Seeing the Reward of the Wicked

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. Carter's message today is from Psalm 91 and it's titled, Seeing the Reward of the Wicked. Jesus assures his children, we will be protected from what the wicked will experience.

Carter will offer some much needed encouragement today, so let's join him right now. Shall abide or live under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he's my refuge, and my fortress, my God, in him I will trust. Surely he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler. That means the secret traps that you don't see coming your way. And from the perilous pestilence.

And in the original translation, the way that reads is from the perversion that comes into a society when the restraining hand of God is lifted off of it. He will deliver you from secret traps and from the perversions that are going to be prevalent in this and other societies in the last days. He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shall take refuge.

His truth will be your shield and your buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day. Whether there are acts of terrorism in various countries throughout the world or threats even of nuclear war, the Bible says you will not be afraid. You will not be afraid of these things. There will be a confidence that God puts in your heart that is born of the Spirit of God.

It is born of a trust in the keeping power of God. And no matter what happens, no matter what difficulty comes their way, you will not be afraid of it, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side and 10,000 at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked.

Only with your eyes you will look and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord who is my refuge even the most high your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone.

You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. This Psalm, Psalm 91 contains a truth about God that Satan himself fears. He fears that if it's believed it would instill a barrier of promise in the hearts of those who believe in it that no power of hell can get through and breach. That's why he is afraid of Psalm 91. It was this Psalm that Satan quoted when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew chapter 4. Actually in the temptation of Christ after he was baptized in the Jordan and went into the wilderness, led of the Spirit to be tempted by Satan. This was the only scripture that he actually didn't fully quote.

He quoted a part of it but not the whole scripture. He came to the Son of God. Now he knew who he was fighting with. He was contesting with the Son of God. I don't know how he knew it but Satan knew who Jesus Christ was.

And he had a sense of what his mission was on the earth. And he basically came to him and the first temptation he brought to him was essentially this. If you are the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread. In other words, if you are the Son of God, why are you not being fed?

Why are you hungry? If you are the Son of God, there must be a resident power within you. Use it for yourself.

Use it for your own benefit. Turn these stones to bread. Of course, that's what the devil did. That's why he fell from heaven. Because he was not content with the ways, the will, and the Word of God. He wanted something higher than he was assigned by God. And because of it, he tried to do what he was tempting Christ to do, to change his situation by his own power and his own influence. Then he took him to the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said again, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. In other words, if you're the Son of God, and if you believe, if you believe that God will keep you, here's the more insidious temptation as I see this.

In effect, what I think the devil was saying, now this is my opinion, my conjecture in this, but he was basically saying, I'm going to throw you down, and what makes you think that when your feet hit the stone, I'm going to throw you on, that somehow there are going to be angels there to help you? What makes you think that God will preserve you? What makes you think that God will protect you? What makes you think that God will raise you up? What makes you think that he will send angels to be part of the process of bringing you to the conclusion of what your life is supposed to be?

If you do believe this, throw yourself down. It is written, he will give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. But I want to remind you, that is not the whole scripture.

He left a line out. He will give his angels charge over you, Psalm 91, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. It didn't say it's just for one specific event, but God is going to assign angels to you to keep you in all of the journey of your life.

The good times, the bad times, the easy times, the hard times, the times you understand, the times you don't, the times when it looks to be prosperous, and the times when it looks to be hopeless. God is not going to fail you. God is going to keep you, and there will be a heavenly presence to assist you this whole time, lest you should be overthrown or overcome by the temptations or the testings that are all around you. And lastly, seeing he could not turn Jesus from the truth that he knew of the Word of God, he says to him, well this whole world is given to me, and I can give it to whoever I want to give it to. All the kingdoms of the world and all their glory belong to me. If you will just do it my way, if you will fall down and worship me, then you don't have to go to the cross.

Basically is what he was saying. Then you don't have to die. I won't have to cast you down. I won't have to harm you as it is or take away your life.

You can have it all if you'll just bow down and worship me. And Jesus said, away with you Satan, it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Verse 11 says, then the devil left him and behold angels came and ministered to him. Praise be to God. That's exactly what the scripture says. He will give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.

In their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Now what was the devil so afraid of in Psalm 91 that if you and I laid a hold of it, that his power over us would be broken. His power over us to cause us to think that somehow God won't provide for us. In the midst of our hunger or our hardship or whatever it is that you and I have to face in the days ahead, the promise of God is that we will have provision. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

All these things shall be added unto you. What was he so afraid of? First of all, he was afraid that we would find this hidden place of God where our confidence in his keeping power can no longer be broken.

He who dwells in the secret place of the most high, Psalm 91 verse one, shall abide under the shadow of the almighty and I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In him I will trust. I will trust on the good days. I will trust on the bad days. I will trust when I hit the notes in the song. I will trust when my voice cracks and I can't hit them.

I will trust when there's money in the bank and I will trust when I have to trust God to pay my bills. I will trust in God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

This has to be our prayer in this generation. God, take me to this place. Take me to this place of trust in you, God. Oh, Jesus Christ, Son of God, don't let me trust in my own reasonings, my own resources, my own thinking, my own abilities, my own strength, my own reasonings. God Almighty, give me the ability to trust in your word. That the things you say to me are true. They cannot be contravened.

They cannot be thrown away. God Almighty, you cannot be tested. When Satan said to Jesus, throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple and see if God will fulfill the scripture that he promised you. And he said, you will not test the Lord your God.

In other words, you don't have to test God. He's not a man that can lie. When he speaks, he speaks the truth. What he says, he means. He doesn't have to say anything twice.

He says it once and he means it. He never had to say, let there be light. I said, let there be light.

He said it once, let there be light and light was, and the darkness had to give way to light. He has all power. He has all authority.

He commands everything in heaven and everything on the earth. And when he promises you and I something, he is good to keep his promise. When he promises that he will keep our families, he will keep our families. When he promises that our houses won't fall in the midst of the storm, they will not fall in the midst of the storm. When God promises he will keep us, he will keep us. Satan fears that we will be protected. In verse three it says, surely he'll deliver you from the snare of the fowler and the perilous pestilence. He knows that the trust in God is to be protected from hidden traps. I have to honestly tell you, I have had so many traps set before me over the years and only after I got through them that I realized they were a trap.

It's amazing. I can honestly stand here and say this is absolutely true. I have had traps set for me as a Christian person from the day of my conversion, but not one of them has ever succeeded. Not one. As a matter of fact, everybody who set a trap for me ended up with egg on their face when it was all over. Everyone who set a trap for me, the trap sprung on them and pulled them up into a tree. Every time a trap was set, God Almighty made a way through it. And I didn't even know it was a trap until I got through to the other side and looked back and said, hey, that was a trap.

Somebody tried to trap me. But the protective hand of God was on my life. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. And protected from the perverseness that destroys. It's defined in the original text as the perversity that destroys when God removes his hand of protection. Pray for this nation. God Almighty, don't take your hand away from this nation because we have had a season of seeing what perverseness looks like when evil becomes good and good becomes evil.

The sexualizing of our children, the gender confusing of young adults, the mutilation of young bodies, the redefining of marriage. We've seen what perverseness looks like. But the promise is when if God has to lift his hand, if the society completely rejects him, you will not be touched by this evil as it touches the nation. God says, I will protect you. I will keep you from hidden traps. And the perverseness of a world without God will not touch you, will not touch your home, will not touch your family, will not steal your children. God says, I will fight for your house.

I will fight for your family. I will open the prison doors, give sight to the blind and set the captives free. That's who Jesus Christ is. And that's what Jesus Christ does. Oh, hallelujah. It's time to have confidence in God, folks. It's time to trust in God. It's time to stand up and say God will not fail me. God will not forsake me. The enemy will not triumph over me. Satan will not have my life. Satan will not destroy my family. Satan will not take away the ministry God has entrusted to my hand. The song that God has planted in my heart the devil can't take from me.

It's a song of trust given to me by God and it cannot be taken out of my life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Satan fears that when we find this place of refuge that none of the calamity unleashes in this world will take away our confidence in God. He shall cover you with his feathers and under his wings shall you take refuge. Oh, hallelujah.

David speaks of it in Psalm 23. Thou has prepared a table for me in the presence of mine enemies. Hallelujah.

You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. You know, you and I can have enemies all around us, but God has given us a table. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. He's given us things to eat that this world knows nothing about. He's given us confidence.

He's given us strength. Oh, hallelujah. All our enemies can do is take out their sword and butter our bread for us. That's all they can do as we sit at the table of God. Satan fears and knows that as the foundations of those without God wash away in the coming days, your place of dwelling will stand.

The scripture says 1000 may fall at your side and 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. Only with your eyes you shall look and see the reward of the wicked. We shall look not with judgment.

We shall look not with glee. We shall look with sorrow most of the time and say, God, I wish they had trusted in you as we see the houses and the foundations of people all around us beginning to collapse in these last days. Listen to what Jesus Christ said in Matthew, chapter seven, verse 24. Whoever hears these things in mind and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these things in mind that does not do them will be like his, a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall. You and I will have to go through the same storms as everybody else in our generation. And I know you feel it in your heart that we are in a very unstable time right now worldwide.

We're in a difficult moment worldwide. We don't know what's going to break out. We don't know will the economies of the world survive the coming days. We don't know if war will increase in our time. We don't know. We just know we're living in an extremely uncertain time. But the one thing I do know is that I have built my house on a place on a solid foundation and where I might stand in the same storm and I'm looking at my neighbor on the right left hand is his foundation goes in his house falls none.

On the other hand, his foundation goes in his house and I might see it. I'll see the reward may have put it that way of those who have chosen to live without God. They've chosen to deny truth. They've chosen to reject God's Son Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. They've chosen to stand on their own reasons just like the devil did.

They've chosen to believe that there's no consequence to their behavior and the rejection of God in the coming days of storm when their houses begin to collapse. Your house will not collapse. Your house will stand. You will be standing in a solid place. A thousand may fall at one hand and 10,000 on the other side, but it will not come nigh you. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have a heart that longs for truth, if you want to walk with God, you will stand in the coming days. The storm will not take you down. Just like the Apostle Paul, Acts 27, you will stand on the deck of a perishing ship and you'll be able to say to the people, don't be afraid. God has given me a word. And if you will listen, if you will listen to the word of God, you'll be brought to a place of safety.

And in that place, of course, we know they could consider their eternal destiny because obviously Paul would be sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Satan also fears in verse 13 that you will discover the spiritual authority that God promises to you. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot. I don't know about you, but I want the spiritual authority that God promises to the children of God.

I want the spiritual authority. Devil, you can't have my family. You can't have my children.

You're not taking my neighbor. You're not touching that which belongs to God. I stand against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I stand against every weapon you form against the righteous.

As a matter of fact, I condemn every lying word you speak about me, about my life, my home, my family. And lastly, that you will pray knowing that God will answer. Verse 15 says he shall call upon me and I will answer him. Hallelujah. And I need to believe and trust that I am living under the shadow of the Almighty. He will hold me up. He will give his angels charge over our lives. Oh, God, thank you, Jesus.

God, thank you for all the times that he has protected us over the years. You know, when you and I get to heaven, there's some angels going to go on vacation because they've been following you around. They're the ones that pushed you out of the way of that bus. They're the ones that said don't go in that bar. They're the ones that said just walk away from that thing, whatever it is you were considering. They're the ones.

They're the ones that caused your boss to change his or her mind in the workplace. And lastly, this is where it gets very, very interesting to me when Satan would say, when I cast down your Messiah. Under the cold stone slab of a grave. Where were the angels that God had promised would be with him? Because he did. And when Jesus Christ was laid into that tomb that was carved out of a rock, his feet did hit the stone, just as the scripture said. And it looked like he was triumphed over. It looked in one sense to the one who didn't understand the ways of God, that somehow.

The word of God that had been spoken to him or even misquoted, actually, in the in the wilderness was not true. But John Chapter 20, verse 11 and 12, it says, Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. He will give his angels charge over you, lest you dash your feet against the stone. In other words, lest there be a permanent defeat of your life at the bottom in a sense of trusting where God is leading you. I don't know what the angels did.

We're doing there. I don't know if they helped him get up. When the Spirit of God raised him from the dead, did the angels say, here, let me help you? Did they unwrap him? Did they unwind him from all the grave? I don't know what they did.

All I know is they were there because God said they would be there. God said his son would not be triumphed over. God said, I will send angels and they will hold you up lest you suffer defeat when you are cast down. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Have you ever met an angel? I know people who have.

I'm not I'm not going to get spooky on you. I just know people. I just know people who have.

I know credible people who have. I know a man one time who was running away from God. And he decided he was a minister and he decided he was he was running away from God. And he walked down this long road and said, I've had it.

I've had it with ministry. I'm not serving God anymore. I'm finished.

I'm done. And suddenly a pickup truck drives by and says, get in. The driver says, get in. He said, no, I'm not getting in the truck with you.

I don't even know you. The driver said, get in the truck. He said, no. He said, I'm telling you, get in. And he said, I felt compelled. So I got in the truck and I was I was getting ready to slug this guy a fee. And the driver of the truck said, what you're considering doing is a mistake. You are called of God. God has called you.

It's a mistake. You need to go back and you need to surrender yourself to God and carry on in ministry. And then the truck turns around, takes him back to his hotel and drops him off. And when he gets out of the truck, he suddenly realizes, I never told this man what hotel I'm staying in. And he turned around because the hotel was out in the middle of the country and he turned around to try to wave at the truck. And he looked and there's no truck either way on the road.

There's no truck. And he knows. He told me, this man is credible.

You actually know him. He said, I've met an angel, turned me away from what I was thinking of doing and brought me back to the calling of God. And the same man has preached the gospel to millions of people since that day. Praise be to God. I guess the point of what God's given me to say, God, help me to abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Help me, God, to stop stepping in and out and in and out and believe, not believe, believe, not believe.

God, I don't want to live that way anymore. I want to walk. I want to dwell under the shadow of the Most High. I want the spiritual authority you speak about. I want to be delivered from the traps that are set for me. I don't want to be concerned when I read the news and there's terror by night and arrows flying by day and pestilence walking in darkness and destruction that lays waste at noonday. When the storms come, I want my house to stand and I want to be able to call out to my neighbors and maybe help them to get on a solid foundation. I want to live in a place, God, of confidence that even when it looks like I'm overthrown, I'm not.

Bring me Almighty God under the shadow of the Almighty. Thank you for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. You can count on a powerful message each week on A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.