Hello, and welcome to Carter Conlon's 2023 Christmas special, Twas the Night Before Crisis. Let's join Carter in studio now.
This is Carter Conlon. I want to welcome you to another Christmas season, another Christmas special this time of year. You know, it always seems to me that Christmas, at least the first one, was associated with a season of crisis. And I think you'd have to be willfully blind not to see that we're in a season of crisis as a people, as a society, again today. But I do thank God with all my heart that in spite of what we see around us, God is still in control.
And there is still a light. There's still a dawn coming at the end of a very, very dark season. That's why I've entitled this message, Twas the Night Before Crisis. And I encourage you to stay with it because we're going to finish with what I believe is a revelation at the end of what God's about to do in our time.
I think you'd be quite pleased to see this and I think your heart will bear witness to it. Father, give us the ability to see you in the midst of this darkened time we're now living in. When evil has become good and good is being purported to be evil, Lord, we recognize we're in another season as those before us that have gone through the similar deep waters. But yet in the midst of it all, your hand was there. You still had a people and truth still prevailed.
It still prevails today. And so Father, we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Let me start from Luke chapter two, beginning at verse eight to 12 and then verse 17, just about the shepherds, because I'm going to start with the shepherds today and I want to finish with the shepherds at the end of this program today. Luke chapter two, verse eight. Now that we're in the same country, shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
So let's stop there just for a moment and sit on that verse. And here are young people, most likely, maybe some middle-aged, it's hard to tell for sure, but there are people who are diligently keeping watch over that which was given into the care of their hands. They're not in it for themselves.
They're in it for the sake of those that were given to them for care. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And they were greatly afraid. This was a sudden appearing of a messenger from God.
They never ever expected that God was going to come to them because in their day, they were considered perhaps among the lower echelons of society of that time. Then the angel said to them, do not be afraid. This is the message I bring to you today too as well.
Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. Then we go forward to verse 17. It says, now when they had seen him, these are the shepherds, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. Now this is really an integral part of what God's given me to speak on today.
So we'll get to this at the end of this message. Seasons where days grow dark have come, they've gone many times before, the days now surrounding us and before us. However, in each season, the light of God, no matter how small, was still there. Listen to what the psalmist says in Psalm 30 and verses four to five. The psalmist says, sing praise to the Lord, you saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment.
His favor is for life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. In other words, the psalmist is saying, think on the name of God and even though we reject him, even though we bring ourselves into a place where his justice becomes our portion for a season as a society, for example, or perhaps as a nation, but his favor, his desire to show mercy is for life. Weeping may endure for a night. We may find ourselves in a place of weeping. We may be weeping for the lost cause, but we may find ourselves in a place where we may be for the lost of civility in our society today or the confusion that's come upon our children, our homes, and our families, the threats of godlessness attempting to eradicate everything that we hold dear in our lives. This weeping may endure for a night. We may have to go through a season as they did in the first Christmas, but joy comes in the morning.
You know, in another time preceding the one we're talking about today, the days looked foreboding and dark. It was many, many years ago where suddenly a report comes to the people of God of that time and the report simply was, Uzziah is dead. Now, Uzziah was a king over the nation of Israel at that time and through the reign of Uzziah, the nation knew 51 years of unprecedented prosperity. It was an absolutely amazing time under Uzziah's leadership.
You look at the litany of things that were done in the days of Uzziah and it's absolutely stunning how God blessed the nation. He was only 16 when he came into power. He was just young.
You think of America as a young nation just founded and formed only a little over 400 years ago. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all his father Amaziah had done. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding in the visions of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.
This is from 2 Chronicles chapter 26 beginning at the beginning of the chapter. So there was a season in a sense under Uzziah where the ways of God and the ways of government were working hand in hand with one another. And because of it, this incredible blessing of the Lord came upon the nation. He made war against his enemies, broke down their walls of protection. God helped him mightily against all of the enemies that tried to distinguish perhaps his young his young leadership and even the nation in those early years. He was famous all over the known world of that time and the scripture says he became exceedingly strong. Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, the valley gate and the corner buttress. In other words, he was able to fortify the areas of his own nation against all of the enemies. He built towers in the desert.
He dug wells. He had livestock in the lowlands. In other words, there was an incredible prosperity, an abundance of provision for all of the people. And we look back on the history of this nation of America, for example, and we think about the cattle. We think about the lives, not just the livestock, but all of the all the provision, the fields just blowing full of grain and how God had so blessed a nation that was founded by those who wanted to honor the name of Christ and wanted this nation to be a bastion of godliness in the world. Now, I recognize today that America made tragic mistakes along the way, but we've always been a nation. It appeared that God could at least reason with the nation and bring us back in line with what truth really is. Uzziah had an incredible army with a really skilled leadership and there was a might that the scripture talks about the army of 307,000 mighty men of war, men of valor. It's amazing that you think of the history, even of this country, the battles that have been fought, the battles that have been won, and how the military was known as one of the strongest powers throughout the world.
And you recognize that all of this was done in 400 years. I mean, other nations that had been around much longer didn't have the opportunities that America had to develop the kind of fame and power that God gave to this country. Uzziah was able to outfit this army and he was able to invent weapons of war that had never been seen in the known world of that particular time.
That goes without having to say, you know, the weapons of war that were manufactured in America and became famous throughout the world. And the scripture says his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong. And, you know, it's an amazing thing how history will repeat itself. You see, this king, helped by God, brought to reputation, incredible provision, a military ability, a sound reasoning and thinking, the ways of the nation cooperating with the ways of God. You see the priesthood and the government working together in unison. But when he was strong, the scripture says his heart was lifted up to his destruction. And here's what Uzziah did. Uzziah started to believe that he could change the laws of God and somehow not suffer a consequence personally or consequence to the nation.
He went into the temple and he began to do that which God had strictly forbidden in the scriptures. And we think of this nation today, how we so arrogantly have redefined the things that God has clearly defined in scripture, from the sexuality of our children to the marriage, you look at all of these things that we're doing, laws that have been passed against righteousness, starting to impugn the word of God as hate speech and such like, and even now allowing this new AI Bible, it's being foisted on this society, reestablishing or redefining the word of God to fit a social agenda. What absolute nonsense to think that we can do these things and somehow escape the justice of God that came upon previous societies, even the people of God who have tried these things in the past. You know, I've always said the one thing that we learned from history is that we don't learn from history. So here we are doing the same thing all over again in our society, making this darkness, trying to make it into light and thinking that we're not going to suffer the consequence of it. Now, when Uzziah went into the temple and attempted to do that which he had been forbidden to do, the scripture says that he became angry against the word of God.
This is the first thing that happened. There were valiant men that went in and they said, you can't do this. This is against the word of God.
This is not a good thing that you're doing. You're going to bring judgment upon yourself and you're going to bring weakness, in a sense, into the nation. But Uzziah, it says, actually became furious against the word of God. You tell me, my brother, my sister, are we not there now in America? We're furious as a society against the word of God that tells us certain things can't be done without a consequence. But we want to set our judgment above the word and the judgment of God and somehow say, no, we know what is good and we know what is evil and we know we have the ability to determine our future. We can establish our own sense of right and wrong and somehow we're not going to suffer the consequence that those before us have suffered. We're going right back into the Garden of Eden where Satan himself came in and he infused a thought into the hearts of our first parents, Adam and Eve. And here was the thought he infused into them. You can be godly without God and you don't need God to tell you what is right and what is wrong. You can determine what is right and what is wrong all by yourself. You can create your own laws, your own righteousness, your own sense of right and your own sense of wrong.
And have we not done that again in our generation? Here's King Uzziah angered now, furious actually at those who were standing perhaps before him. The genuine priesthood of the time, may I put it that way, and as he stretched out his hand against them, leprosy broke out in his forehead. Now there's a reason I believe why this happened because this man was diseased in his mind and the manifestation of his mental disease, his spiritual mental disease came to his forehead because that's where the disease really was. It was this thought that I can exalt myself above the knowledge of God. And because I've had so much success for so many years, surely God can't have a problem with this.
It's the danger I think of being marvelously helped. We start to believe that we no longer need the God who helped us, that we can now govern ourselves and guide ourselves. And the leprosy struck him in his forehead, which was a sign of the disease in his mind. And the scripture says he had to be hidden from the people. He had to be put away in a place where he was hidden. Although he was still king for a season, because his mind was diseased, he had to be kept secluded from the people.
Go God. This is what happens to nations that set themselves above the word and the wisdom of God. You can end up with a diseased leader, diseased in the mind who has to be kept hidden from the people. That's what happened in these days in Israel under King Uzziah. Now, there would be a lot of people in that particular time that would be thinking, oh God, you're still a God of mercy. You can heal Uzziah and you can bring us back to those good old days, the days when we were a virtuous, at least we thought we were virtuous people, the days when truth was still truth, the days when families were still families, the days when people knew whether they were male or female.
They understood these things. You can bring us back, oh God. But then one day the message comes, Uzziah is dead. And it represents a dark time. It represents the hope of returning to what used to be was gone.
Isn't that amazing? It was gone. And I feel in my heart that a lot of the people would have been saying, what is our hope now for the future? Because we're not going to go back to what we used to be.
So what is tomorrow going to look like? And I feel that that's in the heart of many of us this Christmas season. Oh God, where are you in this darkened time? And it seems like the hope of America ever going back to what she used to be, it seems like the hope of virtue has left us. And we're fighting now just for survival. And we have this deep abiding sense that we're on a crash course with a holy God. And we have determined a journey for ourselves and for the nation that is not going to end in anything good.
So while the people are crying out, something else is happening on the side. Because in Isaiah chapter six, the prophet Isaiah, who's just a young man, that's all he is. And he's doing his best at this point to serve God, to live for God. And his chapter, his account in a sense of that moment in history in chapter six, verse one says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
So here's the point of this. In the year that hope seemingly was lost for the nation ever going back to what it used to be, God is still doing something. There's still a light at the end of the tunnel. Unbeknownst to most of the nation, the Lord has drawn a young man into his presence. He still is in authority. He still has a plan. He's still going to bless the nation.
He's still going to bring the word of God to the nation. But he has in a sense bypassed maybe the existing order of the day, may I call it that, the existing religious order for whatever reason, and reaches down to this young person in whose heart he sees a desire for truth and for life and for light, and suddenly draws him into his presence. When Isaiah comes into the presence of God, the first thing he sees is the holiness of God, the otherness of God. So you might be experiencing that actually in your own life right now. You might find yourself being strangely drawn into the presence of God, and you're becoming aware that everything in you apart from Christ falls short of the glory of God. That's what God has to do if he's going to raise another voice in this generation.
A lot of the religionists, I suppose, of this and other times, they feel like they have this right to be in the presence of God. But God was drawing this young man, Isaiah, into his presence, and he said, I'm going to use you. I'm going to speak through you.
You're going to have a panoramic view of my plan on the earth. But before this ministry begins, I need you to understand this partnership. It's all about me. It's all about my mercy, God says. It's my message and not yours.
It's my strength and not yours. You're going to see your unworthiness to even be in my presence, but I'm going to touch you with a coal from my altar, and I'm going to cleanse you with my mercy. And your message, although there's going to be justice in it and judgment will be part of it, your message is going to have that underlying blanket in a sense of mercy.
That foundation of mercy is going to be what carries you because you have understood clearly what you are without my presence in your life, without my mercy in your life. I'm going to commission you, Isaiah said, to go to a generation that have become so hardened against truth that the majority will not hear your voice. But about one in 10 are going to hear you.
A tenth, he said, I will give you a tenth. One in 10 are going to hear you. That means in America, more than 30 million people will still be open to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we took this moment in history under Isaiah as a pattern, wouldn't that be wonderful to have 30 million people in this country turned back to God at this time? 30 million people begin to lay hold of truth one more time. 30 million people begin to stand up in the marketplace and declare Jesus Christ is Lord. 30 million people begin to teach their children what the word of God says, not what the prevalent order of the day is trying to tell them.
30 million people. And it all begins with this one man that God drew into his presence. Remember, weeping may endure for a night, as the scripture says, but joy comes again in the morning. Now, what happened to the people in Uzziah's day? I don't know whether they cried out or not.
I assume that some of them must have. God, what are we going to do? Just as in the days of Paul when he was on that ship in Acts chapter 27, it started to go down and everyone there started to cry out to God. The same way the ship began to sink in the days of Jonah the prophet and everyone there began to cry out to God. And I'm assuming that there were people in this day when Uzziah died that began to cry out. And God responded to that cry and he gave them another 16 years, another 16 years of righteous reign.
It was amazing. This new king called Jotham was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. Now, the mercy moment only lasted 16 years and then another leader came and brought them back into even a deeper place of evil. But by God's grace, 16 years was given to the nation.
This is my prayer now. Oh God, have mercy on America and we do deserve your judgment for what we have done, what we've allowed to happen to our children, the kind of aberrant theology we've allowed even in the house of God in your name. But oh Jesus Christ, would you have mercy on this nation?
This is my cry almost every day now. God have mercy. And I call it a mercy moment. Give us a mercy moment in the nation. Give us a moment, Lord, if justice is coming to this nation or into this whole world as we know it today, let there be a moment of mercy that precedes it. This 16 year period that was given to these people of this time, God give us this moment.
Give us this season, Lord, where people can still cry out to you, still find you as Lord and Savior and still turn to you. Now in the same way in a season in Luke chapter two when it was dark, the Roman empire had come in and overthrown the promised land. The people were in a similar situation to what we're in today. They were over, they were supposed to be a virtuous, righteous people, but here they are literally overthrown by a foreign way of thinking, overpowered. The people of God overpowered by that which was not supposed to have power over them. And when we do abandon truth, that's what can happen to a nation. And so where's the light in a sense?
Where is the light in this particular moment for these people of this particular time? And the interesting thing is in the days of Uzziah, they were given a new leader. He was young, he was only 25 years old, but under his leadership for 16 years, he sought God, even though the scripture says the people continued, many of the people continued to do wickedly. God did give them righteous leadership for another 16 year period. And when I look in Luke chapter two, and I think of how hard and how dark that day was when people are being herded like cattle all over the place, just for the point of counting them and taxing them, it would have been so confusing, but God had a plan.
And here's the plan. He appeared to shepherds and he gave the message of his coming to shepherds. And I want to say, thank God that in these last days, he's going to give his people shepherds again after his own heart. He bypassed the religious elite of the day who were using their theology for their own comfort.
He bypassed those who are giving out more questions than answers to the people. And he went out into the, just like he did with young Isaiah, he just goes out into the field and he finds these people who are, they're given to caring for those things that are put under their hand. And he gave them the message of this child, Jesus Christ, this plan of God of redemption in the earth. The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they'd seen and heard as it was told them. And the scripture says they made this thing known, which had come to pass, which the Lord had shown to them. God is going to give us shepherds again after his own heart.
The days of the religious clown show in America are over. He's going to raise up young people. He's going to raise up older people. I don't know who they all are, but they are shepherds and they're going to have a vision of God. They're going to see the plan of God in the midst of this darkness and make it known to the people. It is the night before crisis.
Yes, it's true. But thank God on that first Christmas night, even though they were in crisis, God came to shepherds and the shepherds ultimately came to the people because that was their heart. It was not about themselves.
It was about the people. Father God, in Jesus' name, give us shepherds again in America. Oh, God rid us of the hirelings that stand in pulpits. Encourage the shepherds who are already there and bring new ones in, oh God, and bring the message of your redemption, your power, your compassion, your eternal heaven, the right and wrong of God.
Bring it back into public view again. And Father, we thank you for it and we praise you for it in Jesus' name. Have a wonderful Christmas and remember this one thing, Jesus Christ is still in control of all things. Thank you so much for joining us for Carter Conlon's Christmas Special, Twas the Night Before Crisis. For more specials like these, log on to www.carterconlon.com. Merry Christmas.
