The Pigs in the Parking Lot — Carter Conlon

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P .O. Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771, or calling 903 -963 -8626.

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Hearing the Word and Remembering First Faith

Now, beloved, I don't feel that it's an understatement to say that the future of some who are gathered here today is going to be determined by how you hear the word you're about to hear today. And this is something the Holy Spirit has sown very deep into my heart, and that's why I'm going to labor to speak very carefully, methodically, so that you'll understand.

Because this is something that I know the Holy Spirit is speaking to us, especially those who are yearning for Christ in this last moment of time. Hebrews chapter 10, the writer in verse 32, he says, call to remembrance the former days.

Now, he's saying, think about something that happened in the past in which after you were illuminated, or in other words, you received your sight in Christ, you endured a great fight of afflictions. The writer is saying, think about this.

When you first came to Christ, you remember how deeply the devil came against you. And he came against you for a reason, because there's incredible potential in every soul that comes to God, especially those who want to walk with Christ in truth.

Partly, he says in verse 33, whilst you were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while you became companions of them that were so used. In other words, the people that used to like you all of a sudden started to say very nasty things about you.

They looked at you and said, are you one of those now? They began to reproach you. They began to lie about you in the workplace. People that, many here today, you know exactly what I'm speaking about, and you found no fellowship now among the unsaved anymore, and you became a companion.

You started coming to Times Square Church or whatever church you attend, and you became a companion of people who are moving with God and were used to these afflictions and difficulties. And you found a new fellowship that is not found anywhere outside of Christ, for you had compassion of me and my bonds.

Verse 34, and the writer says, you took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. You had plans. In other words, you had ambitions.

You had things you wanted to accomplish. You thought for sure that promotion in the workplace was going to meet your need, that new house was going to make you satisfied, all of these other things. But coming to Christ now, a new value system began to get a hold of your heart, and you took joyfully the spoiling of these things.

If somebody before you was passed, you were passed by for somebody else, you went home and had the ability by God's grace to begin to rejoice over these things. You said, I'm now a companion of Christ and of those who followed him.

You took joyfully the laying down, the putting away of old plans and ambitions and things that you and I both thought would make us happy and fulfilled. But by God's grace, do you remember those days?

Those have walked with God for any amount of time when no sacrifice was too great. No trip was too far. No compassion was too costly. You just cried out, God, lead me and I will follow you. I will trust you, Lord.

You will meet my need as I walk with you. Then he goes on to say in verse 35, cast not away, therefore, your confidence. You had tremendous confidence in God. You knew he would provide your every need.

You knew that heaven was more to be desired than the beggarly things that had once gripped your heart and mind of this world, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise for yet a little while.

The Brevity of Life and the Promise of Christ’s Coming

And he that shall come will come and will not tarry. It's only a little while, beloved, till Christ comes for his church. It's only a vapor. I can remember I'm 50 years of age now, and I can remember like yesterday when I was just a child and going out the back door to play football or some other sport with the other kids in my neighborhood.

Seems like yesterday. It's an amazing thing. And all of a sudden you're 50 and and another moment of time. By God's grace, I'll be 70. If the Lord is really good to me, I might make it to 75. For those that feel like you're a mover and shaker in the house today, you might be, but soon you'll just be a shaker.

You won't be doing much moving anymore. Yet a little while and he will come a little while. We sing that song. It'll be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life's trials will be seem so small when we see him.

Our life, James said, is only a vapor. It's only here for a moment. Then it passes away. And all that we can take with us, beloved, is our family. All we can take with us are the things that we obey God in.

The Bible says clearly there'll be a reward given for those who even in a few things chose to be faithful in what God had called them to do. And we can take with us every soul that has ever bowed their knee and confessed with their tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Everything else stays here. Everything else stays. None of it comes. It's all going to pass away. It's all part of a world system and a world that is going to be, the Bible says, dissolved. It's going to be completely melted away.

There'll be nothing left. Nothing. No plans. No ambitions. There'll be no Manhattan. It'll be gone. All the buildings on Wall Street will be dissolved. Nothing that we see today will be one day. And perhaps that day will not be too far from us into the future.

A little while and he will come. So important to remember that when you're going through difficulty and hard times. When the devil is coming against you with the fullness of his fury, it's only for a little while.

Weeping might endure for a night, but joy is coming again in the morning. Not a temporary joy, but an everlasting joy. A joy that's going to last from eternity to eternity. After a million years of standing before the throne of God and walking with him in the fullness of everything that entails, you will not even have scratched the surface of what your life is going to be like in Christ for all of time and all of eternity.

Now he says the just shall live by faith in verse 38. The just, those who have been justified by Christ have a deep inner confidence that the ways of God are better than my ways. The provision of God will always be there as I walk with him and obey him.

He will never forsake me. He will never fail me. He will always be there. And even in the things I don't understand, I can have a deep inner confidence that there is a purpose of God in even those things that are unpleasant and difficult for my natural mind to comprehend.

All things now work together for good because I love God and I'm called according to his purpose. All things. If it were not so, then the word of God would not be true. All things. That means everything that you're going through.

If you're a child of God and you love God today, everything that you're going through has a purpose. There's a divine purpose in it right now. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

But we are not of them who draw back into perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. If any man draw back. Now, go with me to Luke chapter eight, if you will. Luke chapter eight. Beginning at verse 22, I'll read it to you while you're turning to it.

Crossing the Lake with Christ

Now, it came to pass on a certain day that he went into a ship with his disciples and he said unto them, let us go over onto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. Now, beloved, you and I can remember that at one time we were on the other side of the lake.

We were on the other side. We were in a place where there was no hope. You know, the story he found on the other side, a people that were living without the power of God. Evidenced by a man who was demon possessed and wandering through places of death, cutting and afflicting himself, finding himself without any hope.

And we were on the other side. Paul says in Ephesians 212, at one time you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

That's where I was and that's where you were. But verses 23 to 25 tell us about a journey that Christ began to undertake and those who were with him went with him to the other side. They had to endure storms.

They had to endure their own inner struggles and fears, but ultimately triumph on this journey because Christ was with them, challenging them to have faith, challenging them to believe through every difficulty they would ever have to face that because they were obeying him and going on a journey with him that he would protect them, he would keep them.

He had told them earlier, not a hair of your head is even going to perish. It's too much personal jeopardy that the gospel came to us as it did to those who are on the other side of the lake. It's come to us through those throughout history who have trusted God for their provision as they journeyed with him to us.

We have this Bible in our hands because people took a journey. They undertook it with Christ and they paid a great price for this journey. I think of James, who was killed with the sword. I think of John, who was exiled to a barren, cold place of imprisonment for his testimony of Jesus Christ.

I think of others who were sawn in two and slain with the sword and paid an incredible price. The Bible says that the church of Jesus Christ is built on the foundation of Christ and the apostles and prophets, and nobody else can build but by truth on this foundation.

The gospel that we have in our hands came to us at a terrible price for many. The apostle Paul was imprisoned, whipped, stoned, shipwrecked, betrayed, went through all types of peril and difficulty, and out of it all came a great portion of the New Testament that comforts our hearts today.

Deliverance of the Demon-Possessed Man

Much personal jeopardy. Luke 8, again, verse 26, says, They arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And he went forth to land and there met him out of the city of certain men which had devils a long time and wore no clothes and neither abode in any house but in the tombs.

And when he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him. And with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. Actually, in the Gospel of Matthew, it says, Do not torment us before the time.

Amazing. The devils that had found a dwelling place with this man, this man, this demon possessed man, knew that their time was limited on the earth, knew and believed that a time of torment was appointed to them.

Amazing. When you begin to see this and they trembled before Christ, they trembled before a man who was born of God, led by the power of the Holy Ghost. And they knew before such a man they had no power.

And beloved, I want to challenge you today when you and I are absolutely born again of the spirit of God, we are led by the power of God. There is a trembling in hell. There's a trembling in the powers of darkness because they know that when a man or woman of God is yielded to God, they have no authority, they have no power.

They know clearly the words of Jesus, who said, I give you power to step upon serpents and scorpions over all the power of the enemy. Nothing shall by any means hurt you. They're very well aware of it.

So the devil will do everything in his power to divert the Christian and the church of Jesus Christ. James, the apostle, tells us that true faith in God must go far beyond an inactive belief. An inactive belief is not sufficient faith.

James says it this way in chapter two, verse 19 to 24. You may want to turn there and follow with me. Keep a mark in Luke, chapter eight, James, chapter two and verse 19. He says, Thou believest that there is one God.

Thou doest well. The devils also believe in tremble. In other words, a true faith in God must go beyond an inactive belief system. The devils have a belief system, but the belief system never moves them into the life of God, obviously.

But they do believe. And James uses their belief as a type of a faith system that has no part in the kingdom of God. He says, But will you know, verse 20, O vain man, that faith without works is dead.

And was not Abraham our father justified by works? When he'd offered Isaac, his son, upon the altar, seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect. And the scripture was fulfilled, which said Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

And he was called the friend of God. You see, then, how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only. And likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and sent them out another way for as the body without the spirit is dead.

Active Faith and the Cost of Obedience

So faith without works is dead also. Now, here's the type that James use. He says, Abraham, his faith, the fact that it was true faith in God was evidenced by the fact that he gave to God in the form of his son Isaac, his future and all of his plans and dreams.

He yielded it all up to God. It was everything that he had ever lived for. He had ever hoped for was bound in this son, Isaac. But Isaac, wanting to prove or God, rather, that the faith in Abraham was genuine, asked him to offer up his plans and offer up his dreams.

I wonder in my heart where Jesus Christ to come to much of the professing church today throughout the world and say, I want to prove whether or not you have an active faith. I want you now to lay down all your plans.

I want you to lay down all your ambitions and all of your dreams. I want you now to begin to journey with me, trusting that if I choose to, I can even raise the things that are dear to your heart from the dead.

But still, first, you've got to give it to me. You've got to lay it out. You've got to put it on an altar. James goes on to use the illustration of Rahab, a prostitute, the fact that this woman received the messengers or received the message and protected it and entrusted herself in her home to the promises that came to her.

Here you have a man who's the type of the father of faith. And at the other end of the spectrum, as it is, you've got a prostitute and both had an active faith in God, both had a righteous faith, both had in the at least in the sight of James, had a commendable faith.

Rahab received the message that came her way through the messengers that were sent. She protected that message and she entrusted herself in her home through the promises of God that had come to her through the messengers.

Now, again, back in Luke chapter eight and verse thirty one, Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Verse twenty nine says, For oft times it had caught him. He was kept bound with chains and in fetters, and he broke the bands and was driven to the devil into the wilderness.

And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion, because many devils were entered into him and they besought him that he would command them to go out into the that they would not command them to go out into the wilderness, but to command him rather to go out into the pit and the the deep.

And that means the deftness pit. You'll find that in Revelation chapter 20 and verse three is amazing that they knew the scriptures. They knew their end. They knew one day they're going to be placed in a bottomless pit and never allowed out of it again.

And they they besought him. They said, Oh, Jesus, please don't send us there yet. Don't torment us before the time. And there was a herd, verse 32, of many swine, that's pigs feeding on the mountain, and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them or allow.

They said, Jesus, let us go into the pigs instead of going into the bottomless pit. And Christ said, all right, and allowed them to go. Now we ask ourselves the question, why pigs? Now, first of all, pigs were considered an unclean animal.

The Pigs as a Picture of Self-Consumption

And secondly, when you think of a pig, it's it's the type of a self consumed animal, an animal that will consume anything when you have garbage in the food, for example, any farmer or any former farmer that you'll know, you take whatever is inedible, you take it to the hog trough.

Remember, that's where the prodigal son finally ended up when he had taken his inheritance and wasted it. He finally ended up at the hog trough and it's there that he came to his senses. And the pig is a type of an animal that will is so self consumed that will eat anything, whether or not it's it's or has an odor to it or is spoiled or it will not be touched either by human or other animal.

Put it in the hog trough and the pig will eat it is a type of of a self consumption. And the devils possibly assumed that they would be granted their request for in their own thinking, they possibly felt that their compatibility with such a creature was justified.

Why would Jesus deny us? We're self consumed. That's what got us into this mess in the first place. And here's an animal that's self consumed. So we're compatible. We're unclean. They're unclean. So let us go into the pigs.

And Jesus said, all right, go now. He was not being cruel to animals. The story progresses that the the herd of swine were the devils went out of the man and entered into the herd of swine and they ran violently down a steep place into the lake.

And in that lake, they were choked or they drowned. Now, Christ was not being indifferent to the plight of this particular animal. But I see in this verse of scripture an incredible object lesson. He was trying to show these people on the other side of the lake something that they were very loathe to hear.

And there is no scriptural evidence that they were ever able really to hear him. He was showing them their own futures. He was showing the society that had gathered around this this this this area of the gatherings.

Drawing Back and False Reasoning

He was showing them what was going to happen to them when they drew back from him. He was showing them what their future was going to be. You see, if you and I draw back from Christ, if we shrink back from his call, if we walk away from trusting him or yielding ourselves to his work, if we walk away from taking the gospel at whatever personal cost to those who need hope around us and around the world, then the enemy of our souls will have access to lead us into a sea of false reasoning.

And you see, that's what's happening to the Church of Jesus Christ today in much of the world. Many, many people gathering in the house of God, but in their hearts they have drawn back from the call of Christ in their hearts.

They're saying, Lord, it's too costly. It's there's too much. And so tell us now put before us preachers that will tell us something about you that doesn't require anything of us put before us preachers.

You see, when that attitude gets into the heart, the man or woman that says, Lord, you can't touch my pet project. You can't touch these things that I've longed for, that I want. I wanted this all my life and I'm not willing to yield it.

I'm not willing to give it up for the gospel's sake. I'm not willing to entrust my life to your plan for me or your provision for me or your protection for me. You see, Lord, I've got a long life ahead of me.

It's all mapped out. I have dreams and ambitions that I've had since I was a child. And I'm just simply not willing to forsake these ambitions and these dreams. But, oh, God, I still want to come to your house.

I still want messages about you. I still want to know what you do and what your power is like and how you touch people over the years gone by. But the moment this issue gets into our heart, we are now exposed to a sea of false reasoning and false reasoning is gripping the minds of hundreds and thousands of God's people.

The False Gospel of Wealth

Now in the Western world, a false gospel, false pursuits, false concepts of God, a calf called Jesus fashioned by the hands and minds of men. First Timothy, chapter six, let me just read it to you. First Timothy, chapter six and verse nine.

Paul says this way, they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

They have erred from the faith, beloved, not from an unsaved condition, the unsaved lust for money. The unsaved have their hand in the bag and are looking for gold at every turnable opportunity. The unsaved will do everything they can to make sure all their swine and all their herds are intact.

But then you come to Christ and the call of Christ is not to lust after gold. The call of Christ is to long for God and the plan of God for your life. The call of Christ has never changed. If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

That is the call of Christ, not that we willfully walk into any forms of personal deprivation or suffering. He says simply, you find what your life is to be. You find it in the word of God and you find it by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

There is no other plan. There is no other way to go. But I hear and see today gospels being raised up throughout much of the Western world and tragically are touching some of the poorest areas of the world.

Gospels that tell the people that it's God's desire for you to be rich. The Bible says this gospel drowns men in destruction and perdition. It drowns you. Better not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and to turn back to those things that we once left behind.

The Word Choked by Cares, Riches, and Pleasures

Jesus says again in Luke chapter eight and verse 14, he talks about the seed being the word of God that is planted in the hearts of men and women throughout the world. And he says in verse 14, and that which fell among thorns are they which one they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection.

The context of this verse means God says, I put a seed of my life into their life, and that seed was to produce something of me in them. That seed was to guide them. That seed was to become a great tree.

And all who are in need were to find lodging because of the seed I had planted within them. But they went forth and while they were going, they brought something with them. They brought with them cares, riches and pleasures of this life.

There was an unwillingness to lay it down and it chokes the life that is in them, just like this swine who ran off the hill and into a sea of destruction. So those who are unwilling to lay these things down find the life of God eventually choked out of them.

It is so tragic. And I've seen it in this church. I've been here almost 10 years now, and I've seen even in this church people who heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and they began to move with it. And they initially counted it no great sacrifice to take holidays or even leave of absence from their workplace and to go to places throughout the world where the love of God could be channeled through them to a dying, hurting people everywhere.

And there was such life. But today I see them drawing back. I see now fellowships formed around convenience. I see things happening. And it's such a grief in my heart because it's a grief in the heart of God.

How tragic to see people literally draw back. And now the conversation is no longer about Christ. It's now about the workplace. It's now about cares and dreams and ambitions. It's no longer God. What would you have me do?

When People Choose Their Pigs over Christ

Where would you have me go? What would you do through my life? And Jesus said, if any man draw back, my soul will have no pleasure in him. Back in Luke, chapter eight, verse thirty four says, when they that fed them saw what was done, they fled and went and told it in the city and in the country.

And then they went out to see what was done. And they came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.

They also would sought told them by what means he was possessed of the devils was healed, they told them the story. Jesus commanded the man to be free, and all these pigs ran off a cliff and into the water.

And then the whole multitude of the country, the gatherings roundabout besought him to depart from them, for they were taken with great fear. And he went back into the ship and he turned back again. The spiritual type breaks my heart of a people who knew the power of God, but something in the heart said, Jesus, we're not willing to suffer loss to follow you.

We're not willing to let go of the things that we hold dear. When the scripture says they were afraid, they were taken with great fear. They were not taken with great fear because the demon possessed man was set free.

That should have caused their hearts to rejoice. The Bible says clearly they had tried to bind him, but he could not be bound. His was a fearful condition before he was set free. No, they were not afraid because the demon possessed man was set free.

They were afraid because their pigs had gone into the ocean. They were afraid because in the heart of every man standing there, oh, I see what God can do. But I see also it could cost me my herd. It could cost me my pigs.

It could cost me my sheep and my goats. I see what God does, but I also see the cost. They saw it clearly. And having made the choice of seeing demon possessed people set free or losing our pigs into the sea, they said, Jesus, we'd rather keep our pigs if you don't mind.

Would you please go somewhere else? Would you please take your power and your compassion and get in the boat and go to another shore? Oh, folks, there are countries throughout the world where they've forsaken God for their pigs.

They've forsaken God for that which is unclean. And still gather, still meet. The demon possessed man came to Jesus and he said, can I come with you? Can I go with you? And Jesus said, no, go back to your own house and show the great things that God has done for you.

And the Bible says he went his way and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him. And so we see the people gripped with fear because of their potential loss. We watched Jesus leaving in the boat.

A Church Living on Past Testimonies

And now this man throughout the whole city, I see gatherings, I see great testimony meetings of the past, but with no present working of God. I see people gathering around stories talking about Martin Luther.

I see them talking about Evan Roberts. They're talking about Hudson Taylor. They're talking about those that who had great personal price, Paul, James, John. They're talking about these apostles. They delight to open the book and talk about Paul and the words of Paul and the bravado of Paul, who said, what do you mean to break my heart?

I'm willing not only to go to Jerusalem, but to die there for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they stand and they give testimonies. And yet there's no present working of God. It's all in the past. Brother Smith, stand up.

Tell us what God did 15 years ago in your life. Sister Jones, tell us in back in 1935, how God so miraculously delivered you. And everybody gathers now to hear these testimonies of the past. Everybody, though, just can you picture these people?

This man is standing there and he's a testimony against them and they don't even know it. And he's standing and he say, here's what was happening. I was cutting myself and all I was so full of despair and desiring to die.

But this man came and set me free and the people clap their hands. And it's such an exciting story as they gingerly just look by him. They glance glance around him or over his shoulder just to make sure all their pigs are still in the parking lot intact.

You see now we got the testimony. We got our pigs, too. And so everything is OK. But does it ever dawn on them there's no power anymore? Does it ever occur to them that God is not working the way he should be?

According to the word of God, the blind are not seeing the deaf are not hearing the captives are not set free. It's not an ongoing everyday work. It's something all in the past. Then people start coming to church.

And as long as their pigs are secure, they come in and all just tell us again about Jesus. Tell us what he does. Open the book to us. Tell us some new truth about God. They leave all their pigs in the parking lot and come into the house of God.

And oh, then it's time to put on the holiness, the holy act. Oh, he leads me. I will follow. Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine. While looking out the window of the church is to make sure all the pigs are properly lined up, all my dreams and ambitions are still intact.

Oh, I want God. Yes, but I will not give these things up. I will not forsake them. I'll not let them go. And so Jesus leaves. He leaves and the evidence of his leaving is there's no power, there's no everyday working of his power.

You see, that's why the charismatic church has been running all over the world, looking for God for 15 years now, because there's no real power in their midst anymore. You see, if you're a man or woman who's knowing that every day working or freedom of God, you don't have to run somewhere looking for God.

You know where he is on the other side. Verse 40, it said it came to pass when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him on the other side of the lake. You see, there's a stream of divine life going right through the middle of this world.

And whether you like it or not, you find yourself, as I do, on one side of that stream or the other. One side says, hey, we like the testimonies. We don't want to pay the price personally. Thank you very much, Jesus.

Do you mind going somewhere else? Oh, they never say it in those words, but it's deeply embedded in the heart. And on the other side are a people who gladly received him. Oh, Jesus, there's a people in this church.

Gladly Receiving Christ and Expecting His Power

I thank God for it. Who come here Sunday morning and say, God, speak to me. God, speak to me, guide me, lead me, touch my life, oh Lord. And whatever displeases you, take it out of my heart. By God, I want to live for you.

My God, I want to serve you. I want your power in my life. I want you, Jesus, to be honored through me. I want to walk through this life, leaving us not with a trail of pigs behind me. I want a saver of Jesus Christ to follow me.

I want to be otherworldly by the power of God. I want my confused mind set in order by the spirit of God, my divided heart rent and restored by God's grace. I want my powerless life filled with the power of God.

I want the power, the compassion, the ability to go anywhere throughout the world. Preaching and teaching and publishing and defending the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is my desire. And I know in my heart that there are many who come to this church, that's your heart's cry, that's what you're like.