The Leading of the Lord — 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 Challenged, P .O. Box 260, Lyndale, Texas, 75771, or calling 903 -963 -8626.

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The Fear of the Lord and the Pathway for God’s People

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. And Proverbs 1 -7 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Tonight we're going to go into the word of the Lord. We're going to look at quite a few scriptures. I want to talk about a characteristic of Almighty God. The fact, I suppose, I could say that He takes His word very, very seriously.

He requires honesty in His people. He requires an open heart, the willingness and ability to allow a deep searching of the Holy Spirit. He has a pathway for His people. There were people that responded today to that altar call at three o 'clock who really want a burden for souls.

You want to live for God. I'm going to talk at the end of this message about a pathway that will get you there, and how to be sure that you're on the pathway of the Lord. I'm also going to talk about circumstances that I have seen over the years as a Christian man and as a pastor, where I've seen an incredible blindness come upon people who once knew the Lord and walked with God, and yet they seem to have been given to a mysterious blindness.

We're going to talk about that. I need your prayers tonight. So let's pray together as we get into this word that Jesus Christ would be lifted up and glorified, that His kingdom will go forward with great power, and that I'm believing tonight that believers are going to be made solid.

There are some maybe that are wavering tonight, but I'm believing that people are going to be made solid, set on a path. That's my heart's desire. It's the Lord's heart's desire. I know it's Pastor David's heart's desire that through the expounding of the Word of God, under the unction of the Holy Spirit, that this church body will be made solid, that we will not be moved by winds or waves or anything that happens to come our way, but we will know who God is.

We will know His voice. We'll know the voice of the Holy Spirit. We'll not listen to any other voice. Jesus said that about His sheep, My sheep know My voice, and another they will not follow. And so we will develop in our hearts such a deep and intense love for the leading of the Lord that no matter what it costs, no matter where He takes us, we will willingly, as Peter did, stretch forth our hands and we will follow Him, even if it means the death to all that we hold dear in our own hearts, in our own lives, so that the purposes and plans of God might be formed in us.

There is a pathway that God has for each one of our lives. And I don't know about you tonight, and I'm hoping your heart's the same as mine. I don't want to miss that pathway that God has for me. I know where I've come from and I know where I am today.

I don't know where I'm going to be tomorrow, but I do know the one who holds my hand and I know the one who's leading me. I never want to let go of that hand. I never want to lose it. I never want to become stubborn.

I never want to substitute my will for the will of the Lord. I want to walk with Him all the days of my life. As the Apostle Paul said, I want to bring this flesh into subjection, lest when I have preached the gospel to others, I myself should end up a castaway.

We need to have a wholesome fear of the Lord, a wholesome fear, not an unholy trembling fear, but a wholesome reverence for God. The one thing I do know about the Lord tonight is that He takes His word very, very seriously.

We're going to be in the Word tonight, so be prepared. Ask the Holy Spirit now to give you an open heart. Oh, Jesus, we love Your Word. I love Your Word. Your Word truly is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path.

And I ask tonight for an empowerment of the Holy Spirit that You would open wide the path that is before us. Make it clear, Lord, You have a path for every believer. You have a path for Your church, a pathway for every generation.

Open wide that path to our understanding tonight that we may see the pathway that You have laid before us and understand how we can keep our feet upon it. God, keep us from turning to the left or to the right of all that we would learn in Your Word, not only this day, but in every service we come into.

Every time Your Word is opened, every time under the unction of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is lifted up and magnified and exalted. Oh, God, set our affections on things above and not on things below.

Give us Your heart and take away from us the stony heart of the uncircumcised nature, oh God, and give us the heart of Christ. Oh, Holy Spirit, sanctify me tonight. Sanctify my mind and my heart, this physical, frail body.

God, touch me with Your power tonight and let every word that comes from this inward man be birthed in Your heart. Jesus, the people need to hear from You. They don't need to hear from me tonight. They need to hear from You.

Holy Spirit, it's Your voice that needs to be heard in the church. Oh, God, relegate me to some backseat somewhere and come and stand before the people and be heard tonight, oh God. I ask, Lord, that You give every person tonight the ability to look beyond the vessels that You stand in this or any other place, oh God, and to see Jesus high and lifted up above every other name that is named.

Lord God, we give You honor. We give You praise tonight. Be magnified, not only in this house, but be magnified in our lives. Oh, God, I love You tonight. I love You, Jesus. And I thank You, Lord, that You will fill my mouth, You'll fill my inward parts because You love this people, Lord.

You love them. And they've come asking for bread. You said You'd not give them a stone. They've come for water. And You said You'd give them living water and that it would flow out of their bellies. They've come, many of them, looking for direction.

You said that Your Word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. And God, You will give them direction tonight. Oh, Lord God, hold this church in the palm of Your hand. Keep the course steady and straight that we may bring honor to Your name.

Oh, God, throughout this generation, Lord. Oh, Jesus, I thank You for Your sovereign hand. I thank You, Lord, for Your protection in Your precious and holy name. Amen. Psalm 125. If you'll turn there.

Psalm 125 and the Leading of the Lord

We're going to look at some truths tonight that might be hard, but nevertheless, they are truths that we need to hear. Psalm 125, the leading of the Lord. They that trust in the Lord, verse 1, shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.

What a beautiful promise. If we will put our confidence in Him and trust in Him, that we will not be removed. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth, even forever.

Tonight, the Lord is round about us. If you're a believer in Christ and you love the Lord and you love the Word of God, this word is for you tonight. The Lord Jesus is all around you, just like the mountains round about Jerusalem.

He's surrounding you on every side. He despises your enemies. Hallelujah. He hates your enemies and He encamps around about those that fear Him. Those that love Him, He encamps around about them. Isn't it a wonderful thing to know tonight that the Lord is with us and the Lord is around us and the Lord loves us?

For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good and to them that are upright in their hearts.

God does good to those who are upright in their heart, who have a clean and a pure heart before Him. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel.

This is an incredible verse of Scripture. I want to just read it again. It talks about those who turn aside from the path of righteousness. Those who begin to walk in their own ways and do things that are right in their own sight, but not right in the sight of God.

And in verse 5, it says, As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, who will lead them forth? The Lord. It doesn't say the devil, but the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.

In other words, God will gather them together with other workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel. We see this graphically displayed or explained in the book of Exodus. If you go back there in chapter 14 in the book of Exodus, we see the children of Israel in this chapter being led out of captivity into marvelous victory, a place of blessing that God had prepared for them.

He had brought Moses and with a mighty hand, he had brought judgments upon the nation of Egypt and now the Lord was bringing his people out. And we see a marvelous and wonderful thing happening here that will give us some insight into the very character, the very nature of God.

Pharaoh’s Hardened Heart and God’s Glory

You see, Pharaoh let the people go because God brought him to a place where he absolutely had to let them go. But the Lord said something in chapter 14 in verse 4, and he said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he shall follow after them.

And I will be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people.

And they said, why have we done this? That we have let Israel go from serving us. And he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. So here's Pharaoh. All kinds of plagues have fallen upon the nation.

The whole nation is in ruins. The firstborn of Egypt, of man and beast had all died. There's death in all the land. Finally, he realizes he can't fight against God. He lets God's people go. There's a great victory celebration that day as they all leave Egypt, taking their young ones, their old ones with them and spoiling the Egyptians.

And then the Lord now puts a thought into Pharaoh's heart. It's the leading of the Lord. He is going to bring Pharaoh into a place where he says, I'm going to be honored upon him. And all of a sudden Pharaoh, who was more than happy to be rid of the children of Israel, is now turning and saying, why have we done this?

But it was God that put that thought in his heart. It was God. He said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. I will and I'm going to cause him to follow after the children of Israel. And in verse 17, in the same chapter, he says, and I behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they shall follow them.

And I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts, upon his chariots and upon his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh and upon his chariots and upon his horsemen.

And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, now we know that was Christ, removed and went behind them and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. And it came, that's the angel of God, came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel.

And it was a cloud of darkness to them. That's to the Egyptians, but it gave light by night to these. That's the children of God. So that one came not near the other all night. Now there's an incredible thing.

Light to Israel, Judgment to Egypt

Here's the Lord. He's leading two sets of people. He's leading one set of people into freedom and he's leading the other people right behind them into judgment. They're both going in the same pathway.

They're both being led by God. And God is right between the two camps. He's right between the camp of Israel and the camp of Egypt. To one, he's light. That's who Christ is. He's light unto light. And the word of God became flesh.

And he who comes to Christ, the scripture says, comes to the light. He was light to those who were walking with him. He was light to those who loved him. He was light to those who were walking in the pathway prescribed.

But yet there's another camp coming right behind them and he's darkness to these same people. The same God. He's light to one people and he's darkness to another who are falling right behind. And he's leading them both.

The Egyptians were blinded by the Lord so that the waters that were a wall to the children of God drowned the children of Egypt. It's an incredible thing. God brings up the water and he makes a wall on each side and through it all, that's through trial, through tribulation, through distress, that's what those walls really represent to you and I.

Through every obstacle that's before them and before us today, they walked right through the midst of it and the very things that should have drowned them became a wall on either side. And they walked right through the midst of the trial.

They walked right through the midst of impossibility on dry ground. And that's what it's like for a child of God who's walking with God, who's walking in the light, who's allowing truth to come into the heart and penetrate the heart.

But here is this other camp of Egypt that are coming behind. They are led by a different motive. God is leading them. He's turning them over to their lusts. They desire to control the people of God. They desire to enslave the people of God.

Use them for their own gain and for their own advantage. And so the same waters that were a wall, the same circumstances and trials and difficulties that were a wall to the children of Israel now became the drowning forces for the children of Egypt.

They tried to go through the same place but they couldn't go through because God was not with them and their circumstances overwhelmed them and they all drowned in the sea. And the interesting thing is they couldn't stop because the Lord was leading them.

They couldn't stop. They were just driven by their lusts. They were driven by anger and rage. They were driven by other things than by the Spirit of God and the righteous leading of God that should have been in their lives.

David says in Psalm 125 verse 4, he says, Do good, O Lord, to those that be good and to them that are upright in their heart. In other words, O God, do good to those that are good and to those that are upright in their hearts.

And as for such, to turn aside under their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with other workers of iniquity or with the workers of iniquity. I have seen in my life as a Christian and as a pastor, people led out of safety, gone into places of difficulty and spiritual disaster.

Judicial Blindness and Rebellion

The one sign that a person is being led out of safety is that there's a mysterious blindness that comes upon their life. I've heard it called a judicial blindness of God and I believe that with all my heart.

There's a justice, a judgment that comes upon the heart, the life. And there's a blindness that comes upon people and you can't do anything about it. You can't stop them. You can't talk them out of it.

They become determined in their heart that they're going in a certain direction. Even if that direction is virtual spiritual suicide, you can't stop them from walking in that direction. I remember years ago, I was involved with a group of ministers and we went into a certain city and we established a church in that city.

And it was a young church. It was a thriving church. There was about 80, maybe 100 people there. And there was a glorious presence of God in this church. When the people would meet, just the glory of God would come into this church.

And the people loved the Lord. They wanted to walk with God. And it came time to set the church in order. Now, the part of the denomination I was part of, there was a governmental structure to this church.

And part of that structure said essentially that anybody who is in bondage to alcohol or nicotine or anything or any other substance cannot be in leadership in the church body. And I believe that with all my heart.

You can't, if you're not free, you can't be proclaiming freedom to the people. You've got to be free in your life and in your heart from all of these different things. And so when we came to the people and talked about the things that had to be done so that the church could be set in order, there were two men that had been instrumental and had significant influence in this particular group.

And when they found out, because they smoked, both of them smoked. And when they found out that they were disqualified from leadership in the church, we told them essentially all you have to do is stop smoking and repent of this thing and prove that, you know, that you're over this thing and you wouldn't be qualified.

The people could, you could let your name stand, the people could vote for you, et cetera, et cetera. But these men didn't want to give up their habit. And so they arranged a meeting, a secret meeting behind the backs of those that were in authority at a specific person's house that was part of that church body.

And in that meeting, they virtually poisoned the people. They said, this is legalism, that we will not be brought under the control of these people. They're going to try to dominate our lives. They poisoned the people.

It was all a smokescreen, really, because it was simply because they smoked. And sad to say, the people were gullible enough to hear them. And they had this, a series of secret meetings that we know nothing about.

And I began to notice that the disposition of the people was getting more sour by the week. Every week we would go and have service. They were getting a more deeper and sour disposition until the people finally rose up.

And they said, we will not be brought under the government of anybody. We are in liberty. Christ has set us free. And so we're going to walk in freedom. We won't have any government over us, no control over us.

We're just going to do our own thing. We're going to pray. We're going to seek God. And God's going to be with us. We warned them. I remember having a meeting with the people. I warned them that what they were doing, they could try to put a spiritual covering on it, but it was rebellion.

And that there was a dangerousness in what they were doing because a deep spiritual blindness can come upon the lives of those who do these types of things. And so they persisted in their direction. They went their own way.

These two men in particular virtually destroyed this church. They destroyed it. It was within a matter of a month or two, completely dissipated. They drew off some people after themselves and tried to start a home thing.

It amounted to nothing. It never does, folks. It never amounts to anything. If it's birthed in rebellion, it will never grow. It's doomed right from the start. God's not with it. In the book of James, he said, the Lord resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

So no matter how much they pray, no matter how spiritual they try to pretend they are, God's hand is against them. So it can't prosper. It can't go anywhere. A mysterious blindness came upon these people.

Within a year and a half, the man who had hosted the meeting in his home, was a friend of mine, died of a heart attack. His wife is paralyzed today with a brain aneurysm. Very sure about six months or eight months after he died, she suffered a brain aneurysm.

One of the elders, as he called himself, of this particular group, a friend of mine went to visit him about a year later after this all happened. He knocked on the door. He opened his door. He let him in.

He had left his wife. Another woman was there. He wasn't married to this other woman. Here they are living in adultery and fornication. He offered this friend of mine a glass of whiskey and then started to talk to him about how wonderful the Lord is and how great the Lord is and how God has so blessed him and how God is so with them.

Another man that was in this group, one of the men that was instrumental in splitting this particular church, not splitting it, destroying it, he came to my office about a year later and he sat down with myself and my associate pastor and he said to me, he said, Pastor Carter, he said, we are so blessed to the Lord.

He said, this is the few that were left now after this whole thing had dissipated. He said, we have found a man just like we are, just like we are. He's got a heart just like ours and I knew the man that they had found.

This man was a wolf. I knew he was a wolf. He would go into a town. He would set up a church. He would preach the success and prosperity gospel whereby you gain money by giving him money. When he had milked the whole flock, when he had fleeced the flock, that he would close up the church and move on, which is exactly what he did.

And he said, we found a man just like we are. He is a wonderful man. And he is giving us, he was sitting there across from my desk. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He said, he is giving us revelation.

He said, incredible revelation from the word of God. He said, and I said, well, tell me, what is some of the revelation that he's giving you? He said, well, one of the most profound, he said, is that you don't have to be like Jesus.

You just have to follow Jesus. You don't have to be like Jesus. And in other words, this man was teaching them, you can smoke and drink and dance and do anything you want. And as long as you say you're following Jesus, you're going to go to heaven.

He said, he's just like we are. And I remember sitting there looking at him in absolute disbelief. This man had sat under the gospel. He'd sat under some very, very strong preaching. And I remember closing my Bible and looking at him and thinking in my heart, you're right.

He's just like you are. You have found a man after your own heart. God has given you what you've been asking for. You know, there's a warning in the scripture. There's a time when a certain people say, take away from us the prophets that are exposing our sin.

Take away from us the men that are causing the holy one of Israel to come before our faces. Take these men away from us and give us prophets that prophesy unto us smooth things. And so the Lord doesn't withhold from these people.

He gives them the lust of their own heart. He releases them to the lust of their own heart. That's what happened to the armies of Pharaoh. They were released to their lust. Their lust was to control the people of God.

And so they pursued that lust and they drowned in their pursuit of that lust. They were being led out of safety. And incredible, the man who had hosted the meeting and at that meeting, you know, the theme was legalism.

We'll not be brought under the control of these people. They're dominating, controlling people. We won't be brought. And basically all it was, was a structure that would protect them from the wolves that they were about to come under.

And they didn't know it. When that man suffered a heart attack about a year and a half later, as he was being taken out of the house, he died before he got to the hospital. And as he was being taken out of the house, he turned to his wife, he said, have Pastor Carter preach my funeral if I don't make it.

Isn't it funny that all of a sudden, the man who was the legalist, all of a sudden, now he wants him to preach his funeral. Something changed in his heart when he knew he was going to die. There was a reaching out, all I can hope.

I had to preach his funeral. I'll tell you, it was a dismal funeral and a dismal experience. And all I can hope is that somewhere on the way from his house to the hospital, he had time to cry to Jesus.

He was in such pain, I really don't know if he did. His wife told me he died in a backslidden condition, turned away from the Lord. And so I really don't know. I hope he had time because he had been a friend of mine.

This man had had a ministry, a very powerful ministry. It affected a lot of lives. But he had let something get into his heart. He had turned away from walking in humility before God. The devil had come in and gotten a hold of him and he was let out of the safety of God.

And a mysterious blindness came upon his life. The apostle John referring to the prophecy of Isaiah and talking about the religious... Jesus was talking about the religious people of his day. He says, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should heal them.

The Blindness of Religious People

It's an incredible thing. What we see in the book of Exodus, we saw when Jesus came and was ministering during the time of his earthly ministry. Here's a certain class of people, usually the lowest of society, the beggars, the poor, the lame, the blind, those that nobody had any time of day for.

They're falling at his feet. They're kissing his feet. They're loving him with all their heart. They're shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and he's light unto them. The way of eternity was opened up to these people.

They're coming in while he sits with the Pharisees and eats and breaking alabaster boxes of expensive ointment and pouring it on his head and pouring it on his feet. Heaven has been opened to them. They've been given revelation that they can get through the times of difficulty and trial and darkness and lay ahead and God would be with them and they would get to heaven if they would trust and believe in him for their salvation.

But yet at the same time, there's another people learned it in the scriptures, sitting in the synagogue every Sabbath day, opening up the word of God, reading and teaching from the book of Isaiah and all of the other prophets and yet God is right in the midst of them and to one he's light and to the other he's become darkness.

The Pharisees, the learned people of the day are standing around while lepers and beggars are leaping and dancing and praising God for joy. The Pharisees and learners of that day are standing around saying, we just don't see how a prophet can come out of Nazareth.

We just don't see how this carpenter's son can make such an audacious claim to be the son of God. We just don't see. We just don't see. We just don't see. To one he was light and to the other he was darkness.

My brothers and sisters, it's always has been that way and always will be that way. Although the scripture today warns about the pursuit and the love of money, there are those who feel that God is leading them in that direction.

There was a family, we had a Christian school at our church in Canada and there was a family that I became aware that was going, that had two children in the school and they had become associated with a church that preached a love of money gospel, you know, the gospel that says use faith to get Cadillacs and all that kind of thing.

That's what faith is all about. And so I felt an obligation as a pastor to call them in and I said to them, you're welcome to leave your children in our school if you want to. I said, but you need to know that we're going to be teaching your children that what they are learning on Sunday is a lie.

I said, we're going to be opening the word of God. We're going to be teaching them. And I said, I'd like to share some scriptures with you about what we're going to be teaching your children. Because at first they said, well, that's all right.

I mean, can you imagine that? You're going to church and you're sending your children to a school that's going to teach them that what they're learning is a lie. And initially they said, well, that's OK.

That's OK. I mean, you talk about an incredible blindness that came upon a people. And so I opened the word of God. I said, I want to share some scriptures with you. So I opened the word of God. Firstly, I remember this as clearly as if I was sitting there right now.

I opened the word of God to the book of Matthew and I began to read some words to them. And it was words like this. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye.

If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness. What have we just been talking about?

A time when light turns to darkness. That's a time when we resist the leading of God. How great is that darkness. No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon or money. Therefore, I just kept on reading. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink. Nor yet your body what you shall put on.

Is not life more than meat in the body than raiment or clothing? Behold the fowls of the air. They don't sow or reap or gather into barns that your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they are?

Why do you worry about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, they spin not. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Then we just kept on going and I said, for all these things did the Gentiles seek after. Your heavenly Father knows that you have needed these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

Therefore take no thought for tomorrow for the moral shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Now I finished reading that and they were sitting across the table, this couple, they looked at me and she said to me on his behalf and her behalf, well, that's just your opinion.

But we believe, no, I hadn't offered them an opinion yet. That's just your opinion. I said, okay, well, I'd like to read you another scripture. So I turned to the book of 1st Timothy, chapter 6, 1st Timothy chapter 6 and I began to read these words beginning at verse 7.

We brought nothing into this world, it's certain we can carry nothing out. Having food and raiment, that's clothing, let us be there with content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which what?

Drown. What happened to the children of Egypt? They drowned. Which drowned men in destruction and perdition. Verse 10 says, 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.

So they have erred from the faith. And then I went on to read, But thou, O man of God, flee these things, follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses.