The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living — Carter Conlon

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The Legacy of a Godly Death

I'm going to begin this with a story this morning and then I'm going to end after reading the scripture, verses 11 to 14. David says, I've been very deeply moved by the passing of both Teresa's mother first and her father now.

A couple that were saved in their 60s. A lot of baggage brought into that particular point of their lives. And many people would have looked at their lives and said, well, there's so little hope that you can amount to anything in the kingdom of God.

And yet they have left a legacy to Teresa and I and to the family that is, it could not be purchased with any amount of money. I was in the room when Teresa's mother passed away and there is absolutely no doubt that she saw somebody come into that room.

The glory of God that lit up her face in that final moment was hard. It's hard to describe it. The absolute ecstasy, for lack of a better word, that came upon her whole countenance. Teresa's father, a godly man, I've known him from the time I was 18 years of age.

He was saved after I was. I don't tell his whole story, but he lived a godly life. He had a desire in his heart and I had a chance about two weeks before he died to go for a drive with him. We both had an inner sense that we would not see each other again.

We took a drive together and I said, Jack, I don't think I'll be seeing you again on this side. He said, no, I don't think so either. We talked about, we laughed about some things in the past. We told each other, we loved each other.

We went back home and he said, I have a desire. He said, I want to die a Jacob death. I want to call my children together. I want to bless them and I want to put my feet in the bed and give up the ghost, as Jacob did.

We read Psalm 71 together at the table one afternoon and he read it every day for the last part of his life. And Psalm 71, of course, is where the aged man says, God, don't abandon me. In other words, don't leave your strength for me until I have shown your strength to the next generation and to everyone that is to come.

The week that he died, the beginning of September, on Wednesday, he was at home, still walking, still breathing, still able to drive his car. He called my son Jason. He said, call my sons and daughters together.

He said, I'm going to die this weekend. Jason took him to the hospital and he said to the doctor, he said, is there any medical evidence? He wants me to call the family. And he walked in here under his own strength, says he's going to die this weekend.

It's Wednesday. He said, is there any evidence to support this? The doctor said, well, his kidney function is very low. He said, but my experience has been that an older person who's at peace has an inner knowledge of the time of their departure.

A very bold step for a doctor to make. He said, I think you should call the family. And so my son did. And he called and everybody, everybody from all over the country headed in that direction. On the day he died, his children were there, all his grandchildren and one of his great-grandsons.

And that day he had a full breakfast in the hospital, sat up on the edge of the bed. He had bacon and eggs, which he always loved. Talked to everybody, was joking with people. A little later on in the day, he asked his children to come together.

And he led in a prayer meeting that lasted somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half, as I'm told. Then at the end of the prayer meeting, he put his feet up in the bed somewhere around 430 in the afternoon.

About 630, he lost his power of speech. And right to the end, he stayed conscious all through to the end. Right to the end, all he could say was praise and Holy Spirit. That's the only words he could say.

And he would say these words from time to time, praise and Holy Spirit. And at 1130 in the evening, fully conscious, staring at each one of his children, in turn, he passed into eternity. There's a psalmist that says, Oh God, let me die the death of the righteous.

I have been so deeply moved because I've seen God answer this man's prayer. Only two weeks before we spoke of this. This was the desire of his heart. I want to die this way. And this is the inheritance.

He said, I want to leave my children. Now, he had been a businessman and through some unfortunate events, he had lost everything in his 60s. But he had an inheritance that God was going to give him to give to his family much deeper than dollars and cents in the bank and real estate.

I am deeply moved. It was the only funeral I think I've ever preached that I couldn't get through it. I couldn't get through the message. I had to stop repeatedly and catch my composure. Now, David says, Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies.

David’s Security Amid Absalom’s Rebellion

The pulpit commentary suggests that this psalm was written during the season of Absalom's rebellion. It's not absolute. But if it was written in this time, irrespective of when it was written, this was a very difficult time in David's life.

But if it was written during the time of Absalom's rebellion, then Psalm 27 is penned at a time when David had been driven from a place of physical and temporal security. There are things that you and I would gravitate to and begin to trust in.

But these things can be taken away in a moment of time. As I said earlier, ocean water can invade your drinking supply and make your dwelling place worthless almost overnight. Things can happen. We live in a society that's living on the edge of change every moment.

We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. We do know that there's some deep forebodings on the horizon. The breakout, as some say, of avian flu is almost inevitable. Now, some are a little more skeptical, but others are very definitive and positive in this.

If that be the case, it will change everything as we know it almost overnight. We live on the brink of terrorism and nuclear war all around us. I don't care how hard your heart is. There has to be a sense in you today that we are coming to the end of something.

That society is moving very, very quickly to the place that the Scripture speaks about, where there is famine and difficulty, and men's hearts begin to fail them for the things that are coming upon the earth.

A time when those who have looked to and trusted in temporal security are going to be panic-stricken. Even those who have professed to be God's people, but their focus has been in the wrong place, will find themselves in very difficult waters in the not-too-distant future.

Now, David has been driven to a place which the word of the Lord given to him in 2 Samuel 7 seemed to indicate to him could not be taken away. It must have been a very confusing time. After he had brought the ark into Jerusalem and won many, many victories, the Lord appeared to him and told him, He said, Your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you, and your throne shall be established forever.

He has this word. In other words, David, you cannot be defeated, and your house can't be defeated. But suddenly he finds himself fleeing. He finds all of this temporal throne, as it is, this physical place, abandoned.

And he's in a position of being driven from this place of physical security. We also have similar promises. Revelation 22, 5 said, There shall be no night there, speaking about heaven, and they shall need no candle, neither the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.

If you are a born-again believer in Jesus Christ today, you have a promise from God that you are going to reign forever. Your throne is as secure as David's throne was. It cannot be taken from you. There will be arguments come against the promises of God that he makes to your life, but this place is a real place.

It is a place being prepared by God this very moment. This life is only a vapor. It appears for a season. James says, then it passes away, and it will soon be gone. Whether or not we enter calamity in the coming days, I venture a guess that in 50 years, everybody, most everybody in this place, you will have died.

You will already have passed. I will have passed to the other side. I will inherit a throne, the Scripture says, a place of ruling and reigning. I don't know the fullness of what that entails, but I do know it's a place that God has prepared, and I will be there, and it cannot be taken away from me.

False Witnesses and the Prosperity Assumption

Now, David says in verse 12, he says, Don't deliver me to the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. Now, the word cruelty in the original text means bold, violent voices sent to hurt him, to overthrow him, to tear him down and to disgrace him.

It also refers to unrighteous gain. David is being driven out, and you can just feel the demonic presence that is all around him. And, of course, there are always human vessels that are open to the suggestion of evil, who will become vocal points, as it is, of the things that are in the heart of Satan himself.

Can I put it simply to you? There's a voice and voices coming to David that say, You would not be in this position if God was with you. If God was with you, you would not be suffering like this. If God was with you, you'd still be sitting on this physical throne.

If God was with you, this time you've gone too far. Now, of course, David had faults, and he had made mistakes. And these voices were coming against him at this time to try to take away this assurance of what God had given him and put in his heart from a young and a tender age.

Remember Job in the Old Testament, who suffered an unprecedented time of calamity in his life. In a moment, everything physical and temporal that had given him comfort and assurance of his future is taken away.

His children are gone. His houses are destroyed. His flocks and herds are, in a moment of time, they're all gone. Job finds his health is gone, and he's sitting now on a pile of ashes. He knows that he has not walked in a way before God that deserves this kind of calamity.

And the enemy comes to him in the disguise of three concerned friends. And these three concerned friends bring to him a theology that does not come from the heart of God. And if you want to break it down, if you have time to study it in the book of Job, the theology is this.

If God is with you, you would be always wealthy. If God is with you, you would be trouble-free. All of your life, if God is with you, you would be healthy. There would never be any evidence of sickness in your physical body.

In Job chapter 42 and verse 8, God himself declared these words to be foolishness. He called them folly. The word in the Hebrew also means wickedness and a crime. These men had stood as it is in the stead of God, speaking to this man, but they did not speak from the heart of God.

They did not bring him the word of the Lord. In the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, now this is the book that talks about those who had accomplished great exploits through faith. And beginning in verse 36, it talks about others who are also in this hall of faith, for lack of a better expression.

And it says,. And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Faithful Suffering and the Promise of Resurrection

Now, let me break this down. The easiest way to explain this is that God could have taken them out and given them the fullness of everything they were promised about life with Him and in Him and through Him.

Not just for time, but for eternity. But had He done that, had He brought them into the fullness, it would have negated everybody who came after them. No, there was something better. There was a Messiah coming.

And the Messiah was going to die and He was going to pay the price for the sins of all humankind and every person who would turn to Him. And there would be a church that would come out of this world. And one day, the voice of God would sound.

And the dead in Christ were going to rise first. Those who had died, Old Testament and New, trusting in God, were going to be raised from the dead. They were going to be gathered together with Him and forever be with the Lord in a place where there's no more tears, no more suffering, no more sorrow.

Now, folks, these words may not mean today as much as they will just a few months down the road. But you're going to have to remember these words. There might be a season of sorrow. There might be some difficult times ahead.

Whether or not it is a collective hardship that comes on all of society or individual hardship, there are times when death knocks at the door. There are times when sickness comes. There are times when things inexplicably begin to change in a person's life.

The Scripture says that they were tempted. And it almost seems like that phrase doesn't belong in here. It doesn't mean tested. The word tempted in the Old Testament means solicited to sin. Some of the interpreters of the Bible have suggested that this is a misquote in the Scriptures.

Why would this be inserted here? This is about people who triumph through faith. Why would an early scribe insert these words, as they said, that they were tempted to sin? Well, folks, let me tell you something.

If you were going through these things, mockings and scourging, if you went into work every day and you were beaten, and you were thrown in prison for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and you found yourself wandering around the city and nobody would hire you, if you were destitute and afflicted, would you be tempted, do you think, for a moment to deny the name of Jesus Christ?

Is there a greater sin, is there a bigger temptation than this? Than to tone down your testimony and make it maybe a little more palatable for the masses? You go to church, but don't get too excited about this God stuff.

Oh, yes, they were tempted. Yes, they were tempted to perhaps just back away a little bit because of the ferocity of the season and the hour that they were facing. But the Scripture tells us that they did not.

They received a good report through faith, even though in their present circumstance they were not physically delivered from the trial that they had entered into. They were nevertheless spiritually delivered because they saw another city, they saw another place, they saw something that the natural eye can't see.

Something was in their heart that people whose whole focus is on good and gold can't see. They saw something into the future. In Psalm 27, again verse 13, David said, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

The Goodness of God in the Land of the Living

In other words, David was saying, I would have given up had I not had the view that there was a purpose of God for me. Beyond my natural understanding, which I would understand while I yet live. David said, I would have fainted had I not believed that God allows all things to come together for good.

Because I love Him and I am called to serve Him and to be a representative of His on the earth. Had I not believed that somewhere, somewhere down the line, I would begin to understand, even if only by faith, that there is a purpose in this, I would have fainted.

Now think for a moment of Abraham. Paul the Apostle in Galatians 3 .9 says, They which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Think of Abraham. God appears to him and says, leave your family, leave your father's house, go to the place that I'm going to show you.

I'm going to give you this land of incredible promise. And in this place you're going to be multiplied so greatly that the whole world is going to be blessed through you. What an incredible promise. Can you picture Abraham coming into his wife, Sarah, and telling her what God has spoken to him?

Sarah, if we will just go, if we will just leave the comforts that we've come to know, if we will leave the securities that have been our trust and are the constant focus and care of our hearts, if we will leave these things behind and begin to walk with God, God says He's going to multiply us.

He says through us, through our lives, the whole world is going to be blessed. And Sarah follows him. Lot follows him. Other members of kin or friends follow him and become part of this entourage of Abraham.

But way, way down the line, after many journeys and adventures, we see him in Genesis chapter 23 bartering when Sarah dies for a small piece of land with a grave. The only real estate Abraham ever owned in the promised land was a grave, folks.

It's all he ever owned was a grave. And you see Abraham bartering for this little place to bury Sarah in a field. Do you think the voices might have been there? These voices that came after David, do you think they might have come after Abraham?

I'm absolutely sure these voices were there. Did you really hear God? When you began to follow him, God said he was going to bless you. Well, isn't this a marvelous blessing? After all these years, all you own is a cemetery plot.

Is he really with you? And is this how it ends for those who have followed him? And folks, I want to tell you something. We all have choices to make. We can choose to stop trusting God because we're confronted by things which we don't understand.

Or we can keep on going and believe that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His promise. Many, many, many turn back when God begins to lead them in a way they don't understand because they've had a false concept right from the beginning of what it means to walk with Jesus Christ.

They thought walking with Christ brings only temporal security and peace of mind and absolute bodily health. And some of these things, in measure, are part of the covenant. But there can be roads of hardship.

There can be times that we don't understand. There can be difficult days ahead. There are certain times in society when things turn around. Think of the Christian church in the World War II era when all of a sudden all hell breaks loose and people who are trying to reach out and help God's Jewish people are being imprisoned as if they themselves had done some violent evil against society.

Think of the difficulty and hardship that came to them. Think of the number who turned back because they said, this is not my concept of God. I believe personally that Abraham had to have a deep inner sense.

There had to be something of God in this man when he looked into the field and stared at that grave. An inner sense that if he kept on going, not only this grave, but every grave throughout the world would lose its power to hold those within it.

Folks, I'm telling you, there's no other reason to live as a Christian. There's no other reason for me to stand in this pulpit to preach to you. There's no other reason but to see every grave lose its power over those who end up in it.

We can choose to see only the situation or we can listen to the inner voice of the Holy Spirit telling us that a greater purpose of God is at work. There's a greater purpose at work. When you go into a time of trial, you must remember that there are others with you in these times of trial.

There are others in your building that will never own any more real estate than a plot of a grave somewhere in a cemetery perhaps in New York City. They'll never own anything in this world. And neither will you.

But God will give you a sense of purpose that people without him don't have. As we hold fast to our confidence in Christ to the end, we live to see this sin-breaking power released in multitudes in our own troubled times.

Could Abraham have known that through his lineage was going to come David, who wrote the psalm that we wrote about. Through David's lineage was going to come the Messiah Christ, who was going to demolish the power of evil and hell that had gripped all of humankind since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Could he have seen, could he have known apart from the Spirit? Folks, you don't understand that when you choose to live for God, your life is breaking the power of hell over multitudes around you. It is a poor church that lives strictly for temporal comfort.

It is a rich church that begins to understand these truths. Oh God, oh God, even in the midst of where I am right now, you have a purpose for my life. Now Lord, give me stability. I would faint unless I lived to believe that I shall see your goodness in the land of the living.

God Almighty, give me stability that people around me may look at my life and say, I want that, I want that, I want that. David says, wait on the Lord. The word wait in the Hebrew has a strange meaning.

It means to be intertwined. I've shared it from this pulpit before. It's like taking two twist ties and tying them together. Be intertwined with the life of Christ. Your life has a purpose. You see, God is writing a beautiful story all through history.

He started with Abraham and wrote it through the patriarchs and wrote it through King David and wrote it through multitudes of people that have come before us. And now the story is being written through you and I.

It's a beautiful story. And the story is about his love for every person that you will ever meet. That's the story. It's about the love of God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

It's the story of this power of an endless life being given to those who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ. Being raised out of frailty. The frailty of natural thinking and the frailty of the human mind.

The frailty of temporal trust. And being brought into this place of trust in the sovereignty and the purposes of God. You see, beloved, we are the sign of God's goodness in the land of the living. We are that testimony.

You will be tried, but you will not be overcome. You will have needs, but you will never lack the supply of God. And you will, when this life is over, you will rule and reign with Christ forever. Now, Therese's father, part that you don't know about his life is that he was an inventor.

A Legacy Greater Than Wealth

Actually, quite a successful one. He had the first Canadian patent on the photoelectric switch. Sold it to an American company about 45 years ago for what then would have been a small fortune in today's currency.

The people who bought it, of course, literally lit up most of America with it. Took the money that he had made from that and he pioneered in eastern Canada the bake oven, which is now obsolete. But then it was real high tech.

They painted a car and drove it in and baked the paint onto the car. He pioneered it in eastern Canada. Then through a series of business misfortunes, ended up at 60 years of age losing everything. He was quite a wealthy man when I first met Therese.

He lost everything shortly after. One of the first things he ever did. He never said much. Very kind man. I drove in. I made an eight hour trip in five and a half hours when I fell in love. I was 18 years old and I drove all the way to a place called Midland, Ontario to see Therese for the weekend.

And when I pulled into his driveway, the front wheel fell off of my car. I had no money. And he at that time had a very large car dealership. And he had my car taken in and fixed it. And I had no money.

I couldn't pay him. And I didn't say that, though. And I said, how much do I owe you? He said, oh, he knew I was broke. He said, forget it. Always a very, very kind man. The oil crisis of the 70s hit and the cars he had, hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory were all these big boats that nobody was buying.

And subsequently, he ended up losing everything. But in losing everything, he found Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, never regretted a day. When we spoke about two weeks ago or three, two weeks before he died, he said to me, I want to leave an inheritance.

He said, I don't have anything physical. It's true. He had very little in a physical way. He said, but I want to leave an inheritance to my children and my grandchildren. I want to show them that God can keep you in the final days of your life.

I have to tell you, it has had an impact on all of our family. Every person, every son, every daughter, every grandson, every granddaughter has been deeply affected by his passing. He left us an inheritance.

My heart, I cried, oh, God, let me die like that. Let me know the day of my departure. Let me call my family together, gather them and pray for them and bless them. Now, think of the inheritance. This man, who would by our standards today have at one time been close to a millionaire, if not a millionaire, could have left a lot of money.

He could have trusted in it in the last 27 years of his life. And he could have left all of us $50 ,000, $100 ,000 perhaps. No, he left something so much better than that. He left a confidence in God that lingered into one of the strangest funerals I've ever been at.

In a sense, there was such a joy and sorrow intermixed. A joy in the absolute fact that this man is in heaven and sorrow that we've lost such a great man. David said, teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path.

Trusting God Through Anger and Uncertainty

A plain path means level land. It's where the justice, the honesty and the righteousness of God can be understood. Lead me, O God, in a plain path. Now, here's what the Holy Spirit told me last night.

There are some people here you've had to deal with anger towards God himself. In your heart, you said, God, is this just what I'm going through? Everyone around me seems to be so blessed and I'm going through such hardship.

And you've had this fermenting anger towards God himself in your heart. Today, I believe that through the simple. You see, the cry of David was, lead me in a plain path. And I prayed this. God, help me to say this so simply that people can see it.

And those that are by the wayside can get up and just get back on the path again. And the path is simple. I trust you, Jesus. I trust you. We say it today, I think. It's just so sweet to trust in Jesus.

I trust you, Lord. And there's others here today that you're in danger of being overcome. Like David, he said, I'd fainted unless I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the place where I'm living.

I've got to see God's goodness in this somewhere or I'm going to faint. And the good news to you today is that you don't have to faint. The goodness of God is right where you are. The goodness of God never left you.

Satan has never gained the upper hand. God has not failed you. He has entrusted you with something. He has entrusted you with the responsibility of trusting Him in the midst of things that you don't understand.

That's what He's given to you. I've put you where you have to trust me now. You can't get through this on your own. You can't get the victory on your own. You can't get the provision on your own. You now have to trust me.

And people around you are watching. Everyone who's in this valley of death and danger is watching your life right now to see how you're going to respond and react in this time of crisis. Folks, one time before I stood in this pulpit, I had a deep sense of foreboding in my spirit that something was coming to the city.

We all did. Pastor David did. Pastor Neil. Pastor Patrick. And we warned this church. Some people here thought we were crazy when we began to warn. They said, no, something's coming to the city and you're going to have to learn to trust God.

A calamity is coming to the city. We had people leave because of the words that we spoke. We said, well, look, we came here to be blessed and you're telling us there's going to be a calamity. I have to be honest with you.

I stood in my apartment last night. I looked out over the city. I have that same foreboding again in my spirit. I don't know what it is. And I'm not a prophet of doom. But I'm telling you, this is not about circumstance.

All of these things, like David said, can be taken away in a moment. In a moment of time, you can wake up one morning and it's just everything is over. Your job can be gone. Your company might be gone.

In one morning, it can all be over. The question is, where will you be then in your relationship with God? And what is it that God will be establishing through you? I don't pray for calamity, but I do believe that in difficult times, it's one of the greatest opportunities that God gives to his church to stand up and be counted for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We don't run like other people run. We're not confused like other people are confused. We know who we serve. We know where we're going. And we know the provision will always come from his hand. Hallelujah.

A Song of Redemption and the Altar Call

Teresa's dad loved to sing. Unfortunately, he couldn't. But he loved to. I shared at his funeral, I hope that the course of heaven is not in disarray since his arrival. Because he would always be about three words behind.

I remember in a small church, we'd sing amazing grace. And then you'd always hear the Zing Grace. One day I heard him singing a song. Now, here's a man who lost everything. He lost a fortune, folks. He lost what most people think is going to bring security.

He lost a fortune. But he wrote a song. He was singing this song. And I said, Jack, where did you get this song? And he said, I don't know. It's just something I've been singing as I've been driving back and forth to work.

He became a commissioner for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. And he sang this song to me. And it was the first time he ever sang something in tune. And it was a song that God gave to him. I had it copyrighted and written down.

I want to just sing it to you right now and just show you what God can do for those who trust him. Now, here's a man who lost everything. But in losing it, he gained everything. It goes like this. The leaves of love are softly, softly falling, falling from the tree, the tree that Jesus died upon, that you and I go free.

The leaves of love are softly, softly falling, falling from the tree, the tree that Jesus died upon, that you and I go free. Sing it with me, will you? The leaves of love are softly, softly falling, falling from the tree, the tree that Jesus died upon.

Sing it again with me. Let's stand together. I'd like to give an altar call today for everybody who's here, who's going through the things that the Lord's given me to speak on. And you have it in your heart.

Lord, lead me in a plain path. Teach me your ways, God. Lead me in a plain path because of my enemies. If this is the cry of your heart, would you come and join with me at this altar, and we're going to pray together.

Honoring God With Trust and Firstfruits

Here's the word for you this morning. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes, but fear the Lord and depart from evil.

It shall be health to thy navel and merit to thy bones. Honor the Lord with your substance and the firstfruits of all your increase. So shall your barns be filled with plenty, and the presses shall burst out with new wine.

Now, this is the interpretation I've got for this this morning for you. Honor God with everything he gives you today and shows you. Honor him with the faith that comes into your heart. Honor him with your lips.