— Brother Phil Enlow: God, help us to be willing to take Jesus’ words seriously. And notice, He doesn’t say it’s a good idea to walk in the light. He says, while you have the light. See, God just doesn’t simply open the door and say, anytime you feel like it. There is a time element involved.
When God speaks, that’s when we have the opportunity to say, yes. And if there’s somebody who absolutely has God’s voice pressing in their hearts, and they find a way to sidestep it, and say, no, it’s not that way, I’m okay, or a thousand and one ways that we have of sidestepping the light and basically saying, no. The more we do that, the harder we get.
And there does come a time when God stops, and says, all right, I’m taking my hands off, you have chosen. Do you see the seriousness of Jesus’ words here? There were people who were listening to this who wound up on the wrong side of this.
And you see Jesus’ heart, He’s saying I came as a light so people who are in darkness wouldn’t have to stay there. Jesus didn’t come with any, boy, I’m looking forward to judging this crazy place. No! There was a heart that reached out. I mean, how in the world could you get any other sense, than you’d get from what Jesus said when He was dying on the cross? Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing. Oh my God, what a heart!
But there was a generation that had had the light of the prophets. They are the ones on the whole planet that had had light. They had turned it into a religion that was run by devils, perverted it. But still, there was light! God had reached out to that nation, and the Lord said, all right, we’re on a schedule here. This is not gonna go on forever.
We have reached a point in the history of this nation, when this present generation has embraced the evil heritage of everyone that has gone before and said, no. They’ve embraced that heritage and so the judgment that was due for all of that is gonna land on this generation! Isn’t that what He said? I’m gonna charge this generation with every sin going all the way back because you have embraced that heritage, instead of listening to me. Folks, that’s where this nation is headed, but that is where the world is headed.
( congregational amens ).
And there is only a limited amount of time for people to listen to the Word, to listen to God! It’s not me. I’m not looking for people to follow and blindly follow anything I say. I’m looking for, I just want the Lord…I want the Lord to get in it.
( congregational amens ).
I want Him to speak. He has power! See, light is not, as we said it earlier, it’s life, but it’s power.
( congregational amens ).
It takes power to break through the power of darkness. Darkness is not just ignorance, it is satanic power that holds us in a grip of lies, and lies that appeal to our fallen nature, and that’s all we got to work with. Folks, that’s a prison. It takes the power of God to reach in and break that.
What do you think it took for Saul, the Jew, the Pharisee? God, who said, let there be light, shined in my heart to give light of the knowledge of the glory of Jesus Christ. That’s an imperfect quote there, but that’s the essence of it in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 4, in the early part. God had to shine down to the depths of his heart, and so stop him that he was willing to surrender and say, oh my God, I surrender!
There is no other response to a…to the God of love and mercy who would reach out with light and shine it in a dark place. I don’t want anyone who has ever heard me, certainly I’m nothing particular, but I don’t want anyone who has ever heard me to say, you didn’t tell me. I’m gonna tell you, this is life and death. There are eternal consequences. It’s not a matter of you embracing a church tradition and a church culture. The only thing that’s gonna carry people forward with any eternal hope, is you having a personal encounter with God…
( congregational amens ).
…Allowing Him to shine His light in the darkest recesses of your heart, to challenge the ideas that have actually come out of Satan’s mouth, but you find them appealing and they’re down in here somewhere. You know what I’m talking about?
( congregational response ).
And I’ll tell you, if you listen to that and sooner or later, you’re gonna say, no. You think of the children of Israel and of all they saw. I mean, I’ve just been recently reading in the Bible reading, of all they went through and what they saw in Egypt, what they saw as they left Egypt, the miracle that enabled them to dance on the far shore of the Red Sea, seeing God’s incredible deliverance, totally supernatural!
I mean, how would you like to walk out…flee from an army with walls of water on both sides and go through a sea on dry land? And then you watch that sea close over the army that’s coming after you. I mean, they had…was there any excuse? God reached out in incredible ways, and then to go to Mount Sinai and see the amazing sight that was there, and how quickly—how quickly, what was in their heart came out when the conditions were a certain way.
Folks, there’s one thing about walking in the light. Walking in the light is an act of faith, isn’t it? God has never promised that He was going to show us the whole path, has He? Does He let you see your whole life and how it’s gonna play out? No. But I’ve got light for today, don’t I? Has He promised the light that we need? Absolutely!
You know, one of the scriptures that came to me first, several weeks ago, was the one we’ve heard so many times, and there are several translations of it, but the essence of it is, “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” (NIV). That’s pretty close to the modern translation.
But basically, here’s a world, think of the contrast, a world that’s heading towards midnight and judgment! It’s a time of incredible darkness! And yet for God’s people, the day is dawning! What an amazing contrast of light and darkness. We are coming into the end of the age and light is increasing for those who want light!
Walk in the light, “…while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” There’s a real birth, there’s a real relationship that God seeks with everyone who would follow Him! Are you following Him? Are you one of His children?
Oh, I’ll tell you, if you are, man, where we’re headed is awesome! We’re gonna need the Lord’s grace to get there. But I’ll tell you, the spirit of the world wants to see…say, God, show me my whole path, and then I’ll decide. Doesn’t work that way. God wants to produce in us the same faith that Abraham had when God told him to leave and didn’t tell him where he was going. Just leave, and I’ll lead you. Did He? Was the Lord faithful?
( congregational response ).
Absolutely! Sometimes the path that we follow is a winding, difficult one, it’s a challenging one! But I’ll tell you, even like David said, even though you’re in, “…the valley of the shadow of death…” (KJV). Does he leave us?
( congregational response ).
No, He’s a good shepherd, isn’t He? I want to serve Him while this world is plunging into its darkness. My God! But walk while you have the light, because there’s gonna come a time when there will be no light in this world, apart from that which exists in the hearts of His children.
You know, there’s a different way of illustrating this problem, this issue, that we’ve often heard in Hebrews, is it 3? Anyway, where there’s an appeal, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” (NIV). Don’t resist. Don’t say, oh I’ve got my ideas. Don’t harden your hearts. Beware, “…lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” (KJV).
Folks, it’s so easy just to think in terms of, well, that’s just church, that’s just religion, it’s just their ideas, it’s nice for them but that isn’t what really, you know, gets me up in the morning. Folks, it has got to get beyond church culture! It’s got to become personal! It’s got to become something where you have a living relationship with God, where you allow Him to shine His light in the very depths of your being, step-by-step!
You know, we talked last week about Christ is all, the knowledge, the wisdom, the understanding, and the power! It all comes from Him and it’s all available! That’s the content of the light that we need!
Folks, you and I, like I said, we’re sailing into difficult waters. As Christians, we’re gonna be hated. There may well be people here who will lay down their lives physically for the Lord. Was Paul just mouthing nice sounding phrases when he said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain?”
If your focus in on your life in this world, you don’t get it. God can take care of His children in this world according to the path He’s chosen for us. But folks, our life is not here! The vanity of this world, of living a temporary life in a temporary world and treating that as though it’s the permanent thing. Oh God, help everyone who hears this to realize what God is saying. There’s not going to be light much longer!
Now there will be for those who are children of the light. But for anybody who does not hear and, “…walk in the light, as He is in the light…” as John says in his letter, there is gonna come darkness. And you will think you’re on the right path and everything’s going great. Oh my God! My God!
Like I said, there are so many things I could say. My mind has gone in so many directions, as I’ve thought about this over the last weeks. But it comes down to such simple things, doesn’t it? Walk while you have the light, you’re not gonna have it forever.
And what happens if you don’t? And what does walk mean? Obviously, it means you’re responding to it in a positive way, you’re agreeing with it, you’re surrendering to it. But it is an experiential thing, isn’t it? What good is it if I agree with something that’s said but I don’t…it doesn’t actually govern my life? I’m not really walking in that. What good is that? It means nothing. God’s not stupid. God knows the depths of the heart and that’s what He’s looking for. Oh, I’ll tell you what, if we… praise the Lord, I forgot I’m not supposed to say stupid.
( laughter ).
I got corrected the other week. But that’s all right. I appreciate it, I accept it. But the Lord is so merciful and faithful to us, isn’t He? That He has even come, and offering life and…but my God, does it make any sense at all to drink in what the world is offering? This world especially. But that’s what people are doing everywhere.
And there are churches filled with people. God has His people, I’m well aware of that. But there are churches this morning, filled with people who have embraced a form of the gospel but have never surrendered to the light of God. It’s never become real or personal. Think about the thousands and thousands who followed Jesus at different points in His ministry. But just think about what it was that motivated them. Yeah, they wanted to see the miracles. They wanted to experience miracles of healing. They loved to be fed miraculously. They loved all the miraculous stuff. But what did all that have to do, from their point of view?
( congregational response ).
Yeah. It’s about this world, isn’t it? You are fixing my worldly problems. Praise God, I’ll serve You! Well, that’s the prosperity gospel! We’ve still got it today. What God is all about is making you prosperous and healthy, and just fixing every earthly issue and making life wonderful, giving you earthly success.
My God! Tell that to the apostles. Every one of them, except John, was killed for their faith! The only reason John wasn’t was because God miraculously protected him. I forget, were they trying to boil him in oil, whatever it was, it was certainly gonna be fatal. And the Lord preserved him, because He wanted him to experience what he gave out in the Book of Revelation. They finally got tired of him and sent him off to the Isle of Patmos there to get him out of the way. And that’s where he had the vision that the Lord has preserved for us. Praise God!
That’s the one, by the way, who wrote what we just read this morning. But you tell them about the prosperity gospel, you tell Paul about the prosperity gospel and see what he had to say about it. All the things that he went through, shipwrecked, stoning, imprisonment, persecution of every kind, being hated. And yet, God gave him something that was so real, the light of God was so real in his heart, that trumped everything!
Folks, that’s what it’s going to take. But with Him, we have what it takes. I’ll tell you, if He’s with us, and He’s in us, we will have light on our pathway as long as we are in this world. Those who serve Him, “…will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (NIV). The scripture tells us. Thank God! Thank God.
There are so many things I could say, I don’t know whether I need to carry this forward. But, I want to tell you, if…I’m gonna say this one thing. Sometimes young people will grow up and they will hear ideas put forth out in the world, and there will be legitimate questions that come up in their minds, and they will really wonder about this and about that. You know, is this really real, how do I know?
And I want to tell you, God’s not offended by someone who honestly doesn’t know, and wants to know. If that’s where you’re at today, you have every right to go to God and say, I don’t know if you’re real or not. I don’t know if this is so or not, but I want to know.
Now, if you want to know just to satisfy your intellectual curiosity, forget it! But if you want to know what the truth is, and you’re willing to go to God and say, God, I don’t know but I want to know, and I want to know for the purpose of walking in that truth, don’t you think God’s gonna respond to that? That’s what He’s looking for!
( congregational amens ).
But if you have honest questions at this point in your life, don’t feel bad. The fact that you’re even raising questions, and thinking about it, that can be an awesome thing, that can be a good thing. Maybe God’s talking to you. Just consider that.
Because I do not want anybody here to have second-hand faith. You don’t need to believe because your parents do, or because I do. You need to have a personal encounter with what we’re talking about, with the author of life Himself. He has the power, not just to give you information and tradition to walk in, but to absolutely penetrate your heart with His power, and with His life, and His light, and change you from the inside out where you will see…all of a sudden, you will see the true condition of this world. You’ll see where it’s headed. You’ll know what’s going on and you will also know that you have a different destiny than the world.
And I’ll tell you, you will have a path to walk where you may not see beyond the next step. But God wants you to know that every time you need light on your path, He is faithful, and He will give it to you exactly what you need.
I mean, there may come a time when God will tell us, hey, get out of here…you know, do whatever. But I tell you, what’s coming on the world is not gonna be someplace where you can leave Jerusalem and be safe. The time is gonna come when the whole world will be under judgment.
I don’t know if America is gonna be under some kind of judgment before that or not. I don’t know God’s schedule or whatever. But I’ll tell you, we cannot thumb our nose at God, say, God, get out of here, we’re not gonna agree with You at all. We’re gonna cancel everybody that does agree with You.
It’s not gonna turn out well. It didn’t turn out well for Sodom and Gomorrah, did it? But I’ll you what, God is going to allow this world, gonna allow the darkness to reach a climax, when every heart will have chosen.
Isn’t that the way it was in both Sodom and Gomorrah and also under Noah and the flood? Every single person had made their choice! I am either with Him or I’m part of the world, go away and leave me alone, God, I’m gonna do my own thing. That’s where God is going to bring this world. And we’re getting closer and closer every single day. I’m so thankful that God hasn’t left us! He’s here. He’s with us. Everyone who reaches out to Him, He reaches back.
( congregational response ).
There’s nothing that pleases His heart more than to share Himself and the light that is His life with us. But oh, it’s a sober thing to realize what’s going on, to realize how much we need Him. Don’t you dare be among those who would stop short!
That’s what the whole book of Hebrews is about. Those that constantly have something down in here that holds them, that pulls them in the wrong direction. Don’t you be one of those. Jesus went to the cross so you didn’t have to. He came into the world so you didn’t have to perish, that you might have everlasting life.
And I’ll tell you, if God is speaking to you, we don’t have to have an altar call, you can cry out to Him right where you’re at, whether here, or at home, or wherever God speaks. I’ll tell you, there’s only one time you can respond and that’s when He calls! Because we need ability that He gives us in order to respond! If He’s not reaching out, you don’t have the power to reach! You wouldn’t want to anyway.
But I’ll tell you, when He calls, “…call…upon him while he is near.” (KJV). I’ll tell you, God is so merciful and so faithful. But I don’t know what…I don’t know why this is on my heart like it is this morning. But, while we have the light, we need to walk in it.
( congregational response ).
We need to realize, praise God! God is faithful, isn’t He?
( congregational amens ).
So, let’s just look to Him, pray one for another. But if this is…for most of us, I believe it’s a word of great encouragement and focus. But where there is a word of warning, I warn you in Jesus’ name. Those weren’t my words, Jesus said, walk while…you won’t have the light forever. “Walk while you have the light…so that you may become children of light.” (NIV). Because otherwise, darkness will come upon you and you won’t know. That day is gonna overtake you, and everybody else in the world that’s still in that darkness. Thank God for the Light of the World! Praise God!
