Welcome to from the pulpit and classic sermons
each week We bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons for modern preachers,
too This week we have Carter Conlon with
his message for America and its cultural religion
Praise God You'll turn please in the Old
Testament to the book of Hosea If you
find Ezekiel the next book is Daniel next
one is Hosea, I think Hosea is about
Eight or so books to the right of
the book of Psalms Hosea Go to chapter
14 we'll start there and then we're going
to go backwards from there Father I thank
you God with all my heart for the
anointing of the Holy Spirit.
I Would never attempt to speak this Holy
Spirit if you didn't come and animate me
I Need you Lord to form your heart
within me.
I Need to speak God the thoughts of
your heart and I need to speak them
with the intonations of your voice Lord I'm
asking God for you to overshadow me Grip
my heart in my mind Unlock the incredible
truths and secrets of your word And let
them be known as they're spoken in simplicity
Help us to understand the time we're living
in Deliver us Lord from childishness Make us
men and women of understanding you said through
the Prophet Daniel that There would be an
understanding in the last days that you would
unlock That you would give to your people
Lord we want to know where we live
in we want to know what lies ahead
And I thank you for this in Jesus
mighty name I've entitled this a Message for
America and its cultural religion You know beloved
we're going to be in the We're going
to be in the streets of New York
at Times Square on September the 20th There
seems to be a recognition In many people
throughout the world that this is a momentous
time.
Although many people may not fully understand why?
Hundreds of churches coming together Other countries entire
congregations many I think there's as many as
76 now are going to be gathering together
They're going to be screening this event live
they're going to be praying with us But
you and I need to pray with an
understanding a Lot of prayer events in the
past are just simply their gatherings and prayer
is a good thing and I'm not ever
downplaying that But this is not a carnival
This is not a gathering together to shout
into the air and wave a few flags
and walk away saying God has changed the
world Now this is much deeper than that
This is a call of the Holy Spirit
Gathering his people to a specific location Outside
perhaps because there's no other venue where we
would all get together Over 300 churches are
anticipated be in attendance in Times Square in
two weeks For the specific purpose Of coming
to God and under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit praying this simple prayer Lord forgive
us But forgive us for what is the
question?
What have we done as a nation that
is causing?
God to gather us into a specific central
location beaming it out to over 80 colleges
high schools youth groups churches various states in
various countries What what have we done?
That the Lord would say I want you
to pray this way Lord forgive us if
we don't understand this we're going to just
go out with a generic Lord forgive us
for whatever and We're not going to walk
away Having found something that God wants to
give us as a people Wants to do
something very profound in you and in me
and I do believe in all those that
are praying But we need to have a
right perspective.
We need to understand some things I'm going
to ask you in Christ's name to bear
with me through this message The Lord wouldn't
let me write this down.
I tried a Few times to write it
down and the more I tried to write
it down the harder it became And he
said no you've been fasting you've been praying
you've been seeking I want to speak now
I want to speak to my church.
I want to speak to my people Let's
start in Hosea.
Please chapter 14 now in order to understand
this Book of Scripture we have to understand
who's a Hosea was he was a prophet
son of God to the northern kingdom, which
was the numerically Larger number of people after
the kingdom of Israel split under the leadership
of Rehoboam in the northern kingdom started on
a progression of Continual spiritual declension until eventually
it was swallowed by a Syria Dissipated among
the nations and real realistically ceased to exist
and Hosea is a man who's he he
had a wife that was not faithful and
Because of this he understood the heart of
God He understood where this nation was going
and God sent this man to plead for
them to turn back again and the one
voice That a society and spiritual declension will
not listen to repeatedly as the voice of
the Prophet You see it all the way
through scriptures when God sends the voice of
the Prophet.
They technically usually will put them in a
dungeon Will mock the Prophet of God will
send them away into another place will push
that voice completely away The one of the
Kings in the Old Testament tore up the
words of Jeremiah and threw them in the
fire There's there's something about a society that
has come to a flashpoint of judgment really
that's what it is when society has hit
that point When we've crossed the line When
we've we've gone beyond The warnings of God
where we can't hear anymore, and I'm talking
now collectively as a society.
We can't hear anymore The voice of the
Prophet will still be there because God will
be faithful to warn But sad to say
most of the nation will no longer be
able to hear My fear in my heart
That in this society we've come to this
point.
We're long past it.
The voice of the Prophet is a mock
voice now not Maybe entertained for a little
while several years.
Maybe a decade or two back, but no
longer listen to Just considered another railer on
the street corner with with another viewpoint of
the country and of God and of the
future How it must break the heart of
the Lord When people that he loved When
people that he gathered from all over the
world people who long for freedom And they
came and they were given in in a
certain land as in Hosea's day They were
brought out of captivity and they were brought
by the power of God into a nation
And in that nation they were given freedom
to worship They were warned in that nation
That you must turn away from the gods
of the people who have previously occupied these
places because if you don't if you don't
make it clear break from them you're going
to find you're going to eventually go in
that direction and the gods of the nation
are going to so interweave themselves with the
worship of the Lord Jehovah as it was
in the Old Testament But eventually it'll no
longer be discernible that it really is God
there'll be such a mixture in it and
that mixture will produce a powerlessness and A
blindness and a mysterious inner blindness that even
though the clouds of judgment may be right
on the horizon The people will be still
talking about wonderful days ahead in the house
of God.
They'll be talking about increased and never-ending
prosperity not aware Think about Belshazzar for a
moment took the holy things of God and
partied with them in Babylon And Daniel stood
before Belshazzar and he said Belshazzar you knew
you knew the history You knew The God
judges even in your own house He said
your own father was that came under judgment
because he played with the holy things of
God.
He said Belshazzar You should have known You've
taken the holy things of the temple and
you've made a party out of it And
you've sat there and you've drank to the
gods of gold and silver and stone and
wood Things made with men's hands and Daniel
stood there and said now Belshazzar The Lord
has numbered your kingdom and he's finished it.
It's over But such a blindness was upon
that particular generation That even though the Word
of God was pronouncing the end of this
kingdom That seemingly had ruled the world for
many many years and even though there's a
pronouncement that it's over Belshazzar commands them it
says come to Daniel put fine robes on
him Put a gold chain around about his
neck and make him third ruler in the
kingdom the spiritual blindness.
I don't know if there's a evidence or
indication of greater ignorance than that When people
are standing in the presence of the living
and the Holy God and unaware of the
precarious situation that they're in The Lord wants
us going into the street with understanding.
We have to know the hour that we're
in We're not children that are just looking
for a good time.
We have to understand.
This is a perilous moment we have to
know that as Jesus said in Matthew chapter
24 that People will be Preoccupied in the
last days just prior to the coming of
Christ with buying and selling and marrying and
giving in marriage It will it will it
will so grip a society.
They won't be aware of what's happening They
won't be aware When danger is right at
the door and especially if God himself even
has set his hand to bring about a
correction They'll not be aware of it Chapter
14 verse 1 of Hosea Oh Israel Return
unto the Lord thy God For thou has
fallen by thine iniquity take with you words
and turn to the Lord and say to
him take away all iniquity and Receive us
graciously and so will we render the calves
or that means the praises of our lips
Usher will not save us.
We will not ride upon horses.
Neither will we say any more to the
work of our hands You are our gods
for in thee the fatherless find mercy.
I Will heal their backsliding.
I will love them freely for mine anger
is turned away from him.
I Will be as the dew unto Israel.
He shall grow as the lily and cast
forth his roots as Lebanon his branches shall
spread in his beauty shall be as the
olive tree and his smell as Lebanon They
that dwell under his shadow shall return They
shall revive as the corn and grow as
the vine the scent thereof shall be as
the wine of Lebanon Ephraim shall say what
have I to do any more with idols?
I've heard him and observed him I'm like
a green fir tree from me as thy
fruit found Who is wise and he shall
understand these things prudent and he shall know
them?
For the ways of the Lord are right
and the just shall walk in them, but
the transgressors shall fall therein In other words
Hosea is saying there'll be a very clear
word There'll be a very clear revelation of
God and those that are just those that
God can't speak to Those that can approach
unto the Lord and say God.
I'm not here to have you fit into
my agenda I'm not here to use you
as a vehicle To become what is in
my heart to be?
but God I'm here for the sole purpose
of yielding my life to you and To
say God forgive me For everything I've embraced
for everywhere.
I go for everything I do That is
not representing you among men in this generation.
I yield to you Lord I yield to
your purposes and Scripture tells us very clearly
That those who choose to walk this way
will return they will revive they will grow
There will be a sweet savor of Christ
flowing through them in these last hours of
time.
They will cast away their idols They will
come to Christ and they will find him
to be a green tree abounding in fruit
The glory of the Lord will be the
portion of his people in this last hour
of time.
I Know it with all my heart.
I know it as surely as I stand
here The glory of the Lord and it
will not be circumstance dependent It won't really
matter if a thousand are falling at this
side and ten thousand on that side It
won't really matter if the trumpet is blowing
and all kinds of alarms are being raised
in the nation No God will have a
people their eyes will be fixed on the
ways and the works of God their hearts
will be gripped By the passion and the
power of God Their steps will be ordered
in the work of God their hands will
be about the tenderness of God Their voices
will be directing those that are terrified to
where the power and the provision of God
is found.
Oh, yes Oh, yes, my friend.
God will have a people in the earth
Praise be to God praise be to God.
Praise be to God.
He will have a people in the earth
We ought not to be afraid to say
Lord help us cause us to return to
you Forgive us Lord where we've failed you
Forgive us God for we're in our hearts.
We have embraced the ways of a fallen
society God Almighty Forgive us I'm gonna be
among the chiefest of those they're crying out
to the Lord said God forgive me Lord
for the things I see for the things
that don't see for what I know for
what I don't know I am part of
the Church of Jesus Christ I'm part of
this testimony that you wanted established in the
earth in this generation and God Almighty I'm
asking you to get out of my heart
everything Lord that has stood in the way
of your life Everything God that hinders your
the expression of your heart to this human
vessel to this generation Everything God that renders
the testimony of your resurrection power Powerless coming
out of this human vessel God, please Lord.
Take these things out of my life God
give me the courage of Daniel to open
my window and face Lord face God the
failings of your people and face God what
we've done and Face who we've become and
unashamedly turn to you Lord and say God
I'm coming to you today because you're a
God of mercy Lord when you establish the
temple you wrote a song about yourself and
that song said praise the Lord for he
is good and his mercy Endures forever.
So Lord, I'm coming to your mercy today
I'm coming God believing Lord that you are
the God who can restore you're the God
who can heal Lord, you're the God who
will have a testimony in spite of what
happens to the nation's Now go to chapter
13, please Hosea Is speaking about what happened?
to the testimony of Israel Why was God
going to judge his own people Why would
God bring a people out of bondage and
into a nation Call it by his name
and then judge it and literally let it
be overwhelmed By its enemies intermingled and dispersed
among the peoples of the world what could
be the reason Why this kind of a
thing could happen to God's own house and
his own people?
When Ephraim that's Israel, that's another chapter 13
verse 1 when Ephraim spoke trembling He exalted
himself in Israel, but when he offended in
Baal he died When My people honored me
when there was conviction in my house, I
Believe there America has not had a perfect
religion All you have to do is look
back in history a hundred years and you
can see the glaring inconsistencies But there has
been an underlying Seeking of God there have
been times in society Where there've been great
moves of God when people could be confronted
when they could be turned back When when
the voice of God could be lifted in
his house, and there was a trembling there
was an awe There was a reverence of
God there was a sense of God's holiness
men had enough sense to know that God's
ways were right and men's ways were wrong
and There was a time in this country
when I'm sure you would walk in the
house of the Lord And if you were
living in willful sin you would tremble you
would tremble preachers priests now They may not
have always had it right They may have
been a little heavy on the legal side
or they may have focused a little too
much on certain things But there was a
trembling There was a time in this country
when you walked in the house of God
and you knew if you were living in
sin you Were going to be confronted there
was a time when sinners were not comfortable
in the presence of God There was a
trembling there was a word there was a
time when old-fashioned preachers left the plow
They didn't have much education But they went
in the prayer closet and God touched them
and they stood in pulpits and when they
stood in pulpits the glory of God came
they didn't they massacred the King's English half
the time and they didn't even know how
to pronounce things in the Bible But they
knew who God was and they knew who
men were and they could speak into the
heart There were seasons and times when tent
meetings throughout this country the sawdust meetings when
people would come in and the glory of
the Lord Would be so in these places
that people would fall on their knees and
fall on their faces before a holy God
They would repent of their sins because there
was a reverence There was an awe of
a holy God in spite of the mixture
that is always part of every society There
was still a reverence for God in much
of his house When Ephraim spoke trembling exalted
himself when when there was this awe when
there was this reverence of God The church
the testimony of the church was held in
esteem in the nation, but when he offended
in Baal Now Baal was the Canaanite God
of the surrounding territories Baal is the God
that people without God worship Baal is the
God of provision He's a God who sends
crops into the field He's the God who
fills your cupboard and as long as the
cupboard was full then people would could worship
Baal When we worshiped God There was a
trembling at his house But folks America has
made a tragic mistake The worship of Baal
has come into the house of the Lord
The God of prosperity Has Become the God
that much of the church of this age,
which is a cultural church In a sense,
it's it's it's in the culture that that
part of the country.
That's without God to worship prosperity And as
long as the church stood As a contrast
to this not to say that God's people
should be poor But the prosperity that God
gives should have a proper focus In the
alleviation of the suffering of the poor in
the in the relieving the oppressed and using
the resources of God To bring the kingdom
of God to those who have no helper
But it all changed and suddenly it became
about Us it became about individual people And
when this came into the house of the
Lord the testimony of God died Died folks
The testimony of God is almost dead in
this country Just because 50,000 people attend
some church somewhere does not mean that God
is even there any longer If there is
no conviction of sin If there is no
burden to let go of the things of
this world and to walk with the Holy
God I'm telling you the Holy Spirit is
not there.
I Don't care how much money it has
it.
God is not there when there's no conviction
of sin When sinners come in and they're
not challenged to turn from all of the
pursuits of the natural life and heart the
Lord has left the place and Now he
says they sin more and more verse 2
and have made them molten images of their
silver and idols according to their own understanding
all the work of craftsmen And they say
that let it let the men that sacrifice
kiss the calves In other words there now
it's all the work of craftsmen have you
noticed Much of American religion today is always
crafting some new image of God Always crafting
always fastening always looking for some new thing
because they've really abandoned the cross And they
say to the people constantly they're not called
men of God.
They're not holy men of God They're not
they're not separated men of God They're not
men who challenge the people of their behavior
and their lifestyle No They just fashion these
constant images that are palatable to the masses
and they say come now worship this The
brand new image of God and let's call
him Jesus Let's worship him never confronts your
sin doesn't require holiness of you Doesn't require
that you take up your cross and follow
him will prosper you will give you a
great destiny Will make you into an important
person and etc, etc Verse 3 says therefore
shall they be as the morning cloud and
as the early dew that passes away in
the chap That's driven with the whirlwind out
of the floor and as the smoke out
of the chimney when difficulty comes and folks
we're heading into some Incredibly stormy waters People
will run to them because they promised The
drink of God as it is But the
clouds will have passed away They promise weight
or weightiness, but adversity will drive them out
of the house of God They promised the
fire of God, but they're just no more
than smoke coming out of a chimney Driven
by the wind and will be dissipated I
see much of what calls itself the Church
of Jesus Christ in this country will be
soon driven to the wind by adversity He
said in verse 4 yet, I'm the Lord
your God from the land of Egypt You
shall know no God but me for there's
no Savior beside me.
I Knew you in the wilderness in the
land of great drought How it must break
the heart of God How it must break
his heart all the people that came to
this country So many were persecuted a lot
of people were persecuted in their own lands
Because if they wanted to believe in God
and walk with God And he says I
saw you in the wilderness in the place
of great drought And I brought you here
and verse 6 says according to their pastor.
They were filled and their heart was exalted
and They've forgotten me I Brought you to
this place Where you were free to pursue
life and liberty and happiness you were free
to worship me, and I blessed you here
But you forgot me What a tragedy to
be living in such a time What a
heartbreak Therefore I'll be unto them as a
lion and as a leopard by the way,
I'll observe them I'll meet them as a
bear that is bereaved of her whelps and
will rend the call of their heart And
there will I devour them like a lion
and the wild beasts will tear them Oh
Israel you've destroyed yourself But in me is
your help The Lord says out come to
you like a bear that has lost her
greatest treasure The Lord doesn't judge Because there's
any delight in his heart But he looks
down and he sees what was supposed to
be his heritage and says I can't let
this go on any longer I can't let
this forest that calls itself the temple of
God go on any longer I can't let
these people I can't let them any longer
pursue this path that is going to lead
them into hell Folks just shortly just a
few weeks ago in a major city in
this country.
There was a huge meeting of Christian leaders
gathered together And in this enough to almost
fill a stadium And in this particular gathering,
I'm not aware of one born-again Bible
-believing speaker that spoke to these pastors I
got a letter from a pastor that was
there and he said my heart was broken
My heart was pounding and he said oh
my god.
Does anybody around me see what's happening to
us?
Here we we put men in the pulpit
that are headed for hell and that we're
putting them up as role models of success
in The Christian Church because they have power
and influence and authority Try to tell me
that the Canaanite culture is not in the
house of God in our generation Try to
tell me that we've not fallen to the
idols of this of this society that where
people just lust after power They lust after
recognition and fame and money and don't care
what it takes to get there as pastors
sit there Mesmerized listening to unsaved men teach
them the principles of success in the kingdom
of God Men who are headed for hell
are teaching the church folks.
You destroyed yourself.
He said Israel But I was there to
help you all along.
I Will be your king verse 10.
Where is any other that may save you
in all your cities and Your judges of
whom you said give us give me a
king and a prince.
I Gave you a king in my anger
and I took him away in my wrath
The iniquity of a frame is bound up.
His sin is hid in other words.
It's gotten so deep now That no reasoning
will take it out The sorrows of a
travailing woman shall come upon him.
He's an unwise son He should not stay
long in the place of the breaking forth
of children Another translation says it this way
He's so entrenched in his way of doing
things that even though I bring upon him
the pains of labor He will not come
forth into new birth So stubborn so set
on his view of God His legitimate right
as he sees it to this pursuit of
himself So stubborn that though I cause pain
Though I clearly speak though the heavens though
the earth though everything around begins to shake
He will not come forth Because he has
so entrenched himself in stubbornness against the ways
of God Verse 14, I'll ransom them from
the power of the grave.
I'll redeem them from death.
Oh death.
I'll be thy plagues Oh grave, I'd be
thy destruction now This is not really a
good translation in the King James because what
it really says When you read other translations,
I would have ransomed them from the power
of the grave.
I would have redeemed them from death I
would have stayed your plagues.
I would have destroyed the grave But now
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes Though
he be fruitful among his brethren and east
wind shall come The wind of the Lord
shall come up from the wilderness and his
spring shall become dry.
His fountain shall be dried up He shall
spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels Samaria
shall become desolate for she's rebelled against her
God And they shall fall by the sword
and their infants shall be dashed in pieces
and their women with child shall be ripped
up unthinkable to the people of that generation
And they'd be sitting there like you're sitting
here today saying who is this man that
he dares speak to us this way Who
is this man?
That he speaks such words when we are
at the zenith of prosperity Which they were
when Hosea began to prophesy that we have
formed political alliances that are guaranteeing us security
in the future We seemingly have it all
together.
We've got a plan to get out of
every situation We find ourselves in who is
this man now to stand here and tell
us?
That such calamity is coming into our society
folks he said your children are going to
be an overcome and the women with child
shall be ripped up and if that doesn't
speak about abortion and Selfishness so gripping a
nation that a river of blood now is
flowing don't think for a second.
God doesn't see this Don't try to tell
me that women with children are not being
ripped up by the thousands now every day
Don't tell me that there's not an accounting
for this There's no delight in the heart
of God in judging a place that was
precious to his heart When we stand before
the Lord on September the 20th