The Compromised Religion in a Corrupted Time — Carter Conlon

The Sermon’s Theme: Compromised Religion in a Corrupted Time

I want to talk to you this morning from Psalm 50, in the Old Testament, Psalm 50, and it's a message that's called Compromised Religion in a Corrupted Time. Compromised Religion in a Corrupted Time. Now, Father God, in Jesus' name, Lord, I thank you for the anointing of your Spirit.

I thank you, Lord, for your mercy, which is new every morning. I thank you for your compassions, which do not fail. I thank you, Lord, for your willingness to strive with us as your people and call us back to yourself again.

Lord God, all we can do is ask you for the anointing of your Spirit. Lord, our hearts are in your hand. Lord, we ask you to move upon us, O God. Speak to us, Lord. Jesus, if we have built something that doesn't look like you, help us to recognize it and to put it away.

God, help me this morning to speak not only your words, but with your heart. Lord, I ask you to overshadow this frail vessel and speak through me today, Lord, for your people's sake, for the sake of the future of this city, this country.

God, speak to me and through me. Speak to every heart that's listening today and help us, Lord God, to acknowledge that you speak to us for good and not for evil, to bring us to a desired place. I thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Psalm 50 and the Danger of Compromised Religion

Psalm 50, beginning at verse 15, call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. But to the wicked, now keep in mind, in the context of 2 Chronicles 7, 14, it doesn't mean that the people he's speaking to are completely wicked.

It means that they have embraced something of wickedness in their heart. In 2 Chronicles 7, 14, he actually calls them my people. But it's possible for the people of God to begin to embrace something that is hindering his work.

But to the wicked, God says, what right have you to declare my statutes or take my covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you? When you saw a thief, you consented with him and have been a partaker with adulterers.

You give your mouth to evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son. These things have you done and I kept silent. You thought I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes.

Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. Whoever offers praise glorifies me and to him who orders his conduct to right, I will show the salvation of God.

Not even debatable anymore that we are today in a perilous time, perhaps more perilous than any one of us care to admit. It's a difficult hour. It's a dark hour. It's an hour when things around us are beginning to so rapidly change that I believe is going to culminate in what Jesus spoke about in Matthew chapter 24, where men's hearts are going to begin to fail for fear of the things that are coming upon the earth.

Not just the cosmic signs that the Bible speaks about in the last day, but just this radical departure from everything that represents God and goodness and the embracing of evil as good. It's something that's causing, it has to begin causing some kind of concern in every heart of everyone who's concerned about the honor of God.

Prayer as the Church’s Power in a Time of Trouble

It is incumbent now that you and I pray. For in verse 15, the Lord says, and you can find this all through the scriptures. The pattern, the principle is the same. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you will glorify that.

That means your life will bring glory to my name again. Call on me. This is the incredible promise of scripture. I believe the church of Jesus Christ has more power than all governments, all military powers, the church.

Now, so what could it be that hinders us from prayer? What could be holding back the power of God, especially in a moment like this, where the Lord says, I want you to call upon me. I want you to search for me.

I want you to cry for me to do what only I can do. Now, it's true that in a time of crisis, most everyone will cry out for divine help. And we saw that here in 9 -11. We saw this church packed with people night after night, even kneeling in the aisles to the back of the sanctuary.

But it isn't true that everyone's prayers will be answered. People will cry out in a time of crisis. People will cry out because there's a measure of them that knows that it's the right thing to do. But not all prayer will be answered.

The psalmist in Psalm 66 verses 17 and 18, he says, I cried to him, that's to the Lord with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. In other words, I cried out to God and I pleaded with God. I took the promises of God.

I held them up to him. I said, Lord, this is what you have said. This is your promise to us in this generation. But the psalmist goes on in verse 18 to say, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.

If I regard iniquity, it doesn't mean if I'm struggling, doesn't mean if I want to get free from a practice in my life that I'm not free from yet. That's not what it refers to. It refers to giving place to wrong in the heart.

It refers to opening the door to that which we know should not be in our lives. It should not be part of our conversation. And we sit it down, we offer it dinner, we invite it into our heart and into our home, and we let it dwell there unchallenged by truth.

It's then that my profession of loyalty to God and my prayers, both of them are in vain. If I regard iniquity in my heart, go to every prayer meeting you want to go, get up at four in the morning and pray till eight o 'clock.

God will not hear you. If you regard iniquity, in other words, you give place to wrong. God can't speak to you about something in your life. Pray all you want. God's not going to hear it. That's why he says, if my people are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and I'll heal their land.

Obedience Beyond Religious Profession

In Luke chapter six, 40 verse 46, Jesus Christ himself is speaking to people who have the privilege of being in the same room with him. They have the privilege of hearing the actual son of God speak to them.

Think about that for a moment. Who could resist that? If Jesus was standing here, could you resist him today? Would you resist him today? But here, look at the words he says in this portion of scripture.

He says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Why, why do you profess to know me, but yet still willfully will not follow where I'm leading you. Think about for a moment, the gospel of John chapter six talks about a crowd in the hundreds and possibly in the thousands who crossed the sea to seek Jesus.

The day before they'd seen him take a small boy's lunch and they'd, they had watched him multiply it and feed thousands, including themselves with it. And when they saw that he had disappeared from among them, the scripture says they, they took in boats to the sea and at a great personal effort, I have no doubt they crossed that sea and they finally found him on the other side and their, their pursuit obviously looked pure.

They had put personal effort into seeking him, just like many today put a personal effort into being in the house of God. It's, it's cost you. I mean, there are people here who can say, pastor, if you know what it cost me to get here today.

And they could say that they had rode and they'd rode in great length to get to the other side, but their pursuit of Christ was outwardly fundamentally flawed. And Jesus was about to reveal it in John chapter 26.

He spends most of the chapter or chapter six, he spends most of the chapter recording how he tried to correct their error, but they would not hear him. He says to them in verses 26 and 27, Jesus answered them and said, most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Do not labor for the food, which perishes, but for the food, which endures to everlasting life, which the son of man will give you because God, the father has set his seal on them. Now, when he began to reprove them, to speak to them, this incredible spiritual truths to reveal the true purpose of his life and how it could affect theirs.

They began the Bible. When you follow through in John chapter six, they began to complain against him and many turned back in verse 66 and walk no more with him. They began to complain. They're speaking to the son of God.

They've, they've seen him do miracles. They know who he is and what he can do, at least in the natural. And they've rode all night to get to where he is. And the only reason they're coming to him is because they want to fill their bellies.

It's not really that they want to walk with him. It's not really that they want to find out. There's no real deep seated curiosity about who are you? What have you been sent to do? And how does that apply to my life?

And what is it that I really need? Nobody even asks the questions. They just keep asking them through the whole chapter for bread, more bread and more, but all they want to do is have the power to make free bread.

They, they, they want the power of God, but for the wrong reason, may I put it that way? You look in the chapter, read John chapter six, when you get a chance and you'll see it so clearly, they want the power of God.

They're willing to roll a great distance to get there, to meet with him face to face, but it's really all just to make bread for themselves. They, they, it's all about me. In other words, but on the mountain side, on the other side, they had seen Jesus multiply the bread and forgot that the life and the power that God gives is for the sake of others.

It's for the others. It's not for oneself. Yes, we will benefit. We will provide, be provided for, we will be saved. We will be delivered. We will be given a new heart, a new mind and a new spirit, but ultimately there's a purpose for it.

That's birthed inside of us in God. And when he told them, you need to partake of me, it has to be my strength, not physical bread coming to into my presence, just looking for things is not going to satisfy you.

There's, there's a deeper satisfaction. There's a deeper calling than, than all of what you're putting into your walk with me up to this stage. He was trying to tell them. And when he told them that they had to partake of him, his sacrifice, his body, his shed blood, we know that today at the communion table, we know what he was trying to get across, but nobody even asked the question.

Nobody even wanted to know what it meant because they were completely entrenched in the viewpoint of what living for God really looks like. And when he told them, you have to partake of something greater than yourself for a purpose greater than what you can think about in your own heart.

It's as many of his disciples went back and walked with him. No more incredible, isn't it? Many, as a matter of fact, it was the majority walked away. 12 were left. And he turned to them and said, will you go away as well?

Will you walk away because I won't give you the bread that you want? And that was when Peter said, where do we go? You alone have the words of everlasting life, eternal life. Paul said in Philippians chapter three, verses 18 and 19, he said, many walk of whom I've told you often, and I tell you even weeping.

They're the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. You see, it doesn't say they're the enemies of Christ.

They're the enemies of the cross of Christ and ultimately the purpose of Christ himself. It does lead to the savior. But so many people in our generation are in the house of God searching for something for themselves, searching for a nicer job, a better reputation for just, it's a self-indulgent seeking.

And that's what America has become in its churches. Not all, thank God. There's still some good places that preach the word of God, but they're becoming less and less as time progresses. Paul calls them enemies of the cross of Christ, enemies of the calling of God, enemies of the willingness to be given for the sake of others.

The willingness to say, God, my life is not my own, but it belongs to you to use it as you will for the sake of the lost, for the sake of those. That is the mission of God, folks. That is the purpose of the church of Jesus Christ on the earth.

That is the mission of the cross to save those that were lost. I mean, you wouldn't have any hope of eternity were it not for the cross. And my question is who came to you? Who went to you in the midst of your loss?

And are we willing to do the same for others around us in our generation? What kind of a church are we going to be? What kind of a people will we be? Especially at this moment where the Lord saying, call to me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me.

Humility, Repentance, and the Search for the Heart

In verse 23 says, whoever offers praise glorifies me. And to him who orders his conduct and the original King James has conversation, right? I will show him the salvation of God. Jesus was trying to show them in John chapter six, but they refused to see.

And, but what they refuse to see can still be clearly and compellingly revealed to us today. Would you be surprised to know that for many of us here, there's so much more that God has for us than what we've laid hold of so far.

It takes a humility. If my people are called by my name will humble them. It takes a humility for you and I to say, well, maybe my ways are not right in the sight of God, but some are, but maybe all are not right.

It takes a humility to say, maybe I'm not on the pathway that God has for my life fully. Maybe my heart is not what it's supposed to be. Maybe my conversation is not as clean as I think it is. Maybe the motives of my heart is not as pure as I think they are.

It takes humility. David, the King, a man after God's heart, he was already the King of Israel. He already had it all. He already had the presence of God. He already had won victories that you and I can only dream about.

Yet in the midst of all of that, he went to God and said, search me, Oh God, and know my heart. Try me Lord and see if there being me any wicked way and lead me in the way of life everlasting. That's what made him a man after God's heart.

Folks, an admission of failure is not the end of anything, but you, it's the beginning of God. When we get to the point of saying, Lord, I'm not what I should be. I'm not where I'm supposed to be. I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do.

I don't speak the way you called me to speak. I don't think the way a man or woman of God is called to think, but Oh God, I know that you died on that cross to break the penalty, the power, the chains of all that would hold me down.

And you rose again from the dead promising to give me a new and an everlasting life. And you say, you say that when I praise you, I'm going to praise you because my life has brought glory to your name because you've taken me from weakness into your strength.

You've taken me from confusion into your knowledge. You've taken me from hatred into the love that's in your heart for all of humanity. You've taken me from powerlessness and you've released inside my life, your power.

You've made me what I could never hope to be. You brought me where I could never hope to go. You've given me what I could never hope to possess. And so I come to praise you and give you glory. And to this man, to this woman, God says, you called me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.

I'll bring deliverance even beyond you. And you will glorify me. Your prayers will glorify me. Your presence in the workplace, your presence in your home. Those who make the choice to be godly, those who make the choice to do things God's way by God's power will make a difference.

That's the way it's always been throughout history. It is no different in this generation than the way it's been for 2000 and plus years. But he says, but first there are some matters of the heart that I need to talk to you about.

And so my question to you as your pastor today is, can we talk about some things today? Can we talk about it? Do you have an open heart? Can, can God speak to you? Can God speak to me? I know he speaks to me.

I thank God for it with all my heart, but to the wicked verse 16, that means those who practice wickedness in the sight of God, God says, what right have you to declare my statutes or take my covenant in your mouth?

In other words, what gives you the right to say that my word and my promises belong to you? Now let's go into verse 17. He says, seeing that you hate instruction and cast my words behind you. I can hear the heart of our savior pleading with us.

Why can't I talk with you? Week after week, you come to my house, but you will not be turned to what is right for your life. Week after week, the same practice. And I shared it last week. Every time we hear something that touches an area, but we know that we're not living right.

And we resist God. It becomes easier every week to resist God until you and I get to the point where wrong becomes right. That is the human condition. That's what the sin nature will do. Coming to the house of God, clearly, clearly engaged in wrong, wrong thought, wrong action, wrong conversation, wrong direction, but yet believing in the heart that it's right.

It's amazing how deceptive the human heart can be. That's why the scripture says the human heart is despicably evil. And it's really only God that can search it out. If we search ourselves out, we'll come out smelling like a rose every time.

We'll make excuses for what we do until we believe that what we do is right. That's the human condition. That's what the sin nature will do. That's why God says, why can't I talk with you? Folks, there is no shame in letting God speak to your heart.

There's no shame. I remember one time I was thinking something wrong about somebody. I don't want to go into the details. It's just somebody asked me for prayer. And I would have preferred this person got run over by a bus, then pray for them.

You any different than I am? But it wasn't right though, was it? And I said, yeah, I'll pray for you. Yeah, I'll pray for you. Sure. I went to bed and the Lord said to me that night, is that good enough?

Is that what I did for you? And the Lord spoke to my heart and he's always protected me as much as I know from doing wrong, from thinking wrong, from justifying wrong. If I presented this set of facts to you, you'd probably, half of you would agree with me.

Oh, wow. I hope he gets run over by a bus or she gets run over. But the reality is it was wrong in the sight of God. Even though I could make an argument and there's many people in the house of God who can make an argument about something and even convince people around you, but it's still wrong.

When you go to the word of God, it's still not true according to God's word. In verse 18, he says, when you saw a thief, you consented with him. And you've been a partaker with adulterers. When you saw the thief stealing, killing and destroying by your silence and your inaction, you're implying that you're okay with it.

You say that you belong to me, but you traveled with those who have left me for another. It's an amazing thing. I love the fact there's two inscriptions on the ceiling of this church. And I don't want you to spend the rest of this message looking at the ceiling.

They're in France. There's one on this side and there's one on the other side. And you have to believe that God foreknew that this theater would be used as a church for his glory one day. And they're both in French.

And I had a French tour guide bringing a tour through the sanctuary one day. And I said, what do these sayings up on the ceiling mean? And on this side, it says in French, what a wonderful master. Isn't that amazing?

What a wonderful master. On this side, it says to say nothing means to imply agreement. God knew, God knew to say nothing. When we see evil abounding, when we see wrong being called right, to say nothing means that we agree with him.

It's implies agreement. I believe that God had that written for our sakes on the scene. I was surprised when she told me what it meant. Verses 19 and 20 says, you sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son.

And these things I've done and I kept silent and you thought I was altogether like you. He said, you sit and speak without restraint, even against your own family in the house of God. And you thought I approved of it, but I don't approve of it.

Unity in the Body of Christ

Especially in the season we're in now. I've warned you for years from this pulpit, that if you don't immerse yourself in the word of God, that there's going to be such a strong pull of division, a strong pull of hatred, a strong pull of evil, that many who profess Christ will be drawn down that river with it.

You have to have a strength. You have to have a value system that comes from the word of God. You and I must find ourselves in agreement with the word of God in all that we do and all that we speak. You see, disagreement comes because we're not finding our unity at the cross of Jesus Christ.

Once we meet at the cross, once God's word has brought us to that place where his thoughts become ours and his ways become ours, we'll find ourselves suddenly coming into agreement on all things. Folks, don't let yourself be part of any division.

Don't let division into the house of God. Don't find yourself speaking against your brother or sister in Christ, whether they're right or whether they're wrong. There's a higher wrong. It's to speak against one another and thinking that God is okay with it.

When God says, I'm not okay with it, it's by unity in the body of Christ that I command a blessing of life. That blessing comes when we walk together in unity. So you have to be sure the devil's going to do everything in his power to divide this body.

We have something very rare in this church. We have 104 different nationalities meeting together, worshiping God in this place in unity, God's presence being here with us. And he is calling us to pray.

He's calling us to pray as a church. He's calling us to pray to the point where we're now leading a worldwide prayer meeting. I don't know how many people out there are part of it. God doesn't want us to know, but I tell you, there's a lot of people that are coming in and being part of this prayer meeting.

And the one thing the devil would love to do is sow division in this body. Sow evil speech in the hearts of God's people one to another. Even thinking that we're holding to the moral high ground or the better viewpoint when what we're doing is speaking against slandering, actually our own brothers and sisters in Christ in the house of God.

Can I speak to you about these things? The Lord says, you thought I approved of it. He said, but I didn't. And I'll set it in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, there'll be done to deliver.

Really the Lord is just saying, lest I take away my hand of protection. And if I do, you're going to be helpless before your enemies. If I take away that hand of protection, it's on you and treat you the way that you've thought to treat others in the body of Christ.

You won't have a chance in the days ahead. Whoever offers praise glorifies me and to him who orders his conduct to right, I'll show the salvation of God. I will show you something. If you make the choice to do right, if you make the choice to think right, to speak right, if you make the choice to not allow yourselves to be divided on any lines, we're facing a tough election season this year.

It's an incredibly difficult choice that people are going to have to make in the days ahead. As Christian people, I think we need to spend less time arguing and more time praying. Now I feel in my heart that we need to say, God, as difficult as it is as distasteful as this moment is for so many people, we need to say, who looks the most like me?

Who has a value system like mine? I'm not going to correct, criticize you or condemn you for what you do, but I want you to know one thing, heaven will record what you do. So do it righteously, do it right.

We need to vote and move on. January 17th, 18th, 19th, we're going to meet as a church body together and we're going to pray for our new president. We're going to pray for our new government. We're going to pray for whoever God determines needs to lead this nation at this time.

I believe it's God's choice and we're going to pray. We are going to do what God calls us to do. We're not going to come into this church and we're not going to argue about the right choice was made. The wrong choice was made.

You know what this person did? You know what that person did? All of that is gone after Tuesday. It should be gone now by God's grace, but all of it's gone after Tuesday and we're going to do what the church is called to do.

We're going to pray. We're going to call out to God and say, Lord, would you have mercy on New York city? Would you have mercy on our state? Would you have mercy on this country? Would you have mercy on your house?

God, would you come? Would you come? Would you come and draw us back to yourself again? I have determined I am not going to be a partaker of evil in my heart. I'm going to accept who God chooses and I believe it is a sovereign divine choice.

God knows what we need in the days ahead to make us pray. God knows what we need and I trust him with all my heart. I will not be wringing my hands on Wednesday morning one way or the other. It makes no difference to me now.

I will not be wringing my hands. God knows who we need to lead this nation. Praise be to God. I will show you, he said to those who order their conduct to right, I will show you the salvation of God. Jesus said in John chapter 16 verses 13 to 15, he said, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak on his authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak.

And he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All things the father has are mine. Therefore I said, he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

In other words, when we begin to pray, when we're walking in unity, when we know that there is no wicked thing that we've given access and the right to live in our hearts, we can pray and God will show us the victory that Christ won for us and how it applies to our lives.

That's what he was trying to show the people in John chapter six, but they couldn't hear it because they were on a pursuit that was incomplete. It was about themselves. It was about nourishing their own desires.

It was not about the kingdom of God, but when you and I make a choice, God in heaven, we need an awakening in this generation. It's, it's more important to me. There will always be Kings and Queens and they will come and go.

And the Bible says they are in the heart in the hand of God. He can turn them any way he wants to turn them. That's what the word of God says. I'm not as concerned about that as I am about the 300 million people in this country who are headed for hell without a savior.

That's what I'm concerned about. I'm concerned about the house of God, the prayerlessness in God's house, the testimony in God's house that needs to be reignited again. I'm concerned about New York city where the multitude of the people in the city don't spiritually know their left hand from the right hand and are headed into a Christless eternity.

That concerns my heart. Let whoever's going to lead the country, lead the country. If God allows it, then so be it. I'm going to pray. And then I'm going to pray again. And then I'm going to pray again because that is where the power of God is.

The Bible doesn't say elected Democrat or Republican, a libertarian, a green party person. And the nation will turn back to me again. No, it says in my people, if my people, if my people are called by my name, the power is in the church.

It always has been folks. That's where the power of God, that's where the future of the nation is. It's in the hands of the people of God. He said, I will take the Holy spirit. We'll take what is mine and show it to you.

Oh, thank God. The victory, the, the power, the ability, the call, the call. He'll take what is mine and show it to you. What you're called to do in this last moment of time. Maybe I don't know what it is.

God will show it to you. Some of it will be high profile. Some will be low profile. Some will be seen. Some will not be seen, but it doesn't matter. He will take what he's called you to be and to do. And he will show it to you and show it to you.

Some people will just be faith come into your heart. Like an explosion of faith will come into your heart because you've made the choice to say, I'm going to line my life up with the word of God. And when you make the choice, I'm going to, I'm going to put away wrong.

And I'm not going to call it right anymore. And I'm going to speak truth. And I'm going to be kind to people who have a differing opinion to mine. Not every opinion that you and I have is right folks.

And then he says, he will show me the salvation of God to him who orders his conduct to right. I will show the salvation of God. In other words, true prayer is going to bring back honor to the name of Jesus Christ again.

And that is the concern of my heart. We are desperate in America for a spiritual awakening. It is the only thing that will save this nation. You have to understand that it's the only thing that will save this nation in the days ahead, a spiritual awakening in this country.

May God help us to understand. May God help us to walk together as one body. May God help us to be servants to the whole body of Christ. May God help us to be kind in our speech one to another. May God help us.

May God help us to put away things that are wrong and stop calling them right. May God help us to be clean in our practices throughout the day, throughout the week. May God help us. May God give us grace because the future now depends on it.

The future of this country is in your hands now, but not the hand that clicks on a voting machine. It's the hands that go like this in the presence of God. That's what the Lord gave me to speak. I'm going to give a simple altar call.

The Altar Call: Becoming a Clean Vessel

Lord, I just want to be a clean vessel. I just want to be clean, God. I don't want to call evil good. I don't want to call wrong right. I don't want to be a cause of powerlessness or division in your house.

I don't want to start resenting people because they have another viewpoint than my own. I don't want to start resenting people because they have another viewpoint than my own. You see, because it was something much bigger at stake now, much, much bigger than what you and I can realize.