— Brother Phil Enlow: You know, Jesus, or Paul, I guess it was, spoke about how the Lord…what the Lord is doing for His church and how He’s preparing us, and how He’s washing us with water. He uses an illustration as though He were bathing us, somehow, cleansing us. But what is it that cleanses us? “...Washing of water by the word.” (KJV).
And I’ll tell you, when we hear, not just the words of scripture, but when we hear God speak in some fashion to us, and we open our hearts to it, it has an effect. There’s a cleansing that happens. There is defilement that we, perhaps, just sort of absorb from the world around us. There are things that are lies. This world is full of lies. It’s founded upon lies…the world system is. And we’re seeing that unfold before us.
And, I guess, part of what came to me was familiar scripture that I’m not even gonna turn to all of these but, one of them is in where Matthew 24, Jesus talked about times when, iniquity would abound, is the King James language. Wickedness would prevail. Are we not seeing that?
( congregational amens ).
Are we not seeing that? I mean, it’s getting to the point in our own society where, I mean, when are they gonna start firing us because we’re Christians? How far off is that? We’re seeing a culture take over, that preaches tolerance, but the only people they will tolerate are people that agree with them. And so, we’re living in a time when we are seeing the things that God has told us were going to happen unfold before us, before our eyes.
( congregational amens ).
And one of the things that Jesus said was that when iniquity would abound, “…the love of most…” (NIV). Or with, ‘many’ in some translations, would do what?
( congregational response ).
It would grow cold. The darkness, the wickedness, the prevalence of darkness would have an effect, and that effect would be to cause people to turn away. We’re gonna see that more and more.
I remember a…many of you will too, the story that Brother John B. told of meeting a guy at a Christian camp. And the guy said there were gonna be three great surprises in heaven. And, one of them is that you will find people there that you did not expect to see. Another surprise will be, there will be people who will not be there that you did expect to see. And, of course, the greatest surprise of all is that you’re there!
( laughter ).
But you know, there’s an application of that to where we’re living. I believe with all my heart, there are people, in our society today, that we would assume that if anybody’s going to make it, they will. They’re real Christians. And the reality is, we may get to a point where we suddenly discover they’re not. There’s something else that has got a hold of their hearts and under just the right circumstances they’re gonna turn away and deny the Lord. There are things that…there are conditions that exist in people’s hearts that cause that.
And under the conditions that we have seen in the United States, where we’ve had such freedom, it’s easy to be religious! It’s easy to profess all of the right things. But, we’re gonna see, as time unfolds, we’re gonna see where people’s hearts really are at.
And, don’t worry, if your heart is trusting in the Lord, He’s gonna bring you through! None of this is meant to invoke fear, or to promote fear. But, this is a reality, folks. We’re gonna see and we’re gonna find out who’s really serving the Lord and who isn’t. And, we need to search our own hearts and ask God to help us to overcome in this hour.
( congregational amens ).
And, one of the things that Jesus followed this up by saying is that those who endure to the end will be saved. There is an endurance that’s necessary. Now, you can easily read that and say, oh my God, I’ve got to be strong. Well, no, I don’t have the strength to do that, but He does!
( congregational amens ).
And those who endure are those who continue to believe in the face of whatever happens.
You know, my mind went to the scripture that we’ve used so many times in Revelation 12, and it talks about how people overcome. How do people actually overcome the enemy? I mean, he’s got a lot of power, doesn’t he? Right now, we’re seeing his power exerted. It is absolutely spewing forth a tremendous flow of deception of every kind, and people who have rejected the truth in their hearts and said, no, it’s my life, I’m my own God, they’re drinking it up.
And it is bringing great delusion—strong delusion to people on a greater and greater scale and we’re gonna…that’s what we’re seeing unfold. But God has a remnant of people who have the real thing on the inside and it’s not real…it’s not my strength, it’s not my conviction, it’s His! There is a supernatural conviction that is born in the hearts of someone who opens their heart to that Word of God. It has a power to set captives free!
( congregational amens ).
But, remember how they actually overcame, because there’s a part that we play in exercising what the value and the virtue of what Christ did. And it’s first of all, of course, we know, “…by the blood of the Lamb…” (NIV). His main attack upon most of us is accusing us and reminding us of what we are, apart from Christ.
Well, He’s got plenty of ammunition if we’re gonna examine what we are, naturally! We can always find something that would cause us, if we would, to lose confidence that…how could God love me? How could anybody love me? I’m so bad. My God, what a horrible place for anyone to try to navigate this life and to feel that way. But Jesus Christ shed His blood that we don’t have to live under that condemnation!
( congregational amens ).
He has set captives free! We have the right to stand and say, yes, I’m a sinner, but I have been forgiven because of the blood of Jesus Christ!
( congregational amens ).
To Him be all the honor and glory! Praise Him!
( congregational amens ).
He is worth of our praise this morning! We have every…we have solid ground to stand upon and it’s not anything that I could accomplish, anything that is in me. It’s entirely in Him! Praise God! What a foundation has been laid!
And He also goes on to say, “…and by the word of their testimony….” And we’ve talked many times about how that’s taking the words that He speaks to us, the very word that begets faith in a receptive heart, and we actually exercise that when it’s needed. It’s wonderful to drink it in and to have it there, but we need to be willing to speak it out and the Word of God tells us that’s like a sword.
( congregational amens ).
And the devil feels that sword and he has no answer for that kind of a sword. If we will wield the shield of faith to believe what God has said and take, “…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…” the devil will have to flee. He has no answer for the truth of God.
( congregational amens ).
Because it isn’t dependent, again, upon us! But you know, there’s a third part to that overcoming, isn’t there? And, “…they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” You know, human life is something else. Hebrews 2 talks about how all of our lifetime people have been held in bondage, why? “…Their fear of death.” They’re afraid to let go.
We’re born into this world, to our sense-driven life. This is all we know, naturally speaking. This is all we know. And every one of us is born with desires that rise up in us, and would teach us to try to make something for ourselves, try to satisfy those desires, in some fashion, that are a part of this world.
And John tells us what those desires…he breaks them down into categories, doesn’t he? He says, “…the lust of the flesh….” Every one of us has bodily desires that are natural to human beings. But oh, what a terrible bondage it is when that becomes the focus of one’s heart and one’s life! How many times do you see people grow up in church, and their hormones begin to rage, and they find somebody that they find an attraction to? The next thing you know, that is the thing that takes precedence in their lives. They’re willing to walk away because this is real, this is now, this is what I feel and I’m gonna pursue that.
I’ll tell you, overcoming is a lot more than just some, okay, shoot me, I’m willing to lay down my life. It could be that. But I’ll tell you, the kind of death we need is the daily kind. It’s when God brings us face to face with a choice between, am I gonna serve me, am I gonna serve my earthly desires, or am I gonna serve Him? That’s the…that is the thing that is absolutely at the heart of what God is doing right now.
And we’re gonna see, again, those who serve God and those who don’t. I don’t know how long this is gonna go on tonight…today, whatever it is. But, it may be there are others who will want to add to this. But I’m just gonna start and, like I say, and trust God to say what He wants to say.
But folks, there are choices that we’re making. And the devil holds power over people. And the reason he holds power, the source of every spiritual bondage is when we are clinging to something that is part of our earthly life, and we’re not willing to let it go.
How many times have we used the illustration of the people who learned to catch monkeys with a gourd? You know, if you just try to go out and chase a monkey, he’s got a pretty good advantage. He can swing through the trees and go where you can’t go, at least not easily. And I wouldn’t want to.
But you know how they did it. They recognized that there was something in the nature of that monkey that was so curious that he just couldn’t let go! And so, what they would do is hollow out a gourd, drill a small hole and that hole was just big enough for a monkey’s fist to go through. And then they put something in the gourd that would rattle, a stone, something.
And the monkey would come along…and then they would chain the gourd to a tree so he couldn’t walk off with that. And the monkey would come along and rattle it and he’d hear that rattle. And his nature would cause him to say, I wonder what that is? And he’d stick his paw in there and he’d grab it. But then he’d try to pull it out and he couldn’t pull it out! And there he was, unwilling to let go of the very thing that caused his captivity! All they had to do was walk up and grab him and they had him.
Do you know that every single hold Satan has upon our lives today, is because of something in our nature that attaches itself to something on earth? And when we don’t let go, and we’re still hanging onto that, in some fashion, the devil has a hold. It comes down to that simple, of being unwilling to let go of some part of our life.
And I started to talk about what John mentioned as what was in the world and what it means to be a part of this world and part of this world system. The, “…lust of the flesh….” But the, “…lust of the eyes….” Man, I see that, I want it! You know, we see things and we want to possess. There’s a possessiveness about us, that feeds something in us.
And you know, we live in a society, as we’ve said many times, that has enjoyed a prosperity that’s probably unparalleled in history, in terms of the breadth of it. Yeah, there has always been rich people, but I mean, to have a society that has enjoyed the level of comfort that we have had, and a relative security…I mean…I’ll tell you, society today…the kids that are growing up today have no idea what it was like when some of us were growing up. And it wasn’t that we were poor, but there are things that we take for granted, that even poor people have today, that we would have considered riches when we were growing up!
( congregational amens ).
Life was a lot simpler. And God has allowed this country to prosper. But oh, how people worship possessions! And it’s awfully easy, when nothing is challenging us like that, in that area, for us to assume that, I can have a spirit of possessiveness about what I have, and serve the Lord, too! But what happens when God brings us to a place where there’s a choice?
You know, it was interesting, the thing…what Ricky said. He was talking about serving the Lord, Wednesday night, and a willingness to walk down the street wearing just the clothes he had on his back, and walk away from everything. I don’t know what the Lord may have. I don’t want to minister a fear or a certain expectation. But I’ll tell you, when we serve the Lord it’s 100 percent, where whatever it costs, it’s worth it.
If you ever really see, if God ever really implants genuine faith in your heart so you know that that is more real than this is, this is temporary, and whatever we’re called to let go of here, doesn’t matter in the light of eternity. Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
They were warning him, when he was traveling back to Jerusalem, about all that he was facing. He said, what do you mean to break mine heart? I’m ready to be in prison, I am ready to die for the Lord. And all they could do was say, okay, go on. And the next thing you know, his life was in danger, he was imprisoned, and spent years and years in prison.
I’ll tell you, he made some choices, didn’t he? And you think he’s sorry now? Oh, no, he has been…for 2,000 years he’s been…almost…he’s been enjoying the presence of the Lord, living in His presence. But somehow it became so real!
Is it real to you? Has God ever really spoken? Has He implanted that in your heart? It’s what it’s gonna take in this hour. We have lived in a largely unchallenged society. Yes, we’ve had issues like I mentioned where our young people grow up and their flesh takes over, or their ambition takes over. Something of this world and their ambitions to what they can achieve, what they can possess here, that begins to take precedence over the Lord. Yeah, I get that.
But what if we come to a place where some of our brothers and sisters in the world are at, right now? Where it costs everything, right up to their life, to serve Him! I’ll tell you, we need the Lord, don’t we?
( congregational amens ).
But even now the Lord is bringing us to choices, isn’t He, in our lives to help us? And you know, you think about Jesus. Well, I didn’t even get to the third thing, did I? “…The lust of the eyes, and the pride of life….” Well, the pride of life was the third one, wasn’t it? Where there’s something…I want people to think well of me. I want to do something that I can feel…look at me, look what I am, look what I did.
Where does that come from? Is that the Spirit of Christ that wants to lift up self? That is the spirit that goes back to the beginning when Satan said, if you partake of this tree, you’ll know good and evil and you’ll be like gods. You can make your own choices. You can pursue whatever you want.
My God, we’re gonna see the ugliness of what’s unfolding in the planet, Earth, as we see that spirit take over. Think about Jesus. Many times, it’s been emphasized how the trial that He went through. And I know that…the 40 days, and the devil tempting Him, there was a lot more to it than the little handful of verses that we have as to what happened.
But think of some of the temptations that He had and how they touched on every point that John mentioned. You’re hungry? You’re the Son of God? “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Take care of your…serve your hunger! Let that become the priority right now. You’ve been here long enough. You’ve got the power, do something about it! He said, “…Man shall not live by bread alone, but by…” (KJV). What?
( congregational response ).
Every word that’s in scripture? “…Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” I’ll tell you, it’s when God speaks to our hearts and takes this Word and brings it off the page and makes it live to us. It becomes life when we receive it. Then what do we choose to go by? Do we choose to go by what He says, or what our flesh wants?
He was there in the will of God, doing what He was doing, standing up to the devil the same way we have to, and He did! And when He gave the Word of God to the devil, the devil had to…okay, moving along…moving right along.
One of the other things he did was to take Him up on a high place. A high mountain, I think it was, in one of the accounts, and he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, somehow. He could see it all. And the devil says, all this will I give You. Every bit of this I’ll put it in Your hands, if You’ll do one thing. Just worship me!
You talk about the ultimate temptation about what your eyes can see and wanting that, somehow to possess it, to have control over it, to rule over it. My God, if there’s anybody here, and this kind of thing has got your life to where what you have is the priority of your heart, anybody who hears this, you don’t have any idea of the danger you’re in!
Because everything…what did Jesus say? What will it profit you, what good will it do you, if you gain the whole world? Jesus was…that’s what Jesus was offered. What good will it do, if you, “…gain the whole world, and lose…” your soul? That’s what’s at stake! And God has opened, through His Son, a way that we can possess His life!
( congregational amens ).
And that’s a life that is incapable of dying! Everything about this life is capable of coming to an end! And it will for those who are serving what this world has to offer.
