Almost Persuaded — 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, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, TX 75771 or by calling 903 -963 -8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends.

The Foreshadow of Heaven in Worship

What we worship like tonight is a foreshadow. It's God reaching over the threshold and giving us a drop of what it's going to be like in heaven. No more sorrow, no more tears, no more sighing, no more limitations of our natural physical body.

As I shared the other day, we'll be worshiping and wondering, turning to the person next to us and saying, how long have we been here? Has it been a million years? Has it been two million years? I've lost track of time.

Paul’s Defense Before Agrippa

Acts chapter 26, beginning at verse 22. The Apostle Paul is in Caesarea on his way to Jerusalem. He's presenting his defense of the gospel before King Agrippa. Having therefore obtained, verse 22, Acts 26, help of God, I continue unto this day witnessing both the small and the great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.

That Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. And as he does speak for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself, much learning that make thee mad.

But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things before whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not done in a corner.

King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. One of the things I love the best in my Christian life and walk and experience has been being in testimony meetings.

And if we had time tonight, I'm sure we could have one glorious testimony meeting in this house. People have come here from all walks of life. We've come from all different backgrounds and we've come from all different levels of society.

We've come from different countries, different cultures, different everything. But the one thing that we would find in the testimony meeting tonight is that no matter where we have come from, all roads have led us to Calvary and to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

We are baptized into the same baptism tonight. We are serving the same God. We have the same Holy Spirit living within us. And in Christ, we have become one on this side of eternity. And it's an awesome feeling and awesome experience to be in a testimony meeting.

Testimonies of Salvation and God’s Faithfulness

I've been in some meetings that are funny, some testimony meetings. I've attended many, many over the years. I remember being in one time where this fellow got up on a stage and started testifying about Christ.

And he had a big, huge garbage bag. And he started taking out pieces of everything. Pieces of leg braces, and neck braces, and nose braces, and knee braces. Any kind of brace that the human doctors have ever invented, this man had in that bag.

And he was talking about all the healings that God had done in his life and family. And it was a little bit humorous, this testimony. Nevertheless, for him, this is how he had found God. And God had been faithful to him.

And he had found a saving relationship with the Lord. And I was moved to hear this man's testimony. Some are sorrowful testimonies. Sometimes there are people who find Christ in tragedy. In places of heartache and sorrow.

But yet still, they find the Lord. And he pours that healing oil of his presence into their lives. He shows us that this world can so horribly inflict on the heart. Our healed very roots of a living God being poured within the heart of the believer.

People just going about their business every day. Some are successful working in business. And somewhere down the line, they come under conviction of their sin. And find out their need for God. And I'm thankful tonight that there are testimonies from everywhere that are in this house.

And one day, I might not get to hear your testimony here on earth. But I guarantee you, I'm going to get to hear it in heaven. I've got a billion, zillion years with nothing to do. But seek you out. Hallelujah.

And find your testimony out about Christ. Hallelujah. Glory to God. There are going to be testimony meetings on earth. We've been in some. We're going to be in some in the future. Souls will be saved.

And I trust and hope that if you ever have a chance to dwell now on the things of the past. To the extent of giving the devil glory. But that you will dwell on the risen Christ. And what he has done in your life.

And bring honor and glory to his name. There are possibly going to be testimony meetings in hell. I suppose if I could have subtitled this message tonight. I would have called it testimony time in hell.

Hell as Separation from the Presence of God

We need to understand what hell is. The best way I can describe hell tonight. Is that it's a place that's completely without the presence of God. We don't understand that. You see. We are. There are many people today who are not saved.

And the presence of God may not be in them. But he is still all around them. Nature itself is a testimony that God's still on the throne. The sun rises every morning at a certain time. Sets at a certain time every night.

The seasons change from spring to summer to fall to winter. If you live in Canada. The geese get up at a certain time of the year. And I know in Riceville. Clocks of thousands and thousands of geese for about a three to four week period.

Fly over so low that you could almost hit them with a stone. And you wonder sometimes. How do these geese know when it's time to get up? The weather can still be nice and head south for the winter. And how do they know when to get up and head north for the summertime?

It's simply because God's still in control. Hallelujah. Nature is a testimony. Nature is an absolute testimony that Jesus Christ is sitting upon the throne. And the unsaved man, the unregenerated person.

Still has God all around him. We are created by God. We're created in the image of God. We're created to have fellowship with God. And God's mercy and love surrounds even the most wicked of sinners in this generation.

He's all around everywhere. You've heard testimonies of people who live recklessly. People who live like there was no tomorrow. People who live dangerous lives. And they will stand and say, I don't know how it's possible that I was spared.

The only thing I can tell you is that God's hand was upon my life. God's hand was upon the apostle Paul's life. When he set out with those letters to gather and capture more Christians. And cause them to blaspheme the name of Jesus.

But God was all around Paul and knocked him off of his horse. And spoke him on the ground. And changed him and made him into a new man. Paul is a place where we are completely, a person is completely without the presence of God.

Some of you who are in this building, you've known what it's like to live in anguish. You've known what it's like to have drugs bring you to the place where there's a burning in your mind. A burning in your spirit.

An absolute torment in your soul that wants you to cry out to die. And look for any vestige of hope that there is left in this world. But that's nothing. If you want to understand what hell is like, magnify that by a million times.

And then you're still only scratching the surface of what hell is going to be like. It's a place where those that have been created in the image of God. For the fellowship with God are going to be without God.

An absolute, an absolute non-presence of God in hell. Our human minds cannot fathom what this place is going to be like. The scripture says it's a place where the worm never dies. The conscience never stops.

You see, it's the exact opposite to heaven. In heaven, there's going to be no more sorrow. There's going to be no more sighing. There's going to be no more tears. But in hell, there will be always sorrow, continual sighing.

And as much as is possible, there will be a non-stop flow of anguish and tears. It'll be exactly the opposite, the antithesis of what it is to be in the presence of God. A pathetic sight. My human vocabulary is so limited, I have to trust that the Spirit of the Lord can reveal to you.

There's some sitting in this place tonight, or maybe some who might hear this message on tape in the future, and you'll think that hell is here on earth. No, it's not. Hell is a million times worse than this.

Even though you're still in sin, even though you're not right with God, the presence of God is all around you. The presence of God has brought you into this place tonight. Pathetic sight, it's going to be in hell.

People milling around in this continual darkness with a fire, that burning, whether it's an outward burning, which I suppose it is, and an inward burning that never goes out. The worm never dies. The conscience never stops.

And time to time, somebody will rise up perhaps in that place. And in the midst of all the blackness, I don't know if you'll be able to see anybody else's face. There'll be nobody to touch. There'll be no compassion, no consolation.

The Torment of Being Almost Persuaded

A minister friend of mine preached a sermon not long ago to young people. He said, young people, he said, are not living for God. Your mom and dad are saved and you're not living for God. He said, it's my personal belief.

Because in heaven it says that your mom and dad, there'll be no sorrow and no sighing. He says, if they go to heaven and you don't live for God and you go to hell, he said, I personally believe that in hell, you're not even going to have the comfort of knowing that you ever existed.

God's going to wipe you right out of their mind. And you're going to be in hell, not even knowing that your mom and dad are up there still thinking about you. There's no comfort in this place. It's a place of abject darkness.

And in the midst of it all, one man stands up and says, I was a wretched sinner. I hated God. I hated the things of God. I hated God's people. I deserve to be where I am. And then he fades into the blackness again, where the world never dies and the fire never goes out.

Then another one will rise up and say, I thought I was a good person. I didn't know I needed Christ to be saved. I thought by doing good deeds and going once in a while to church and helping my neighbor that that would be enough.

If my good deeds outweighed my bad deeds, that somehow I'd get into heaven. I didn't understand that even the smallest sin in my life violated the law of a holy God, and he was justified to send me into this place.

I didn't know that I needed the blood of Jesus to be saved. How I hate this wretched place. How I loathe this wretched place. This person will shout out, Jesus have to an eternal blackness, because there's nobody there to answer his prayer.

Thousand eternities, and it carries throughout the dungeons of darkness, and there's nobody to hear. But the most pathetic of all, the worst of all, the most torment of all, is the man or woman, a young person that stands up and says, I was almost persuaded to be a Christian.

My wife or my husband was saved. Went to a church somewhere that talked about being born again and came home and talked to me, and I laughed and I scorned. I said you're foolish to believe all that nonsense.

Time and again she pleaded with me. Time and again she took me by the hand and told me you need to be saved. I was in a church service somewhere. The choir began to sing, and the choir leader began to worship, and it was like heaven fell down in our midst.

It was awesome. I felt a tingling go all through my body. Then this young preacher from somewhere got up and preached, and talked about Jesus, and talked about the saving love of Jesus. I had a chance.

My heart was beating within my chest. I felt chills going through my spine as he talked about hell and talked about heaven. When it came time for the altar call, I almost got out of my seat. And the devil will only be too happy to let this man relive that experience a million times over.

He'll rerun it in your mind over and over and over again, even go to the extent of setting you back in the church and making a make-believe scenario that you're there and you have another chance again.

And when you get out of your seat and run, all of a sudden you're back. Or another man will say, a friend at work told me about salvation through Christ. I listened. His life, or her life, seemed to so radiate with what they were trying to tell me.

I was almost persuaded to be sitting here tonight.

And your life was hanging right in the balance. Almost. God sent his son to die a horrible death on a cross to persuade you that you need to receive him to go to heaven. There's nothing more he could do for you.

He went the whole way. He did it all. And then there'd be this pathetic creature that stands even worse than all the rest. I knew him. How it must break the heart of God. I knew him. I walked with him for a little while.

I felt his presence. I was in services where I felt the glory of God. It fell. I sang. Tears came down my face. But the cares and concerns of this world choked me out. I lost him. My heart grew cold. And I didn't even realize it was happening.

And before I knew it, I had frowned upon that. I was stomping all over that precious blood of Christ. And I brought disgrace to his name. And I went right back to where I came from. I was almost persuaded to live for him.

The pastor would get up and he would preach. He would thunder from heaven and warn me about the consequences of sin. I was almost persuaded to live a holy life. Almost. We have to ask ourselves tonight.

Why People Stop Short of Receiving Christ

What stops men from receiving Christ? What brings them to the place where they say almost? And I think there's some keys in this passage that we looked at. In Acts chapter 26. Paul is presenting the gospel.

Festus and Agrippa are sitting there. Two men in authority and in power. And Paul says. He talks about Jesus. And verse 23 says that Christ should suffer. And that he should be the first that should rise from the dead.

And should show light to the people and to the Gentiles. And as he does speak for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you're beside yourself. Paul, your much learning has made you mad. I know Agrippa is sitting beside Festus.

And Agrippa is stirred in his spirit. Agrippa has done some reading. Because Paul in the spirit turns to Agrippa. He says, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? And then Paul speaking in the spirit says to Agrippa, I believe the words that went right through his inmost being.

I know you believe. And I think it's with a trembling voice. And not with antagonism or perhaps sarcasm. That Agrippa says to Paul, Paul, you almost persuade me to be a Christian. But what stopped him?

Festus perhaps is the main reason why he stopped at that moment. Festus had just said to Paul, you're mad. And Agrippa thought, if I receive this God that the Apostle Paul is talking about, then Festus is going to turn to me, Agrippa thought and said, you're mad.

It's the fear of your peers that stops many of you from receiving Christ. I think it's better to be thought a fool here on this earth than to wind up in hell and be proven one for eternity. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, Blessed are you when men shall revile you and say all men are of evil against you falsely for my name's sake.

Rejoice and be exceeding glad in that day for great is your reward for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. In other words, if you're living for God, if you have a testimony of Christ and all around you're finding scorn, all you want to be is holy, all you want to be is devoted and all you're finding is scorn, find a chair and jump over it and rejoice that God has counted you worthy to suffer for his name.

The Simplicity of the Gospel Versus Worldly Wisdom

I believe the second thing is the fear that Paul's belief was just too simple. You see, the Romans were into learning. All roads were leading to Rome. It's just like the Athenians hanging around their own self-made altars always looking to learn some new thing.

They were into learning and Paul's belief was just too simple. The Apostle says to him, much learning has made you mad. It's just too simple. But remember the words of Jesus, except you be converted and become like little children, you shall not, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Look at the book of 1 Corinthians, please. Chapter 1. Hallelujah. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17. We know from the books that Paul wrote that Paul was a theological genius, really. The things that God revealed to his spirit, he was able to put down.

Even the Apostle Peter said that many people take his words and twist them and distort them because some of them are hard to understand. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 beginning at verse 17. The Apostle Paul says these words, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

For the preaching of the cross is foolishness, is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Have you noticed lately where the wisdom of the world has brought us to?

Singers can get together and sing songs about how nice we are as a people. And government leaders can get together. Have you noticed the ambassadors of peace are beginning to weep around the world right now?

The wisdom of the world is foolishness. It's the preaching of the cross that changes the hearts of men. For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God's, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Hallelujah. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty and not many noble are called.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised has God chosen.

Yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

That according as it is written he that glories let him glory in the Lord. Wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. Door that leads to eternal life does not require the word, the world of wisdom to get through it.

Pride and the Need for Humility

I believe the sin of pride is going to send many to testimony meetings in hell. The gateway to eternal life is open but you have to come through it on your knees. You have to come through it in a position of humility.

You can't walk into it proud like a peacock. You've got to humble yourself to come into the kingdom of God. The lastly what stops people from receiving Christ and most importantly is the erroneous thought that's common to fallen men that we are in control of God.

Pilate’s Illusion of Authority

Listen to the pompous assertion of Pilate in the book of John. I'll just read it to you. Chapter 19 verse 10. Jesus is standing before Pilate in an hour of judgment and Pilate says to Jesus, Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you and the power to release you?

Isn't it absurd? This little puny man that God has created and here's the son of God who was there in the beginning with God. Nothing was made without him. All things were made by him. He became flesh.

Pilate's now beholding him. He's standing before Pilate and Pilate says, Do you not know that I have the power? Isn't it absurd? I have the power to crucify you and the power to release you. What did Jesus say to him?

You would have no power over me at all were it not given to you from above. You see what Pilate failed to realize and what many people in this generation have failed to realize is the situation would soon be turned around the other way.

One day Pilate was going to stand before the throne of the son of God. This time with his hand extended no longer in man's temporary and elusive authority but in humble submission begging God for mercy but it would be too late for him.

Fallen man says I have the power to accept you or reject you. I have the power to acknowledge you Jesus or ignore you. I have the power to serve you or spurn you. Maybe so, maybe you do but only for a time.

Then one day you're going to stand before God. It is written every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Any power you think you have tonight is just an illusion. I hear people say in the right context there's nothing wrong with it.

I accepted Jesus. Sort of like I put him on like an old raincoat when it's raining and I can take him off when it's sunny. You don't have power over him. Right now he's holding everyone in this room in his hands.

Whole city of New York this is a lust-filled city. It's a lust-laden city. Lust for power, lust for fame, carnal lust. Every kind of lust coming to man is found in this city. And everybody running around thinking you have they have power over God, they have power over nothing.

It's the hand of a merciful God that's holding every soul in it right now. Giving every person a chance. Foolish for Pilate to say I have the power to crucify you and the power to release you. People standing around saying I've got the power to accept you.

I've got the power to reject you. You don't have any power at all. It's his mercy. You accept him, you go to heaven. You reject him, you go to hell. It's his mercy. You have no power at all. Standing this truth should cause you to run to the altar of God for mercy.

The Closing Door of Mercy

Run to salvation. Run while it's still time. The gateway of heaven is open but the day is coming when it's going to shut, it's going to close. Noah warned the people for over a hundred years. Not only did he build an ark but the Bible says he was a preacher of righteousness.

He warned them as they went into the city and bought and sold and came out. But one day when the rain started, God shut the door and when God shuts the door, no man can open it. But the doorway of mercy is open this day.

We have no power over God. Everybody take a deep breath. Now hold your breath. You can't take another one unless God allows you. Your heart's beating now within your chest. The average human heart beats maybe 60 beats a minute.

God counts them all. They're on a clock. And if he says stop, it stops and it's over. The books are closed. And the next thing you appear before the judgment seat. No going back, no making things right.

I had to pull a dead boy out of a car one time, a 17-year-old boy. When I was a policeman who made a lot of promises to his mom and dad. I'm going to stop drinking. I'm going to get my life right. I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do that. And he just ran his luck a little too far one night and drove onto a slippery road and glanced off a hydropole, a lampstand. Hardly a mark on the car. Hardly a mark on his body. But his head hit the door jamb.

He was dead. When I got there, he's still with his eyes open, looking out the windshield with his hands in front of him. I had to go get his mom and dad up at three o 'clock in the morning. Bring him down to the hospital to identify their only son.

Boy made a lot of promises. I preached the message to young people. You know, that boy's been about 10 years in hell now. What's the first thousand years in hell like? Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess.

Christ’s Mercy and the Call to Repentance

Today, for those who are without Christ, his hand is extended to you. You're now in the palm of his hand with love and compassion. That's the only thing that's kept God from destroying this whole thing.

He knew that mankind left to himself from the day that Adam sinned and the knowledge of evil entered the human race. He knew that mankind would destroy himself. That's exactly what we're going to do. He knew that we would create nuclear weaponry and eventually unleash it on one another and bring ourselves to a point that if he didn't intervene, there'd be nobody left on this planet.

He knew that. He's been right in the midst of it the whole time. His hand has been extended. He's held us in the palm of his hand. He's encouraged. He's exhorted. He's given his blood. He gave everything he had that you and I can find a way out of this world and a way into eternity.

Tonight, his hand is open. And if you will receive his love tonight, confess your sin, have a willingness in your heart to repent, which means turn away from it. Sin is a willful, lawless act of rebellion against the Holy God.

Repentance is a willful act of turning away from what we know is wrong and beginning to do what we know is right. It's not a one-time thing. It's every day. It's every time the Holy Spirit convicts you.

If you'll receive, open your heart. If you'll acknowledge that Jesus paid the price for your sin and invite him into your life. If you're lost, if you're a backslider, if you're like that boy that was losing his love, if you're like any one of these, you need to be here tonight.

Because if you'll come here tonight, you're going to, to this altar, you're going to go to a different kind of testimony meeting. You haven't seen the thing yet. Nothing. We're going to stand one day on a seat that's like glass before a crystal throne.

There are beasts around about that throne with eyes all around. They fly around in circles with their wings up in the air. And they say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are filled with his glory.

Hosanna in the highest. Hallelujah. Glory to God. When the beast rise up and cry, holy the four and for the elders, you talk about a worship service. They get off of their thrones and they come and they cast their crowns at the feet of Christ and bow down before him.

And the sea of people from all nations, every kindred, every race, every tribe, every tongue that have been saved since the day of Christ are going to be standing there. They're going to be worshiping, worshiping.

It'll be like crescendos like it was tonight. It'd be like waves rolling in off an ocean towards the throne of God. Waves rolling in, waves rolling in. And they'll be shouting, the king is here. The king has come.

Glorious visitations of glorious presence of Christ. There'll be no night there. There'll be no sighing. There'll be no sorrow. There'll be no sickness. We will be delivered from the confines of these human bodies.

There'll be music like you've never heard before. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah to your holy name. Glory to your holy name. Glory to your holy name.

The Hope of Resurrection and Heaven

And testimonies will be flowing like a river. There'll be nothing else to do for eternity. But worship him. Worship him. Those that were crippled and bruised and wounded are going to be standing there all aglow with a brand new body.

Hallelujah. When we shall see him, we shall be as he is. The scripture says. Hallelujah. His hair is as white as wool. His eyes are like a flame of fire. Out of his mouth goes a river of water when he speaks.

His feet are like polished brass. His countenance is as the sun that shines in his strength. He is the firstborn from the dead. To his holy name. Glory to Jesus. And you'll get your chance. You'll get your chance.

Because there's nothing to do forever. You'll get your chance. You'll get your chance to be standing there. You don't have to go home anymore. You don't get hungry. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Glory to the lamb. You'll get your chance. And at the singing of a million faces. A billion faces. Jesus will stand up and say that one over there. And it's you. He'll stand up and say I was a wretched sinner.

I was lost. I was in a service somewhere in New York City. I heard the message of the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And when the holy call was given, I ran to the front and I was saved.

Hallelujah. And all of heaven. All of heaven. Everybody. Will begin to sing as the heavenly choir begins to assemble. They're beginning to sing.

Amazing grace. How sweet the sound.

The Personal Call to the Street Girl

Thank you, Lord. I've got three more minutes of preaching left. But this altar is already open. There's a girl I met on the street the other night. You were there and you were carrying a baby. And I don't know if you're here tonight or not.

But I want to tell you something. Jesus died for you. If you're here, you need to know that he died for you. And even if it was only you that ever would have received him. That ever would have opened your heart.

He still would have come. He still would have been whipped. He still would have bled. He still would have died. You're going to have a new body in heaven. I saw that your body's got marks on it here on this earth.

And you were walking the street and you were carrying a little baby with you. But you're going to have a new body. A glorious body that God's going to give you. And the shame and the stain of your sin is going to be gone forever.

You won't even know about it. God's going to wipe it out. Hallelujah. Tonight, if you can hear his voice. Harden not your heart. If you can hear his voice. Realize he's speaking to you and wants you for his own.

This altar is open for every sinner that wants to come to Christ. For every backslider that wants to come back to God. For every heart that's cold and in danger of trampling the blood of Jesus underfoot.

This altar is open for God to touch you. That you can go to heaven and attend a testimony meeting for eternity in that place. Your life is in the balance, many of you here. I see somebody coming and I know there are others.

Paul’s Testimony of Mercy and Perseverance

In the midst of that testimony meeting, the apostle Paul is going to rise up. And this is Paul's testimony before the throne of God. I was a sinner. I persecuted the church. But I received mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief.

I was on the road to Damascus one day. And the glory of God fell upon me. And knocked me off my high horse. And Jesus began to speak to me. And told me he had a purpose and a plan and a commission for my life.

God sent a man called Ananias to a house where I was staying. He laid his hands on me. The scales fell off my eyes. I was filled with the Holy Ghost. And I became a different man. Hallelujah. I began to walk with God.