It Is Time for the Lord to Work — Carter Conlon

The Lord’s Time to Work and the Void of His Law

Psalm 119, please, if you'll go there. Your Bibles, verse 126. Now, Father, I thank you with all my heart for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. Oh God, thank you, Lord, for the promises that you've planted deep within me.

Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for your faithfulness to this church. You have kept us for 25 years, and Lord, there's been no diminishing of your presence here. Lord, we ask you to save the best wine for the last.

We ask you, Lord Jesus Christ, to come in a way that is unprecedented. We ask you to bless not only this church, but hundreds of other churches in the city. We ask you, Lord, to turn the tide of evil in New York City.

We ask you, God, to put up your hand and just simply say this has gone far enough and turn it back. Lord, it's time for you to work. And Father, we thank you for this. Thank you for what you've placed in my heart.

Give me the grace to speak it and give us the ears to hear it. Help me help us, Lord, as a congregation, not to fall short of the glory that you've destined, Lord, to manifest among us. And Father, I thank you for this in Jesus' mighty name.

Psalm 119, one verse, verse 126. The psalmist says, it is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. Now, the psalmist was living at a time which appeared to be very much like the time in which you and I are living today.

And he saw, he looked around himself and he was able to make, at least from his perspective, this statement, they've made void thy law. In other words, you've given us your written word, but this society and even the people, many of the people who call themselves after the name of God, have made void your word.

Now, when you look it up in the original text, it means they've dissolved it, they've violated it, they've frustrated it, they've annulled it, they've broken it, they've actually torn it in two, just like one of the kings of Israel, the time that it was approached by the prophet Jeremiah, and yet he tore the word of God that was given to him in two, he refused to believe it.

He sees the casual and deliberate disregard of God in his word almost everywhere. Now, we see that today. Amazing how quickly we've degenerated as a society. It's shocking, actually. I've been here, it's 18 years now, and in the 18 years, I have witnessed a tragic declension.

Now, it began considerably before I came to this country, but I've seen this declension in morality, in civility, in truth. You don't know who to believe on any topic anymore. Everybody takes their own viewpoint, tries to spin it into some kind of magical reality.

And the psalmist saw this, and the tendency in all of us is to throw up our hands in resignation or defeat, and say, how's this ever going to change? The tide is too strong now. There are too many people in society going in a certain direction.

The prevailing thought is too entrenched. It can't be changed. We've tried our plans, we've tried our schemes, we've pushed our programs, and I'm talking about the people of God, and even the well-intentioned in our generation.

But yet, it seems that violence and lawlessness is on the increase. Crimes are taking on a level of evil, that's rarely been seen, at least in this society. And the psalmist, though doesn't throw up his hands in defeat, he rather makes a declaration.

And this declaration can only be made by those who know the character of God. He says, it is time, Lord, for thee to work. Now, it's possible he's been studying some of the many passages which deal with this aspect of God's character.

God’s Mercy and Restoration in Ezekiel 36

For example, let me just read it to you. In the book of Ezekiel, chapter 36, therefore say to the house of Israel, verse 22, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sake, so house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the heathen, whether you want.

Now, he's talking to his own house, and he said, you were destined to glorify my name, but you fell short of what you were called to do, actually to the point where the people began to mock the name of God because of God's own people.

And he says, I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

For I will take you from among the heathen, I will gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from your filthiness and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

A new heart also will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them.

And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and be my people, and I will be your God, and I will save you from all your uncleannesses and call for the corn and increase it and lay no famine upon you.

And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field, and you will receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then the heathen, verse 36, that are left around about you shall know that I, the Lord, build the ruined places and plant that which was desolate.

I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it. There are seasons and times when God simply comes to a people. And it's not when we're strong, it's when we're weak. It's not when we've been successful, it's when we've failed.

It's when the testimony of God, when the glory of God in the earth. It's a season where the Philistines are producing a giant every morning and challenging the armies of Israel to fight. It's a season where young men like Gideon are hiding behind a threshing place, trying to squeak out a living when they should be prospering and the presence of God should be everywhere.

It's a season where the people in Egypt are sighing and crying because of all the oppression that's come their way. And God finally hears that cry and decides to do what only God can do. We're living at a time when there is a cry.

There's still a cry among those who have a measure of godliness. There's still a cry. No folks, you don't necessarily hear it in the public square, but God hears it in every bedroom at night. God hears it.

God hears every single mother kneeling beside their table in the morning, not knowing where their son or daughter was the night before. God knows it and God hears it. God hears the cry. And there is a season where the Lord simply chooses to do a work to bring glory to his own name.

Not everybody recognizes it, but those that are seeking God, the scripture says he never does something without revealing it first to his servants. Those who walk close to him are listening to his heart.

He begins to tell us what he's about to do. Now, how does he do this? It's really simple. All through history, he does it through a people that can be spiritually moved upon. And in the strength which God alone gives, they're willing to arise and contend for that which is being lost or has been taken captive.

God Uses Ordinary People to Contend for His Purposes

Comes to Gideon, the least in his father's house. Comes to Moses, an old man looking after sheep in the desert. Comes to David, a young man looking after sheep in the wilderness. It's not to the strong and not to the mighty.

It's to the man or woman. It's to you today and to me today. It's simply to the heart that says, if God calls me, I will get up. I am willing. I'm willing to be what God calls me to be and I'm willing to do what he asks me to do.

I'm not going to live my life in mediocrity when there is an all powerful God that is still calling my name. Before he made this declaration in Ezekiel chapter 36, way back in chapter 22 in verse 30, he said, I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it.

I looked for a man and I can see this from heaven's perspective that there's a tremendous judgment coming on the nation and God wants to hold it back because the heart of even the law is mercy. Everything in God is mercy and he wants to hold it back and he's looking and he's speaking and he's wooing among the thousands of Israel, leaders and people in their homes and those that don't have any strength that don't have a spiritual record of great exploits and he's whispering in the highways, the by even wisdom, it says in Proverbs, wisdom's voice is heard in the street corners.

But every man or woman has become so entrenched in a loathsome view of themselves, their own smallness, their own inabilities, their own lack of resources as we see it and he's whispering and calling, I sought for a man, he said, I sought, it's not just that he's scanning, he's speaking, he's whispering, he's calling but people have become so entrenched in their captivity, so entrenched in a feeling of smallness, so entrenched in another than God worldview that they can't hear.

It might be just a momentary whisper that goes by their ear once or twice a day and they just simply push it away and say, Lord, it can't be me. See, that could be happening to you right now. The Lord could be saying to you, remember what I spoke to you and now you have to fight to retain it because there's something inside your own heart.

It's not just the devil, it's something in your own heart that just says, no, it can't be because how could this be? All through scripture, he comes to people with that same question. How could this be, said Mary, for I've never known a man.

How could this be, said others, because Abraham, because my wife and I are past childbearing age. You look all through the scriptures. What kind of people does God call to do an extraordinary work? And when we begin to look at it, here's the people he calls.

For you see your calling, 1 Corinthians 1 26, brethren, not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. In other words, it doesn't call us when we have the strength, the power, the influence or the resource in the natural.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. That might be you. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound things which are mighty. That might be you as well. And base things of the world, things that the world doesn't look to in its advancements and its seeking of control and gain wouldn't look to you to win the race as it is.

And things which are despised as God chosen and things which are not to bring to nothing or to not things that are, that means things that exist without God in themselves and exalt themselves. And God says, no, I bring this down.

I bring this into right balance. I bring it into right perspective by taking those that are weak and those that are foolish and those that know that they have no personal resources as it is. They're not the movers and shakers in society.

And I take them because they have a heart that is open to me and I can, they can be moved by my words. The last book before the book of Revelation, Jude writes this way. He says, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation, verse three and four, it was needful for me to write to you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.

For there are certain men, cryptic and unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. That means like a morally lacking, powerless thing.

And denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, turning the gospel into something that is powerless and denying the glory that God deserves to be given through his church. Contend for the faith.

Contending for the Faith Through the Authority of Scripture

Now, how do we do that? How do we contend for the faith? Psalm 119, verse 128. The Psalmist says, therefore, I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way. You've got to settle this question in your mind and I've got to settle it in mine.

Is this book the word of God or is it not? We, you and I cannot halt between two opinions. If this is the word of God, if this is the complete revelation of the mind and heart of God, this is everything that you and I need for life and for godliness and for strength and for victory.

And if this is the word of God, then we must follow it because it will lead us to something which can only come from God, both in us and through us. This is a strength that the world knows nothing about and is never going to find it.

When I was a young Christian, I got saved reading the word of God. I read the gospel of John. I asked the Lord to make it clear to me so I could understand it. Even though it was a King James Bible, it was more difficult than some of the other translations.

But I read it and because I asked God, he showed me what it meant. I saw who Christ was. I saw what he did on the cross for me. I saw his lawful claim as savior and Lord of my life and I came to the conclusion in my heart without anybody preaching this to me that it was all or nothing.

That I accepted the whole truth or none of it. That I called myself a Christian, that I would needs be for the rest of my life, walk with God and let his word become the guide of my life. And the moment I made that choice, that decision in my heart, something of heaven opened to me.

The moment I was no, I wasn't divided. My feet were not on two sides of the fence at the same time. I made the choice to walk with God as he showed me, as the light of his word shined before my feet, I was going to walk in that path.

And I took a passage of scripture from Proverbs and wrote it out on a piece of bristle board, about a two and a half foot square piece of bristle board. And I put it up on the wall over our dinner table in our kitchen at home, back in the farmhouse years and years ago.

And here's what I put on the wall because God gave it to me as a promise. Now, keep in mind at this time, I'm not a preacher. At this time, I've never spoken publicly. At this time, I've got no record.

I've got no accolades. I have nothing to produce, nothing to give to God, no reason to believe that God would even use me. But he spoke something to my heart and I put it up on the wall, but not just on the wall, I put it in my heart.

And he said, my son, Proverbs chapter two, if you will receive my words, in other words, if I can speak to you, and if you will hide my commandments with you, not just speak to you, but if you will embrace it as the bread of life, if you will open your heart and open your mind to my word, he said, so that thou incline thine heart, thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding.

If you cry after knowledge and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek as Tara's silver and search for her as hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

And so I used to pray that, I said, I used to go jogging every day and I'd say, oh God, I want you more than anything this world has to offer me. I want you more than treasure. I want your word, oh God.

I want it lodging deep within my heart because out of your word come the issues of life. Your word is a lamp and a light for me. Your word is truth. Your word, according to your word, there's no prison that can hold me.

There's no blindness that can keep my eyes from seeing. There's no limitations that can keep my personal being in a place anywhere other than where you've called me to be. Lord, I want your word and I want it with all of my heart.

You and I must contend for truth. We must get into this book and make the choice that these words are going to guide my life. These words rightly divided. These words in full balance. Scripture interpreting scripture, studying, understanding.

This is the guide for my life. Not what popular opinion says, not what people say, but what the word of God says. That is the guide for my life. And what a miraculous journey this has been. What an incredible journey with God.

Beginning with freedom in my own heart and then courage to step into arenas that had formerly been places of fear for me. To stand up with no other objective than to glorify Jesus Christ by allowing him to be my strength and to glorify himself.

Because I knew I didn't have the strength. I still don't have it. It is all of him. It all belongs to him. I feel just like Hannah. I had no hope until God made it come to life inside of me. And neither do you.

But if you and I have a willingness to go into this book and study it and embrace it until it becomes our reality. Not what we see with our natural eye, but what God speaks to our heart. That is the truth.

That is the higher reality, folks. All of this that we see around us is going to be dissolved one day. There will be no Democratic Party, no Republican Party, no Libertarian Party, no Green Party. And forgive me if I've missed any other party in the midst of this party mentality.

There will be none of these things. It will all be dissolved. All that will be left is the body of Jesus Christ standing at the throne of Almighty God. Choose this day, Joshua said. Choose. Choose. If God is God, serve him.

Choose. Don't halt between two opinions any longer. We must contend for the manifestation of the truth. Now this gets interesting. I want you to see this in 2 Corinthians chapter four, please, if you'll go there.

The Manifestation of Truth in the Christian Life

2 Corinthians chapter four. Now contend for truth, but contend for the manifestation of the truth. It's not just knowing things. It's that, you see, the truth of God has a sovereign power behind it that only God has.

It is the word of God that created all things that exist today out of nothing. It's the word of God that holds everything in the palm of God's hand. It's by his word one day that the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll and put away and all things will be recreated.

It's by the word of God all things consist. In 2 Corinthians four, verses one and two say it this way. Paul says, therefore seeing we've received this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness.

In other words, not trying to twist the word of God or not trying to, you know, not trying to play games with God, you know, to go out and say, well, I'll commit my sin on Wednesday and then I'll come to Thursday night prayer meeting and God will forgive me.

That's craftiness. And Paul says, we don't walk dishonestly, we don't walk in craftiness and we don't handle the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

If our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost. By manifestation of the truth, commending ourself to every man's conscience. Peter said, you are to always be ready to give an answer to those who ask you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

And if they're not asking, I think something isn't right. If you're rubbing shoulders with unsaved people every day and nobody ever asks, is it possible that you don't look any different than they do?

Now, I'm just putting that out as a possibility. I remember when I got saved, I was a police officer and I was working among other police officers. I led several to Christ and virtually everyone I led to Christ asked me first, I see something in you.

You've been such a change. I don't know. They would simply ask. And the scripture says that by manifesting the truth, by allowing the truth to change us, allowing the truth to become that higher reality, allowing the truth to carry us, the truth to sustain us, the truth to become the way we think and live and move and breathe.

We commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, speaking truth when everyone around us is speaking evil, working hard with our hands so that we might have something to give when others would steal at the least opportunity given them.

A completely other spirit than the world that we see around us today. And by living in the truth, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience. And that's the mandate of the church of Jesus Christ. Don't be like Martha in John chapter 11.

She knew truth, but didn't believe that she could be a partaker of anything beyond what she could think or feel or reason. When Jesus Christ himself came on the scene, a place of death and a place of sorrow and despair, he started speaking words, she started speaking words, his own words actually back to him, but she had nothing in her heart that believed that he actually could raise the dead, that he could do what is impossible.

She had a religion that memorized scripture, but then lived only in the realm of possibility as the human eye sees it. And that's where many people live in our generation. Memorizing a lot of scripture, going to a lot of Bible classes, even reading the text faithfully, but never letting the text bring you and I to a place where we actually believe that God will do the supernatural in us or through us.

In John 11 40, Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe that you would see the glory of God, the glory. The glory in the original text means that which is of God and brings the name of God through Jesus Christ to reputation in the earth, that which God is and does, which brings his own name to reputation.

And here's my challenge to you today. Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you would believe that you would see the glory of God, that you would be lifted out of weakness and out of captivity and out of blindness and out of frailty and out of nothingness and out of your fears, that you would see the glory of God.

If you would believe is not enough just to memorize, but if you would believe that you would see the glory of God. Paul says again in second Corinthians four, that God has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.

He says, we bear this treasure in earthen vessels, but now he has shined in our hearts. He has, his word has come to us to give to this generation and those around us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.

In other words, in you, your friends, your family, your work associates, people you meet on the street, it is in the heart of Jesus to glorify himself through you. The people look at your life and listen to your speech.

And when everyone is running around saying, oh, whoa, is us, what are we going to do? The sky is falling. You have another spirit. You have another mind. You have another heart. The glory of God is upon you.

You speak with another voice. There's something else inside of you that is manifesting this glory of God because you actually believe the texts of scripture. You believe that you're in the father's hand and no one can take you out of his hand.

You believe that as you seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, that all the things that you need shall be added unto you. You believe that no tongue can rise against you in judgment and that you have the power to condemn every voice that judges you and stands against the cleanness that God has given you in Jesus Christ.

You believe that salvation is for you and for your house, no matter what your eyes see, no matter what your ears hear, you have a word from God and you believe the word of God. Above everything else, above all that you see, God gave you a word.

You were in that prayer closet. You were opening that book and suddenly a verse of scripture came alive to you. You looked at it and you realized that Paul said to a Philippian jailer, you believe and you will be saved in your whole house and suddenly it lifted off the pages of scripture and you didn't get lost in the how is this going to happen and it's gone too far and my son's been too long in jail.

My daughter's been too long on the streets or in drugs or whatever or living under a different thought pattern. No, no, no, no. You, thank God the Philippian jailer just kept his mouth shut. Thank God he had nothing to say.

He just listened to the apostle Paul, brought this man who brought the word of God into his house and suddenly his children saw that he had a confidence in what God had spoken and it brought his whole family home to the Lord.

Oh no, there are no limitations with God. The one who created the universe by the spoken word of his mouth is well able sir, well able man to keep you and bring your children home. Oh no, you and I have to contend for the manifestation of the truth.

God is faithful. He will always be faithful. He won't fail you. He won't forsake you. He won't walk away from you in your bad days. He will give you a righteousness that is not your own and belongs to him.

He will use you no matter how many times you think you've tried but failed. He appreciates the fact that you're willing to get up and at least even be moved upon by the Holy Spirit. And lastly, in our generation, we need to contend for the miraculous.

Contending for the Miraculous

Not only to flow in us but through us. I happen to believe with all my heart that the church of Jesus Christ, God set a pattern. Now, if he said through Jude that we are to contend for the faith which is once given to the saints, then the thing that we have to do is go back in the text of scripture and look at the faith that was once given to the saints and say if that's the standard, if that's what God does, if that's what God is willing to do, then that's where I'm determining to live.

I am not going to live underneath or in a place that is less than what God has for my life and my home and my family. I'm going to believe God for the miraculous. Listen to this in Acts chapter four. Peter and John, it says, being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

All the threatenings, all the warnings, all that you can't go any farther. This is as far as you go as the testimony of Jesus Christ. All the threats and when they had heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is, who by the mouth of your servant David has said, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things?

The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child, Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

In other words, they were praying and said, God, no matter how they even rage, they're still under complete control of the one who created the heavens and the earth. Now, Lord, they said, behold their threatenings and grant to thy servants that with all boldness, they may speak thy word by stretching forth on hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child, Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spoke the word of God with boldness and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all.

September 16th, 17th and 18th, we are gathering together for three days, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday to pray and to fast. And we're gonna pray this specific prayer that God heal our nation, God heal our city, God heal our churches and give strength and power to those who are called to proclaim the gospel.

We're gonna fast and pray for the miraculous again, for God's word to be accompanied with the power once given to the saints. I have a vision in my heart that the Lord has given me over the summer of people lining up to get into this church and to get into other churches because the glory of God has come.

They have seen something in the people of God. It's not just an exterior glory. It's not just some kind of a manifestation in the air. No, it's God doing something in the people and the people testifying in the city.

You've got to come where I've been going. You've got to come to the prayer meeting I've been attending because I wanna tell you, there are things in my life changing so radically. It can only be the hand of God.

There are prisons that were holding me and I can't tell you how, but I can tell you it happened Wednesday night at seven o 'clock, suddenly this presence of God came on me and I could literally feel the doors open and I'm free.

I'm not bound by this anymore in my life. I see people lining up, not just Times Square Church, but other churches big and small throughout the city. People have been groaning and crying and are tired and are fed up with this generation.

They're fed up with the immorality. They're fed up with the lies and the incivility. They're fed up with our children being raised and told there is no God and raised in violent videos and violent music, fed up and tired.

And the Lord begins to gather them and bring them. Is it the strongest churches? No, look through history. It's always the places that are barren, that have no power in themselves, but there's somebody in that place that has a heart that says, God, if you call me, I will get up.

If you call me to represent you, I will. It's a people in New York City. It's strange and it's tragic. There's probably hundreds of thousands of Christian people in New York City, but the testimony of God among us has been so marginal in our generation.

But I'm telling you, if I'm hearing clearly from God, God is about to change that. It is time for the Lord to work. Something that he chooses to do. It's a season where he says, I'm going to come one more time and glorify my own name.

And I'm gonna do it in a people. It's not gonna be an exterior thing. It's gonna be an interior work of God that cannot be contained in an earthen vessel. As Paul said, the light of this wondrous work of God in Jesus Christ is going to shine abroad in our hearts and commend ourselves as it is to the consciences of men and women around us.

The glory of the Lord. This is the hour, the opportunity for the church to shine like she maybe never has in the history of New York City. In the midst of all of the hand-wringing and the woes and the attempts to reform, refashion and change everything around us that has ever been godly.

In the midst of all this, suddenly God comes and begins to manifest his glory among his people. God begins to answer prayer. Jesus Christ becomes the center of the hearts of those who have been called by his name.

Prayer, Healing, and the Gathering of the Church

I do see people lining up. I remember Pastor David told me one day, there was, it was a season where there was just the two of us here. Back in around 1995, 1996 and we were stretched to the snapping point.

I remember at that time we were, an easy week was two services, a tougher one was three and all of the ministries and the counseling and everything else that was going on. He leaned over to me one time on this platform.

He said, Carter, I see a day coming when the doors of this church are not gonna close for the volumes of people trying to get in. And I remember thinking, God forbid. I was so tired. That's the truth.

How are we going to do this? Like it's, to me, if you added one more meeting, I was done. I was going to be put in an asylum somewhere. I couldn't take any more pressure. And that was the last, I felt it was the last thing I wanted to hear.

And I remember saying, Lord, just don't hasten that day. Hold that day off. But now after these years, you begin to realize that the Lord never does anything without supplying what is necessary. It's not gonna be a program.

It's the presence of God. It's the presence of Christ in a people. It's the glory as you've experienced in worship today. It's the glory of the Lord coming down. It's faith arising in every heart. It's men and women meeting together and saying, Lord, thank you.