Searching for Old Truth in a New Year

Welcome to this 2021 New Year Special with Carter Conlon of Times Square Church in New York City. We somehow fell to this incredible trap that we are as smart as God is, and we can chart our own course, we can develop our own sense of what is right and what is wrong and what is going to bring us to a utopian end, even though history proves it doesn't.

Isn't that amazing? In America, we are a people that have a great history, a history that was founded on Christian principles and direction from a holy God. But over time, we have lost our foundational beliefs. We have begun to speak like the rest of the world, falling into the same trap of thinking we can chart a new course to some kind of imagined utopian future. But as Carter will explain, nothing's going to change.

It's all been tried before. History does repeat itself. The euphoria will eventually die down after that ball is dropped on New Year's Day, because Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. Let's join Carter Conlon now with his message titled, Searching for Old Truth in a New Year. Now, I want to read to you the words of the Lord when he spoke to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 6, verse 16 and 17.

Here's what he said. Thus says the Lord, stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it. Also, I said, watch men over you saying, listen to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not listen. Now, God never leaves a people in a situation where there is no witness of his voice.

There's there's no warning in a sense. And this is what he was talking about to his own people, Israel. He said, I've set watchmen over you and they are sounding the trumpet that you are going into a place of defeat. You're going into a place where much of what you've known throughout your history, the greatness of what God did among you is all about to be lost.

It's about to be overpowered by an enemy. And so these watchmen sit there by God are sounding this alarm. But the people have become so hardened in their own understanding of things or their own expounding of what they thought was truth that they said, no, we won't listen to that old voice anymore.

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the people getting to the place where we won't listen to the voice of God, our creator, the maker of heaven and earth, as the scripture says, the one who created the universe by the words of his mouth. And we get so, so smart in ourselves that we say, no, we don't need to listen to God anymore.

We don't need to listen to the one who formed Adam, our forefather out of the dust and breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. We don't need to look back at history and learn how other societies have failed in their understanding of God and suffered for it. So, because we're much smarter than that. And isn't it something in humanity that we feel that we can pursue the same paths that others have done throughout history and still somehow convince ourselves that we're not going to suffer the consequence of that.

I mean, this is an amazing thing when you begin to think about it, how we can become so degenerate really in our thinking that we think that we can do anything we want. We can do it our own way and somehow we're going to end up with a different result. Listen to what Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes. He said in chapter one, beginning of verse nine, that which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done. There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, see, this is new?

It has already been in ancient times before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. And so technically it just says this, we are prone to repeating the same mistakes and never or rarely learning from the past.

What is it about human nature that we are prone to do these things? I mean, it's just absolutely stunning when you begin to believe it or understand it. Now, I want to use Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, who said there's nothing new, nothing is going to show itself that has not been already tested or proven in previous times. Now, Solomon himself, he knew the effects of wine.

For example, this is just an example. He had written earlier in Proverbs chapter 20, verse one, he said, wine is a mocker and those who are deceived by it are not wise. In other words, there's a deceptive quality to drinking alcohol. It alters the mind. It alters reality. It never, ever under any circumstance leads people into wisdom.

It doesn't lead them into strength or truth. And you know, even myself as an ex-police officer, I have lived long enough to see the effects of drink. I've been in the broken homes. I've seen the battered bodies.

I've been there to see the effects of drink. And so, there's nothing to be gained from this. And Solomon knew this yet in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 as he started on the road which was eventually going to be a huge decline in his life. Now, some say that Solomon lost out on eternal life with God. I'll leave that to eternity to decide that. But he certainly went down a degenerate trajectory. And here's where it all started.

This is amazing. In chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes in verse 3, he said, I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom. And how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. So, Solomon is essentially saying, I'm experimenting.

I'm just searching for something. I'm just going to look what are the effects of wine and why does it seem to make people who are outside the kingdom of God as he saw it so happy. And you know, he claims that wisdom is leading him into this study. This thing that he already knew was a mocker and he already had declared that who are deceived by it are not wise. Yet, he convinces himself that he can move in this direction and somehow some good will come out of this.

Isn't it amazing? We can look at the history books, for example, and we can see what's happened to other nations who are doing the things that we're doing. Who are headed in the direction that we're heading in. Who had certain philosophies they allowed to germinate in their society that led them into poverty and bankruptcy and heartache and destroying homes and families and taking away the sensibility of the people.

Leading in a sense to even civil war in the streets. We can look at the history of these things, but what is it in humanity that causes us to go back down the same path even though we know from history what the results are going to be? Remember, Solomon said there is nothing that we can do that will produce a different result than what has already been done. And so my question again for those that are listening today, what is it about humanity that we think we're smarter than God? That we can go back and do the same thing over and over again and somehow hoping to obtain a new or a different result from it, which is folly because it's simply not going to happen.

Now here's the key. In Romans chapter 1 beginning at verse 21, the apostle Paul really defines the problem. He says, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools.

I mean, think about that for a moment. Many have come before us in our nation, our time. If we look back in history, we have to admit it was sovereignly given to us by God. We didn't obtain it by ourselves. He brought us together, this incredible and great experiment called America, where there was freedom of conscience and freedom of religion and a freedom to worship God according to his word.

And we know that he made us into more than we could ever hope to be in ourselves. And so we had this inherent knowledge of God, which was the cornerstone, and it was found everywhere in our society. It was founded at one time in our schools. It was found in our homes. It was found in our communities.

It was found on every corner with all of the churches that sprung up throughout the nation. And even though we did know God, we did not glorify him as God, which means that we didn't give him the place of prominence in our hearts that he deserves. We somehow fell to this incredible trap that people have fallen into all throughout society in history, that we are as smart as God is. And we can chart our own course. We can develop our own sense of what is right and what is wrong and what is going to bring us to a utopian end, even though history proves it doesn't.

Isn't that amazing? There's a history of certain types of government even throughout the world that have led to heartache, imprisonment, disaster, and even genocide. And yet in the foolishness of humanity, we will still move in these directions. There'll still be a great portion of society that said, let's just try it one more time.

Maybe it'll come out better this time than it has done for the thousands of years where it has been tried and it has failed and it has been proven to be nothing but creator of heartache in our societies. So we knew God, but did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful. Nor were thankful. You know, have you ever given a gift to somebody and they're not thankful for it and how it kind of can wound your heart when they don't know the sacrifice that you made to maybe sell something or to work extra hours so you could buy this for them?

You give it to them and it's like you didn't do anything for them. Think about this for a moment, that God sent his only begotten son into this world to die on the cross and suffer an inhumane and horrible death so that you and I might be forgiven our sins and we might know him in living relationship. And that was, of course, the bedrock of our society in America. But something happened to us. Maybe we just got enamored with our blessing.

I don't know. But we ceased to be thankful, which is evident by the lack of attendance even to the house of God in so many places. And they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing to be wise.

They became fools. You know, but God never leaves himself without a witness of his goodness for those who can hear. He not only warns us, as he has done, but he leaves us a witness of his goodness.

I set my watchman over you, he said to Jeremiah. Listen to the sound of the trumpet, but they said we will not listen. Now the trumpet is twofold. One part of the trumpet was to warn the people about an encroaching enemy, a threat to their freedom, to their very existence, to their health, to their well-being. That was a trumpet that was calling the people to action, to pick up your weaponry as it is that was formerly fashioned to defend yourselves, to resharpen your skills, to prepare to fight for the society that you've been given, the truth that you've been given.

And the other side of the trumpet was really a trumpet called jubilee. The trumpet was blown to let people know that there's this incredible moment of mercy that God is willing to give us if we will call out to him, if we will come to the place of saying, oh God, what have we done with what you gave us? How unthankful we have become. What did we let get into our society? Why did we think that serving you or being grateful to you or just recognizing and acknowledging your truth, where did we ever start to get the thoughts that this was somehow deficient or that we were smarter than this? Why did we experience such blessing in our society then suddenly decide to cast it off and to raise our children without you and to even go so far as to telling them you don't exist, forbidding them to talk to you in our high schools and then radicalizing them against you in our colleges, in our profession of wisdom?

Isn't it true that we became fools? But yet, not only do you warn us, but you sound the trumpet and you tell us that there's still a way to life if we will turn to you. You know, recently we were in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where we had an opportunity to pray in the house that's built on the foundation of the very first house in America. And the scripture that God gave us many, many of us are familiar with. Second Chronicles 7 14, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. And the Lord said to Solomon, now my eyes are open and my ears are listening for the prayer that will be prayed in this place.

And my heart will be there perpetually. And so God was saying to the people, you may distance yourself from me. And in that distancing from me, you may find yourself in a fearful place, a place of captivity, a place where you say, oh God in heaven, what have we done with what you gave us? There's a parable in the scripture of a son that left his father's house and finally living literally in a field with pigs.

He got to the point of saying, God, what am I doing here? I have an inheritance. My father has a house. I had a place there.

What did I do? How did I, how did I vacate that house? And so part of the trumpet call of God is that invitation to come back, come back to what you left behind. It's, it's, it's like the, the pleading spouse for a husband or wife that's packed their suitcase and they're, they're heading out the front door down the steps and into the driveway. And the, the marriage partner is saying, please consider your ways. You're going to bring heartache to our children. All of the, the Thanksgivings, all of the Christmas times, all of the birthday celebrations from here on in will be marred.

And what should be happy times will be filled with heartache. Won't you consider your ways? Won't you turn around? Can't we just talk together? Can't we work this situation out? You know, we see that heard on the cross where he said, father, forgive them.

They don't know what we do. I, I see him as, as that jilted spouse as it is, is standing on the front porch saying, consider your ways. Come back to me. There's still a hope. There's still a chance.

There's still a future. And this is what the Lord has put on my heart. If I am such a thing as a watchman, I'll let you determine that. I don't give myself a title, but if I am, it's on my heart to speak on God's behalf and say, America, come back to Jesus Christ.

Come back to what made you a nation that was the envy of the world. Come back to this place where I was your God and you were my people. But now you have so hardened your resolve that even though I set watchmen to call you back, you, you say in your heart, I will not listen. But yet the trumpet of God is still sounding. The words of Jesus still ring. Remember, Thomas said to him, Lord, how do we know where you're going? We don't even know the way. And Jesus said to him, I am the way. I am the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me. So for anybody out there today, you're looking for this utopian future. You're hoping that a, a glass ball will drop in New York City and somehow your life is going to be transformed. May I just suggest to you that you really are living in delusion? I say it kindly.

Nothing is going to change. It's all been tried before. I've been there several times in New York City when the ball comes down, everybody's euphoric and they're all happy.

And suddenly that euphoria, just a few minutes after the ball comes down, just turns to a disappointment, oftentimes anger and depression, because they were looking to a glass ball to somehow make their lives what they were hoping it's going to be. But Jesus said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life that you're looking for. I'm not, I'm in the life that you're seeking with the, the place that you think is going to give you happiness in the future is all found in me. And no one can come to the father, which is God himself. No one can get there except through me. Chart your own course if you want.

Do like Solomon. Say, well, I'm just going to try this and see if it makes me happy. Go, go and do these things. But it's all been done in the past. It's all recorded. History tells us that none of these things have ever worked for anybody else.

And might I suggest they're not going to work for you either. It's, it's all there. Nothing is new.

Nothing, nothing, nothing that's been tried before in this world is ever going to produce any kind of a different result. In John chapter 10, verses nine and 10, Jesus said, I am the door. In other words, if you're, if you're looking for some way into stability, into a place of happiness or fulfillment or eternal life, Jesus said, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. In other words, if you come to me, I will bring you to a place of abundance that you have longed for.

You're not going to find it in wine. You're not going to find it by going to embracing old philosophies and systems that have proven themselves to be deficient throughout history. I am the door. You see the, the one beautiful thing about Jesus Christ is, is that he has been proven.

Every, when it comes to him, the same thing happens. People are saved. That means forgiven of their sin and they enter into this place of abundance in God. As the scripture promises, a place where you receive a new heart, you're given a new mind, you're given a new future, a place where the chains of your past are broken. The hopelessness of your situation gives way to the dawn of light that can only come from God.

And then he goes on to say in John 10, 10, the thief, which is the devil himself, and everything that he infuses into this world does not come except for to steal and to kill and to destroy. In other words, try what you will. Establish your own form of what you think is happiness. Govern yourself.

Just do it your own way. But I'm telling you, it's always going to end up in theft and violence and destruction. But he said, I have come that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly. In other words, I've come to give you a purpose. I've come to give you as America wants new as a nation. I'll make you more than you are.

I'll take you farther than you can go. I'll give you more than you could ever possess in any amount of your own ingenuity or strength or intelligence. I will make you a people to be wondered at. I am the one who gives a purpose in life.

I give abundance. Psalm 119, verse 105, the Psalmist says, my word, the word of God, my word is a lamp and a light. The word of God gives us a direction, gives us stability, gives us boundaries, gives us hope, gives us right thinking in a very, very, very, very confused world. And then lastly, one of my favorite scriptures for this new year is 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17. God says to the apostle Paul, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, the old things are passed away and all things are become new. That was the one scripture that really gripped my heart in the days before I knew Jesus Christ as my own Lord and Savior. I remember thinking, is it possible?

Is it true? Can this old truth, can it do what it's always done for other people? And an old truth that we would be wise to search for in a new year, that if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Old habits, old patterns, old bondages, old selfishness, old struggles, whatever it is. This new year, the best thing you can do for yourself and for your family and for your family is go back into the word of God and say, God, your truth is old, but it always produces new life.

It always does the same thing it's always done. You will cleanse them of the stain of the wrong that they've done in their lives that have separated them from God. You will bring them into right relationship with God.

And by the Spirit of God, they will be changed from what they used to be to the person that you have destined them to be. This is a wonderful old truth that we need again in this new year. America, may I say it this way? May I say it clearly and simply? We have to turn back to God.

There is no other solution for everything that we're facing today. We have to go back into the place of prayer and just say, Lord, God, forgive me for searching for something new when you have proven yourself over the centuries. You've shown yourself to be faithful.

And there are so many testimonies around me of people's lives that have been transformed and changed. And God, why would I leave that? Why would I do what the Roman church did and just kind of hear this and just walk away from it and treat it casually and just go my own way, professing that I'm learning on this journey and I'm just becoming a fool? Why would I do like Solomon when he had the truth and he left the answer to pursue the question? What a foolish man he became. Little did he know the heartache it was going to bring into his home and his life and his family, just this one foolish thing, taking what he knew to be wrong and trying to make it right when you can't because history proves and he knew that you could not take wrong and turn it into right. You can't change the outcome. If you throw a rock up in the air and you stand under it, it's going to hit you on the head no matter how much you try to convince yourself that gravity doesn't exist. In the same way, if you walk away from God, there are certain things that the scripture warns are going to become part of your life, your mind, your home, your family, your neighborhood, your society, even your country.

History has proven it over and over and over and over again. You know, we would be a wise people to learn from the mistakes of those who have come before us in the past and learn from the successes of those who have gone before us. So I'm sitting at this table today talking to you and I am one of the successes. God has touched my life. He taught me how to be a husband. He taught me how to be a father. He took it with selflessness out of my life. He delivered me from fear. He just gave me a new, a full, and a wonderful life. And this is my hope and my prayer for you this new year, that you will find this old truth in this faithful God who has not, cannot, and will not ever fail you. God loves you.

And I pray for you with all my heart that this new year you will rediscover this old truth. Thanks for joining us today for this 2021 New Year's Special with Carter Conlon of Times Square Church in New York City. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc.