Promise Of A Captive Nation (Video) — Carter Conlon

It's so wonderful to be in a place of worship where Jesus Christ is honored. Thank God for that with all my heart. Now, the message I'm about to speak to you this morning is based on a New Testament scripture.

Scripture as the Foundation for Salvation and Righteousness

Let me just read it to you, where Paul writes to Timothy, his disciple, his young disciple in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 15 and 16. And Paul said to him, from a child you've known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

So you have to understand that Timothy didn't have the New Testament. He only had the Old Testament. And Paul is writing to Timothy and saying, listen, from a child you've understood that the Word of God leads to a salvation, which is found in Jesus Christ.

And it's able to give you wisdom in the understanding of that salvation. Then he makes this incredible statement in verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, that's right, theology, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.

Isaiah 43 and the Promise to a Captive Nation

Now, it's in this context that I'm going to be speaking to you from Isaiah chapter 43 today, as a pattern, a type, it's a message that's called the promise to a captive nation. Because in this chapter of scripture, we find this country, the United States of America.

We find our present day, I think, clearly revealed. We find the heart of God towards a nation, towards his church, generically speaking, and then also to the individual believer in Christ. So there'll be something in this for every one of us.

And so I'm taking an Old Testament story and I'm superimposing it on our day and saying, God, in this story, we see how humanity has this tendency to drift from you, the end product of that, and what is your heart to your own people, especially when they're captivated or on the brink of a full captivation in the case of people of Israel in these days.

There's an incredible promise of God to a captive nation. Father, I thank you, Lord, with all my heart for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. I thank you, God, for a clear word. Your word says that if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, how can the people prepare themselves for the battle ahead?

And so I thank you, Lord, for clarity of thought, heart, and mind. I have no other desire to stand in this pulpit but to see you glorified and to see your people come home. This is the only desire in my heart, Lord, and I thank you, God, that you will bear witness to what your words speak, not my words, yours.

I thank you to the best of my ability and knowledge. I believe I have heard you, and I ask you for the grace to convey this and the grace for us to hear it. Give us hearts that want to respond to you.

And, Father, we thank you for this, and I bless you for it. In Jesus' name. Isaiah chapter 43, please, if you have your Bibles. The promise to a captive nation. Let's begin at verse 22. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burned offerings, neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast brought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices.

But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins. Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. I, even I, am he that blots out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance.

Let us plead together. Declare thou that thou mayest be justified. Thy first father has sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Therefore, I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

Prayerlessness and the Captivity of God's People

Now, the captivity of Israel, the people of God who were called to bring the name of God to glory on the earth. You have to understand this. This is the reason why there's a church in the earth. It's the reason why, after you and I came to the knowledge of Christ as our Savior, that God left us here on the earth.

That we have now in these earthen vessels the presence of the living God in the person of the Holy Spirit. And we have promises of God that we know are not attainable in any of our natural strength. But if we will believe that God is who he says he is, and if our hearts are moving towards him and bringing him glory in all the days of our lives, these promises become a reality.

And you and I become an irrefutable testimony of the reality of God on the earth. And this was the purpose of a people that he had set apart to himself in this generation. But their captivity began when they became a prayerless people.

In verse 22, he says, you've not called on me, O Jacob. And you've been weary of me, O Israel. Now the root of prayerlessness is found in not really wanting what God is actually offering. In other words, we settle for what we see over what by faith remains to be seen.

We are called to something, but we divert from that path and we form our own opinion about what our lives should look like and what our relationship with God will actually procure for us. And subsequently, we become diverted from the work of God in the earth, which is exactly what happened to his own people.

Their focus now became on things around them, reputation, fame, all of these things that the world has to offer. All of its goods now became their focus. And they left off seeking of God because once you have these things, you no longer need to really pray anymore.

Verse 23 tells us that prayerlessness is also fueled by a lack of desire to suffer any inconvenience or personal loss in our seeking of God. It said, you've not brought me the small cattle of your burnt offerings, and neither have you honored me with your sacrifices.

I've not caused you to serve with an offering nor wearied you with incense. In other words, I didn't demand it of you. God says, I didn't demand these things. I didn't create a relationship with you to make it all about rules and regulations, and I didn't put a burden on you.

I assumed that it would come from a heart that was naturally full of gratitude for the fact that you could call yourself the friend of God. And I would assume that you could come because you knew that I had left you on the earth for a purpose, and I'd given you promises that would have made my name come to reputation through you.

And I didn't really want it to be about these other things. But you drew back, and you didn't want to suffer any inconvenience in your seeking of God. In verse 24, he says, instead of honoring me, you dragged my name by association into poor reputation among the people.

He says, you brought me no sweet cane with money, neither have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you made me to serve with your sins. You fell sore to the glory of God. And I'm speaking to a nation.

You have to understand this. I'm speaking to a church age in the United States of America where God says, you wearied me with your iniquities, and you brought my name into your practices. You thought you could have it both ways.

You could have a living relationship with God, and you can do whatever you want. You can live any way you want to live. And you became that which almost has no demarcation, no line of difference between you and the people of this society that are perishing in their sin.

And you dragged my name into it, and you wearied me. Ezekiel 36, 20 talks about the people of God from Ezekiel's viewpoint. And it says, when they went to those that lived without God, it says, when they entered unto the heathen, everywhere they went, they profaned my holy name when they said to them, these are the people of the Lord that have gone forth out of his land.

And God said, this is what happened. This is what happens when we become prayerless. This is what happens when we really don't have an inner desire to live for the purposes of God, but we just simply want to come into the temple, and we don't want to suffer any loss.

It's all about personal gain, and we just simply want a convenient relationship with God. In verse 27, it says, your first fathers have sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me. In other words, this has been longstanding.

Error has been accepted as truth. We're living in a time when, I dare say, a strong percentage of what professes to be the church of Jesus Christ is apostate in this generation. It's deviated. It's gone far from truth.

It meets under the banner of Christ, but drags the name of Christ into its own shortcomings. And he says, therefore, I profane the princes of the sanctuary. That's what God does. He said, I've allowed your spiritual leaders to go deeper into error, and they have become common men, a deficient representation of a holy God.

I profane your princes. There's a movement now in the church of Jesus Christ. It's been here for some time, where preachers are standing, and they're now cursing from the pulpits, thinking this is bringing somehow sinners are going to come into the house of the Lord.

And because sinners use four-letter words, if we use four-letter words, they'll feel more comfortable in the presence of God. What idiocy in the house of God, because you really didn't want a living relationship with me.

He said, I've given your princes to profanity. And I've given Jacob to the curse. In other words, I have removed the protection from defilement, from those who listen to them. There's a protection from the defilement of this world.

And he said, I have removed it. I've taken it away. And many of God's people now are powerless. They're being overwhelmed. There is a huge problem with pornography now in the church of Jesus Christ. There's a huge problem with divorce, drugs, alcohol.

I've taken away the protection and given Jacob to the curse, really, is that which came upon this world because of sin. And Israel to reproaches. Instead of God's people being appraised in the earth, my own people have become the laughing stock of their surrounding society.

Mercy, Restoration, and the Open Door of God

History repeats itself. You and I know this. The one thing we never learned from history is that we never learned from history. If we fully believe this, if we fully knew this, we would be fleeing from these things and coming to an altar of God.

We'd be begging God again, saying, Lord, touch my life, touch my heart, touch my church, touch my family, touch my city, touch my nation. God, use my life to do it. Come upon me, Holy Spirit, again and lift me out of every place I shouldn't be in and open to me a door.

I only have a little strength, many would say, and I've not denied the name of God as best as I know how, but your word says in Revelation to one of those churches, I open a door before you that no man can close.

And for whoever can still hear, whoever still has ears to hear, there is still a way forward for the people of God. Nothing is finished as long as God is still alive. There's mercy. Verse 25, the Lord says, I, even I am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake and will not remember your sins.

In other words, I have proven myself, and you know this, willing to forgive and forget. I've proven it. You know the history. You know who I am. You know I'm willing to take you back. You know I'm willing to make you what you have not been.

You know I'm willing to give you strength that's never been there in all of your service to me. I'm willing to give you strength that you've not had. Come back to me, he said. Put me in remembrance. Start to pray.

Remember the early church when they would go into the presence of the Lord in Acts 5, I believe it. It says, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth, who by the mouth of your servant David said, why do the heathen rage, and why do the kings of this earth imagine vain things?

Why do they think they can somehow put God out of their midst and out of their society? He says, no, put me in remembrance and let us plead together. Come back to me and plead to be restored as I am pleading with you to let me restore you.

Let's plead together. You have to understand this is not a one-way street. You and I, when we begin to plead with God, Lord, I want to live for you. I want to make a difference. I don't want people going to hell while I still live on this earth.

God, I'm tired of the powerlessness, the prayerlessness. I'm tired, Lord, of living for myself. I'm tired of the deception that's gone on in your house and in your name. God Almighty, if I'm the only one, I don't care.

Like Esther said, I'm going in, and I don't care if I die going in. If I perish, I perish, but I'm going in. And like the Hebrew boys who said, we're not going to bow down to the golden statues made in the images of men in this generation.

We're going into the fire, and if God wants to save us, he will, and if he doesn't, he won't. But either way, God is going to be faithful to us, and we are not bowing down to the gods of this age. It's amazing when you and I begin to pray like that, and we begin to plead with God, we suddenly realize that God has been pleading with us the whole time.

Let's plead together, he says. Together. It's not like God sits in heaven with his arms folded, tapping his foot, totally annoyed with us as his people. He says, no, for my name's sake. I died for this world.

I came to the earth, I walked 33 years among men, I let them spit in my face and nail me to the cross, and I did it because I loved those created in the image of God. Let's plead together. I want to do something in you so powerful that it will cause others to come and say, tell us, who is your God?

Where do you find this strength that we seem to lack in our time of need and in this day that we're living in? Listen to what he says in verse 11. Now, this is God. Now, he talks about the spiritual condition of so many people, prayerless, powerless, living under deception, no power over sin.

God Alone Is Savior and Justifier

The testimony of God being brought into a reproach really means a salt that's cast under the foot of men, people discounting, disregarding, just a nonexistent post-Christian society. That's salt trodden under the feet of men, that any nation would ever dare to say we're post-Christian.

They've taken the testimony of Christ most often because of the testimony of his people, and they've cast it underfoot as worthless. He says in verse 11, I, even I am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior.

In other words, when there's no one and nothing left to turn to, you can still turn to me. I am still here to save you. I am, even I, and there is no Savior besides me. There is no future, there's no hope, there's no deliverance, there's no power in anything else but Jesus Christ.

I am the one. In verse 12, he says, no matter what has captivated you, you still deep down know this about me. I have declared and have saved and I have showed. When there was no strange God among you, therefore you are my witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God.

You still know. No matter how deep down you are today, no matter how far you've fallen short of the glory of God, no matter how deficient your walk with God might be, and you might be embarrassed, ashamed, frustrated, frazzled, every other thing about the way Christ is really not representing his life through you the way he should, but he says, you still know deep down that I am God.

Verse 13, he says, yea, before the day was, I am he. And nobody, there's none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work and who will let it? In other words, when I decide to do something, including showing mercy, who can stop me?

Who can stop me? If I choose to be merciful to you, if you come and plead with me, the Lord says, tell me who can stop me from coming to you? Who can stop me from coming down the road to every prodigal son in this and every other generation?

Who can stop me from leaving the house? Who dares stand in my way? He said, I am God. And he is the one who, by the words of his mouth, created the universe. By the words of his mouth, Adam was born. By the words of his mouth on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they do. By the words of his mouth, he said, it is finished. The power of death and hell, the power to oppress, the power to drag into a Christless eternity was broken, and God now had a way back into his creation.

And he said, if I come to show mercy, who can stop me? Listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 8. What shall we say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? Don't you let the devil tell you that you've gone too far.

Don't you let the devil tell you that you wasted your day away when you could have been a testimony for God, or something's come into your life and made it impossible for you to come home. That is a lie.

If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

It is God that justifies. If I turn to God no matter where I am, if my voice is little more than a whisper in the dust, if that's all I've got left, I will find a Savior that's willing to run to me, to forgive me, to clothe me, to empower me, to justify me.

I will find myself in a position where the devil has no access to condemn my life because I have become the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God. It is God that justifies. It is God that justifies.

The Prodigal Son and the Mercy of the Father

Let me make this statement. I believe sometimes the people who love God the most are the ones who have fallen down the farthest. They're the ones who have taken the inheritance of God and they ended up in a pigsty.

And they're sick of where they are, and they say, in my Father's house there's bread enough to spare, but I've perished with hunger. And I'm going to get up and I'm going to go home. And I don't care if I have to pick up a broom and sweep the floor.

It's better in my Father's house than it is out here. Only to find out, when he got up and started heading home, he saw his Father come running towards him. Hallelujah! To the Lamb of God. Glory to the name of Jesus.

Glory. He saw the stink of his He had a testimony that stank in his generation. He's still out there. He's still talking about being his Father's son. But he's far, far away from the heart of God. Not only he stunk, his testimony stunk.

But when he got up and started coming home, he found a covering that would take away the smell of this world. The smell of his failure was all covered. It was all gone. Thanks be to God. And his Father put a ring of authority on his hand.

How stunned that boy must have been. I tell you folks, there's something of God's mercy that you really don't fully understand until we've fallen far short of his glory. And in America today, his church, the church of Jesus Christ, by and large, not everywhere, thank God, but by and large has fallen short of the glory of God.

But I have good news for every believer in Jesus Christ today. God is still a merciful God. Still wanting to cleanse us. Give us that ring of authority on our finger and put shoes on our feet and say, now you know about mercy.

Now you understand what the kingdom of God is all about. It's not about rules and regulations and loss and sacrifice and all of these things. It's all been about mercy. Now you know the mercy of God. Hallelujah.

The Church's Testimony and Christ's Intercession

This nation is going to need a church that understands the mercy of God. It's going to need a ministry that knows the truth of the cross. It's going to need a gospel that makes a clear sound calling people home to a living, saving relationship with God.

For the days ahead, folks, are going to be very dark. They're going to be very difficult. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yet rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

The intercession is not Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father just saying, oh God, my Father, I hope that John makes it, I hope that Mary makes it. That's not the intercession. The intercession is simply the fact that he's there.

We are in him and he is there. And all he does is speak our name and we are fully accepted with God as if we had never sinned. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?

As it is written, for thy sake we're killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. I am persuaded, Paul said, I am persuaded too, might I add this morning, that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor anything that exists today nor anything that is yet to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thank God. Go back to Isaiah 43 verse 14. Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, for your sake I have sent to Babylon and I brought down all their nobles and the Chaldeans whose cry is in their ships.

I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. Thus saith the Lord, which makes a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters, which brings forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the power, they shall lie down together, they shall not rise.

They are extinct. They are quenched as tal. And here's what God's saying to his own people through these verses. For your sake, for your sake, I have already sent word to your place of captivity. No matter how many ships they have, no matter how they bolster their power, no matter how many soldiers they have, no matter how they have dominated and seem to have dominating power on the earth, for your sake, I've sent my word and I've rendered them powerless and I've made a way for you to come home.

Hallelujah. I've made a way for you to come home. I've sent my word. No matter where you are, no matter how big the army is, the opposition against this journey, no matter how deep the fears, no matter how many lies you've embraced, no matter how many things surround you, no matter what your eyes can see or your ears can hear, I have sent a word because you are mine.

You belong to me. You're my people. Verse 18 says, Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old. In other words, don't come back to me mourning. Don't come back thinking that something has been lost which can't be regained.

And that's the devil's tactic. When the people start to get up and start to head home, he'll, like Shimei did with David, he'll stand on the borders and start throwing rocks at you, calling you all kinds of names.

You're getting up and you might be in rags and you might have failed God, but you're getting up and you're coming home and you're getting up and you're saying, God Almighty, I'm just so sorry for what I did and how I rendered your testimony, such a disgrace in the places where I've traveled.

But God, I'm getting up and I'm coming home. I hear you calling me. I don't have any more strength than Lazarus did. I have no more righteousness than the prodigal son did, but I'm getting up and I'm coming home to you.

And the Lord says, don't come back mourning. Don't come back to me thinking that something has been lost, which cannot be regained. No, that's not who God is. He said, behold, I'll do a new thing. And shall you not know it?

Now it shall spring forth. I'll make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. In other words, I'll make a way for you to come out of your deepest place of hopelessness and I will come to you with a supply for the journey.

I'll give you water. Even though you're still not out of the desert, I'll send water to you. I'll make a way. I'll send rivers. Water for you will spring out of places of impossibility. This book will come alive.

These promises, you might just be a long way off yet, but these promises will start springing up and you'll start looking and saying, this is mine. This is mine. My God, this is mine. God is speaking to me.

This is mine. Verse 20 says, the beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. Lord says, everything will praise me.

When they see what I'm doing for you, they'll be blessed by just being close to you. I'll do something for you so profound that people who are just close to you will also get to have a drink of pure water if they choose to.

I'll do something miraculous in you and through you. This people, he says in verse 21, I've formed for myself and they shall show forth my praise. You will be the final and conclusive testimony in this world that God is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

A Supernatural Church in the Last Days

The final evidence. Many people believe that things are winding down in this world very quickly. The godlessness and rebellion that the scripture seems to speak clearly of happening in the last days seems to be happening right before our eyes.

An incredible swift turning from the things of God and an embracing of everything evil. Humankind trying now to form its own idyllic society apart from God, which is exactly what Satan sowed in the human race in the Garden of Eden.

Now it's going to come into fruition in many places. But in the midst of it all, in the last days, God will have a testimony. He will have a church. And in America today, in New York City, in your life and in mine, the season of casual seeking is over.

The season of seeking God for only convenience and not and avoiding anything that causes loss or suffering is over. Any who persist on this path are going to be powerless now against this deluge. It's a deluge.

It's a baptism of filth. They're going to be powerless to stand against it. They're going to go deeper and deeper into delusion with their teachers that are leading them far, far away from the true protection and provision of God.

But for those who can hear, for those who are just simply willing to get up and go forward and say, God, I feel like the little boy that came into the camp and saw such a great need, and all I have is five loaves and two fishes.

I don't have much, considering the greatness of the need. But what I have, in sincerity, I'm willing to give it to you. And I'm asking you, Lord, to take it and multiply it and use it for your glory. I'm in the same boat that everyone here is in.

We're all on this journey together. And I've had a wonderful history with God, and I thank God for that wonderful history. But it's history now. And I have to make the same choices that you have to make for the days ahead.

And the cry of my heart is, Jesus, let the best wine be saved for the end of the banquet, and let the glory, the latter glory of the temple be greater than the former. I thank you for what you did yesterday, but I'm asking now, God, for a baptism of your Holy Spirit deeper than anything I've ever known before.

I'm asking, Lord, for weight in my speech. I'm asking, God, to be able to make a difference. I'm asking for the heart of Christ, that I don't stand and condemn the people of God, but stand and speak for the God who wants his people to come home.

Remember, he said, let us plead together. I'm pleading with you to plead with me, and so that the two of us can begin to walk together. And I thank God for that. I found something of mercy in the heart of God that I'm starting to realize is deeper than any of us have ever known.

If we fully understood the division between humankind and God, that he had to bridge when he came down to the earth and became a man, we'd be on our faces crying out, Jesus, what a privilege that I could call you my friend.

What a privilege that I can call you Savior. That you would come to me and just close this incredible gulf that existed between us. Help me now, Lord, to be an ambassador of that mercy everywhere I go.

Put it in my voice. Put it in my heart. Let this perfect love of God cast out the fear of man out of my heart. The fear of failure. The fear of lack of provision. The fear of losing what I thought success was in life.

God Almighty, help me to have that perfect love of God cast out this fear that so dominates so many people. In reality, so many are shallow seekers because ultimately they're afraid. They really don't have the heart of God for their generation.

So the whole focus is about me because I'm really afraid for my own future. I'm afraid for my own self-image. I'm afraid about my own provision. Lord Jesus, give us the grace to plead for you to glorify your name.

And open our ears to hear you pleading with us for the opportunity to do so. And when you finally hear this, it takes the fear away of this relationship with God. When you and I realize that he's been pleading for us to come to him as much as we need to plead for him.

I thank God for this with all my heart. There's only one hope for this country now. The church must turn back to Christ with all her heart. There's only one hope. The deficient testimony of much of Christianity is just going to be swept away by the wind in the coming days.

It won't have the power to stand. But those who know their God. God spoke to the prophet Daniel said, we'll be strong and do exploits in the name of God. They'll be given abilities and authority and strength and compassion and a clear word.

The ability to trust God. The people will look at it and say, whatever. Well, you're drinking out of. Can I get a glass of water from that? That's what happened in Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost.

Three thousand people who had probably been part of the crowd yelling, crucify him. Now seeing his people who typically have failed and they knew they had failed. They would have been reported among the multitudes.

All those cowards. All those that said this was their king. They all took off. They all ran. One of them even denied that he'd ever known him. And we knew that he knew him, but he denied he'd known him.

And they see these people coming out of a wilderness because it was a wilderness after Christ died for many of them. But they went back. They came back. Thank God. They went back to that upper room. They came back to God in spite of their failings, in spite of their cowardice, in spite of their idle boast that they couldn't fulfill.

They came back and in their wilderness came a river of living water. And they began to drink of that water. And out of their mouths, out of their inward parts, began to spring up that living water that Christ promised.

They had words from God about their own futures, about what God was going to do through their lives. And out they came from the upper room and into the masses of the people. And 3 ,000 who may have been yelling, crucify him now, are looking and they're saying, these people are drinking of something.

We know they fled. We know they were cowards. We know their testimony fell far short of the glory of God. But they're drinking from something now that wherever they got that, what do we have to do to get that?