Evil Is at the Gate — Carter Conlon

Daniel 5 and the Writing on the Wall

Daniel chapter 5, please, if you will, Daniel chapter 5, that's where we're going to begin. The message called evil is at the gate. Father, I thank you God with all my heart, Lord Jesus Christ, for the anointing of your Holy Spirit.

I thank you God for giving me the courage to speak this word, for I don't stand by any right of my own. I have no reason why I should speak this, apart from the fact that you have called me to do it. And so Lord, my whole identity, everything I am is in you.

I'm asking you Lord Jesus Christ to glorify your own name. I'm asking you God to satisfy the desires of your own heart. I'm asking you to overpower my frailty and speak through me. I'm asking you God that your kingdom might come into our hearts and your will will be done here in this church and whoever is listening to this online as it is in heaven.

Help us to hear you Lord. Help us to bend our knee to truth. Help us God to move in the direction in which you are calling us now as your people. I thank you God for this with all of my heart and I praise you for it in Jesus name.

Now, for those that are listening today and those that are online, I'm going to encourage you. I've only done this to my knowledge, at least maybe I have more, but I think it's only once before. I've ever asked you to get a message out.

It was called beware of the angry watchman, but I'm going to ask you as many as you can. Get this message to your friends, pastors, churches, whatever availability you have in social media. Get this message out and ask people to listen to it.

Evil is at the gate. Daniel chapter five, we're beginning at verse one to six, then 17 to 30. Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his Lords and drank wine in the presence of the thousand.

While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple, which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his Lords and his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God, which had been in Jerusalem. And the king, his Lords, his wives and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

In the same hour, the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lamp stand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote, then the king's countenance changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.

Verse 17. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation.

Oh king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father, a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. And because of the majesty that he gave him, all peoples, nations and languages trembled and feared before him.

Whomever he wished, he executed. Whomever he wished, he kept alive. Whomever he wished, he set up and whomever he wished, he put down. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne and they took his glory from him.

Then he was driven from the sons of men. His heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. 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 rules in the kingdom of men and appoints over it whomever he chooses.

But you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this and you've lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They brought the vessels of his house before you and you and your Lords, your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them.

And you praise the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know. And the God who holds your breath in his hand and who owns all your ways, you have not glorified.

Then the fingers of the hand were sent from him and this writing was written. And this is the inscription that was written, Mene, Mene, Tikal, Ipharsin. This is the interpretation of each word. Mene, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it.

Tikal, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perez, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then Belshazzar gave the command and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Pride, Rebellion, and the Judgment of God

That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans was slain. There was quite a history. This particular nation, God had dealt with pride in the human heart before. And Daniel stood before Belshazzar, who was one of the subsequent leaders after the historical known dealing of God with Nebuchadnezzar because of his pride.

And Daniel stood before this man and says, Belshazzar, you knew this. You knew how God deals with pride. You knew that you cannot ignore God. You cannot deal treacherously with him and not suffer a consequence for it.

But even knowing this, you've not humbled your heart, although it was very clearly pronounced to you. In Daniel chapter four, verse 17, this is the word that was given to Nebuchadnezzar, his predecessor whom Daniel calls his father.

This decision is by the decree of the watchers and the sentence by the word of the Holy ones in order that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men gives it to whomever he will and sets over it the lowest of men.

Here was the word to Belshazzar's predecessor. They shall drive you from men. Verse 25, your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field and they shall make you eat grass like oxen. They shall wet you with the dew of heaven and seven times shall pass over you until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses.

And in as much as they gave the command to leave the stump and the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be assured to you after you come to know that heaven rules. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar, you exalted yourself above the knowledge of God.

You engaged in practices that God has decreed you should not. And because of the pride of your heart, your kingdom, your nation is going to be cut down. Although there'll be left a stump and it will grow again.

In the formative years of the United States of America, we want set our hand to something shameful, which ultimately cost us the judgment of God just as it has been expressed in these verses I've just read to you.

It was in the years where slavery became an acceptable practice. In these years, 12 .5 million Africans were taken, were stolen from their homeland. Mostly the young and the strong sons and daughters of Africa.

2 million died on the journey to their various destinations because of the cruelty that was imposed on them. 10 .5 million survived the journey. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History declares that 6 of those who survived were dropped off and delivered to North America.

Wikipedia talking about the eight destinations that were taken from the that African slaves were taken to says that 6 .5 of the slaves that were stolen from Africa were dropped off in America. It leaves the numbers somewhere in the vicinity of 630 ,000 slaves were dropped off in America.

Most people even here today have no idea that wall street was once a slave trading post. That was the actual origin of Manhattan Island. Thousands died because of the conditions in which they were forced to live even after arriving on the shores of America.

Amputations were common for slaves trying to gain their freedom, which was actually the irony of ironies. A nation that was priding itself on freedom from tyranny became in itself tyrannical to a whole race of people brought to its shores and people who were tried to gain the freedom that America had fought to gain would quite often end up losing a hand or a foot because of the desire to be free.

Many of the African slaves were buried without dignity or any record of who they were, where they'd come from or where they had been. And to add insult to injury, much of this was mixed with a perverted version of Christianity.

Last summer I read the biography of Frederick Douglass who lived from 1818 to 1895. He was a social reformer, an abolitionist, a writer, and a great statesman in the history of this nation. And in his biography he talks about at four years of age, cowering in the corner of a kitchen hidden in the darkness as a slave master that owned both him, his mother, people around a lot of his family, suspended one of the young girls from the rafters in the kitchen by her hands and beat her until she was almost unconscious from pain.

While the whole time coming home every night and talking about the revival that was touching their church in town and how people were being touched by the power of God and Frederick Douglass concluded at four years of age, Jesus Christ is a fraud and Christianity is a fraud because if Jesus was the son of God, the people who claim to be touched by him would not be treating other people the way this man treats those under his care.

It's amazing how over time evil can become good and good can become evil even among the people of God. Galatians chapter six and verse seven says, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows that will he also reap.

Ecclesiastes chapter eight verse eight said, wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it. And you and I know that the issue of slavery in great measure, there were some other circumstances, but it was the probably the predominant one brought about the civil war in this country.

Lincoln, Civil War, and Divine Retribution

And president Abraham Lincoln in his second inaugural address on March 4th, 1865 at the time when both slavery and the American civil war were coming close to an end, he suggested that the death and destruction brought by the war was divine retribution to the United States of America for possessing slavery saying that it might be the will of God that the war continue.

And now I quote him, until every drop of blood drawn with the last shall be paid by another drawn with the sword. He also stated that the war was the country's woe do. In other words, it was the judgment that we had reaped for what we had sown.

It was the just judgment of God. Do us for what we had done to an entire race of people. And he finished his thought with the quote from Psalm 19 verse nine, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

If you go to the website, ancestry .com, you'll get some facts about the civil war from 1861 to 1865. Now listen to me very carefully on this 625 ,000 young people died in America, not only men, but women.

It is reported that 400 women disguised themselves as men and enlisted to fight in the army on either side, either the union or the south. 2 of the American population. Remember 630 slaves, 630 ,000 slaves were dropped off in America and 625 ,000 of the sons and daughters of those who lived here at that time died in the civil war.

56 ,000 died in prison camps from starvation and disease. Remember of the slaves thousands died because of the conditions in which they were forced to live among the soldiers. Amputations were common on the battlefield and without anesthesia and sterilization, as many as 83 died in some circumstances.

Remember amputations were common for slaves fleeing and trying to get their freedom and gain their freedom in the civil war. 40 of the dead were never identified and were left to rot in piles on the battlefield.

Remember concerning the slaves that many were buried without dignity or record of who they were or where they had come from. And so it brings us back to our opening texts. What did Belshazzar do with what he knew?

What did America do with the history that we now know? And there's no excuse for the ignorance of what we once did and how God once responded and of how we took evil and we mixed it with a perverse religion, a perverted understanding of Jesus Christ, a personal interpretation of the scriptures that had no grounding whatsoever in truth.

Going to church, claiming to be touched by the power of God and doing the exact opposite of what the cross was actually all about. What do we do? What did Belshazzar do? But you, Daniel five 22, his son, Belshazzar have not humbled your heart.

Although you knew all of this. In other words, you continued in your pride and your rebellion against God. Though you knew that you truly do reap what you have sown, though you truly understood God will not be mocked.

You cannot pervert truth and expect his blessing. Verse 23 says, you've lifted up yourselves against the Lord of heaven. You brought the vessels of his house before you, you and your Lords, your wives, your concubines have drunk wine from them and you praise the gods of silver and gold.

That's the gods of prosperity, bronze and iron. That's the gods of human strength and ingenuity, wood and stone. Again, the gods of human accomplishment and visible things that have been accomplished in the nation and the God who holds your breath in his hand and owns all your ways.

You've not glorified in this nation. We allowed preachers to be raised up unchallenged, absolute frauds, absolute charlatans. We taught the people of this nation that somehow godliness is a means to financial gain.

Prosperity Teaching and the Writing on the Wall

Just as the apostle Paul warned in first Timothy and chapter six, we praise the gods of silver and gold. Even today services where the whole focus is gold and silver, human strength and visible accomplishment.

And then suddenly the writing of the hand of God appears on the wall of this nation. And my front, my brother, my sister, listen to me. If you can't see the hand of God right now, something is wrong. You just have to look at the character of those that are running for political office to understand what I'm talking about.

The writing is on the wall in this hour in which we're not, we're now living. God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Verse 28 he says, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.

And here's what I believe that America is on the verge of being given to the godless. We're right on the edge now. Now we've already, the godless have already largely come into our society. The value system of the godless is being imposed on the nation.

Are you okay with people going into our schools and telling our little boys they might be girls and our little girls, they might be boys. Are you okay with that? We're on the verge of something darker, something deeper than anything we could ever have imagined.

We're on the verge of losing everything this nation has ever stood for, even though it was perverted at times, there still was a willingness to turn back to God and to deal in truth and deal in reality.

The irony of it all is that Beltshazzar was so gospel hardened that he could recognize that the voice was, that was speaking to him, was speaking on God's behalf, but he could not bend his knee to it.

I see Beltshazzar getting up from the table. Daniel's just told him your kingdom is over. It's finished. It's going to be given to somebody else. All the history of Babylon, all the conquering, all that's all, all the blessing that's ever, it's all now going to be given to somebody else because you have stood in mockery against the God of heaven.

You've exalted yourselves in pride and you have not challenged this perverse religion that has risen up among you. I see Beltshazzar getting up from the table, walking over to Daniel. And the scripture says he issued a proclamation just like the mayor issued a proclamation, allowing prayer in the square to happen.

I proclaim Daniel the third ruler in the kingdom. Well, Daniel just told him your kingdom is over. And so they rise up, his attendants rise up and they take a gold chain and they put it around his neck.

How, how incredulous it must have seemed to Daniel. Oh God, to be standing before people and telling them, warning them speaking on God's behalf. And everybody says it, it's true. It's the voice of God.

It's the proper interpretation of the moment in history that we're now at and they give accolades, but they can't bend their knee. Beltshazzar should have been on his knees. He should have been crying out for mercy.

Historians tell us that the Medes and Persians were already at the gate and they apparently entered the city without any resistance. As Daniel is speaking to Beltshazzar, the Medes and the Persians were already at the gate and the people from within the city, instead of defending it just opened the gate and let them flood the land.

And that very night the scripture says Beltshazzar, the King of the Babylonians, they call him the Chaldeans here, was slain. And today I want to tell you that evil is at the gate in America. The question arises, what will we do?

The Church's Power to Resist Darkness

As the church of Jesus Christ, we are the only ones left with the power to resist it. There's no other power. Jesus said to Peter and subsequently to us in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18, and it was based on the statement that Peter had made.

You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And he says, Peter, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. My point this morning is that you and I have the power to push back the darkness.

We have the power. We don't have to let the gate open and let this nation be flooded by a darkness that is so unspeakably evil. We don't have to do it unless we choose to, unless we become like Beltshazzar and his whole entourage who just agree with the word of God, but can't do anything about it.

All they can do is decorate the prophets. Talk about, yes, this is God. Yes, this is a man of God. Yes, this is a word from God, but don't do anything. They should have turned to prayer. They should have been up from the table.

Humbling Ourselves, Praying, and Seeking God's Face

They should have been calling out the troops. They should have been barricading the gates. Instead they're decorating the man who just told them your kingdom is over. It's finished. Second Chronicles 714.

God said to his own people, Israel, my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, will humble themselves and pray, will humble themselves and pray, will humble themselves and pray.

We'll admit that our ways are not God's ways. We'll admit that we have failed to be a light to this generation. We'll admit that we've not done what we should do. We'll admit that we've pursued pleasure more than God.

We'll admit that our relationship with God has fallen far short of what it should be, or this nation would not be in the condition it's in today. Not only do we have churches on every corner, we got three in between the churches on every corner and we're not even affecting our streets, let alone our community.

They'll humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. You see, when you start seeking the face of God, you're going to find out not everything in your heart is right. Not everything you're holding onto is correct.

It may not be as pronounced as the evil slave master that had Frederick Douglas as a child in his home, but yet holding onto grievances is still wrong in the sight of God. Theft is wrong. Evil speech is wrong.

Wrong relationships are, it's, it's, there's so many things. When we begin to seek the face of God, he will show us. And as we make the choice to turn, the Bible tells us that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much a man or woman that says, I'm going with God.

I'm going to live for God. I'm my life's going to be a testimony and I'm going to pray. I'm not going to lay down and let the devil roll over this generation. You see, there's always hope. And even though the Medes and Persians did take over that society, Daniel, because he was a righteous man was technically transported into the next society and given favor.

And he became one of the vessels that God used to influence the King to sign a decree to let God's people go back to the promised land, begin to rebuild the testimony of the Lord again. And so there's hope, no matter how dark it gets, there's hope for you.

And there's hope for me is never over as long as Christ is still sitting at the right hand of almighty God. And he has a people on the earth. But I go back to chapter four where Daniel stood before Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar's predecessor.

And he had just been told that your kingdom was going to be cut down, but there'll be a stump left. The tree is going to be cut down, but there'll be a stump left and the kingdom will be restored after you've come to know that heaven rules.

Repentance, Mercy, and Concern for the Poor

And Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, not to Nebuchadnezzar. Therefore, King, let my advice be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by being righteous and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. And perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity.

And my plea to the church of Jesus Christ in this nation is turn away from sin and agree with God. What God says is sin. Agree with God that it is sin and trust him for the power to turn away from it.

And let your heart turn from self-seeking and self-focus to the needs of others around you. That's why Daniel said, break off your sins by being righteous and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.

In other words, Nebuchadnezzar, you're so focused on yourself. You're blind to what the work of God really is. It's about the poor, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, the nobodies and nothings of society.

Everybody else is not seen because they can't help their agenda, but God sees them. And that's the center of his heart. It's why he went to the cross. Show mercy to the poor. Get away from the self-focus of those that sit and drink wine and praise the gods of gold and silver and bronze and iron and wooden stone.

Get away from these frauds and their powerless religion and begin to pray. You know that the Lord has opened up a doorway to this church for a worldwide prayer meeting and not only worldwide prayer meeting on the internet, but we're now, and I don't know how many hundreds of radio stations across this nation now calling this country back to God and back to prayer again.

Prayer as the Beginning of Spiritual Awakening

My brother, my sister, if ever there was a time to pray, it's now because evil is at the gate. And if we don't pray, if we don't pray, I want to ask you what kind of a country are we going to be giving to our children and our grandchildren?

What kind of evil is going to invade the classroom deeper than that, which is already there? What kind of laws are going to be passed, obligating the church of Jesus Christ to become partakers of this nation's sin?

I want you to think long and hard about this because we are at the moment where evil is at the gate. We don't have five years to get this right. Pray that you and I not be like Belshazzar and his company, that we can sit here today or listen online and hear these words and yet do nothing.

Pass the tape out. Put a gold chain on the preacher's neck. Declare him or her to be man or woman of God, whatever your case is, but do nothing. I challenge the churches listening to me online that are prayerless.

Start to pray somebody for the sake of God and for this nation. Somebody somewhere start to pray. If they won't open the building, start in your home, start a prayer meeting in your home. We're at a crisis point now.

You see, it can either be averted in measure because I honestly believe that God is good and his mercy endures forever. I honestly believe that America can experience a third great awakening, a spiritual awakening before that final day of judgment comes to this whole world.

I believe that God can touch our children. God can touch our churches. God can touch our neighborhoods. I believe that with all of my heart, but I also know something else. There's never been a great awakening anywhere at any time in history without somebody somewhere praying and laying hold of God.

It all begins with prayer. And so I challenge you now to pray. I plead with you to pray. I plead with you. God help all of us to get out of ourselves. Our focus on ourselves. Everything is about ourselves.

Help us Lord God to understand there's a greater battle at hand and there's much more at stake today than we realize. We're only months away if we don't pray from being in a position where we wished we had.

The Believer's Authority and the Power of the Cross

We have the power. Do you understand? We have the power to tread on serpents and scorpions and overall the power of the enemy. We have the power to move mountains and command them to be cast into the sea.

We have promises from Jesus Christ himself that whatever we ask believing we shall receive. We're not powerless. We are not just spectators watching this godless parade go by. We have the power to hold the gates because the Bible says the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church of Jesus Christ.

We have the power to stand at the gates and resist evil. We have the power to push back darkness. We have the power to believe God for his spiritual awakening. We have the power to call down heaven for Christ to exalt his own name in this generation, something that you and I can't do, but he can, he can exalt his own name again.

We have the power. He's given it into the hand of his church. It's always been there. If we're willing to walk in truth, if we're willing to do it God's way, we have the power. He has provided to us everything that we need.

He's given us his blood to cleanse us from all sin, to break the chains as we sang this morning and to set us free. He's given us the power to live in freedom. He's given us the power to walk away from that which captivates the hearts of ungodly men and women.

He's given us the power to live a new life. He's given us promises to be everything that God declares that we should be. We have no excuse to live in spiritual poverty. It was all done on the cross for us and he left us here as co-laborers with him to win a harvest and to bring glory to his name.

And I happen to believe that we do not have to surrender this nation or this city into the hands of darkness. I believe that with all my heart. I'm not living a pipe dream. I know who God is. I know what he's done in my life.

I know what I've seen him do throughout the world. I've watched him at work. I know his heart. And so I plead with you, pray, walk righteously. Otherwise your prayers are pointless. You imagine that man in Frederick Douglass's owner as it was back then going back to church, you men are futile.

His foolish, stupid religion was how powerless his prayers were. How much of a delusion is supposed to touch of God coming on his life every night was no. When we choose to walk with God, we choose to live his way.

If that man had been reading his Bible, he would have seen that what he was doing was wrong. If he was willing to read it the way it was written. And so it comes down to this one thought that never leaves my heart.

The Urgency of Responding to God's Voice

It's time to pray. It's time now, not tomorrow, not next month today. That's why the writer of Hebrews says today, if you can hear his voice, don't harden your heart. If you can hear it, I brought this message to you from the heart of God today as a plea.

Remember the book of Ezekiel, the Lord said, I sought for a man that I should not have to judge the nation, but couldn't find one. I can see the spirit of God going through the streets of that, which was a nation at that time known for its religion.

Will you stand, sir? Will you stand, ma 'am? Will you stand with me? Will you stand with me? And the people were just probably so busy as we are today. I've got children to raise. I got groceries to get.

I got a job. I got to go to, I work long hours. Will you sir, stand and you can hear God pleading to not have to judge the nation, but everybody is finding an excuse, unaware of the moment in history that they're living in.

But by God's grace, as Paul, the apostle said to one of the churches, in my heart, I have a vision of better things of you. And I believe that in this room and online, there are men and women who will take seriously this call, who will not put this plea from the Holy Spirit away, who will understand that we do live in perilous times, who will get up and say, I will go to the gate.

I will go and I will stand. I will intercede and I will trust God for the strength to push back the plans of darkness, to destroy our society. I will, I will, by the strength of almighty God, I will because of the victory of the cross for me.

I will because I have the promises of God that he will make me more than I am and give me more than I could ever hope to possess. I will because his blood has cleansed me and made me righteous. I will, by the grace of God, I will.

Communion and Sacrificial Commitment

And so now we're going to come to the communion table. And as we come to communion in this house, it's my prayer today that this will be the cry of your heart, young and old, rich and poor, educated, uneducated, makes no difference whatsoever.

It's really faith that makes a difference. It's the man or woman that says, by the grace of God given to me, I will, by the grace of God given to me, I will stand. I will pray. I will believe by the grace of God given to me.

Christ, as you sacrificed your life for my freedom, I will sacrifice some of the things in my life so that others may be free. I will not live this life just for myself. I will not use the house of God just for my own betterment.

I will be given to the work of God. I will pray. I will pray with all my heart. I will pray with faith. I was exhorted in the word of God that Elijah was a man just with like passions like we have, but he was a righteous man.

And he prayed and God stopped the rain and he prayed and God sent the rain again. You see, it's all there in the scripture. The power of God is all there. The question is who is willing to lay hold of it and who is willing to pay the price for the freedom of others.

Prayer for Unity, Forgiveness, and Awakening

And father, I thank you with all my heart for this communion time in your house. I pray Jesus Christ that we as your people in this generation would take seriously the cry of your spirit. I have delivered your heart.

God, I'm asking you now to do the work that needs to be done in all of us so that we might become the people who can push back the darkness at the gate in our generation. Give us the grace to believe for an awakening, a spiritual awakening in our city.

Give us the eyes to see every church filled with seekers of truth. People praying, looking for a touch from heaven. Give us the boldness to lift our voices, even if we have to stand on the steps and tell them of the Christ who died for them.

Give us the grace to love all men equally, all people equally, no partiality, no preference. Give us the courage to forgive grievances of the past and to do right and to bind together as one church, one body of all races standing for the truth that we know that is higher than all of our concerns.

God, we thank you for this. Let this communion moment in this church and online be a holy moment. For this house and for this nation. And we ask this in Jesus name. If you could hold on to the bread and the juice today till everybody has received it.