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Push Back the Darkness

A Call to the Nation / Carter Conlon
The Truth Network Radio
September 15, 2024 1:00 am

Push Back the Darkness

A Call to the Nation / Carter Conlon

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September 15, 2024 1:00 am

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Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. It's not Democrat versus Republican versus Libertarian, etc., etc. It's Godlessness versus Christ. That's what we are fighting in this generation. That's Carter Conlon with an insight into this week's program.

We're glad you're with us today on A Call to the Nation. In Psalm 140, we find David hiding in a cave. A madman named Saul is pursuing him. Darkness and violence surrounds David deep in the cave. He has the enemy on the outside wanting to kill him, and he has his own army inside wanting to kill those who are searching for them. But David knows this is not what God is calling him to do. Let's join Carter now from Psalm 140 with a message titled, Push Back the Darkness.

Some of you may or may not be aware of this, but in the province of Ontario, Canada, a new law was passed that if your child at the age of eight comes home from school one day and your little boy decides that he's a girl and you refuse to let that child go to school and address, then the government has the right now to take that child out of your home. You see, folks, you've got to understand we're living in a perilous time. We're living in an age of lawlessness that the Scriptures have spoken about, a darkness that you and I never imagined would ever touch our generation. We read it in the Bible and we knew it was going to come.

We knew that there would be an unspeakable lawlessness and a great falling away in the last day before Christ returns. But most of us never thought we'd ever live to see a day like this. And if you think this is bad, without God intervening, folks, I fear for what kind of a generation we're leaving for our sons and daughters ahead of us. There's a concerted effort to demasculinize men and it's worldwide now.

That's why as men we have to stand up and be men again. We have to stand up and be counted. We need to push back the darkness and I want to speak about that and pray for me too in the days ahead because every Sunday morning message I speak gets now condensed into 28 minutes and put across the country on radio.

So keep that in mind every Sunday. We're on Europe live on television even right now we're on television in Europe and all across the continent and God has opened a huge door to this pulpit and so please be in prayer because the headwinds are very strong against it. And there will probably be a cost to the words that God's going to give me in the next year or two but I am prepared for it and I trust as and I speak to the men that are listening today we must be prepared.

We must be prepared to push the darkness back. Psalm 140, a psalm written by King David before he was king in a season where his own nation was in a fearful spiritual decline. Self-will and spiritism under King Saul was on full display and was leading the nation towards what would inevitably without divine intervention become a certain defeat. David was being pursued by an army and David of course is our Christ type. The army was hoping as it always has been that a backsliding society could finally cast off that which represented God and threatened its own godless advance. We are living in that kind of a day again. Godlessness is on parade. Godlessness believes it has the upper hand and only recently are we starting to see how vulgar and vile it really is that spirit and those over whom it gains dominion.

That's why you hear such cursing happening now even among politicians it's so tragic what's happening. Now here is the prayer of a man who made a difference. May that be our prayer. Deliver me O Lord from evil men. Preserve me from violent men who plan evil things in their hearts. They continually gather together for war. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent.

The poison of asps is under their lips. Keep me O Lord from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from violent men who have purposed to make my steps stumble. The proud have hidden a snare from me and cords.

They have spread a net by the wayside. They have set traps for me. I said to the Lord you are my God. Hear the voice of my supplications O Lord. O God the Lord the strength of my salvation you have covered my head in the day of battle. Do not grant O Lord the desires of the wicked. Do not further his wicked scheme lest they be exalted. As for the head of those who surround me let the evil of their lips cover them.

Let burning coals fall upon them. Let them be cast into the fire into deep pits that they rise not up again. Let not a slanderer be established in the earth.

Let evil hunt the violent man to overthrow him. I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and justice for the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name.

The upright shall dwell in your presence. Psalm two verses one to three says why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. The discourse in our nation I think everybody here has to be aware of it. The division, the bitter speech, the escalating encouragement towards people actually to do things that ought not to be done.

It's following the pattern of history. The battle is now about Christ and his restrictions on behaviors of those who in themselves they want no restrictions and they want to be their own judges of what is right and wrong. This is the battle.

It always has been the battle of a fallen humanity. When Satan came into the Garden of Eden he sowed a seed of his own fallen nature into humankind. That you don't need to follow the ways of God. You can be as God in yourself and you can determine what is right and what is wrong.

And have we not fallen prey as a generation to that evil logic? May I put it that way? The casting off. This is why the heathen are raging. This is why the nations are coming together and banding together around a common cause which is shocking to those of us who know Christ.

Casting off. It says let us cast off their cords from us. All of the restrictions that Christ has brought upon our behaviors and they as his representatives let us stand against the Lord and against his anointed.

Those that have the Spirit of God on them and let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. That's exactly what we're facing today. That is the battle. It's not Democrat versus Republican versus Libertarian etc.

etc. It's godlessness versus Christ. That's what we are fighting in this generation. A lawlessness that has risen up in this and other societies exactly as the Bible foretold it would be in the last days. A sudden infusion of lawlessness that will culminate in the words of Jesus where he said you shall be hated of all nations for my namesake.

We're heading there folks. But thanks be to God throughout history we see that if we will stand up, if we will begin to pray, if we will yield our bodies to the purposes of God, God can extend in any society a season of mercy where multitudes sometimes too numerous to count are drawn into his kingdom. In Rwanda there were for example years ago there were two competing factions in society the Hutu and the Tutsi, two different tribes both fighting for control of the nation.

One tribe became dominant over another and they started to publicly vilify the other people on the radio and actually reduced them to the level of inanimate objects sowing the seeds of an unspeakable violence that you and I know about even today. Tragedy. But God preceded this tragedy and many don't realize this but there was a great spiritual awakening in Rwanda before the genocide and many many many countless numbers of people came into the kingdom of God and so mercy will always triumph over judgment. Even though our societies and our world may go into difficult days, mercy triumphs. We must never lose sight of the fact that the battle we fight is about eternity. It's not just preserving a society.

It's not just keeping our sandcastles from getting blown over. One day it will all be folded away the scripture says like a scroll and the heavens and the earth will be recreated and brought back to right order. The Word of God tells us that. It's not about just preserving that or preserving our lifestyle. Folks, the mission of Christ was about people and thank God it was or you and I wouldn't be here today.

We would have no hope. He didn't come down across to just preserve our self-image or our steady future or our money in the bank or our retirement plan. He didn't die for that. He died that we might be redeemed and left us as ambassadors of that incredible mercy on the earth and the beauty of it all is that we have power and access to the throne of God that he can extend his mercy one more time.

He can flood our streets. He can bring the conviction of sin where we never believed it could come. Jonah didn't believe that God could, well he feared he would be, but the odds were against God ever showing mercy to the Assyrians and their capital city of Nineveh who were so violent and vile that they had a reputation for cruelty in the world. And yet God showed them mercy for a whole generation. And you know the ironic thing is that Jonah wasn't even offering them mercy. His whole message was repent.

You're finished in 40 days. It's all over. But they humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God and a great, great spiritual awakening came to a very, very wicked city. Because the aims of the people cannot be achieved peaceably, just as with Saul, the people always have to resort to vulgarity, to accusations, and to even violence. And this is what we are witnessing today.

Sad to say it, but we are watching a great nation unravel right before our eyes. Many voices. And you'll read them in the media.

You can find them if you're looking for them. The voices are there, secular and sacred. They're warning that we're becoming so uncivil that we're rapidly approaching an increased unrest and even potential violence in our major cities.

This is where we're heading. But you and I as believers in Christ, just as David was, are the only ones who can bring a spiritual awakening back to the nation. Do you fully understand that yet? We have power with God to bring back a moment of mercy. We have power with God to push back the darkness that wants to swallow our society, cause violence to permeate our streets, and literally overthrow everything of God and everything of Christ and every restriction to people's behavior, to literally throw it out of our borders and have this new social order where there are no boundaries, no borders, no rules. Everyone does what is right in his own sight. Perversion is paraded and morality is degraded. So the question is, what are we now to do? You have to make it practical because I know I can keep it on a level where nobody can really grasp it, but I know that if you're as I am and I were sitting here in your seat and someone were preaching to me, I'd say, preacher, tell me now, what do I do and how do I do it?

Well, let's look at what David did in Psalm 140. Now he's in a cave. A madman is pursuing him. He's got an army behind him. There's talk of violence everywhere. Not only are the people that are trying to find him and kill him literally, talking of violence, but the people surrounding him inside the cave are also talking of violence.

Do you understand? The people outside want to kill him. The people inside want him to kill somebody else.

They want him to kill King Saul, but David recognizes something cause he's a Christ type, that this is not how the kingdom of God is going to advance. This is not what God is calling us to do as a people. In Psalm 140, he says, deliver me, O Lord, from evil men.

He's not talking about just the people outside. He's also talking about the people inside, those whose speech is given to other than godliness, those who are looking for a solution in physical or human terms, that which the natural mind only can understand. He says, preserve me from violent men. God, don't let the spirit of violence get ahold of me. Don't let it be in my mouth.

Don't let it touch my hands. Don't let me be a partaker of this spirit that's become so prevalent in this time, who plan evil things in their hearts. They gather together for war.

They sharpen their tongues like a serpent, and the poison of snakes is under their lips. What David did, and this is what you and I have to do, pray for deliverance from the spirit of this age. Pray for deliverance. Say, God, deliver me. I don't want to be part of the problem.

I want to be part of the solution. Get my mind back on spiritual things. Get me away from the media.

Get me away from all of these things that want to poison my spirit and cause my speech to lose its effect and be exactly the way they are. I told my wife this morning coming in, I don't listen to the news. I can't listen to it anymore. I can't.

It's so poisonous. I can't listen to it. I'll go in once a day and read the headlines and that's it, and then I'm out. I'm out. I'll listen to something else.

Give me anything about what's going on in the public sphere today. Pray for deliverance from all of these things. David said in Psalm 142, when he was in the cave, he cried out. He said, I cry out to the Lord with my voice and with my voice to the Lord, I make supplication. I pour out my complaint before him. I declare before him my trouble. You see, turn to prayer.

That's always been the key. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path in the way which I walk. They have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see and there's no one who acknowledges me. Refuge has failed me.

No one cares for my soul. In other words, David is saying, I feel called to something higher than the petty violence and grievance of this generation and nobody seems to understand it around me. David's saying, outside they want to kill me.

Inside they want me to kill, but oh God, help me. David had no way of understanding. He was the Christ type of his generation.

He was the type of somebody who was governed and guided and empowered by the spirit of God. Lord, there has to be another way. I cried out to you, oh Lord. I said, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I'm brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise your name. The righteous shall surround me, for you shall deal bountifully with me. Here's one, David says, deliver me from the spirit of this age. But in verse seven, he says, I believe that I will have a different spirit. That your life inside of me will have a great effect on others around me.

And that's got to be the cry of my heart and yours. God, give me a different spirit than this age. Give me your Holy Spirit. Give me your thoughts. Give me your mind.

Give me what you are saying about this time. Give me your compassion for the multitudes, even those who don't know their left hand from the right hand, spiritually speaking. Help me to love even my enemies. God almighty, give me a different spirit and bring people around me that will become mighty.

You will deal bountifully, David says, the righteous shall surround me. This was a prayer. It was a prayer of faith because around him were discontented men. They were in distress.

They were in debt. They wanted him to become violent. They wanted him to fight physically. But David knew the fight, that he was called to fight, was so much deeper than this. And he said, God, I see a day the righteous will surround me, those whose hearts are right, those who make right choices, because you will deal bountifully with me.

They will see your hand on me. And that had to be what made these men mighty. Something changed the men that were with David.

Do you understand? They were advocating violence, but they came out of that cave and they were mighty and they became changers in their generation. And they took on battles that only God could have given them the strength to win. And in Psalm 140 again, verse 6, the second thing we must do, firstly, pray for deliverance from the spirit of this age and believe that your life can and will make a difference. Verses 6 to 8, I said to the Lord, you are my God. Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation.

You've covered my head in the day of battle. Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked. Do not further his wicked scheme, lest they be exalted.

Here's what David is praying. God, through my life, push back the darkness. Cover my head in the day of battle and help me not to listen to the voice of the enemy. Help me not to succumb to the threats of the wicked. For David would have remembered when he was young that every morning a voice arose on the opposite side of a valley and challenged the armies of Israel into a one-on-one conflict. And that voice, in a sense, indicating you don't have the power to overcome what's against you.

So yield to it now rather than be humiliated. And David remembered the day that he refused the armor of Saul because he had never proven it. But God covered his head so that he was not listening to the taunts.

He was not listening to the voice of that particular generation. But he had a word from God. And you remember when he ran into that valley, he said, you come to me with armor and a sword and a spear. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, the God that you have defied. David understood. It's not implied, it's not written, but he understood this is a God who made a promise to my forefather Abraham that he was going to bless the people that are going to be multiplied by the strength of God.

They were going to be a blessing in the earth and all people in the world would come to understand who God is through these people. He spoke to Abraham and said, whoever blesses you will be blessed and whoever curses you will be cursed. So I come against you with that which God has placed in my hand, a weaponry that looks foolish to those who walk in the natural. But you and I know that the weapons of warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, every high thing that exalts itself against the word of God, the will of God, the boundaries of God. God has given us power to bring these things down into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And David knew, yes, he's in a cave when he wrote these songs.

Yes, there's only 400 with him and there's thousands against it. He didn't know who he could trust anymore because when this kind of a situation arises, suddenly there's a division that happens and he didn't know who could be trusted. But David knew the one he could trust was still with him. The one who still does miracles, the one who had given him victory over a lion and a bear and a giant was still his God.

No matter how difficult his life looked, he knew that when he turned to prayer, miracles still happen. And folks, you and I have to learn the lesson of history. We're on the weaker side in the natural.

There's no doubt about that. But in the spiritual, we're already more than conquerors. We already are seated at the right hand of Almighty God. We are connected to the one who already destroyed the power of darkness and sits in all power and all authority. Every name that is named in this world and in the world to come is in subjection to him.

He is the head. We are the body. We have direct access to the throne of God. We must pray now. We must go to the throne of God and push back the darkness. This is not an hour for cowards. This is not an hour for the self-seeking. This is not an hour for those who pray the foolish prayer of Hezekiah when he was told after a great history with God, after God had given him great victory in the past when he laid his concerns out before the Lord.

He won incredible victories that could only have come from God. But at the end of his days, a prophet comes to him and says, your sons are going to be taken captive. They're going to be castrated and they're going to serve a foreign king in his court.

And Hezekiah prays the most stupid prayer I've ever heard a man of God pray in the Old Testament. And he says, well, as long as it doesn't happen in my day, isn't that a good thing? And there are people in this generation that are saying, well, as long as I'm dead before all this evil comes on society, isn't that a good thing? No, it's not a good thing. It's only a good thing for the self-seeking.

It's only a good thing for those whose entire Christianity is all about themselves. May God deliver us from this childish foolishness and make us men and women of God again. May God cause us to understand that we have power to make a difference in our generation. We have to stand up and we stand up by going to our knees first and we go to the throne of God and say, Lord, what would you have me to do? What do you want for my life? What are you calling me to do for your kingdom's sake?

And thirdly, believe that God will give us the victory. Thank you for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. You can count on a powerful message each week on A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-09-15 02:28:19 / 2024-09-15 02:37:37 / 9

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