David wilkerson who is guarding

Here are the specific doctrines and rules of our church. What if a young woman comes into your congregation wearing black lipstick, skintight clothes and a spiked purple hairdo? You have to get rid of that black lipstick. Shame on you. He has just been saved off the street and is seeking the reality of Christ in a church fellowship. But young believers need to be allowed time for the Holy Spirit to deal with them about these issues.

Nothing aroused the wrath of Jesus more than an attack on His truth. His words were strong because any mixture of works and the cross could bring down the entire Church. As a minister of God, I tremble as I hear what Jesus is telling His Church here: If any of us, in any form of ministry, advocates manmade moral codes, legalistic rules or any other human standards as being necessary to salvation, we face the holy wrath of God Himself.

If we burden down any child of Jesus with our own denominational standards, we would be better off drowned at sea. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better. We find further clarification in the letter of the apostle Paul to the Galatians, for he took up this same teaching. Remember that the Jewish believers in that church were entangling the children of Christ with a yoke of bondage, insisting that all believers must be circumcised in order to be saved.

As we noted, Paul rebuked all who taught this in no uncertain terms. Here are his words to the Galatians: You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. Galatians —6. Do you hear what he is saying? Paul told the Galatians that by choosing works over the cross they had fallen from grace. The original Greek implies something significant. A principal city of Galatia called Pessinus was known for its worship of a goddess named Cybele.

Join the flagellants, the Apocopi, and literally mutilate your bodies. After all, if your theology is right, then a little bit of cutting is not enough; a lot is holier. Do as the Apocopi do. Where do the rules and regulations end? It ends up in more than six hundred ways to try to please God. Your salvation is My work alone. I have messed up everything I have put my hand to. I ask now that Your Holy Spirit take away anything evil that has become rooted in my thinking.

Remove all of my offending lusts and habits in the members of my body—my own fleshly ways of trying to please You. Simply place childlike trust in His finished work of the cross. The basic tenet of the Christian faith is that the cross of Jesus Christ accomplished what? Page 45 2. Define legalism within the early Church. Pages 45—46 3.

Page 46 4. List several Scripture passages that Paul gave to the early Church to support his position about circumcision and the Law. Pages 46, 48 5. Define what Paul meant when he spoke of the offense of the cross. Page 47 6. In Matthew —5 Jesus gave a profound illustration about children. What was His main point in this teaching? Page 52 7. When Jesus spoke of the need to become as little children, what was He speaking of?

Page 52 8. When Jesus gave a warning to those who would offend little children those newly converted , whom was He speaking to? Summarize His warning. Page 55 9. It is a wonderful truth of the New Covenant that the Lord longs for His children to come closer to Him. In fact, He can never get us as close to Him as He desires.

He continually unites and binds and fashions us to draw us nearer. As we lay down our vain attempts to earn salvation through our own efforts and embrace the saving work of the cross, our new life within the covenant begins. God sent His Son to redeem a lost world, and Jesus fulfilled His mission through the cross.

Since every believer is one with Christ through faith, we are also partners in the contract. This means that we, too, have an obligation. As God draws us closer, our response, our requirement within the contract, is obedience. The burden to obey God in all things is binding upon us. The question then becomes, How can we ever hope to achieve a life of obedience, a life that is not dominated by sin?

You will recall that in forming the New Covenant, God promised on oath to supply all the enabling power and strength we need to fulfill every condition and demand of the New Covenant. The Holy Spirit will supply all the resources we need. This truth is the sole hope for those believers who have lost heart in their struggle to walk in obedience.

Only by having the New Covenant unveiled to us can we learn the secret to having victory over sin. I pursued this truth diligently, reading every book on the subject I could find, but they were all too technical and mysterious. I wanted to see and experience the power of the New Covenant in my own life.

If it is truly the secret of power over the dominion of sin, it had to work in a practical way in my own struggle for purity of heart. I told God that if it did not work in my own life, I could never preach it to others. So I offered my life and ministry to the Lord as a kind of spiritual laboratory in which to test and prove the truths He was showing me. The doctrine of the New Covenant and your understanding of it will come only after you go through the process of taking up your cross and dying to all that is of self.

I do not believe we can truly understand the New Covenant until we have gone down into the depths of what it means to die with Christ. I have always known the details of the cross of Christ. Ever since I was a young minister, I preached the cross in vivid pictures. Most of us know about the physical episode of Calvary—but few have experienced and understood the real spiritual meaning of the crucifixion of Christ, let alone our personal cross and what it means to die with Him.

Jesus had crowds following Him everywhere He went. Many believers have heard this phrase all their lives: Take up your cross and follow Me. I cannot obey Him unless it is by the way of the cross.

I am not worthy to be His child except by embracing the cross. I am called to glory in the cross. Obviously, it is the key to understanding the New Covenant.

But how can I take up the cross, embrace it and yield to it, if I do not know what it means? I freely admit that for many years I never had the cross shown to me in a way that satisfied my deepest longings about it. I could not preach its fullness because I had not experienced it. And theologically it remained a mystery to me. But where is it? And what is it? You say it is my cross. And Paul said I must be crucified, I must die. Can you explain to me what taking up your cross means to you, and what happened as a result of your doing it?

Here is the most prevalent explanation I have heard: The cross is some burden—some disturbing element, some kind of painful yoke—such as a chronic illness or a thorn in the flesh.

But that definition does not come close. The cross Jesus is talking about is much deeper and darker than all of that. I am not going to tell you what I know doctrinally about the cross, but I will share with you what I have experienced of the cross.

I am still working on the theology of it all; that will come. What I am about to share may not make sense to many, but perhaps those who struggle for freedom in their own strength will understand it. Here is my experience of the cross. All I know is that I came to the end of myself—down, down, down into a place of total helplessness. I had struggled long and hard to be obedient to the Lord, striving earnestly to live a holy life and to be pure. I had read many books and listened to many teachers, looking for keys, insights, secrets to living the life of an overcomer.

I had wept until there were no more tears. I had walked and prayed, I had knelt and prayed, I had lain on my face and prayed. I had read my Bible until my eyes were weary. I had begged the Holy Spirit to cut off my offending right arm, pluck out my offending right eye, do whatever He had to do to rid me of all besetting sins.

I wanted to be a pleasure to my Lord so badly. Then one day I could take it no more. On that day, I could not even pray. All I could do was lie on the floor, empty in spirit, with no tears left.

I am worn out. I have tried and failed. After all my searching through books, all my study, all my efforts to be a conqueror, I still battle with the flesh. My temptations have not let up. I have tried to be a living sacrifice. I have struggled to live by faith. I have tried diligently to live and walk in the Spirit, to allow Him to lead me and empower me.

I have nothing in me to offer You—no merit, no plea. I have no more power, no more fight. I am weak, helpless. No counselor, no loved one, no friend, no minister. It is a place where you know beyond any shadow of a doubt you can do nothing on your own. It is where you once and for all face the truth that all your struggling and striving in the flesh have gotten you nowhere, and now everything depends on Him.

If there is going to be revelation, He has to give it. If there is going to be deliverance from besetting sins, the Holy Spirit has to do it. If things in my life need fixing, He has to fix them.

If I am to be a blessing and joy to Him, He has to make it happen. If I am to walk in the Spirit, He has to show me how. If the Holy Spirit is to empower me to defeat lust or passion, it must happen by imputed faith alone. I am now out of the picture. Out of nothingness must come His supernatural strength.

My promises are worthless because I cannot keep any of them. My striving is in vain because I have nothing to work with.

Down to nothingness—where I no longer have a will of my own. At this place, I found myself on solid ground to remind Jesus that He Himself could do nothing on His own.

For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. I can of Myself do nothing. You could do nothing on Your own. How could You expect any more of me? If You needed help and direction with every step, how much more do I need You to guide me in everything? How much more helpless am I without the same love and guidance from the Father? And He must show me all that He wants to do through me, for Him.

And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. Nothingness—a place where you feel abandoned. You love Him, you desire Him, you know that He is, but you feel that for some unknown reason He is silent. His revelation is not coming to you. Why do You not respond in my desperate time? Why is my soul so cast down with feelings of rejection and confusion?

But this? Why is there no clear way, no reassurance? Why does it have to be so complicated? Here is where the cross is most powerfully experienced. It happens when in my nothingness, I surrender my will—I quit struggling and striving. I now become wholly dependent on Him. The matter is now out of my hands completely; God has to take over. His Spirit must take me into death and raise me up as a new man. I give up the ghost, the independent life of flesh.

Death to all ambition. Death to boasting and trying to impress others. Death to doing anything on my own. Death to my plans, desires, will. Death to all my striving to please Him. And, most of all, death to my past flesh-faith. I really, truly, honestly believe. You can always tell a request that is of the flesh, because it comes with a deadline. We give God what we consider long enough to act—but when He does not perform on schedule, our so-called faith turns into ugly unbelief.

I, a licensed, ordained Baptist minister, was also addicted—a slave to my own efforts of salvation. I have spent the better part of my life working to help people get free from life- controlling addictions, including every type of drug imaginable.

Running a Christian recovery home, I have had to deal with heroin and cocaine addicts, alcoholics and the latest scourge of addiction, methamphetamine. As a professional social worker I have seen the damage that addiction wreaks on families. Everyone around an addict ends up strangling, dying slowly, one broken promise at a time. Understanding this teaching was like putting a mirror before my own religious masks. Ultimately, like any true addict, I failed them all and hid my failure and rejection in even more religion.

I was trapped in a web of my own spinning, and the face on the spider was mine. Comprehending the New Covenant was at once an arrow through my heart and the transplant of a new one. Yes, I was saved. I had been saved since I was a boy, but like most other preachers I know, I would be up, then down, then tossed to and fro. It took a lot of effort and time just to stay afloat.

My life changed when I learned that. My preaching changed. Death—it is the only way out of the Old Covenant and into the New.

No more striving to believe. If I am to have faith—true faith, the faith of Christ—He has to give it to me. We have been given a measure of faith—yet if it is true that I can do nothing of myself, then this includes having His faith. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

Has then what is good become death to me? But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. Romans — Are you sin-sick? Are you truly yearning to live a holy life, free from the habituating lusts of the flesh? Then get ready to die. Get ready to embrace the cross.

When you have given up all hope of overcoming sin by your own human power and will, then you are ready to enter the glorious realm of freedom through the New Covenant. Page 62 2. What is the secret to having total victory over sin? Page 62 3. Read Matthew Page 64 4. In your own words explain what this means. Page 65 5. What do you think the phrase down into nothingness means? Pages 66—67 6. Where is the cross most powerfully experienced?

Page 69 7. The only way out of the Old Covenant and into the New Covenant is through what? In this chapter, I want to show you the need for the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. He may grieve over his sins, shedding a river of tears, but in his own willpower and ability he cannot defeat powerful, besetting sins.

Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Therefore, turn and live! Lay it down. Just say no to your besetting sin. Turn from it, and make a change in yourself. Get yourself a new heart.

The Spirit Himself gave them the inner resources they needed to resist temptation and overcome sin. Though the Spirit had not been outpoured, God in His mercy gave the Spirit to those who had been called to some great work.

And so it was with Ezekiel. They could not overcome their sin no matter how hard they tried. This baffled the prophet. You need to get yourself a new spirit. Why are you allowing yourself to be continually bound and fettered by your lusts?

You need to walk away from them. Just do it! Get mad at the devil. Cast off your iniquity and turn yourself around. You know God hates it—so stop it before it destroys you. Get yourself a new heart for Jesus.

The problem was, however, that I was asking people to do something humanly impossible. I have numerous books in my library on the subject of holiness and sanctification. They are convicting, and they all say the same thing: God demands holiness, purity and obedience. They warn of the consequences of continuing in sin, and they clearly define the commands of Christ.

This served only to add to my burden of guilt and condemnation. The children of Israel had none of the power they needed to turn themselves from sin and cast off their iniquity. They could no more create in themselves a new heart than they could raise the dead.

This was the central problem of the Old Covenant. It demanded perfect obedience, a wholehearted turning from sin—but the command was not accompanied by the indwelling power to obey. This is why God made a New Covenant with humankind. After all, there was a holy remnant in Israel during this period. I want to be set free from the burden and shame of my sin.

But I keep failing, Ezekiel. I have tried to say no to my sin. He does not wink at sin in these days of grace. He commands us to turn aside from all our iniquities and calls us to have a new heart. Where can we find the needed power? Ezekiel must have been distraught over what he saw going on in Israel.

They cheated the people and lived off the fat of the offerings while the populace suffered. People wandered about everywhere looking for spiritual food, with no shepherds to feed them, lead them or bind their wounds.

Moreover, Scripture says, the Israelites were still living in sin and trusting in their own righteousness. In this dark, hopeless hour, God shared with Ezekiel a great mystery. He was about to lift Ezekiel out of his Old Covenant surroundings and reveal to him a glorious work that would take place in the time of the Messiah. God was going to unveil the New Covenant for him. Immediately Ezekiel began preaching a message that must have both thrilled and dumbfounded him.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. This message was almost too good to be true. They have come to the end of themselves, Ezekiel. They are dead to any ability to overcome. But My Spirit is going to empower them to turn away from their sin. Are You really going to cleanse them—to take away all the filth from their lives?

And will You really give them a new heart, and cause them to obey You—all by Your mercy alone? Can this be true? To prove what He had just promised, God used a vision, taking Ezekiel into a valley full of dry bones, where He gave him an illustrated sermon. This was an astonishing revelation of a New Covenant promise.

Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. Ezekiel —2. By posing this question, the Lord was saying something significant. They are dry, bleached out, crumbling, with no life whatsoever. But, I ask you, Ezekiel, can these dry bones do that? Can they make themselves come to life and heed your words? Can they suddenly get up out of their graves just because you have preached a convicting message to them?

Can dead people resurrect themselves? Under the Old Covenant it is impossible. Quit trying to produce holiness in dead men by commanding them to get up out of their graves. Can lifeless corpses do what you ask of them? Get up out of your grave of iniquity and walk in holiness. How could that be, if no one can be saved unless the Holy Spirit is at work in him? The death I speak of is the one Paul describes in Romans 7—the death that falls upon all believers who try to gain merit with God through works.

By my urging them to try harder to keep the commandments in purity, they soon realized they were helpless to obey in their own strength. It showed me how exceedingly sinful I am. What was meant for good brought me to death. They are absolutely powerless. That is why we so desperately need to understand the need of the Holy Spirit to indwell us.

It can happen only by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. First, there was a mighty shaking, accompanied by a lot of noise. Then, suddenly, Ezekiel saw all the dry bones coming together on the ground to form bodies.

In the next instant, flesh appeared on those bones. What an amazing sight! God was raising up lifeless bones, to prepare them as vessels to be filled with His Spirit.

Without knowing it, Ezekiel was preaching the New Covenant message. He has to enter in and take dominion. Only He can bring you to life so that you can obey God. By indwelling us. The New Covenant is all about the Holy Spirit coming to live and work in us, by promise in answer to faith. What is the Holy Spirit teaching us? It is about truly learning how to live—by entering into the blessings of the covenant.

These vessels lying lifeless on the ground were prepared and ready. They now had flesh on them, but they still lay lifeless on the ground. They must have looked like store mannequins—with eyes, hair, color in their cheeks. But they were still corpses. You can live totally under My covenant in the time of its fulfillment. You can testify to an initial work of the Spirit in you.

And yet you still might not enjoy the power and freedom given to you through this covenant. And I know the Spirit takes it upon Himself to cause us to obey Christ. Oh, I want that blessing badly, but how can I lay hold of it? How can I obtain it for my life? Ezekiel — Suddenly there stood before Ezekiel a great army, alive and breathing.

The Holy Spirit had filled all those dead bodies with life—and now they were prepared to do battle. In an instant they had entered into the full enjoyment and blessings of the New Covenant. What made the Holy Spirit come in and respond to the need, bringing these dry bones into the blessings of the New Covenant?

Scripture also makes it clear that there is a right way to ask for the Holy Spirit. State them to Him as My sworn Word to you. You, Holy Spirit, inspired holy men to record these glorious promises. You promised to take full possession of my new heart, according to Your own inspired Word. And You are to cause me to walk in holiness—to empower me to obey all His commands.

I hold You to Your own Word. I lay hold of Your promises by faith. This is the Word of almighty God—and I commit my soul to it. Paul did not speak these words to dry bones, but to living, breathing believers. Yet he implied that they did not have true life if sin still had dominion over them. And you will stay that way until your besetting sin is gone.

He has filled me and baptized me, making my body His temple. I feel helpless in my struggle to walk uprightly before Him. Their one great desire is to live righteously and purely before the Lord. Yet they struggle with some kind of besetting sin—perhaps a bad temper, or covetousness, or fear of man, or bitterness, or jealousy, or lust. That reason is unbelief. And we will be able to stand on Judgment Day, having been faithful.

We simply cannot give up our desire to enter into His promised blessings. Only when the Christian heart grasps the magnitude of the finished work of Calvary will we understand the magnitude of the command to be free from sin. I came from such a background, and I truly believe there is no cure for people caught in such a sin, nor is there healing from its wounds or deliverance from its bondage, aside from the power of the shed blood of Christ.

The finished work of Calvary is the premise from which every promise has been set in motion for the Christian. It is not until we hear and understand this truth that we gain power in Christ and have faith to overcome. We are no longer orphans, but accepted because of the New Covenant. I determined to trust His covenant oath at the risk of my very soul. That may sound surprising because of all the progress humankind is making.

Economists tell us we are the wealthiest generation in history. We have more leisure pursuits and entertainment than at any other time. We also have more modern conveniences than ever. Medical advances multiply year after year. When they do so, the Holy Spirit will cause a spirit of joy and gladness to reside in them so deeply that no condition, circumstance or person will be able to steal their joy.

When a believer chooses to go deeper with God and live a fully surrendered life, he most likely will encounter hardship. He might even experience being knocked off his high horse, which literally happened to the apostle Paul also called Saul. He was going on his self-assured way, riding toward Damascus, when a blinding light came from heaven. I vote for him to stay. These people all had a clear charge from God to act as gatekeepers.

But they refused to close their gates to darkness. Sadly, they allowed themselves to be bribed by a human bond. I say to every elder who is reading this message, including the elders at Times Square Church: Don't ever allow yourself to be blinded to God's word by your close ties to any minister. You have been appointed by God to be a keeper at the gates of his house. And if anyone brings a gospel into your church that isn't according to scripture, it is your duty to lovingly tell that preacher he is wrong.

I am not advocating that elders be bossy and controlling. I once experienced the horror of being abused by such a group in my very first pastorate.

The tight-fisted elders in that church had driven off every pastor they'd had in the previous thirty years. I was only nineteen when I began pastoring the church, and any nineteen-year-old is going to make mistakes.

But one day four of the elders called me aside, sat me down in a room and accused me of being a dictator. They went on and on with their accusations, not allowing me to get a word in. It was the worst experience of my young life.

When it was over, all I could reply was, "God's word says not to touch his anointed. So, if you believe the Lord has anointed me to pastor this church, then you're wrong to accuse me this way. I'll leave you for God to judge.

As gatekeepers, we are to guard the doors of God's house in humility - through fasting, prayer and loving concern expressed through the fear of God. According to Nehemiah, guardians were to be appointed not just to the gates of the holy city, but to every home as well. In short, the heads of every household - that is, the parents - were responsible for everything that came into their home.

God's message here is crystal clear: Fathers and mothers, you are charged to guard your home from every demonic enemy that tries to enter. This means you are responsible for every book, every record, every friend your child brings through the door. You are also responsible for every influence within your home, whether it's TV, videos or the Internet.

I sincerely believe that parents today need more wisdom and discernment than at any time in history. Satan has many more wicked inventions and subtle disguises to use against God's people.

And only through daily, diligent prayer and immersion in God's word will we have power against him as guardians over our homes. Before I go any further, I want to encourage all single parents: God knows your struggle to be both a father and a mother to your children. Yet his charge to you remains the same: You are the appointed guardian over your house. You can't wait for a mate to come in and do the job for you. The Lord promises to provide all grace and strength to you if you will stand up for his word in your home.

As I think of the two boys in Colorado who killed their classmates and themselves, I wonder: Where were their parents? Those boys were making pipe bombs in the family garage. And their rooms were full of clues about what they were up to: hate material, threatening notes, black coats and hats.

Didn't their fathers check up on them occasionally? Didn't their mothers ever go into their rooms to clean up, and notice all the demonic paraphernalia?

Apparently, there was no guard at their door. Today, whenever I see teenagers with pierced tongues, demonic symbols and spiked hair, I recognize these as mere symptoms. Such kids are crying out, "Mom, Dad, you're neglecting me. You're too busy - you don't even notice I exist. One day we're all going to stand before the judgment seat and answer to the Lord for how we raised our children. And in that moment, none of us will be able to offer excuses or blame anyone else.

Therefore, we have to examine ourselves today, asking: Have we brought up our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord? Have we modeled for them a life of love and reverence for God? I remember playing outside as a boy and hearing my mother pray for me from the third floor of our house. Her example remains vivid in my memory. Later, when Gwen and I were raising our children, we did the same, praying for our kids according to Proverbs: "Lord, make our sons as oaks beside the waters of life.

And make our daughters as polished stones in your palace. Keep them all from the schemes of the wicked one. Every Christian parent has high hopes for his child. I see this regularly in our congregation, as parents bring their children forward to be dedicated to the Lord. Our pastoral staff prays for God's love and protection over these little ones.

Then we anoint them with oil and ask the Holy Ghost to put a wall of fire around them. But occasionally, I can't help wondering: How many of those precious children are going to end up in the devil's clutches - on drugs, into crime - because their mom or dad got careless about the spiritual atmosphere in their home? Will they end up in ruin because their parents were wrapped up in their own problems, never giving them attention or proper discipline?

Maybe you're a parent who hurts because your grown son or daughter no longer serves the Lord. Or, perhaps you're heartbroken because your youngster is hooked on drugs or alcohol.

You've seen your once-tender child grow bitter, hard and lost. This message is not meant to condemn you. No one can take back his or her past. But I do have a question for you. As you look back on your parenting years, ask yourself: Were you a true guardian over your home? Did you bathe your children in prayer daily? Or were you too busy? Did you allow your kids to intimidate you? That is all in the past now. Yet there remains something you can do: You still have a calling as a watchman to pray diligently for your child's salvation.

That's right - you can make up in prayer today what you might have missed in past years. You can still seek God's face, bathe your loved one in prayer, and call down Holy Ghost conviction on him to bring him to the cross. I must warn you, however - if your kids are backslidden or unsaved, you must not preach at them.