A Final Warning to the Indulgent Church — Carter Conlon

I'd like you to turn to the book of 1 Chronicles chapter 11, please, in the Old Testament, and also, if you could, in your index, find Daniel and Amos, and just put a marker or something there for time's sake, so that you have those books of the Bible.

The Full Counsel of God

One of the things that we promised you as a church congregation as pastors, and we hold to that promise, is that we will not hold back from you the full counsel of the Word of God. You can become imbalanced if the gospel is only preached from one slant or the other.

We have a mandate of God to step into this pulpit, obedient to the Holy Spirit, bringing the Word that God says He wants spoken for that morning, as best as we believe He has spoken to us, whether it seems in season or out of season.

Remember Paul the Apostle told Timothy, be prepared to preach in season and out of season. Sometimes an out of season message is one that you'd rather not hear at the time that it's preached, but it can have a great effect in your heart.

I'm standing this morning in a prophetic context. This is a very difficult word for me to preach, but I want to encourage those who have come this morning, if you have an honest heart, and if you'll hold with this message, there's great encouragement for the honest Christian in this word.

When we get to the end, I think there'll be a shout of glory in your heart. We can't avoid the hard places, nor can we avoid the hard truths, if you and I want to be followers of Jesus Christ. I come to you this morning as a pastor who just simply wants to see you grow in grace.

I want us to make it through to the other side. We need to have strength to get through the days that face us. And it's only the truth that will set you free. Only the truth, folks. Think of our precious brothers and sisters in Haiti that I saw on CNN this week, who were in the streets worshiping God.

Those people were sitting under truth. Everything is gone, but their hands are still in the air. I saw one man with a Bible singing, glorifying God, putting his hand on his Bible, just giving God glory.

Folks, that kind of worship is... Those people are sitting somewhere where the gospel has been preached. The real gospel. Because everything else is gone, but God is still very much alive in their hearts.

And I do thank God for that testimony with all of my heart. And I hope at some point in the future we can be an encouragement to them as they have been to us. My message title this morning is called A Final Warning to the Indulgent Church.

A Final Warning to the Indulgent Church. First Chronicles chapter 11. Let's pray first, please. Father, I just thank you, Lord, for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Lord, I don't have the strength to preach this.

I couldn't do this if you didn't empower me. There's really nothing in me that would want to do it. But I stand here, Lord, in obedience to what you placed on my heart and what I truly believe is your word for this day.

I stand only as an oracle of God. I'm asking, Lord, that I may have an anointing to speak it with your heart, with the intonations of my voice. Let them be a reflection of what's truly in your heart, how you, Jesus, would say it yourself if you were standing in this pulpit.

Help me to get out of the way. Oh, God, give us the grace to hear this. Help us, Lord. Help others who will hear it on the internet and by tape in the future. Help your church in this generation. I ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. First Chronicles chapter 11. A final warning to the indulgent church, beginning at verse 15. Now, three of the thirty captains went down to the Rock of David, into the cave of Adullam. Now, remember, that's where David is being pursued by Saul at this particular juncture.

David’s Longing for Bethlehem’s Water

And the host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Ripham. And David was then in the hold, and the Philistines' garrison was then at Bethlehem. And David longed and said, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate.

And the three break through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well at Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. But David would not drink of it, but poured it out unto the Lord, and said, My God forbidded me that I should do this thing.

Shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? For with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore, he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest.

Now, you see David in this cave, and a cry in verse 17 comes from his heart, just a longing. And he says, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate. Now, it speaks to me of the cry that's found in every human heart.

It was the cry once in your heart, and it was the cry in mine. I remember the day that I cried out, I said, Oh, that I might be restored to God, that I might find the strength and fulfillment that only he could give.

And David had to know, because he was in the lineage of Christ, David continuously spoke prophetically. Of course, you know that from Psalms, such as Psalm 22, avidly, vividly describing the cross of Christ, its victory, and subsequently the testimony of Christ in his church.

But David knew that that which satisfies the deepest longings of the heart comes from Bethlehem. He knew that's where the water had to be found. In other words, water everywhere. You could find water in wells, and there were probably those around him who had bolsters of water that was somewhat fresh.

But David knew in his heart, there's something about the water of Bethlehem, that water that God gives in Bethlehem, of course, through the birth of his son, Jesus Christ. Now, hearing this cry in his heart, mighty men of God, who became mighty under his leadership, they rose up and they fought against overwhelming opposition to bring to him what his heart longed for.

And folks, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for apostles who went to the end for you and for me. I'm thankful for Paul who didn't quit when times got tough. I'm thankful that Paul went all the way to prison, and with nothing left but a parchment and a pen in his hand and God in his heart.

And in the strength of that relationship with God, for your soul and for mine, pen words that have given us life. It was Paul that wrote the words of God before us, who can be against us. Those few words were the words that set me free from hell, and the power of hell that had dominated my life for many, many years.

Oh, I thank God for men and women throughout the course of history that have paid an incredible price to bring to you and to me the gospel that we have today. History is filled with the blood of the martyrs.

Those that defied existing authority and took a pen in their hand and translated the scriptures from languages that the people couldn't understand, and many paid for it with their own blood. A great price, and history is replete with all of those that paid this ultimate sacrifice that you and I today can have life.

That we can sing this song this morning, soon as I get home. And thank God for those who paid. Can you imagine if the early church had caved in under the pressure? Can you imagine if everyone had just gone home with their morsel of God as they had discovered, and just took it and used it for themselves?

Can you imagine if the early church had not pressed through? And even under persecution in the book of Acts, when they were scattered, men like Philip went into Samaria and began to preach. Everywhere they went, they just kept testifying and preaching about the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Can you imagine Peter and John having been brought before the council if they had seceded to their threatenings and stopped speaking the name of Jesus? If Satan had, through all of his ploys, succeeded in causing those who carried the gospel to us, they brought the gospel to us as it is from Bethlehem to you and I today.

I am deeply indebted with all of my heart and for the rest of my life. Suddenly David finds in his hands that which he has longed for, the water of Bethlehem. And I believe at this point, David had to make a decision that's common to all people who are handed the salvation and the strength of God in Jesus Christ.

You are here today and I am here, and we were handed this salvation. This cup of water as it is, the water always speaks of the word of God. The cleansing of God's word was put into your hands and put into my hands.

And it was put into our hands by people who fought for it, folks. It didn't come easy. There's been a great price for 2 ,000 years paid by very many. And it's being paid in countries today throughout the world.

People are still paying that price. Pastors still put in jails, some losing their families. I spoke at a pastor's conference in a country that I can't name for the safety sake of the church. But most of the pastors in that conference had been in jail.

Many of them had been tortured. Some had lost their families. I've never heard sweeter worship in all of my life. I was greatly humbled to be there. It was perplexing to my mind even at one point as to why God would even send me there to speak.

I should have been sitting at their feet and listening to them. There was a man who was a concert violinist in that particular country who had been taken from his career. His family had been taken away.

He'd been falsely accused and put in jail for the gospel of Jesus Christ. They had recently let him out of jail, warning him not to preach anymore. He had come to that conference with a determination in his heart to go back and continue to preach the gospel no matter what the personal cost would be to him.

He was a violinist and he got up. And now he had been a follower of Islam who had converted to Christ. And he got up with his violin and sang one of the sweetest songs I've ever heard in my life. I don't know if I've ever heard a sweeter worship song.

He lifted up his violin and the tears came down his face. And he began to play that violin. And it was such a sweet savor unto God. I didn't understand the language. He was singing in another dialect.

But it was so sweet. Here's a man who's made the conscious choice to go back into suffering for the sake of those countrymen and people in his own nation who had not yet heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Danger of Self-Indulgent Faith

I guess the question arises is what do you and I do with the truths that are handed to us? And what we do with this cup of salvation that is given to us will determine what kind of people we will be in the earth.

And it will also determine what kind of an effect we'll have for the kingdom of God and the redemptive purposes of Christ in the earth. Now throughout history, all throughout scriptural history, Old Testament, New Testament, there are examples in history.

I'll try to go through them quickly. But there are examples. I'm just going to skim the surface of them of people who have been given great opportunity and great truth, but they were self-indulgent. In other words, they took this that was handed to them and saw it only as something for their own benefit or for their own glory.

They didn't want the higher purpose of God. They didn't want to go where this cup leads many. Think for a moment of Cain. I mean, he's the first son of Adam and Eve. Here's a man who has an opportunity to get back to God.

He's given access to worship. There are many ways his life could have been other than what the testimony is in the Old Testament, but his worship was rejected because he had a thought in his heart in Genesis 4, 9.

He said, am I my brother's keeper? That was the thought. God knew that was in his heart. And that's why when his sacrifice was brought to the Lord, it was rejected because he had nothing in his heart for his brother.

And folks, there are all types of people who come to the Lord and bring a sacrifice, as they see it, of praise to God. But I dare say that they end up being of no effect in the earth. Cain ended up being of no effect.

He ended up a vagabond. Wandering through this world and never fully finding satisfaction. And the very core of it is that he had no heart for his brother. He had no heart for others around him. In that case, of course, he had one brother.

He had no heart for him. Think for a moment of Esau in the very direct lineage of the promise of God through Abraham. A man who's a cop as it is, is put into his hand. Esau, you're the firstborn. You have a chance to be this lineage through whom the people of the world are going to be blessed.

But Esau was a man whose heart was gravitated to the things of this life. Didn't much care about this blessing that God promised as long as his belly was full. As long as his own needs were satisfied as he saw it.

And in Genesis 33, 9, when Jacob comes out of the wilderness after a long journey and after a face-to-face encounter with Almighty God, Jacob comes out a changed man. He's given a new nature. He's called a prince with God and having power with God and power with men.

His name has changed from Jacob to Israel. He's walking before the people. He's tender. He's compassionate. He has an honest walk with God. He has a heart for the weakest people that are in this entourage that's coming out of this wilderness place with him.

And he has a promise in his heart of living a life that would bring glory to God. And he meets Esau who should have been the inheritor of the promise. And Esau says to him, keep your gifts. He said, I have enough.

You see, Esau found what he wanted in this world. That's all he was ever looking for. That's all he ever wanted. It started with a bowl of stew to fill his belly. And after that, he had an entourage to meet Jacob of 400 men.

And I want you to see the contrast. Jacob has the heart of God and he's walking slowly. He's walking with a limp. He has suffered in a sense in his body already for the call of God that is on his life.

Folks, there is suffering. There are hard times. If you and I are going to go the full distance with God, it can be hard. And don't let anybody tell you differently. It can be hard. You and I can be led in some difficult places.

All of us will be led into areas where our flesh doesn't want to go and can't go. But Jacob comes out of that place with a new nature. Esau has 400 men and I can see him galloping off into the wilderness, completely satisfied with that which he has gathered to himself from the world.

I have enough. He doesn't have the life of God. He doesn't have the promise of God, but he's not even smart enough to see what he's forfeited. For a few measly things of this world that no man can take with him.

He's forfeited the life of God. The lineage of Christ is forfeited, folks. The power of God is not there. The blessing is not there. Just a mad galloper with all of his entourage scooping and gathering more and more and more.

As if the guy who gets to the end with the most toys wins. I think of a rejected worship in Amos chapter 6. If you have a marker in Amos, please, if you can go there very quickly. Amos chapter 6. Scripture shows us in the Old Testament that there's a worship that God rejects.

Amos 6, 4. They lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall. This is an Esau worship for lack of a better way of saying it.

People who come to Christ as it is or come to a knowledge of God. Now, this is in the Old Testament. But it's not producing anything of God in the heart. They're seeking out comfortable places. They stretch out on their couches.

They take the best of everything for themselves. The lambs out of the flock, the calves out of the stall. They chant to the sound of the vial and invent to themselves instruments of music like David. They think they're worshiping like David.

They sing the songs of David. They imitate David. They come to the house of the Lord. They'll sing songs. They drink wine in bowls. They anoint themselves with the chief ointments. But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

They have brothers throughout the world that are in captivity, that are headed to an eternity in hell. And there's no grief in the heart. It's a type of self-indulgent worship. And verse 7 says, Therefore now they shall go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretch themselves shall be removed.

The Lord says, This kind of worship I have slated for captivity and removal. Paul talks to Timothy in the New Testament about rejected theology. There's a theology very much alive in Paul's time and very much alive in our time.

And the Lord says, I've rejected it. First Timothy 6 .5. He said, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness. From such withdraw thyself. In other words, Paul's saying, Timothy, there are people who teach and preach that godliness is a means to get financial gain.

And the amount of material things that a man has is an evidence of how godly he is. Paul says to Timothy, These are men who are destitute of the truth and their minds are corrupt. Withdraw yourself from them.

Withdraw yourself, Timothy. Don't walk because it's a rejected theology. I'm not suggesting that all of God's people should be poor. There's no glory to God in that. But I am suggesting that you and I must keep a right perspective of what the material things that God has put in our hands are for.

The Indulgent Church of Laodicea

And lastly, in Revelation chapter 3, the Lord speaks to a church called Laodicea. It's to an entire form of religion that's satisfied with this world's goods. It's blinded to the heart and purposes of God's church in the earth and unaware that perhaps for them, the final warning had come.

It's amazing how Christ is walking among the candlesticks, the testimony of his churches. And he says to this last church in Revelation, You say, I'm rich and I'm increased with goods and have need of nothing.

He tries lovingly because he says, Those that I love, he said, I will rebuke and I will chase and I will correct you because I love you. He said, you don't realize that you are completely outside of where the life and the power of God really is.

You're blinded to the purpose as it is of the church of Jesus Christ in the earth. He said, I'm standing at the door and I'm knocking. And if you'll open the door to me, I'll come into you and I'll sit down.

I'll sup with you. In other words, I'll open the word to you. I'll give you vision. I'll anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. Folks, what is important to God in the earth? Having seen the disaster in Haiti this week, tell me what is important to God?

Is it the buildings we build? Is it the fanciness of our songs? Ultimately, when you look at the images and you see the human suffering, if you have anything of the heart of Christ, you know immediately what is important to the heart of God.

It's the souls of men, women, and children. It's the honor of God in the earth. It's the compassion of Christ that caused him to stop and hear the cry of the blind man. It's that which enabled him to reach out and touch a leper in spite of the fact that the whole crowd wouldn't have understood it.

It's what allowed him to sit at the table of a spiritual man, of some physical authority in Israel, and let a woman who had an ill reputation to come in and sit and touch his feet and cleanse them with their tears and wipe them with their hair.

It's this touchableness of God, this compassion of God for all of humanity. If I don't have the compassion of God in my heart for fallen humanity, I've got to go back and start over again, folks. Something's wrong.

Something is missing. I've gone on the wrong path. I've read the wrong portions. I've not seen the whole picture. I'm in the church. I'm singing the songs and I'm doing religious things. But if I have no heart for other people, then I don't believe my love for God is valid.

I don't believe it's real. Jesus said, You love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is the most important commandment. And the second is just like it, that you love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two hang all the law and all the prophets. Go to Daniel chapter 5, please, with me if you will. Now, Daniel chapter 5. Here's a story of a king. His name was Belshazzar. Verses 20 to 23, Daniel chapter 5.

Belshazzar’s Final Warning

Now, Daniel is standing before Belshazzar. Belshazzar has commanded a feast. And he's brought out all the cups and all the vessels that were taken when Babylon overthrew Jerusalem. They took all the vessels out of the temple.

Now, all these things were separated. They were holy. They were set apart for divine purpose in the earth. Belshazzar took these things and brought them to a banqueting table of his friends, his concubines, his associates, his admirers, his servants.

And he passed out these vessels. And they began to drink from them. And they began to party from them. Now, Daniel is standing before him. Because suddenly on near the candlestick, it says in Daniel, I believe it's chapter 5, verse 5, a hand appeared near the candlestick.

Remember, the candlestick is the testimony, folks. It represents that in scripture. And wrote something on the wall that Belshazzar didn't understand. And it caused a tremendous terror to come into his heart.

And none of his astrologers, none of his soothsayers, his magicians could answer these words. They were a mystery. But he knew that there was a man in the kingdom who could dissolve doubts, who stood for truth, who appeared to be a captive, but yet was free, who appeared to be in a lesser status than many, but nevertheless knew God.

And Belshazzar knew this. Now, Daniel is standing before Belshazzar. Belshazzar is about to get his final warning, folks. I believe in my heart, there's a final warning coming to the church, the indulgent church, in the Western world in particular.

This very well might be it or part of it. It's a final warning, folks. There is a time, there is a cutoff time. There's a time when God speaks. I don't know who can hear. I know in this day, nobody could hear anymore.

And Daniel stands before Belshazzar. And he talks about his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, who was one of the previous kings of Babylon who became very proud. And even though God had been telling him through the prophet that he is the one who sets up kings and takes them down.

And even he was warned. He said, turn away from your sins and become charitable to the poor lest these things don't come upon you. He was warned of what his pride was gonna bring him into. But nevertheless, he couldn't humble himself.

And subsequently, he lost his mind and ended up like a madman out in the field for a season. Then God gave him back his thinking again. And finally, he understood that it's the hand of God that sets up all kingdoms.

Everything exists by his hand. And Nebuchadnezzar knew this and made some proclamations concerning it. Verse 20 now is about Nebuchadnezzar. Now Daniel is standing before Belshazzar and this whole feast.

He said, but when his heart was lifted up, verse 20 of Daniel 5, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne and they took his glory from him. And he was driven from the sons of men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild asses.

They fed him with grass like oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven. Till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men and that he appointed over it whomsoever he will. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, has not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this.

And this was it. Belshazzar had the history, folks. Now I've just gone through a litany of a few things in the Old and New Testament that God speaks. Now we have the history. We know how God sees the taking into our hands of the things of his kingdom.

He said, but you've lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, verse 23, and they brought the vessels of his house before thee and thou and thy lords and thy wives and thy concubines have drunk wine in them.

You've praised the gods of silver, gold, brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know. And the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified. Belshazzar knew the history.

He knew the cup in his hand and those of his acquaintance were given for a divine purpose and they were made for a divine purpose. In spite of this, he felt there would be no consequences in unrighteously taking to his lips that which was holy and set apart to bring true glory to God.

He felt there would be no consequence. See, that's the ultimate dilemma of the human heart, that I can take the name of Jesus into my lips and it can be an unrighteous taking of that name and somehow feel there will be no consequence to this.

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick. There's a time when a sentence is written against those who are holding their hands, that which has been given to be a testimony of God in the earth.

Remember, in the book of Revelation, the writing in Revelation chapter 3 came from the one who walks among the candlesticks and he had penned words to each of the churches that you and I would be well advised to take heed of today.

Now, Belshazzar was a strange type of a man. He was a man who recognized the truth. He was a man who acknowledged Daniel is speaking for God, just like some of us here today. You might be here today and you know that the words you're hearing from this pulpit are true.

You find no fault with these words. You know that I'm speaking to you with a tender heart. The compassion of God is what is motivating me. I'm not speaking to you for evil, but for good. You're fully aware that this is the word of God.

There's no doubt in your heart. Daniel, not Daniel rather, but Belshazzar even decorates the man of God the night of his own death. Commands his nobles and says, go and give him a fancy robe and put chains around his neck.

Now, Daniel has just told him it's all over. Your kingdom is finished. God has numbered its days. It's been found wanting in the balance and he's finished it. It's going to be taken away and given to another.

Now, Daniel has just stood and given a strong prophetic word to this king who's got these vessels of God in his hands and he's drinking from them. Now, perhaps he felt Belshazzar felt that somehow recognizing and honoring truth was sufficient without embracing and walking in it.

And that's the dilemma that we face in our generation. So many people come to the house of the Lord and have an impression that if I decorate the truth, let's say, how do I decorate it? Well, I come to church and I lift my hands.

I sing the songs. I say, praise God, bless you, brother. It's great to see you. And I decorate the truth. I decorate it with my presence. I decorate it with my praise. I decorate it with my accolades.

I decorate it by just coming and being part of the whole assembly. But you see, Belshazzar could decorate it, but he couldn't embrace it. He could recognize it, but he wouldn't walk in it. I've heard a lot of testimonies here recently of especially Sunday night of people who have attended this church and been here for a long time before they finally make the decision to break from their sin.

But up to that point, what have you been doing? Belshazzar decorated the truth, but could not embrace it. And that very night that he's decorating the truth, the end came for him. In a moment of time, it was all over.

Folks, think about the people in Haiti now. In one minute. I don't care what kind of theology they were sitting under. But in one minute, whatever it was, it was all over. In one minute, you either had God or you didn't have God.

You either knew him or you didn't. You had embraced truth or you were walking in a lie. That which is divine would become evident, it would carry, it would sustain, it would bring you through the difficult days, or you would be panic-stricken, stealing, and in terror like the rest of the crowd that are without God.

Pouring Out the Cup of Salvation

Now, go back to the original scripture where we started. Remember, David longed for this drink of water that came from the well of Bethlehem. In verse 17 of 1 Chronicles 11, he said, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate.

And there break through the host of the Philistines that drew water of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. But David would not drink of it, but poured it out unto the Lord and said, My God forbidded me that I should do this thing.

Shall I drink of the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? For with the jeopardy of their lives, they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. Now, this is what made David a man after God's heart.

This is what made David great. This is what made David in spite of his failures, his flaws, the things that he had to go through like normal men do, he finished his course as a great king of Israel. This is what made David the man that we sing about, talk about, emulate, want to be like.

The greatest king, perhaps in the Old Testament of all the kings ever to grace that part of the planet is King David. And I believe here's the measure. I believe he had a choice to make, very similar to one that you and I have to make when the truth of God is put into our hands.

He had the water of Bethlehem put into his hands. And he looked at it and he said these words, God forbid that I should indulge the longings of my own flesh with that which others have jeopardized their lives for.

God forbid that after 2000 years, that people will have paid in blood for a truth that's come into my hands and I shall take it and drink it and adjust it just for my own good, just for myself. He said the strength that I've just been handed, I will pour it out as an offering for the glory of God, that his name and purposes in the earth might be known through my life.

I will pour it out just like Hannah did. God, you give me a son, a child, I'll give him back to you for the glory of God. All through history, he has come and filled the weak and he's come and filled the nothings and nobodies of this world.

But my heart is in line with David's this morning. God forbid that I should drink of this incredible water and somehow it should be placed in my hands and I should just use it for my own glory, for my own comfort, that I should be found.

I'd rather die, folks, than be found on a couch of ivory, even in my old age. I want to finish this course like brother Dave and brother Crandall and brother Clendenin and Jack West and every other gray-haired preacher you've ever seen in this pulpit.

I want to finish this course still fighting the battle, not for myself, but for others, not for my own glory, but to satisfy the heart of God. He came into this world, went to a cross and died, that all men and all women and all children and young people may have an opportunity to touch that cup, find their salvation freely given through Christ who was born in Bethlehem.

And by the glory and grace of God, have the capability to pass that on to the next person and not let the cup stop in my hands, not become an indulgent man, an indulgent person that just uses everything of God for himself.

David arose from that place in power and men who were in that cave with him came out in power and nothing of hell could stop them. No wall could stop them from getting into Jerusalem. No Philistine garrison was strong enough to stop the onslaught of these men who had formerly been discontented, distressed and in despair.