Perversion at the Schoolhouse Door

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. The one that leads me to believe that we've tested the limit of God's patience is when perversion arrived at the schoolhouse door, attempting to make the innocence of this society partakers of grievous moral sin in this nation.

That's Carter Conlon from the historical Times Square Church in New York City. In Isaiah chapter 1, we find the nation of Israel has rebelled against the ways and the word of God, to the point where we find God has no other choice but to discipline them and bring them back to righteousness. We live in a day where America as a nation has fallen into this same pattern, and as Carter will point out, we have crossed the line with God when we choose our sin over protecting our children.

Here's Carter with his message, Perversion at the Schoolhouse Door. I've come to the point, and I think as you have, that I have to recognize that America is now under the judgment of God. We're not close to the judgment of God, we're now under the judgment of God.

The signs of that are not even debatable anymore. And I want to talk about the one sign that tells us that we've come to the end. There's a testing and a time and a trial of the patience of God, but the patience of God has limits.

With any society historically, whether it's our present day or whether it's throughout history, when perversion arrives at the schoolhouse door, then we have come to the end. We've come to the point where we've brought the judgment of God. We've actually as a nation tested the honor of God and the character of God.

Remember in the book of Proverbs, he warned us, he said, don't enter into the fields of the fatherless and don't remove the ancient landmarks because the redeemer is mighty. And he says himself, I will rise up and I will contend for them. And so we as a nation now have challenged the honor of God.

I have no doubt about that. We've challenged his word and we said, Lord, if you are who you are, then you prove that you are the one. This nation doesn't believe that God will rise up and defend the children. I happen to believe that he will, that his word and his honor are at stake.

And as a nation, now the physical nation, the boundaries of the United States of America will probably stay the same, but the nation as we've known it is about to radically change, perhaps even disappear from its 400 year history and become something completely other. It's sad to have to say this, but I feel in my heart that we've arrived at the place and unless you think this ends in gloom and doom, it doesn't. There's a remedy for the righteous, for those who can still hear the voice of God, for those who have a desire in a sense to maybe not the strength, but at least a desire to get up and get out of this incredibly immoral, confused time that we're now living in.

I want to show you the way out. So Father, I thank you, God, for the ability to stand again in this pulpit as in any other throughout the nation. And I recognize, Lord, I have no more authority than what you have chosen to give me. I don't have any other thoughts than the thoughts that you have planted in my heart and in my mind.

I have no delight in delivering this word. I recognize that there are people online from all over the world who are bruised and beaten and confused. So Lord, I pray, God, for a tenderness in my speech in what you've given me to speak and that ultimately hope will come into the hearts of those branches, as we heard, that are broken, but have the capability of bearing much fruit for your kingdom. Show us how to do that, O God.

Show us how to get up and get out of this perishing immoral and confused society that's all around us now. And God Almighty, we give you the praise and the glory for it in Jesus' name. I want to start with the book of Isaiah chapter 1, where the people of God, of Isaiah's day, now keep in mind this was a nation, the nation of Israel was established to be a praise to God in the earth, as I believe America was. When you know the history, the true history of America, you know that it was a nation founded on the cornerstone of religious freedom, a nation that was dedicated by its early founders to the propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to righteous and biblical living. That was the purpose of the nation, a nation that made a promise or a covenant with God, as they saw it back in those days 400 years ago, that if God would do this for us, we would be a people who lived for him and we would strive to bring honor to his name in the earth. Just as the people of Israel were set apart in their day to bring a praise to the name of God in the earth. But there's something in the heart of man called sin. It's this innate desire in all of humanity to go our own way, to do our own thing, to establish our own borders, to create our own rules, to determine in our own hearts what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, in spite of what God says to literally, as Adam and Eve once did, to get up from under the ways of God and the words of God and to create our own words, create our own righteousness, craft our own futures and ultimately contrive our own utopian end.

As foolish as it might be, that's what we do. And the prophet Isaiah, in speaking to the people of God of his time, the Lord says through him, in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 4, Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors, they have forsaken the world, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. They've turned away backwards. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. So the nation has gotten to the point in Isaiah's time of such rebellion against the ways and the words and the will of God. But God says, though I try to get your attention, whether it's through enemies rising up that seemingly have more power than they should have, whether it's through famine, whatever the situation is, when I strike you, it's a discipline from God to get your attention to bring you back to righteousness.

And in a sense, he's saying through Isaiah, I've done it over and over and over again, but all you do is revolt more and more and more and more. You've gotten to the point where you've become deeply resistant to the things of God as a nation. Now, I'm not suggesting everyone in the nation is unrighteous, so don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying there are not righteous churches in the country. I'm talking about the society as a whole. God is speaking about his people as a whole, as an entire society. The society of Isaiah's day has lost its purpose as we've lost ours in our generation, although there are still righteous people in it. The overall trajectory of the society is away from God.

It wasn't debatable in Isaiah's time and it's not debatable as well in our time. He says, the whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot, even to the head, there's no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.

They've not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. In other words, God's saying, I was there with healing, but you would not come. I pleaded with you. I wanted to mend up your broken branches, wanted to heal you in those places where there are breaches, but you wouldn't come.

You chose your own way. Your country, listen to this condition of the nation in chapter one, verse seven, and just superimpose it in a sense over this nation today. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire.

Strangers devour your land in your presence and it is desolate, overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth and a vineyard and as a hut and a garden of cucumbers as a besieged city. So the people of God, the righteous of God are huddling together.

That's the picture, I guess, that's presented here. The righteous of God are not permeating the nation any longer, but huddling together in groups and most likely trying to retain a sense of godliness in the midst of all of what's going on. And a besieged city, hammered on every side, spoken evil against. Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah. And so Isaiah is saying, or God's saying through Isaiah, it was only the righteous that remained in the nation that kept it from going headlong into utter depravity. There's a whole lot more happening when you and I, happening for good, when you and I choose to walk in right relationship with God. You have no idea that the restraining force of God's presence is within our lives.

If we choose to walk with God, if we choose to read the word of God, if we choose to pray, if we turn away from that which defiles the name of Christ, there is an incredible pushback power against the powers of darkness in simply living a righteous life in this or any other generation. We look at our society today and it's not even debatable that order has given away to confusion. Our government is confused.

Who can debate that? Our society has gone into confusion. Our morality is being swallowed by confusion. Our economy is in a confused state.

Our military are losing their military might and are more concerned with titles and pronouns and such like. And even now we're starting to experience distribution and production of basic goods is now in jeopardy. They're talking about food shortages in America and people are starting to notice that it's hard to buy cars. It's hard to get basic goods now and it's going to get worse. People who are in the economic know in this country are warning us. They're telling us that it's going to get worse before and they're not even talking about it getting better.

They're just talking about maybe holding the standard and trying to stop the slide into the deprivation in the sense of basic goods and services that we come to take for granted over so many years. If you have the time, read Deuteronomy chapter 28 and listen to the warnings of God to his own people of what will happen if you choose to turn away from a living relationship with the living God. And everything we are experiencing today as a nation is in Deuteronomy chapter 28. As a matter of fact, it's unfolding in the sequence in which it is spoken. It's amazing. Just read it.

Just study it. Look at it. Look at the warnings of God. If you turn from me, this is what is going to happen. And you can see it, the order. We are actually following the same order of warning that is in Deuteronomy chapter 28 when God was warning his own people, when he brought them out of captivity, was taking them into the land of promise, the place that they wanted to dwell in.

He was taking them there and he was warning them of what was going to happen to them if they turned from him. Now the signs are everywhere and they're now undeniable. I don't think there's anybody with a rational mind who's a believer in Christ that can deny the reality of the fact that we are now under the judgment of God has been released on this nation.

There's no doubt about that in my mind whatsoever. But the only one, the one that leads me to believe that we've tested the limit of God's patience is when perversion arrived at the schoolhouse door, attempting to make the innocence of this society partakers of grievous moral sin in this nation. When that happened, when they arrived at the door, that was the flashpoint of God's patience with former nations. And it is the flashpoint in my opinion of God's patience with this nation.

I don't want anybody to misunderstand. I think the days of this nation are now numbered. I think we have tested the patience of God. I don't know what the future is going to bring, but I do know that as the people of God, the scripture says we're not in darkness that we should be overtaken by a thief.

We're not a people of fear. We've been given of God power. We've been given of God the ability to love even in unlovable times. We've been given a sound mind to know that the world is not meant to be a picnic for the Christian.

We were left here. We were told there would be tribulation. We were told that the world would at one day hate all of us because of the name of Christ. We were foretold of these things. They should not be taking anybody by surprise, but we're also told that we were going to be given the strength to stand where we're going to be light set upon a hill that cannot be hidden. We were told that we were going to be made into the salt of the earth, where we're going to be a testimony of the goodness and the greatness of our God, no matter what happens in our day and in our society.

Now, I want to take a quick look in Genesis chapter 18 and 19 of the pattern of God's dealing with moments like this, which we have already seen in scripture. Now, Billy Graham once said it, I think as good as anybody could ever say it. He said, if God doesn't soon judge America, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. I believe that.

I believe that. The standards of God are the same. When we push God to the limits that other societies have pushed God, we can expect to see the judgments of God increase. Then, of course, as with the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, it comes to a point where God says it's gone on enough. For the sake of this earth as it is, I've got to eradicate this society away from the face of the earth. In Genesis chapter 18 and verse 20, the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they've done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.

And if not, I will know. And in Genesis chapter 19, beginning at verse four, we have two angels that came into Sodom. They come in to see the city. They come in to see if the cry that has come up to heaven is as bad as it has been reported. Now, it says, before they lay down, as they came into the city and a man called Lot invited them to come and stay in his house that night. He said, it's too dangerous to stay in the street.

Have you noticed how dangerous it's getting in our cities now? Now, before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.

So here's the scene. There's two strangers have come into town. They're messengers from God. They're not partakers of the sin of Sodom, but the Sodomites. These are men who are attracted to men and boys, and they're all together. And they surround the house. And they said, bring the men out.

They came into you tonight because we want to have sexual relations with them. That's really what this is all about. This is the level of depravity that society can come to when we turn away from God. And human nature does not change. Human nature is the same. And this is where American society is heading today.

We are heading wholesale at full speed into perversion, deeper and darker perversion almost by the hour. And they called to Lot and said, where are the men that came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally. So Lot went out to them to the doorway and shut the door behind him. And he said, please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly. See, now I have two daughters who have not known a man.

Please let me bring them out to you. And you may do to them as you wish, only do nothing to these men since this is the reason that they've come under the shadow of my roof. Now I've read a lot of commentaries on this. A lot of people say, how could Lot even do this? One commentary I read said it this way. Lot knew that these men were not interested in women.

And they basically that's the reality. They wanted to have sex with other men. And so he knew he was just really biding for time to figure out something to do. And I think he perhaps hopefully knew that no harm would actually come to his daughters. And as a matter of fact, no harm did come to them. And they said, that's the men standing outside and boy stand back. They said, this man came in to stay here and he keeps acting as a judge.

Now we'll deal worse with you than with them. So they pressed hard against the man Lot and came near to break down the door. But the men reached out their hands and pulled out into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door. In attempting to make the innocent partakers of their sin, they had now openly challenged the honor and the integrity of God.

And this is exactly what we have now done. You'll notice that perversion is at the door of the schoolhouse in America today. Drag queens reading stories to children in kindergarten.

Unthinkable 10, 15 years ago, even 20 years ago, unthinkable that we'd have to do this. Children being, I in my opinion, deliberately gender confused by an agenda, an evil agenda of perversion because ultimately a lot of these people want access to the children. That's the bottom line of the whole thing. They're now calling sexual perversion with children. There's a book out that somebody wrote and it's called Minor Attracted People. Now it's no longer sexual perverts wanting after children, but it's called Minor Attracted Persons. They're now changing the language. We're living in an evil time, folks. Let's make no mistake about this. This is an evil day we're now living in. God help us. God be merciful to us.

There's nothing we can do as the people of God, but live righteous lives now and call out to the Lord and say, God, for the sake of the children. We remember when Pharaoh went after the children, that's when God sent Moses. That's when he sent a word. That's when his power was made known. That's when a way was made out of an impossible captivity. That's when the people of God were brought out of this evil place and they were brought in to, even if it looked like a wilderness, it was still the plan and the pathway of God to bring them home to himself. It was at this point and you'll see that all throughout history when the enemy goes after the children, that's the end of that society.

That was the end of Egypt as a world power. It will be the end of any society that sets their hands against the field of the fatherless because God has decreed himself to be a defender of the fatherless. He said, you move those landmarks and you enter into their fields and I will rise up and contend with you.

So anybody who's listening to this message today, make no mistake about it. As a nation, we have challenged the very honor of God. We have challenged the integrity of God in the time that we're now living in. You dare not rise up against a holy God and those who sneer at this message, you will soon stand before a holy God and you will soon find out you don't play games with a holy God. When he says he will defend the children, he will rise and he will defend the children. And so what are we to do as the people of God, especially those that are online that are struggling, marriages that are falling apart, people that are suffering with addiction and depression or even just mixture.

There are so many of God's people that are living in mixture at this time. As Lot was, Lot was a man who was in this society. The Bible describes him as righteous in the New Testament, but he had no effect. He had no influence because he was too mixed in the ways of that society. He was given to the thinking of the people of that time and probably the pursuits of many of the people and they just considered him. He wasn't really the light on a hill that he was supposed to be.

He wasn't the voice that could challenge this encroaching darkness. But suddenly the messengers of God came to him and came to his house like I'm coming to your house. Whether you like it or not, if you're online listening, I am in your house right now. I'm in your living room.

Wherever you are, I am there right now. The Lord has commissioned me to come to you. The Lord has commissioned me to warn the nation that we are on the edge of the judgment of almighty God.

But there's another thing. He has also sent me to everyone who's mixed, who's struggling, who doesn't know how to go forward. He says, I am going to send a message to you and all I want you to do is reach out and take my hand, the Lord says, and let me lead you out. When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, arise, take your wife, your daughters who are here with you, lest you be consumed in the punishment of this city. And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, in the hands of his two daughters, and the Lord being merciful to him and brought him out and set him outside of the city. God is a God of mercy. You may not be able to, but God can bring your wife, your husband, your daughters, your sons out of the judgment of this present day we're now living in and into the mercy of almighty God through Jesus Christ.

And you would say to me, pastor, what is it that I'm to do? It's simple. Even as you do this gesture as an act of faith, reach out your hand into the hand of God and say, Jesus, I can't get out. I can't save myself. I can't change myself. I can't change my family. But God, you can.

I believe you can. You sent a message to me and I believe the message that you've sent to me. So I'm asking you now, Lord Jesus Christ, to have mercy on me, have mercy on my family, have mercy on my children. That is what the Lord is asking you to do tonight.

No more, no less than that. Reach out your hand and say, Jesus, I need you. Jesus, I can't save myself. Jesus, I believe that you died on a cross 2000 years ago and you took the punishment for my sin upon yourself so that I could go free. Jesus Christ, I confess you as the son of God. I confess you as my savior.

I confess you as the one who's reaching out to bring me to a place that I can't go to by myself. And I have decided that as your hand touches mine, I'm going to get up and I'm going to let you lead me where I need to go. I'm going to let you make me into the man or woman or young person that I need to be.

I'm not going to try to do it on my own anymore because I can't. But Oh God, with your hand in mine, I can. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can become the person that you have destined me to be. I can be brought out of captivity and into freedom in Jesus Christ.

I can become a person that can make a difference in my generation. That is the cry of my heart and let it be the cry of your heart. My brother, my sister, you don't have to go down with this perishing world. Jesus Christ came to get you 2000 years ago. He died on a cross. He made an open display of every power of hell that believes it has the right to take you and your children into captivity.

He made an open show of it. And when he was raised from the dead, he took your captivity captive and gave you the gift of eternal life. If you will reach out and take it to yourself. If you will put your hand in the hand of the son of God.

Hallelujah to the lamb of God. You don't have to go down with the ship. You understand, you don't have to perish with this society. You could have new life. You can have eternal life.

You can have a meaningful life, not just you, but your family. I believe that with all my heart. In the book of Acts, there's an old dirty Philippian jailer who believed the gospel when Paul shared it with him and took Paul and Silas home. And not only was he saved that day, but his children, his wife, everybody was baptized.

They all came to Christ because he opened his heart and opened his hand to the offer of God's forgiveness and the offer of change that God promises to those who set their fections on him. So that's my cry to you and everyone who's listening online. You can turn to Christ and you can be forgiven and you can be free.

You don't have to die in your sin. You don't have to sit on the side of the road and watch this society perish all around you. You can make a difference with Christ in your life and with your hand in the hand of God.

Your life can make a profound difference in this generation, starting in your own home. You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk in Christ, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. And be sure to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. We'll be right back.