                    [Times Square Church Pulpit Series]

                            The Solomon Church!

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By David Wilkerson
December 19, 1994
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          I believe Solomon represents the spirit and nature of
          the modern, last-day Laodicean church. And this church
          -- here in America and throughout the world -- is
          headed for the same ruin Solomon faced!

          Scripture tells us:

          "And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his
          kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and
          magnified him exceedingly...." (2 Chronicles 1:1).

          The church of Jesus Christ today has been strengthened
          and blessed mightily by God. Provision has been made
          for endeavors of all kinds. Consider the big, beautiful
          edifices being built in the land. One large Pentecostal
          church was built recently at a cost of $28 million.
          There are other church complexes worth $40-50 million.

          Consider also the church's great financial blessings.
          Millions are spent on televangelism, books, records and
          tapes, missions, institutions, colleges and parachurch
          ministries of all kinds. Think of all the huge
          conventions, the well-attended seminars, the religious
          pomp and ceremony attending megachurch services and
          programs.

          When all these works began, each one had something of
          God's anointing. Indeed, most started out with the same
          blessings that God poured out upon Solomon. Think about
          it: Solomon was well-organized. He was much more
          educated than his father, David. And he did everything
          bigger and better than any previous generation ever
          could have conceived. Solomon's organizational skills
          were so great -- his pomp and ceremony so gorgeous and
          breathtaking -- that when the Queen of Sheba watched
          him merely ascend into the temple, she nearly fainted
          at the sight.

          Yet the driving force behind Solomon was wisdom and
          knowledge. This was his heart-cry to God:

          "Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out
          and come in before this people: for who can judge this
          thy people, that is so great?" (verse 10).

          Isn't this a wonderful prayer? It sounds so good, and
          God was pleased he did not ask for selfish gain. Yet
          there's a problem: It's totally man-centered! This very
          talented, self-confident king was saying, in essence,
          "Just give me the tools, God, and I'll get the job
          done. Give me the wisdom and knowledge, and I'll set
          everything in order among this people. I'll accomplish
          it all!"

          Solomon's prayer was not the prayer of his father,
          David, a man who was after God's own heart. No,
          Solomon's prayer was that of a new generation -- an
          educated people with new ideas and skills. And his cry
          was, "I need wisdom and knowledge!"

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               We Have Become the Church of the Floppy Disk!

                      -------------------------------

          The driving force behind the modern-day, Laodicean
          church is wisdom and knowledge. What great rivers of
          information flow through this last-day church:
          computers with countless megabytes, computerized
          Bibles, computerized commentaries, software programs on
          philosophy, counseling, fund-raising, child care. All
          you have to do is insert a little disk in your
          computer, press a button, and the answers pop up right
          in front of you.

          I am not against computers or software programs. Our
          own ministry would not function as well without them.
          But I am amused by all the young ministers who spend
          much of their time punching keyboards and utilizing fax
          machines to spit out reams of information, ideas,
          net-working and strategies. They preach a computerized
          gospel -- yet so few people are ever saved or delivered
          through them.

          There is an insatiable thirst today for information,
          wisdom and knowledge like never before. Never has there
          been so many seminars and massive teaching conventions.
          Huge screens are needed just to show who the teacher is
          on the distant stage. And afterward people flock to
          sale tables to buy hundreds of dollars' worth of tapes.

          The emphasis is on more tools, more information, more
          wisdom. The thinking is, "If we just have enough
          knowledge in these subjects -- enough books, enough
          seminars, enough teaching -- we'll get the job done.
          Just give us the tools, God, and we'll evangelize the
          world!"

          Recently I heard the leader of a youth organization
          say, "If I had $100 million, I could win the world!" He
          was traveling across the country trying to raise that
          amount. He was saying, in essence, "If we just have
          enough money, knowledge, networking and strategy, we
          can evangelize the entire world for God!"

          Beloved, we will never accomplish anything for God by
          wisdom alone, no matter how important and necessary it
          is. His Word says:

          "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by
          wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness
          of preaching to save them that believe." (1 Corinthians
          1:21)

          All the true treasures of wisdom and knowledge are
          hidden in Jesus Christ.

          "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
          knowledge" (Colossians 2:3).

          Yet Solomon's gospel was different. It was said of
          Solomon:

          "And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs
          were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from
          the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop
          that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of
          beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of
          fishes" (1 Kings 4:32-33).

          This was Solomon's gospel -- three thousand short
          sermonettes of practical knowledge and wisdom! He
          created new songs, wonderful stories, great
          applications of truth on human nature and behavior. You
          can read many of his words of wisdom throughout the
          book of Proverbs. He offered practical instruction on
          marriage and child-rearing. He gave clear directions on
          how to cope, how to behave, how to be blessed. And
          everyone loved his preaching. It was so concise, so to
          the point.

          But, beloved, unless the spirit of God anoints the
          preaching or teaching, it remains dead. It becomes
          dead-letter unless the Spirit ignites it!

          In the end, Solomon delivered an absolutely powerless
          message -- because he had no power to practice what he
          preached! He gave himself to strange women. He raised
          wicked children, including a devil who succeeded him on
          the throne. Indeed, Solomon ended up a decrepit,
          anguished idolater, living out his days in a sensuous
          cesspool of immorality. And his entire generation
          became harlot- chasing reprobates -- in spite of all
          his wisdom, teaching and three thousand proverbs!

          Now, don't think for a minute that the modern,
          "sinner-friendly," Laodicean church does not have good,
          insightful, thoughtful preaching. The sermons of this
          last-day church are concise, homiletically correct,
          centered on how to cope with the problems of life. They
          are mostly fifteen-minute messages, illustrated with
          clear points and packed with lots of truth.

          Yet so much of it is not producing life! Divorce is
          still rampant, even among the shepherds. Fornication
          and infidelity are commonplace. Teenagers smoke, drink
          and sleep around. People's lives are not being changed.
          Why? It is because knowledge in itself is unable to
          save or change anybody -- including those who preach
          it!

          A church's services may be well-organized, with
          excellent, new, contemporary music. The choir may sing
          a thousand new songs. The pastor may condemn sin and
          point out the right way clearly. But without the Holy
          Ghost, it all becomes a letter that kills!

          Solomon had a head full of wisdom and a mouth full of
          songs. He could preach and teach with incredible skill.
          He had a well-organized operation, with talented
          leaders. Everything about his church appeared to be
          decent and in order. But everything Solomon did ended
          up in Ecclesiastes, in the phrase, "All is vanity and
          despair!"

          The Solomon church has all the answers. It looks great
          on the outside. But it is absolutely lifeless! And it
          ends up in vanity, idolatry, sensuality, emptiness and
          despair.

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                       Compare the Church of Solomon
                       With David's Church of Zion!

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          The driving force behind David's church was total
          dependence on the Holy Spirit. Here is what
          distinguished David:

          "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in
          the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord
          came upon David from that day forward..." (1 Samuel
          16:13).

          When David was on his deathbed, he said to his son
          Solomon, in so many words: "I want to tell you why God
          has blessed me. I want you to know the secret of my
          ministry -- why the kingdom is at peace and why God has
          been with me everywhere I've gone." Listen to David's
          last words to his son: "The Spirit of the Lord spake by
          me, and his word was in my tongue" (2 Samuel 23:2).

          David was saying, "I didn't trust in my knowledge and
          wisdom. I didn't trust in any part of my flesh. I was a
          weak man -- but I depended on the Holy Ghost! Every
          word I spoke was under His unction and anointing. His
          words filled my mouth!"

          Thirty-five years ago, when we opened the ministry
          doors at 416 Clinton Avenue to drug addicts and
          alcoholics here in New York City, our motto was, "The
          Holy Ghost is in charge here!" You see, it wasn't "how
          to cope" preaching that saved gang members like Nicky
          Cruz and Israel. They didn't fall on their knees
          because we preached concise, pithy sermons. They
          weren't convicted by pointed illustrations and nature
          stories. No -- these former drug addicts testified to
          their friends, "I once was on the street, like you. But
          look at me now! The Spirit of God changed me!"

          It was the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost
          that brought Nicky and Israel to their knees before
          God. The Spirit came down -- and those hardened
          criminals fell on their faces and cried out to God for
          mercy!

          Solomon spoke of trees, hyssop, beasts, creeping
          things, fish. But David spoke of intimacy with the
          Lord, of brokenness and contriteness. He spoke of "the
          rock" which is Christ. And David was convicted and
          changed by his own preaching. He so valued the presence
          of the Holy Spirit in his life, he asked the Lord never
          to take His Spirit from him. David knew he was nothing
          without the Holy Ghost!

          In Solomon's church, however, a preacher merely gathers
          truthful, biblical information and creates a sermon out
          of it. Then he throws it out to the congregation and
          tells himself, "It's the Word -- it has to have impact.
          It has to cause growth and change in my hearers,
          because it's God's powerful Word."

          Not so! You can throw out as much Word as you please --
          sermon upon sermon, teaching upon teaching, wisdom and
          knowledge in abundance. But if it isn't anointed by the
          Holy Ghost, it is a dead word! If a preacher doesn't
          spend time on his face before God, he won't have the
          fire of God in his soul. And there will be no unction
          of the Holy Ghost in his word, no matter how wise and
          knowledgeable they sound. They simply won't produce
          life!

          Paul said,

          "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing
          words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the
          Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand
          in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (1
          Corinthians 2:4-5).

          "...we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
          teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth... But the
          natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
          God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he
          know them, because they are spiritually discerned"
          (verses 13-14).

          You should never go to church without praying, "God,
          give me Holy-Ghost ears to hear. Help me to hear,
          understand and apply Your Word to my life!" You must
          have Holy-Ghost hearing ears as much as a pastor has to
          have a Holy-Ghost speaking tongue!

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                          Let Me Show You How You
                    Can Tell a Holy-Ghost David Church
                     From a Laodicean Solomon Church!

                      -------------------------------

          In a Holy-Ghost church you will always hear a
          gut-wrenching cry of repentance. In fact, you cannot be
          a Holy-Ghost person until you "cry out from your guts"
          yourself. And that is something Solomon never did!

          We never read of Solomon crying out his guts before
          God. Instead, at the dedication of the temple, he stood
          with kingly robes on his back and prayed a gracious,
          majestic, high-sounding prayer. It was all sincere,
          precise and orderly. But it wasn't a gut-cry -- and it
          didn't penetrate his own heart!

          In his prayer, Solomon admonished the congregation:

          "Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our
          God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his
          commandments, as at this day" (I Kings 8:61).

          Solomon knew the statutes of which he spoke. Among them
          were these warnings in Deuteronomy to every king of
          Israel:

             * "But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor
               cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end
               that he should multiply horses."
             * "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that
               his heart turn not away."
             * "Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself
               silver and gold" (Deuteronomy 17:16-17).

          These were very clear, direct statutes. Yet no sooner
          had Solomon become king than he violated all three!

             * "And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt..."
               (1 Kings 10:28).
             * "But king Solomon loved many strange women,
               together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of
               the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and
               Hittites.... Solomon clave unto these in love"
               (11:1-2).
             * "And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as
               stones..." (10:23) . "And king Solomon passed all
               the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom" (2
               Chronicles 9:22).

          Solomon's prayer to walk perfectly before God had no
          effect on his own life -- because he had no conviction
          of sin in his heart:

          "And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and
          went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father"
          (1 Kings 11:6).

          Where there is no Holy Ghost-anointed preaching, there
          is no conviction for sin -- no fully going after the
          Lord!

          Solomon sinned without remorse even while he preached
          against sin. He could read in the Scriptures that he
          was not to go down to Egypt to buy horses -- and then
          immediately he would begin negotiating to buy a
          thousand new horses and chariots! He could hear a
          prophet preach that the king was not to multiply wives
          to himself -- and yet immediately he would go out to
          inspect a harem for prospective wives.

          Solomon showed no evidence of sorrow, no sign of
          repentance. He could openly indulge in all this gross
          sin and immorality, and yet go back to his chamber and
          write another proverb.

          Yet compare Solomon's indifference toward sin to
          David's total sorrow and brokenness for having sinned
          against God. David's church was not perfect; in fact,
          it was a Corinthian church. David committed adultery.
          He killed an innocent man. He walked for a season in
          horrible deception. Yet after David sinned, he uttered
          this rending cry from his innermost being:

          "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me
          from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and
          my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
          I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight... Cast me
          not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy
          spirit from me" (Psalm 51:1-4,11).

          David later sinned again by numbering the people of
          Israel, which he had been commanded not to do. He had
          just defeated all the giants and the remnant of Gath.
          He had driven out the Assyrians, and the entire land
          was at peace. In that moment David enjoyed great
          blessing and victory. And yet he was deceived by the
          devil!

          David was so blinded by his sin no amount of reasoning
          could change him. Joab, who had seen David's deception
          warned him, "Why do you insist on going through with
          this sin?" But David persisted, saying, "I want to know
          how many fighting men I have!"

          Beloved, this is a sobering thought that a righteous,
          God-fearing servant could be deceived by sin! David
          lived under the deception for almost ten months. Yet,
          this time, no prophet had to come to him to expose his
          sin. It was the Holy Ghost who convicted him!

          Soon after the count had begun, David lost heart; he
          didn't even finish counting. He was now gray-haired and
          old, and he had become sensitive to the voice of the
          Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us:

          "And David's heart smote him..." (2 Samuel 24:10).

          The Hebrew here suggests: "Oh God, I am wounded in my
          heart for what I've done against You!"

          That is the mark of the Holy-Ghost David church: a
          heartrending cry! Of course, there are people in this
          church who fail and who live in deception. But like
          David, they have become so sensitive to the work and
          moving of the Holy Spirit, they don't always need a
          prophet to tell them they've sinned. They repent even
          before a prophet comes to them -- because they feel
          wounded by their sin!

          In Solomon's church, deception is never dealt with.
          Eventually, it leads to blindness and ruin. But in
          David's church, there is a cry of godly sorrow, a cry
          for deliverance -- a wounded, grieving heart for having
          sinned against God!

          David said of his sin:

          "The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of
          death prevented me; in my distress I called upon the
          Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out
          of his temple, and my cry did enter his ears.... He
          sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many
          waters; he delivered me from my strong enemy, and from
          them that hated me: for they were too strong for me" (2
          Samuel 22:6-7; 16-17).

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                         Here Is the Tragic End of
                     The Gospel According to Solomon!

                      -------------------------------

          After all that Solomon wrote and sang about, he
          concluded his life with these tragic words:

          "...all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief;
          yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night.... There
          is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat
          and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good
          in his labour...." (Ecclesiastes 2:23-24).

          Solomon was saying philosophically, "You're going to
          have sleepless nights. And you won't be able to do
          anything about the despair. You won't be able to change
          your feeling that everything is vanity. So the best
          thing you can do is to grab all the gusto you can and
          to squeeze everything you can out of life. Just enjoy
          yourself!"

          That is how Solomon died. And that is the gospel of
          this present-day, Solomon age! Everything ends in
          Ecclesiastes, in emptiness and despair. Many people end
          up wondering, "What is life all about? Where am I
          headed? Who am I?"

          Yet David's gospel says,

          "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me
          out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept..."
          (Psalm 3:4-5).

          If you've got the Holy Ghost, you will know God's voice
          and He will know yours. And you'll be able to sleep
          soundly!

          Now consider this prophecy from the New Testament:

          "After this I will return, and will build again the
          tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will
          build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up"
          (Acts 15:16).

          God is going to bring the Solomon church to ruin -- and
          He is going to resurrect David's church from out of
          those ruins! This remnant church will have a godly
          sorrow for sin. It will cry out in anguish and
          repentance. And it will be wholly dependent upon the
          Holy Spirit!

          Two years before the PTL ministry fell, the Spirit of
          God came upon me and instructed me to write a long
          letter to Jim Bakker. I wrote, "In two years, by March
          15, PTL will be dead." I described a vision of
          emptiness -- of weeds growing tall and bats nesting in
          the buildings.

          Jim read the letter and called me, asking, "What must I
          do?" I told him first to get rid of all the homosexuals
          in his ministry. Yet, not long after that conversation,
          Jim appeared on television mocking every word I said.
          Two years later, to the very day, the Lord's word about
          PTL happened -- just as He had told me.

          Right now I sense in my spirit that in less than five
          years, there will be no more so-called gospel
          television networks. They will all fall into bankruptcy
          and absolute ruin!

          To hear the Solomon gospel that's preached on much of
          Christian TV today, you'd think Jesus is going to
          return to the earth in Beverly Hills driving a Rolls
          Royce. This image of Christianity is the most
          abominable thing I've ever seen or heard. And God says
          He has to bring it to ruin -- because He's going to
          build His David house upon those ruins!

          The only thing left will be some local television
          programs with true men of God preaching the gospel. And
          all the phony smiles, the ungodly fund-rasing circuses,
          the pop theology, the preaching of prosperity are going
          to come down.

          Most of the so-called spiritual revivals today are mere
          cardboard structures. They're all going to burn in the
          chaotic days ahead. What Christian will be laughing
          when our cities are in flames? Who will be giddy and
          foolish when the economy collapses?

          The Bible says of the Jews in the last days:

          "And...in that day...I will pour upon the house of
          David... the spirit of grace and of supplications: and
          they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and
          they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only
          son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is
          in bitterness for his firstborn" (Zechariah 12:9-10).

          Right now there are Jews mourning and weeping for their
          Messiah at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. And not long
          ago some 10,000 Lubavitcher Jews held a march in
          Brooklyn, crying, "This is the year of our Messiah!"
          Their hands were upraised, tears rolled down their
          faces and they wept and cried out for their Messiah.

          When I think of the 25 million babies aborted in this
          country and all the lost people who are going to hell,
          I don't understand why multitudes of Christians are
          laughing. Why are millions of Jews weeping and millions
          of hellbound, disillusioned sinners crying themselves
          to sleep while charismatics are laughing? When the
          revival comes, the joy will be because of repentance
          and because of the ingathering of the last harvest of
          lost souls.

          "I...will build again the tabernacle of David..." (Acts
          15:16).

          God is going to build His church of the last days on
          the ruins. That means He must ruin the evil taking
          place in His church and bring down all abominations.
          And on those ruins He will raise up a holy, repentant
          church that utters gut-wrenching cries of repentance.

          I thank God for the David church He is building right
          now out of heaps of ruin. Indeed, many who read this
          message have come from ruined backgrounds. Dear saint,
          if that describes you, then rest assured -- God is
          using you to build His David church!

          If you've got an overwhelming sin problem, don't go to
          some book or tape that's supposedly full of wisdom and
          knowledge. Instead, get on your face and have it out
          with God! Be a Holy-Ghost David Christian and cry out
          to the Lord with all your heart. He is building His
          church on your very cries. Hallelujah!

          ---
          Used with permission granted by World Challenge, P. O.
          Box 260, Lindale, TX 75771, USA.

          This material is solely for personal use and is not to
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          on its web page. You are free to download, copy, print
          and distribute this material, so long as you do not
          post it on a different Internet site. You may, however,
          link this site to reference these messages.

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