Spirit that is running in parallel with these judgments. There seems to be God speaking all over the land.
Churches in Dallas, churches in Denver are being packed with people. This is happening even before Prayer meetings and these are the Christians, these are the believers that are coming together. There's a temporary pull and call among those who are not believers.
But folks, this is the hope and here's what the prophet Zechariah said, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, turn ye unto me, saith the Lord, and I will turn to you.
The most profound word of all, and with this I'm going to close. Go to Jeremiah 18 and with this I close.
Would you stand with me while we read this?
Chapter 18, verses 5 through 10.
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potters hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil [What does it say?] (repeat) I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it: If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
God said, if you will just turn.
We cant reach the world from this pulpit. But you see, yes, I pray that the nation repents. But my most intense prayer is for my own heart.
Lord, let me be holy turned to you. Let me have a repentant heart. Let me judge my sins that I may not be judged before the throne. I'm not looking at somebody else.
Folks, you cant find anywhere in this particular thing where God blamed sinners. He didn't blame homosexuals, he didn't blame those.
He said, its because of your pride and your cry of greatness. In your troubled times and in your grief you didn't turn to me with all your heart. You didn't come against yours sins but you turned to your own strength and you turned because you were wounded in pride. Your pride rose up.
God says, if you will turn to me with all your heart I will repent of what I had planned for you.
We cant repent for the rest of New York but we can repent for ourselves and our repentance this morning can rise to high heaven and touch the throne of God. We can move the heart of God, I believe that with everything in us.
Folks, listen to me please. We want to remember in prayer our President. President Bush, when he was a candidate, one of his first speeches was given at our Teen Challenge Center in Lubbock. We have a copy of his speech and he said, I was an alcoholic and Jesus saved me not only from alcoholism but from sin. I've given my heart to Jesus Christ.
Now folks, were to pray for our leaders even if they were evil. How much more for those that have been placed in the power and such a strategic time? You may not agree with his politics but folks, if you're a Christian, forget politics right now and lets lay hold of God.
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