Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. I'm telling you, because of what God will do in your life if you will hear His voice, others will come to Jesus because of you. Welcome to this week's edition of A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. Carter reminds us, if ever there was a time that you and I need to hear the voice of God again, it's right now. If there was a time a generation needed to hear the voice of God, it's right now.
Let's join Carter as he takes us to John chapter 5 with his message titled, This is God. Can you hear me? There's so many voices vying for the hearts and minds of men, women, and young people.
So many opinions. There's no end to all of this speech and all of the words that are filling every room, every mind, every heart, halls of academia as we prayed about. And generally speaking, just into the minds of people everywhere. But there's one voice that is above every other voice. And the scripture bears witness that that voice can make a way through the waters. That voice can make a way through the fire, through the floods. That voice can give each of us a perspective on why we were born, what our life is really all about.
That voice can lead the way to freedom no matter how strong our enemies tried to be all around us. There is a voice above every other voice. It is the voice of the one who created the universe just by the words of his mouth. The voice of the one who looked at a little clump of dust in the earth one day and said to that little piece of dust, breathe. And that dust became a living soul. It's the voice of one who came to get us and said, come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden.
Come and learn of me. I'm meek and lowly and hard you shall find rest for your souls. It's the voice of the one who cried with such a cry in his last breath on the cross on Calvary that even a hardened Roman centurion said, surely this must be the son of God because he'd never heard a cry ever given at a moment of death like he had just heard. If ever there was a time that you and I need to hear the voice of God again, it's right now. If ever there's a time a generation needed to hear the voice of God, it's right now. And so I am appealing to the words of Jesus Christ himself, who once said, whatever you ask in prayer believing you shall receive.
Have faith in God. He said, Mark 11, for truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain be thou removed and be cast into the midst of the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that the things he says will come to pass. He will have whatever he says. And I say to you, whatever you ask in prayer, believing you shall receive.
Time for you and I to stand on those words that were spoken by the mouth of the son of God. He cannot lie. He does not exaggerate. He does not embellish.
He does not add anything to anything. What he says is absolute truth. And if he told me that whatever I ask in prayer believing I shall receive, then I am believing God for a spiritual awakening in my generation. I'm believing that the powers of darkness are going to be pushed one more time to the sides of the field as it is, and a straight path is going to be made right through into the heart of God. I'm believing that God is going to raise up young men, women, older men and women that are going to stand in the strength, the anointing of God's Holy Spirit. They're going to speak in unison with God, and God's voice is going to be heard again in our generation. I believe this with all of my heart. I believe we're going to live to see a mercy moment in this generation. No matter what has come against anyone in this world that we're living in today, there's a moment of mercy that is coming our way.
John, chapter 5, beginning at verse 24. Most assuredly, I say to you. Now, Jesus Christ never has to say most assuredly to anything.
He just does it to put an exclamation point. In other words, listen like you've never listened before. Truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life. He who hears my word and believes in him, which is Christ himself, of course, and the Christ he paid for our sin on the cross, has everlasting life. Most assuredly, I say to you, verse 25, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear shall live. So there's two things he speaks about in this verse. The hour is coming, so there's a future time when the dead are going to hear the voice of God and now is. There's a present time when those who are dead in trespass and sin can hear the voice of God again and live.
Thank God. As the Father has life in himself, so he's granted the Son to have life in himself and has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. The hour is coming. The hour is coming, folks, when everybody who ever lived will live again. The hour is coming when everybody who's gone into the grave, and it doesn't matter if you drowned at sea, if somebody drowned at sea was eaten by a hundred thousand fish and served as sushi in some restaurant somewhere, it doesn't matter.
God knows where every molecule of your body is, and when he says, come back together and come to life, you will come back together and you will come to life. Everybody who's ever been born into the world, great and small, rich and poor, educated, uneducated, powerful, and people who felt they had no significance in this world. People, the arrogant, who felt they could live their lives without God and somehow end up at a utopian end will one day be raised from the dead and they will stand before the throne of a holy and almighty God. John, the beloved apostle, he wrote down what God had revealed to him about what this day is going to look like for some. Revelation chapter 20 verse 11, he said, I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away that was found no place for them. There's no place to hide folks. When he calls you back from the dead, there's nowhere to hide. Adolf Hitler will not be able to hide from God.
There's all kinds of people who are not going to be able to hide. They're going to stand there before the one who created them and has the right to give them life eternally or eternally with God or eternally without God. And I saw the dead, John said, small and great standing before God. And the books were opened. And another book was open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. And death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. The hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. They will be brought back into life as it is, some into eternity with God and some into eternal punishment.
That is the reality of what every one of us in this place and listening online will one day face in the future. But Jesus said these words in verse 24. He said, more so surely I say to you, the he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life. He who hears me not then but now. In other words, this is God. He's saying, can you hear my voice?
Can anyone hear me? This is God. I'm still calling out to the people in this world who still have an opportunity to believe that God the Father sent me to die on a cross, a horrible death to pay the price for the wrong that you have done so that you may go free from the wrong you have done against God, which the Bible calls sin. That you can go free if you can hear the voice of God and not be afraid of that day of justice, not be afraid of that day when you stand one day at the throne of God.
You can be free from the fear of death. Jesus in John chapter 11 said these words to a lady called Martha. He said to her, your brother who had died, of course, will rise again. And Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. In other words, I know that one day he will live again.
But Jesus was saying to her in essence, I'm not talking about living again then. I'm talking about the fact that I can raise people from the dead now. I can raise people out of the death and power of sin. I can raise them out of sin. I can raise them out of darkness. I can raise them out of impossible places. I can break their captivity. And we sang about it. I can cause them to dance on what danced over their heads. I can cause them to dance upon the chains that once tried to bring them into bondage and bind them forever. But Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
I am. And he who believes in me, though he may die, yet he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
In other words, he's talking about now. I'm telling you now I am the resurrection and the life. I have the power now to call you out of death. I have the power to bring you into freedom. I have the power to roll the stone away from that you are somebody else put over your life telling you there's no hope for the future. In other words, he's saying, this is God. Can you hear me? Can you hear me calling you now?
There's nothing in the heart of God that wants to judge you one day. You're hearing these words and you're saying in your heart, oh, could this be true? Is it possible?
Yes, it's possible. Jesus Christ was there in the beginning. By him, all things that have been created were created. He was sent by the father to die in your place on a cross. And if you can hear his voice, he can call you out of darkness and into everlasting life with himself. He can free you from your sin.
He can cleanse you from that which separates you from God for eternity. If you can hear his voice, he's calling out to you when you're doing things you shouldn't be doing. He's calling out to you when you're in places you shouldn't be in. He's calling out to you when you're watching things you shouldn't be watching. He's calling out to you when you're thinking things you ought not to think.
When you're making plans you shouldn't be making. He's calling out to you when you've given into despair that he doesn't want to rule and reign in your life. And he says to Martha again, did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? I'm telling you I can raise the dead. I'm telling you I can give life to you in your situation, Jesus says to you.
And did I not say to you, if you would believe, you would see God do in your life what only God can do. You would be brought back to life. As a matter of fact, the Bible says you would be made into a new creation.
The old things that once governed your life would die, would pass away, and all things would become new. That's the promise of the word of God. I've come to give you life, Jesus said, and give it to you more abundantly.
More abundantly than you ever could have hoped or dreamt that your life could be. I've come to give you life, eternal life in heaven with God, and a reason to live here on the earth. You don't have to give in to imprisonment or despair in your life any longer. Did I not say that if you would believe, that you would see the glory of God. In Hebrews chapter 3 verse 7 to 9 says, therefore as the Holy Spirit says, today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts, as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tested me and tried me and saw my works for 40 years. Today, if you can hear my voice, Jesus says, don't harden your heart. Don't say that it can't be me, that this man standing here is talking, but it can't be me.
Don't say that you have gone too far. It doesn't matter what anybody else has said about your life. Maybe they said you're a loser. Maybe they declared you to be a forever liar.
Maybe they declared you to be a thief or just an undesirable person. Whatever it is they said about you, there's always people willing to put you away in a grave and literally declare you dead before you die. But there's still one voice that loves you. There's still one voice that calls out to you. There's still one, and actually it's the one who created you. The one who's going to raise everyone one day from the dead, and many are going to stand at a throne just to face the judgment of God. But he's essentially saying if you will believe, you don't have to be afraid on any day like that.
Your name will be written in a book, which the Bible calls the book of life. Those that have turned to God, they were able to hear his voice. When you heard him calling, you just stood up and you started moving towards his voice.
Don't make it complicated. As a matter of fact, you can hear him calling you, can't you? You can actually hear him.
It's a faint whisper, but you feel something drawing you out of where you are into someplace maybe you've always longed to be, but never believed you could be. The one who's calling you is the one who created you and has the power to forgive you and raise you out of that place where now you are under, in a sense, the judgment of death and sin because of the way you've chosen to live and the things you've allowed into your life. But God's Son has the power in himself. I am the resurrection, he said to Martha.
I am the life. And if somebody believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Then he said to her, do you believe this?
It's amazing. I say to you, do you believe this? Do you believe that God can give you life from the dead? Do you believe that he can break the chains? Or are you just going to sing about it? Or do you actually believe it? I challenge you, take that step of faith. If you can hear him calling you, don't harden your heart. Don't say, no, it can't be God, or it can't be me, or I'll never change, or I'm always destined to be in this place for all of eternity.
Don't fall to that lie. Lazarus did something that you need to do tonight. He was all wrapped up in death.
He had died and the custom was to put spices all around a dead body so it wouldn't stink really and just wrap it all up and put it in the grave with grave clothes. He was all wrapped up and there's not much he could do, but obviously, he could still move his feet. Maybe he couldn't take long strides. Sometimes we think when we come in the kingdom of God, we've got to take these big long strides somehow, walk out of death and right into this incredible victory.
Well, he didn't really. When he was raised from the dead, by the voice of the Son of God, his steps were most likely very short. That's the way your walk is going to start.
It's going to be day by day, little by little, line by line, but as he began to walk, the command of Christ came to those around him and he told them, he said, lose him and let him go. In other words, that which bound you, that which wrapped itself in death around your life suddenly begins to be unwound around you and then your stride gets to be a little more confident. The testimony of your life is a little more pronounced.
Your future is a little more assured. As a matter of fact, later on, the Scripture tells us that Lazarus was sitting at the table with Jesus and people were coming mostly to see Lazarus, believe it or not, and also to encounter Jesus who had raised him from the dead. The Scripture says because of Lazarus, they were coming to that place where Jesus was. And I'm telling you, because of what God will do in your life, if you will hear his voice, others will come to Jesus because of you. Your family will come.
The loved ones you write in about that you're so concerned about will also come. People will see the change in your life and they will look at you and say, how is it possible that you so changed? Now, it didn't happen in a day necessarily, but we saw the change over time. And how is it possible that you so changed?
And your answer to them will be, well, it's Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You see, I heard his voice. I heard his voice. It was a Wednesday night.
It was November in the year 2023. And somehow I was listening to this message. I was listening to people pray about college students that their believing can be brought back to life as well again. And I was listening to somebody speak from the Word of God and suddenly I heard a voice. This is God. Can you hear me? Jesus stood in that graveyard and he told the people, roll away that stone, that place of death, that impossibility.
Just roll that impossible place away. And he just said, Lazarus, come forth. Come towards me.
Come towards the sound of my voice. And if you can hear him calling you, if you understand the depth of how much he loves you and what he did for you when he took your place on a cross 2,000 years ago. The Bible does say that one day that he's going to literally fold up the earth and the heavens and recreate a new heavens and a new earth. Why doesn't he do that? Why hasn't he done that already? The only answer I have to that question is that he has been waiting for you. He's been waiting for you. He knew you'd be listening to this. He knew you would hear this message. He knew and because he foreknew, he's waited.
He's waited because he loves you. Don't make it complicated. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You can take the the world out of that verse and you put your name in there. God so loved Alice.
God so loved John that he gave his only begotten son. The voice of the one who created you. The voice of the one who has all power. The voice of the one who is the resurrection and the life. The voice of the one who can forgive you of every wrong thing you've ever done that has caused you to be separated from the life that God has for you. The voice of the one who told you when you turn to him, he says, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. The voice of the one who one day when you are raised from the dead and you're standing before the throne of God in whatever capacity that's going to be, the voice of the one who's not going to judge you for the things you've done, those things will have passed away because you trusted in Jesus Christ for your salvation.
But he will look you in the eye and he will say, well done good and faithful servant. Well done. You heard me. You began to walk with me. You let me touch those areas of your life that you thought could never change. You began to read my words to you. You began to believe them and you began to believe that I had the ability to transform you into the person that you were actually created to be before sin destroyed that and brought you under the power of death. Well done good and faithful servant. You may have not done a whole lot of big things in the sight of people in the world, but God looks at you and says, well done because you heard my voice.
And because you heard it, you live. Oh, hallelujah. How wonderful it is to know that one day you and I stand at the throne of God and we don't have to be afraid.
How wonderful it is that there will be suspended there and there's no army that can save anybody there. You're suspended by the power of almighty God and you're standing there and all you can feel is the incredible depth of his love for you, which is for all of eternity. So if you could hear his voice, don't harden your heart. Don't stay in your grave.
Do like Lazarus did, just get up and start to walk forward. Admit that you can't save yourself. You know a lot of people listening online right now, you're listening and say, hey, I got that one down. I know I'm a sinner. Nobody has to convince me of that. I know the way I live.
I know how I think and I'm everything other than what at least I partly understand I should be. And believe that God sent his son to die for you in your place that you might be forgiven and have everlasting life. And just confess it with your mouth. Don't make it difficult. Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Thank you for opening your heart to me. From this day forward, I trust you will give me the strength I need to be a forever follower of you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Pray this prayer with me right now.
Pray it by faith. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for loving me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for paying the price for my sin.
You suffered the punishment I deserved. And you promised me that I would be forgiven when I open my heart to you. And I invite you into my life to be my Lord and to be my Savior. I will walk with you, Jesus, as you show me the way forward. And I will believe you for the strength to be the person that you have destined me to be. Thank you for loving me, for saving me, and for receiving me. I believe that I am now a child of God.
I don't have to be afraid of death, because eternal life is before me, in heaven with God. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. The message today has been brought to you by Carter Conlon from Time Square Church. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. Plan to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
